By Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia

• Australia’s frontier wars were fought from 1788 to 1930s
• Up to 120,000 Aboriginal people and 5,000 settlers killed
• New book says First Nations victories have been overlooked 

The popular perception of Australia’s frontier wars seems confined to bands of white marauders descending upon unprotected camps to slaughter helpless black men, women and children.

But Aboriginal resistance to the colonists was far more sophisticated, better organised – and successful – than previously understood, according to the author of a new book.

First Nations warriors, usually portrayed wielding spears and clubs, sometimes used firearms against the intruders and even launched raids mounted on horseback.

They burnt crops, destroyed homes and drove thousands of head of sheep and cattle for hundreds of kilometres, waging guerilla warfare that terrorised settlers.

It is estimated at least twice as many colonists were killed fighting the country’s original inhabitants than in all conflicts Australians have served in since World War II.

Aboriginal resistance to white settlement was far more sophisticated, better organised and sometimes successful than previously thought, according to the author of a new book on Australia’s frontier wars. An Aboriginal man poses for a picture with a firearm about 1873

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