Hawkesbury Nepean and surrounds 1814-1816
After a period of relative peace, raids and violence on and around the Hawkesbury Nepean River escalated again from 1814. Initially, Governor Macquarie ordered settlers to treat Aboriginal people ‘in every respect as Europeans’. However by 1816, with attacks increasing, Governor Macquarie commenced ‘the largest military campaign the colony had yet witnessed’, which resulted in deaths including the deaths of at least 14 Aboriginal people at Appin.
When Lachlan Macquarie arrived as Governor of the colony in December 1809, there had been a period of relative peace (, ). Settlement continued to expand throughout Macquarie’s governorship ().
‘Kindness’ and ‘conciliation’
Initially, Governor Macquarie’s policy towards Aboriginal people echoed Governor Phillip’s; he wanted ‘to conciliate them as much as possible to our Government and Manners’ using ‘kindness and attention’ ().
In 1810 Governor Macquarie ordered that ‘any injury or violence to the men or women natives would be punished according to the law’. Aboriginal people were to be ‘treated in every respect as Europeans’ ().
From early 1814 attacks were carried out by both settlers and Aboriginal people (). Aboriginal people carried out raids and attacks on isolated farms along the Nepean including at Mulgoa and Appin (, ). Unlike in previous years where attacks were carried out by small groups, in 1814 it was reported that groups of up to 400 Aboriginal people carried out raids and attacks on isolated farms along the Nepean including at Mulgoa (). There were also attacks by settlers (, , ).
Governor Macquarie ordered an inquiry in response to the attacks and eventually concluded that the conflict had been a response to settler violence. He wrote that ‘some idle and ill disposed Europeans had taken liberties with their women’ and had ‘treacherously attacked and killed a woman and her two children whilst sleeping’. The Governor wrote ‘this unprovoked cruelty produced that retaliation’ ().
Governor Macquarie ordered settlers not to take the law into their own hands and reminded settlers that the ‘natives’ were ‘entitled to the protection of British Laws’ (). From August 1814 he also began making plans for his Native Institution. The Native Institution was established by the Governor in January 1816. It was a school for ‘native children of both sexes’ and its purpose was ‘to effect the civilization of the Aborigines of New South Wales’ (). More information about this institution is available in SUB0102 and SUB0477.
A military campaign – ‘severe examples being made’
In December 1815 and early 1816, the raids and attacks by Aboriginal people escalated including an attack on convicts on the Nepean and a battle at Razorback near Camden (, , , , ). This resulted in many settlers abandoning their farms, with Governor Macquarie deciding to take action which would ‘induce them to return’ ().
Like Governor Phillip before him, Governor Macquarie reversed his approach, commencing the ‘largest military campaign the colony had yet witnessed’ (, ). In a letter to Earl Bathurst in March 1816, he said ‘nothing short of…severe examples being made will prevent their frequent recurrence’ ().
In April 1816 Governor Macquarie gave instructions to the Captain of the 46th Regiment (accompanied by Aboriginal guides) to sweep the edges of the Cumberland plain and Appin (, ) and that all Aboriginal men, woman, and children who were met from Sydney onwards were to be made prisoners of war (). Three detachments were sent out on 10 April 1816 (). On that day, Governor Macquarie wrote in his diary:
I have directed as many Natives as possible to be made Prisoners, with the view of keeping them as Hostages until the real guilty ones have surrendered … In the event of the Natives making the smallest show of resistance – or refusing to surrender when called upon to do so – the officers Commanding the Military Parties have been authorized to fire on them to compel them to surrender; hanging up on Trees the Bodies of such Natives as may be killed on such occasions, in order to strike the greater terror into the Survivors ().
The Appin Massacre
One of the three detachments was tipped off about a camp of Aboriginal people at Appin. It appeared to be deserted but a child’s cry nearby gave the people away. The massacre that followed is described briefly in the notes of Captain Wallis who was in command of the detachment. He said the detachment ‘formed line ranks’ and ‘pushed on through a thick brush… and the natives fled over the cliffs’. He reported that 14 people died (). Historical records say the people jumped off a cliff ‘in despair’ ().
While Macquarie later said these deaths were ‘unavoidable’ because they had not ‘surrendered themselves’ (), Wallis does not report any resistance or call to surrender (). Several historians provide detailed analysis of this night and the broader military campaign. (, , ).
Banishment again
A few weeks later on 4 May 1816, Governor Macquarie issued a long proclamation about this military campaign saying that it would ‘strike terror amongst the surviving tribes’ ().
Like other Governors before him (see SUB0533 and SUB0534), Macquarie now banned Aboriginal people from farms and towns. He also created a new ‘passport’ which Aboriginal people could apply for to be offered protection from ‘being injured or molested’. These ‘Rules, Orders and Regulations to be observed by the Natives’ were to be ‘rigidly enforced and carried into Effect by all Magistrates and Peace Officers in the Colony’. The rules restricted Aboriginal people’s ability to carry weapons or gather in groups near farmland ().
The proclamation also referred to land grants being made to those Aboriginal people ‘as are inclined to become regular Settlers’ and the Governor’s ‘anxious wish to civilise the Aborigines’ ().
The ‘friendly meeting’
Following the Appin massacre more Aboriginal people were killed in armed conflict, with ‘three more military operations around the Sydney region’, often targeting specifically named Aboriginal people considered to be ‘offenders’ (, , , ). In July 1817, Governor Macquarie proclaimed ten Aboriginal people to be ‘in a State of Outlawry’, authorising all people to ‘seize upon and secure’ them (). Further, Magistrates were empowered to mobilise settlers (, , ) and gradually ‘some of the warriors were killed, or captured, arrested, sentenced and exiled’ (, ).
In November, Governor Macquarie declared an amnesty on the remaining wanted outlawed men, on the condition they gave themselves up before 28 December 1816, on which date a ‘friendly meeting’ was due to take place ().
The ‘friendly meeting’ was called for in Governor Macquarie’s May 1816 proclamation to explain ‘the Objects of the [Native] Institution’ and for consulting with ‘the Natives’ on ‘the best Means of improving their present Condition’. (). Nearly 180 Aboriginal people attended the meeting in Parramatta sitting with ‘chiefs…to the right of their respective tribes’ (). ‘Chiefs’ were presented breastplates and children from the Native Institution were paraded (, ).
In a despatch to Earl Bathurst the following year (in April 1817), Governor Macquarie reported on the cessation of the hostilities with the ‘Natives’ and the ‘friendly meeting’ which took place on 28 December 1816. He wrote:
All Hostility on both Sides has long since Ceased; the black Natives living now peaceably and quietly in every part of the Colony, Unmolested by the White Inhabitants ().
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 provide further detail and commentary about the events in this period (, , , ).