Martial Law on the Bathurst Plains 1824
In 1824 Governor Brisbane declared martial law over ‘all the country westward of Mount York’, the land of the Wiradjuri people. Martial law meant the military and civilians could take ‘measures’ to suppress violence, without any of the usual legal constraints or consequences.
The influx of settlers and their stock onto the Bathurst Plains from 1813 (, ) led to violent conflict between the Wiradjuri people and the colonists in the 1820s (see SUB0536 for more about this period).
Declaration of martial law
On 14 August 1824, Governor Brisbane declared martial law over the area west of the Blue Mountains (, ).
In the declaration (, ), Governor Brisbane:
- ordered all soldiers to ‘assist and obey their lawful superiors in suppressing the violences’ between Aboriginal people and settlers,
- ‘called upon’ all His Majesty’s subjects to assist in executing any measures to suppress the violence that the magistrates directed be taken, ‘by such ways and means as are expedient’, and
- declared that ‘summary justice has become necessary’.
‘Summary justice’ was not a defined term, but can be understood as meaning punishment for an alleged crime without legal formalities or ‘due process.’
The Governor’s reasons for declaring martial law included the ‘indiscriminate attacks on stock stations’. The Governor stated that experience had shown that ‘use of arms against the Natives beyond the ordinary rule of law in the time of peace’ may stop the bloodshed.
The Governor further declared that ‘the shedding of blood is only just, where all other means of defence or of peace are exhausted; that cruelty is never lawful’ (, ).
Attorney General Bannister, a government official responsible for giving legal advice and supervising prosecutions, among other functions, would later argue that martial law provides protection from prosecution for those who participated in ‘extreme interference’, ‘in certain possible cases of mistake’ ().
Governor’s authority to declare martial law
Although it had been illegal for the Crown to declare martial law in England since the 17th century (, , ), each of the King’s letters appointing the NSW Governors (the Governor’s Commission), allowed the Governors to ‘execute martial law in time of invasion or other times when by law it may be executed’ (, ).
The declaration of martial law came following advice from Attorney General Bannister. As the violence intensified in 1824, Governor Brisbane sought the Bannister’s advice on ‘the proper mode of suppressing the violences of the Black People’ (). Bannister advised:
‘that the local magistrates should be strengthened and that the opinions of the most experienced and opulent proprietors should be taken, and that martial law should be proclaimed’ ().
It was not until November that the Governor informed the government in Britain that he had declared Martial Law in the region in August ().
Bathurst under martial law
Following the declaration of martial law, the Governor increased the number of military personnel in Bathurst to seventy-five. These men were divided into small parties who travelled in different directions and re-grouped, creating a ‘system of keeping these unfortunate [Aboriginal] people in a constant state of alarm’, that ‘soon brought them to a sense of their duty’. (, ).
Magistrates ‘accompanied these troops in their pursuit of the Aborigines’ (). Under the declaration of martial law, civilians were called upon to follow the directives of any magistrates that would ‘by such Ways or Means’ fulfill the ‘purpose’ of martial law. (, ).
Shortly after the declaration of martial law, the Colonial Secretary issued a notice stating that 500 acres of land would be given to any person who apprehended or gave over Saturday (Windradyne) (), one of the leading figures in the Wiradjuri resistance (see SUB0536). As Bathurst was under martial law, the usual civil and criminal law constraints did not apply to ‘measures’ used to apprehend Aboriginal people (, , , ).
By 14 October, the Sydney Gazette described Bathurst and its surrounding vicinity as being ‘engaged in an exterminating war’ (), while the Governor later described it as a ‘state of warfare’ ().
Attorney General Bannister described how Aboriginal people were ‘driven backwards and forwards, from one end of the district to another, and harassed by the magistrates aided by troops’ ().
While there are limited records of specific events in this period, the Gazette gives a detailed account of one violent interaction between Aboriginal people and stockmen that occurred in September 1824, in which 19 Aboriginal men were killed ().
Consequences of Martial Law
In November 1824 (), Governor Brisbane reported back to Britain that:
‘the measures, which have been adopted, have had the desired effect; as, by the latest accounts, the hostile natives were hourly coming in to tender their submission and sue for peace and protection’.
Brisbane claimed ‘only seven Europeans have lost their lives in the conflict’ and the number of Aboriginal people who died ‘can only be gathered from conjecture, but in all probability they do not much exceed double the number of Europeans’
This is contradicted both by reports at the time () and more recent estimates ().
Attorney General Bannister wrote that ‘many blacks, men, women, and children, had been killed, although not by soldiers or under the martial law’ ().
The extent of the violence that occurred at Bathurst in late 1824 will never be accurately known as there are few historical or official records of the events. Records of government and military activity that are normally kept, are often not kept when martial law is imposed. This was the case during the 1824 Bathurst martial law period and almost no records of the casualties survive.
There are contemporaneous records of people who considered the use of martial law to be disproportionate. In a letter to the Gazette in 1825, a station-owner near Bathurst compares the treatment of bushrangers and Aboriginal people who steal stock. He said:
‘property never suffered a tenth part so much from the blacks, as it is now, and has been suffering for some time from these marauders [bushrangers]. Yet, for the former [Aboriginal people], we were put under martial law, while the latter [bushrangers] are suffered to go on with impunity’ ().
The end of martial law
On 11 December 1824, Governor Brisbane ended the state of martial law ().
He reported back to Britain that during martial law ‘not one outrage was committed under it, either was a life sacrificed or even blood spilt’, even though he had ‘not been able to ascertain’ an accurate count of ‘all individuals who lost their lives during these disturbances’ ().
In December, the Governor held his annual feast at Parramatta, which Aboriginal people were invited to attend. The Gazette reported that around 200 Aboriginal people from Bathurst attended, noting that this was the first time that any of the ‘New country tribes’ had attended, and said that this was a consequence of the 'amicable intercourse lately re-established between them and the Bathurst settlers' ().
The attendees included Windradyne (Saturday), who offered to come in ‘peaceably, and on pardon’ (), and was received by the Governor at the Parramatta Feast, reportedly wearing a hat with a ‘PEACE’ label on it ().
After martial law ended, Governor Brisbane wrote to the Commandant of Bathurst telling him that ‘the aboriginal natives have learned to respect our power’ that he wanted the Commandant to give monetary rewards to Aboriginal people who had helped the police ().
While 1824 was the only time martial law was declared during the frontier wars in NSW, government policies continued to encourage the use of force by both the military and civilians in the colony (, , ).
For more information
Discussion and analysis documents in this subject provide further detail about the declaration of martial law and frontier violence on the Bathurst Plains (, , , , ).