"Before the Anzac Dawn" Topic

This is the title of a book published last year that I've just discovered the existence of, having somehow missed its release, and have yet to read. I've ordered it through the inter-library loans system.

Clearly, the term Anzac was worked into the title to catch the attention of the Gallipoli-attuned mass readership in time for the centenary. The editors have undoubtedly foreseen the centennial year as a golden opportunity to educate a public that has been conditioned to believe that Australian military history is a blank prior to 1915.

The book is a collection of essays on Australian Military history pre-Gallipoli. It covers a diverse range of subjects, including some that are very 'adventurous' for a work of this nature, such as examinations of the military cadet system and the volunteer movement. It starts with a discussion of Aboriginal tribal warfare, and along the way also covers frontier conflict, Eureka Stockade (in a chapter by wargamer and hobby magazine writer/illustrator Greg Blake), colonial campaigns, and ends with a chapter on the German New Guinea campaign of WW1.

The only concern I have is that the chapter on Frontier Conflict was apparently authored by Jonathon Richards, the social historian who wrote 'Secret War',an account and analysis of the Queensland Native Mounted Police. Despite its title and a very good examination of that institution's organisation and character, that book had virtually nothing to say about the force's combat role, and instead focussed almost entirely on the its involvement in massacres. To my mind he's a strange choice of writer for a military history, but we shall see…

I'll post a review here once I've read it.

There's a preview on Google Books that includes the contents, introduction, a few pages of the first chapter, and the index.

A quick skim reveals references in the index to the academic research work of my friend Dr Nic on fortified civilian dwellings on the frontier, and more worryingly, Pedersen's semi-mythological 'Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance'. Hopefully the latter is critical in tone.

I collected this from the library yesterday, and so far have read the chapters on Aboriginal tribal warfare, frontier conflict, the British army in Australia, and Eureka Stockade.

Most are good summaries for a general readership of their respective subjects, written by military historians. Unsurprisingly, Greg Blake's Eureka chapter is a condensed version of his previous books on the rebellion, focusing on the attack on the stockade. As predicted, the frontier conflict chapter suffers from its author being a social historian with a shallow understanding of military matters. For instance, on the fight between settlers and NMP and Kalkatungu (Kalkadoon) warriors at Battle Mountain he makes the following muddled assertion:'… primary records prove that the clash near Cloncurry in 1884… was a routine frontier "collision". Although still violent, there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that Aboriginal men formed into ranks and fought a military-style battle.'(?!)

What precisely is he attempting to refute here? A casual reader might assume that other commentators have depicted the Kalkadoon as drilled regulars, and Battle Mountain as a major engagement. To my knowledge, no military historian has ever claimed that even the most disciplined native armies, such as the Zulus, 'formed into ranks'. And what is, in his understanding, a 'military-style battle'?. After all, just as in any battle, routine frontier collisions involved combat between armed opponents. If his intention is to dispute the commonly understood scale of the engagement, it's not at all clear from this passage.

Most of the frontier conflict chapter is taken up with 'promos' for the available social historical literature on the subject – which is always useful for the novice. As for the rest, it's a pretty standard snap-shot through a social historical lens, and therefore sits uncomfortably alongside the other chapters.

Howard Pedersen's book is mentioned without critical comment, as if it's the most complete and reliable source – revealing the author's limited knowledge of the historiography of Jandamarra.

As indicated above, my friend Nic's work on fortified homestead's gets a mention. Personally I think he would have been a much more appropriate writer to author this chapter.

On with the reading…

Correction: '… fortified homesteads…'