1793 to 1795 1794 1795: overview
Download 327.81 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- November 1794: Matthew Locke
- A Commentary on the Recording of the Events in 1795
- The role of the government in the expansion of settlement.
- January 1795: Collins
- Serjeant Goodall;
- February 1795: the military settler
- February 1795: Collins
November 1794In 1794 2250 acres were granted to 75 grantees. By the end of the year the settlers had crossed the river, a move that reflected the pressure of settlement on limited arable land. For Matthew Locke it was to be a successful step. Locke’s successful relationship with Aboriginal people points to the complex relations between the two groups. November 1794: Matthew Locke‘Matthew Lock(e) was granted land on the left bank below the Green Hills87 in November 1794. The Locke family were undisturbed by Aboriginal forays. Or, if here as elsewhere there were levies on the corn, they were tolerated by Matthew, for he was a kindly man and understood the black people's need.’88 In January 1795, Collins briefly noted, “At the Hawkesbury a man had been wounded by some of the Wood tribe”. The identity of the man and the reason for Collins’ brevity may be related to the mystery surrounding the death of Joseph Burdett. Joseph Burdett was almost certainly the first settler on the Hawkesbury to be killed by Aboriginal warriors. The only mention of his death is in the land grants where he is recorded as “being killed by the natives”.89 Jan Barkley-Jack points to the reallocation of Burdett’s land grant in late 1794 as evidence of his death in 1794 rather than 1795. Whether or not the wounded man of January 1795 was Burdett or not, the implication is that Collins did not directly address Burdett’s death as part of his masking of the sudden escalation of violence that stemmed from the actions of the settlers on Argyle Reach and his disapproval of Macarthur’s perfunctory handling of the examination in October 1794. A Commentary on the Recording of the Events in 1795While the conflict between Aboriginal people and some of the Argyle Reach settlers was individual and personal, the cost had been high. The killing of Burdett may not have been just a case of individual retribution, it may also have been a strategic move aimed at hindering further expansion. Burdett’s land grant was on the junction of South and Eastern Creeks. It was remote and isolated. As well, escape was easy and it avoided harm to those Aboriginal people on or near the farms. In the following twelve months similar attacks would be carried out on the farms of Rowe, Webb, Wilson, and on the Sackville Reach farms. All these farms were isolated and on the edge of settlement. A number of factors contributed to the increase of violence. There was a food shortage in the colony. Officers of the NSW Corps visited the Hawkesbury early in the New Year ushering in an increase in settlement which impacted enormously upon the Aboriginal population. Some Aboriginal people were killed or driven from their lands. Some would have attempted to withdraw from contact, but this would have been difficult as the lowlands were cleared and colonised. Others, deprived of their yam beds responded by forging closer links with the settlers. Others responded by taking corn from the settlers, plundering huts and occasionally killing settlers. It is likely that many Aboriginal people moved between the polarities of appeasement and resistance, depending upon necessity and the reaction of the settlers. The role of the government in the expansion of settlement.January 1795: Collins“The principal labour performed in January was preparing the ground for wheat. The Indian corn looked every where remarkably well; it was now ripening, and the settlers on the banks of the Hawkesbury supposed that at least thirty thousand bushels of that grain would be raised among them.’90 In order to maximise and secure the harvest Captain Macarthur took responsibility for a military guard of ten soldiers led by Serjeant Goodall and the erection of a store house, which, when completed would be under the supervision of William Baker, a former marine. January 1795: Collins‘On the day following, the colonial schooner sailed for the river, having on board a mill, provisions, etc. for the settlers there. A military guard was also ordered, the commanding officer of which was to introduce some regulations among the settlers, and to prevent, by the effect of his presence and authority, the commission of those enormities which disgraced that settlement. For the reception of such quantity of the Indian corn and wheat grown there this season as might be purchased by government, a store-house was to be erected under the inspection of the commissary: and Baker, the superintendent who arrived in the Surprize, was sent out to take the charge of it when finished. The master of the schooner was ordered, after discharging his cargo, to receive on board Mr. Charles Grimes,91 the deputy surveyor-general, and proceed with him to port Stephens, for the purpose of examining that harbour.’92 Collins and Goodall differed over the role of the soldiers. Collins, not unsurprisingly, wrote in his account that the soldiers’ role was to supervise the settlers. At the 1799 murder trial Serjeant Goodall when asked “ - Was you not sent to the Hawkesbury for the express purpose of defending the Settlers from the attacks of the Natives in consequence of the representation from the Settlers that they were in Danger of being murdered by the Natives, replied, - I was.” It is likely that the orders the soldiers were given had three components: supervising the settlers; protecting the settlers; and killing Aboriginal people. The available evidence suggests that the soldiers were diligent in “killing the natives”. Serjeant Goodall;‘Q. - Did you not serve in the Detachment at the Hawkesbury as a Serjeant? A. - Yes I did upwards of two years I was discharged two years ago last April since which I have lived as a free settler. Q. - Do you recollect during your service at the Hawkesbury the Natives committing any Murders Robberies or other Outrages? A. - I do some I particularly well remember. Q. - What steps were taken to Punish such Natives? A. - Parties of Soldiers were frequently sent out to kill the Natives but being the Senior Serjeant at the Hawkesbury I had the care of the Stores and did not go out with any Detachments. Q. - From whom did you receive your Orders from time to time at the Hawkesbury? A. - I received my Orders in writing from Captain John McArthur at Parramatta and those orders were issued in consequence of a Number of Murders about that Time Committed by the Natives. Q. - Do you not know that the like Orders have been often repeated by the Officers Commanding Detachments at the Hawkesbury? A. - Yes - I do. Q. - - Was you not sent to the Hawkesbury for the express purpose of defending the Settlers from the attacks of the Natives in consequence of the representation from the Settlers that they were in Danger of being murdered by the Natives. A. - I was.’93 February 1795: the military settlerThe visit of the officers pointed to a new phase in the development of the Hawkesbury, that is, the advent of the military settler. Governor Phillip made a total of 72 land grants during his tenure. Grose and Paterson made a total of 524 grants in theirs, many to serving personnel, both officers and privates.94 There were four hundred settlers stretched along thirty miles of river. The increase in land grants to the officers and privates of the NSW Corps phased in a new era of land deals and gentlemen farmers.95 This rapid population growth escalated violence during the year. February 1795: Collins‘Early in February, the storehouse at the Hawkesbury being completed, the provisions which had been sent round in the schooner were landed and put under the care of Baker. Some officers who had made an excursion to that settlement, with a view of selecting eligible spots for farms, on their return spoke highly of the corn which they saw growing there, and of the picturesque appearance of many of the settlers' farms. The settlers told them, that in general their grounds which had been wheat had produced from thirty to thirty-six bushels an acre; that they found one bushel (or one some spots five pecks) of seed sufficient to sow an acre; and that, if sown as early as the month of April or May, they imagined the ground would produce a second crop, and the season be not too far advanced to ripen it. Their kitchen gardens were plentifully stocked with vegetables.’96 Directory: docs docs -> Application for acem docs -> Observational Assessment of Teaching Practices Teaching Assessment Initiative Proposal Submitted to The Teachers for a New Era project docs -> Traditional British values docs -> From Warfighters to Crimefighters: The Origins of Domestic Police Militarization docs -> Borzoi Club of America Register of Merit Program I. What is a Register Of Merit docs -> Protecting the rights of the child in the context of migration docs -> United Nations E/C. 12/Esp/5 docs -> 9th May 1950 the schuman declaration docs -> Getting To Outcomes® in Services for Homeless Veterans 10 Steps for Achieving Accountability Download 327.81 Kb. Share with your friends:
|