The Vandemonian War: The Secret History of Britain's Tasmanian Invasion

Suppressed for nearly two centuries, The Vandemonian [Van Diemonian] War was a far-reaching conflict in the 1820s and 1830s between British colonists and British military, and the indigenous tribespeople of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). The British formally colonised Van Diemen’s Land at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Small convict stations rapidly grew into towns and farmers started to appropriate the aboriginal hunting grounds. Colonists and tribespeople clashed violently. The British deployed regimental soldiers, special forces, armed convicts and mercenaries in a deliberate effort to push the indigenous population off the land. Far from a localised fight between farmers and hunter-gatherers, this was a war of sweeping campaigns and brutal official policy. The British won the war and then purposefully set about suppressing that it had ever happened. Until now, historians have failed to see through the myths and lies. This book reveals the true story of the obliteration of a whole society. Drawing on previously neglected primary sources, this is a moving and scholarly account of one of the darkest stains on the history of the British empire.