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Pushing the Boundaries:
Facilitation Frontiers
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst - New South Wales, Australia 26-28 November 2008
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THEME STORY: WINDRADYNE AND 'THE BLACK WAR'
Wiradjuri people were the original inhabitants and custodians of what is now the Bathurst district, and a much greater area beyond, encompassing extensive reaches of three rivers - Wambool (Macquarie), Kalare (Lachlan) and Murrumbidjeri (Murrumbidgee). With a population of about 12,000 spread across their nation, the Wiradjuri were one of the largest language groups in New South Wales. They led a semi-nomadic existence, moving across the landscape to exploit sources of food and other materials.
Some of Bathurst's earliest settlers took up land on the floodplain of the Macquarie River (Wombool). Here a misunderstanding over potatoes arose between a small settler and some Wiradjuri people in March 1824. When the settler misinterpreted the behaviour of a group of Aborigines and killed several of them, the local Aboriginal leader Windradyne (known to the settlers as 'Saturday') began to retaliate.
In a dramatic move, Governor Brisbane declared martial law over the area west of the Blue Mountains, and despatched troops to deal with the Wiradjuri resistance. Over the next four months – sometimes referred to as ‘The Black War of 1824’ - the district became the scene of appalling massacres of native people.
Few of the larger landholders had any sympathy for the natives, George Suttor and William Lawson being notable exceptions who treated Aboriginal people well and even provided employment for some of their number. Around twenty Europeans were killed by Aborigines in the area but there was no record kept of Wiradjuri fatalities. One Wesleyan missionary wrote in 1824 that he estimated that at least a hundred, including women and children, had been ‘butchered’. Some say many more Wiradjuri were shot, poisoned or forced over cliffs, with two-thirds of the local Wiradjuri population killed in this period.
Martial law was repealed early in December 1824. W H Suttor wrote later of the martial law proclamation that ‘extermination is the word that most aptly describes the result’. But the official version differed – when Governor Brisbane advised Earl Bathurst that martial law had been lifted he reported that ‘not one outrage was committed under it, neither was a life sacrificed or even Blood spilt’.
Some writers believe that Brisbane may never have been properly informed of excesses carried out by European settlers. Some contend that martial law was in part designed to cover for massacres already carried out by settlers before its proclamation, so that Brisbane’s statement may have been strictly true but actually semantic dissembling. Others see it as blatant untruth.
Windradyne survived the massacres and, in order to avert any more killing of his people, made peace with the European occupiers by walking across the mountains into Parramatta to meet with the Governor. He received a pardon, and the war was over. Governor Brisbane and the Colonial Secretary were relieved of their posts shortly afterwards, owing in part to displeasure in Britain at the handling of the situation at Bathurst.
Windradyne died in 1835, ironically after being wounded by another native in a fight. He was buried in the Wiradjuri manner on the Suttor property ‘Brucedale’. His grave is marked by a plaque erected 120 years after the potato patch incident that escalated into 'The Black War'. It describes Windradyne as 'a true patriot'.
While the events of 1824 were not widely acknowledged in the past, and are still disputed by some, a new suburb at the western edge of Bathurst now bears the name of the Wiradjuri leader. This was probably prompted by a spirit of reconciliation, although it may be a rather ironic commemoration for a man who resisted dispossession of his people from their land.
Mary Coe, a Wiradjuri woman, recorded this story in her book Windradyne: a Wiradjuri Koorie (1989 Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra)
Back to Conference Theme: Local Stories
