Hawkesbury Nepean and surrounds 1804-1805
From 1804, cycles of raids and violence on the Hawkesbury Nepean River increased leading Governor King to ban Aboriginal people from settlements and ordering military detachments in April 1805. There were also attempts at negotiation during this period. The ban was lifted in July 1805 following the arrest of Aboriginal warriors.
The Hawkesbury was initially settled from 1793-4, however farms at Sackville were abandoned due to frontier violence (, ) (see SUB0533). From 1803 the settlement continued to expand downriver, with farms that had previously been abandoned becoming occupied again (, , , ).
By 1801 the Hawkesbury-Nepean region had become the largest producer of colonial grain ().
There was a period of relative quiet following the killings of two Aboriginal boys by settlers in 1799, Bidjigal leader Pemulwuy’s death in 1802, and a proclamation forbidding violence against Aboriginal people (, , , ). However, raids and attacks by Aboriginal people and killings by settlers around the Hawkesbury and Nepean increased from 1804 (, , , , ).
In August 1804, Governor King wrote to Lord Hobart advising the Aboriginal people had been ‘troublesome’ to the settlers on the lower parts of the Hawkesbury with the new settlers leaving their ‘habitations’. The Governor had been ‘reluctantly compelled’ to direct a stop being put to those acts by ‘firing upon them’. The Governor said this ‘very soon had the desired effect, but not before two of the natives were killed’ ().
A meeting with the Governor
In late 1804, Governor King ‘sent for’ Aboriginal people to understand the ‘cause of their disagreement with the new settlers’ (). Three Aboriginal men from the Hawkesbury travelled to meet the Governor and told him
they did not like to be driven from the few places that were left on the banks of the river where they could procure food, that they had gone down the river as the white men took possession of the banks and were fired upon if they went across white men’s grounds ().
In response to a request by the Aboriginal people to retain some places on the lower part of the river, Governor King assured them no more settlements should be made lower down the river ().
Aboriginal people banished
The attacks and violence by both sides continued (, , ) and led Governor King to issue a proclamation in April 1805 banishing Aboriginal people from the settlements and ordering detachments to the settlements (). The Governor said this was necessary because of a number of ‘unprovoked Acts and Apprehensions’ on the distant settlers ().
Reconciliation talks
In May 1805, Aboriginal people of Prospect, Parramatta and the Cowpastures (present day Camden) requested talks with Magistrate Samuel Marsden ‘with a view to opening the way to reconciliation’ (, ). It was agreed that settlers would be ordered not to molest these Aboriginal people in return for them identifying and helping to apprehend certain other wanted Aboriginal people ().
However, raids and violence against farms continued, with multiple news reports of individual farms being set alight by Aboriginal people in Georges River and Portland Head (, ).
Arrest of leaders and lifting of ban
Following one of these raids, several Aboriginal people suspected of involvement were arrested and taken to Parramatta Gaol. They were released on the promise to capture another Aboriginal man, Musquito, who had been identified as the main perpetrator of attacks. They did so, and Musquito was arrested, along with another Aboriginal man, Bulldog (, ). Governor King reported to Earl Camden that ‘the natives now confined were principally implicated in the murder of the two settlers and stockmen’ (, ).
Following this, Aboriginal people were allowed back into the settlements. On 7 July 1805, a new General Order announced ‘The Natives, after giving up the Principal in the late Outrages’ had ‘generally expressed a Desire to Come In’ ().
The order acknowledged Aboriginal people returned to Sydney, stating that:
The Natives … many being on the Road from Hawkesbury and other Quarters to meet the Governor at Paramatta, NO MOLESTATION whatever is to be offered them in ANY part of the Colony, unless any of them should renew their late Acts, which is not probable, as RECONCILIATION will take place with the Natives generally ().
There followed a period of relative calm (, , , ) and in March 1806 Governor King described the situation as ‘on a most amicable footing’ ().
In August 1806, in a memorandum to the new Governor Bligh, outgoing Governor King described cycles of violence between Aboriginal people and settlers which had taken place during his time as Governor, including that Aboriginal people had ‘attacked the ripening corn.’ However, he also acknowledged ‘that much of the blame would attach to the White Man in the first instance’ (). He also said ‘As I have ever considered them the real proprietors of the soil I have never suffered any restraint whatever on their persons.’ ().
For more information
Towards Truth focuses on the Government orders made during the Frontier Wars and does not tell the whole story of frontier violence (see SUB0546: Introduction for more). Discussion and analysis documents in this subject provide further context about the events in this period (, , , ).