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Executive Producer: David Leonard
Written, Produced and Directed by: Bruce Belsham
Narrated by: John Gaden

Produced: 1997 (3 x 50 mins documentary miniseries)

Television’s first comprehensive account of Australia’s 150 year land war between the Aboriginal inhabitants and the White settlers. Between 1788 and 1938 some 2,000 settlers and 20,000 Aborigines died in armed struggle for the land. Letters, diaries and records give gripping first hand accounts of battles, massacres and betrayals. Hundreds of Australian artworks and historical photographs enrich the retelling of these events. The FRONTIER story is one of passionate debate, of decency and missed opportunity as much as of violence and hatred.

“…They Must Always Consider Us As Enemies”

Starring:
  • Geoffrey Rush as Colonel David Collins
  • Jerome Ehlers as Captain Watkin Tench
  • Lisa Kinchela as Trugannini
  • Max Cullen as Captain William Clark
  • John Howard as George Robinson
  • Hugo Weaving as Lt. Governor George Arthur
  • Bradley Byquar as Walter George Arthur


      • With the voices of:
      • Keith Buckley
      • Harry Lawrence
      • Alistair Duncan
      • Tony Martin
      • Raymond Dupac
      • Bary Otto
      • Nicholas Eadie
      • Pamela Rabe
      • Jerome Ehlers
      • Richard Roxburgh
      • Chris Haywood
      • Paul Smythe
      • Bill Hunter
      • Bruce Venables
      • Martin Jacobs
      • David Webb
      • Norman Kaye
      • William Zappa

Part One: 1770-1835

Soldier/Administrator David Collins, sailed to Sydney with the First Fleet. He became the first official to acknowledge that blacks and whites were locked in a grim struggle for the land. When a second settlement in Tasmania was established it too became embroiled in a "Black War". Fighting ended only after a verbal treaty acknowledged some Aboriginal rights in the land, however the Government broke its promises and Aborigines were rewarded with exile.

“…Worse Than Slavery Itself”

Starring:
  • Bradley Byquar as Walter George Arthur
  • John Howard as George Robinson
  • Patrick Blackwell as Henry Dangar
  • Norman Kaye as Lancelot Threlkeld
  • Nicholas Eadie as James Stephen
  • Chris Hayward as Ward Stephen
  • Robert Coleby as Major James Nunn
  • Tony Martin as Sergeant John Lee
  • Nicholas Hope as Sir George Gipps
  • Noah Taylor as George Anderson
  • Richard Roxburgh as William Hobbs


      • With the voices of:
      • Keith Buckley
      • Bary Otto
      • Alistair Duncan
      • Geoffrey Rush
      • Raymond Dupac
      • Kevin Smith
      • Ruth Cracknell
      • Paul Smythe
      • Max Cullen
      • Hugo Weaving
      • Jerome Ehlers
      • Bruce Venables
      • Bill Hunter
      • David Webb
      • Martin Jacobs
      • William Zappa
      • Harry Lawrence

Part Two: 1830-1860

By 1830 Humanitarians and missionaries began to take up the anti slavery campaign with the official message to Australia that Aboriginals had legal rights as subjects of the crown. However the new mood did not go down well on the Frontier and horrific massacres took place.

“…The Government Should Shut Its Eyes”

    Starring:
  • Bill Hunter as Thomas Murray Prior
  • Pamela Rabe as Rosa Campbell Praed
  • Justin Rosniak as Wessie Fraser
  • Barry Otto as Archibald Meston
  • Rachel Maza as Marnie Kennedy
  • Kevin Smith as Peter Prior
  • Bradley Byquar as 1938 Declaration


      • With the voices of:
      • Keith Buckley
      • Norman Kaye
      • Patrick Blackwell
      • Harry Lawrence
      • Robert Coleby
      • Tony Martin
      • Ruth Cracknell
      • Julian Pulvermacher
      • Max Cullen
      • Richard Roxburgh
      • Alistair Duncan
      • Geoffrey Rush
      • Raymond Dupac
      • Bruce Spence
      • Nicholas Eadie
      • Paul Smythe
      • Jerome Ehlers
      • Noah Taylor
      • Chris Haywood
      • Bruce Venables
      • Nicholas Hope
      • Hugo Weaving
      • John Howard
      • David Webb
      • Martin Jacobs
      • William Zappa

Part Three: 1860-1938

When the land wars moved North to Queensland the Aborigines resisted. An estimated ten thousand Aborigines were shot dead with the Colonial Government turning a blind eye. Blacks would be imprisoned on reserves, have their children taken from them and be encouraged to breed themselves out. But even as massacres continued Aborigines started to organise politically and would inform white Australia that they had no intention of dying away.

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