1793 to 1795 1794 1795: overview
A commentary on the Recording of the Events of 1794
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- Matthew Everingham’s view: August 1795
- April 1794
- April 1794: Collins
A commentary on the Recording of the Events of 1794When and where, and who by the initial settlement was made is unknown.62 Sometime after the end of the winter frost of 1793, an unknown person or persons began the settlement with the successful planting and harvesting of that great coloniser, the potato. In April 1794 twenty two settlers were officially placed in two groups on the right bank of the river63 joining an undetermined number who had already made their own way there or been placed there. It is logical to assume that the new arrivals were granted land on either side of the first settlers. The decision to settle around Bardo Narang was quite strategic. Bardo Narang, or Pitt Town as it is now called, would have provided an easily accessible source of fresh water. It was where Governor Phillip camped and had a friendly meeting with Gomberee and Yellomundee. Being on the right bank of the river, an overland retreat along previously traversed ground to the coast was possible if attacks made the position unsustainable. Cattai Creek, Killarney Chain of Ponds and South Creek provided access to the hinterland and were natural lines of defence. Given that the settlement was initially only accessible by sea and river, it is quite puzzling that a military garrison was not provided till February 1795. David Collins’ account of the settlement signals that there were not many guns with the first settlers. It is unclear whether authorities were reluctant to arm civilians or that their thinking was still shaped by Bank’s dictum that the hinterland was largely an uninhabited desert. Grose’s order of February 1794 to disarm the Norfolk Island militia so their muskets could be sent to arm the Hawkesbury settlers is important because it anticipates the official settlement of April 1794. How large the Aboriginal population was is unknown. We can only speculate on the impact of small pox on the Aboriginal population in the hinterland. When Tench walked from Prospect Hill to the Nepean River in 1789 he saw no Aboriginal person. Either Tench was avoided or the area had been depopulated by small pox. As Tench made no mention of seeing bodies the latter is unlikely. In his travels along the Hawkesbury/Nepean River Tench made contact with a limited number of Aboriginal people. In 1792 Atkins visited the Hawkesbury and saw no Aboriginal people. In August 1795 Matthew Everingham, accompanied by two First Fleeters, William Ramsey and John Reid, penetrated deep within the Blue Mountains in a near successful attempt to cross them. Lack of supplies forced their return. In using Everingham’s description of the view from either Mt Irvine or Mt Tomah I have inserted full stops and capitals for new sentences: Matthew Everingham’s view: August 1795‘We were on Top of the Mountain and could look down on all the country round with a heartfelt pleasure. The prospect was really delightful. For many miles we could behold all the Country round except to the Northward where lay more mountains for us to encounter. The day was very clear and at an amazing distance we could observe the sea rolling against the shore. The Hawkesbury river and all its different windings thro’ the low country. The different Settlements we could discover by their various smoak ascending, as far as ever our eyes could discern (to the southward a fine level Champagne64 Country where the Cows strayed) some thousands of natives little fires. Every family of the Aborigines of this country has its own fire nor will those of another be suffered to Stay by it, only while delivering a message or on some particular occasion.’65 Everingham’s description of the “thousands of natives little fires” points to a significant population. However, Daniel Paine’s observation in 1796 that “…the known Native population round about our settlements from the best information I could obtain did not exceed five hundred persons” leaves the issue confused. The location selected for settlement was already cultivated by Aboriginal people of the Hawkesbury and provided them with a rich and varied source of food. Bardo Narang and the nearby creeks were harvested for waterbirds and their eggs, freshwater fish, eels and mussels. Yams were farmed on the banks of the river. Fire fashioned the valleys for the cultivation and hunting of kangaroos. Individual trees were shaped to facilitate the hunting of possums. While the size of the Aboriginal population is unclear, it is reasonable to assume that the steady increase in settler numbers rapidly overtook the capacity of Hawkesbury Aboriginal people to absorb them and they began to resist the settler incursion. April 1794In relegating the Aboriginal taking of settler corn to “depredations” Collins robbed Aboriginal people of sovereignty and criminalised their actions. However, by using the phrase “committing depredations” Colins added the concept of sin to the offence.66 April 1794: Collins‘Another division of settlers was this month added to the list of those already established. Williams and Ruse, having got rid of the money which they had respectively received for their farms, were permitted, with some others, to open ground on the banks of the Hawkesbury, at the distance of about twenty-four miles from Parramatta. They chose for themselves allotments of ground conveniently situated for fresh water, and not much burdened with timber, beginning with much spirit, and forming to themselves very sanguine hopes of success. At the end of the month they had been so active as to have cleared several acres, and were in some forwardness with a few huts. The natives had not given them any interruption. … it was noticed, that as the corn ripened, they constantly drew together round the settlers farms and round the public grounds, for the purpose of committing depredations.67 From the settlement on the banks of that river the best reports continued to be received from time to time: every where the settlers found a rich black mould of several feet depth, and one man had in three months planted and dug a crop of potatoes.68 The natives, however, had given them such interruption, as induced a necessity for firing upon them, by which, it was said, one man was killed.’69 In the same month as settlement officially begun on the Hawkesbury, Richard Atkins recorded in his journal a clash that took place at Toongabbie. ‘An unfortunate recontre took place between the Natives and the Constables who guard the corn at Toongabbie! They had in the morning drove off about 12 of them out of the corn, laden with bags of corn. In the Evening they returned to the number of 20 and again begun filling their bags, upon the Constables endeavouring to drive them away, they turned on them, threw some spears but fortunately without hurting any of our men, they then closed in upon them in consequence one was shott and one cut down with a sword, the head of one is brought in and the Lt. Govr. has preserved it, as a present for Dr. Hunter.’70 Paterson’s decision to send the skull to Doctor Hunter reflects more than just Paterson’s scientific interests. Doctor John Hunter was a noted anatomist and fellow of the Royal Society, who began life as a cabinet maker and later followed his brother William into medicine. Doctor Hunter’s 1775 MD thesis, De hominum varietatibus, was a response to Kames’ Sketches of the History of Man, 1774, which proposed “local creations” in the Americas and Terra Australis. Hunter was just one of a number of authorities who saw Kames as a proponent of polygenesis which threatened to undermine scriptural authority and the moral authority that it imparted to British society. Paterson’s decision to send the skull to Doctor Hunter was an affirmation of church and state. Paterson was no doubt unaware that Doctor Hunter had died in 1793. I do not know what became of the skull. While the violent clashes between Aboriginal people and settlers attract most attention there were also other forms of interaction. In May of 1794 some Aboriginal people adopted a not in my backyard attitude to the settlers and suggested that there were other rivers to the south that they should go to. The incident is tantalising in that Wurrgan, who had been born on the Hawkesbury and frequented the colony since 1791 may have been a main player in this attempt to deflect settlement away from the Hawkesbury. 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