The third article referred to Lieutenant Dawes’ encounter on the 12th of April, and finished by referring to the stopping of a government supply waggon on the road to Bathurst in March 1816.
In this article the author mocked both the editor of the Gazette and Aborigines.
In a subsequent number of the Gazette, the editor, after stating that a body of natives had stopped and robbed a cart belonging to Government carrying provisions for the supply of the persons stationed on the mountains, and that they demonstrated considerably less apprehension than formerly from the effects of firearms, thus sought to shew the natives how full of Christian charity he was. "In justice to those who do not engage in these mischievous acts," said he, "we should be at all times ready to receive corrected statements in favour of any whose names may have been erroneously reported as present on such occasions." The reader can imagine how gratified the innocent aborigines would have been at this display of generosity - if they had been able to read and understand the paragraph; and how many "corrected statements" they would have sent in to the editor - if they had been able to write. But, alas, for the darkness of the savage state, they were not able to do one or the other.’121 Charles White was not alone in misshaping our understandings of our past. A four thousand word article in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 4th of January, 1896,extolling the virtues and achievements of Governor Macquarie, made only one enigmatic reference to Aboriginal people: “His action as to the aborigines seems peculiar, as seen in these days.”122 The Sydney Morning Herald in 1904 made the following fallacious comment: “It was a troublesome district between 1796 and 1816, for the settlers and blacks constantly waged war against each other, but Governor Macquarie quieted the feud, when, on December 28, 1816, he held the first annual friendly conference with the aborigines in the market place.”123
20th of January, 1816
Queen Charlotte’s birthday was the subject of Mr. Robinson’s latest Ode. In it he managed to insert a tribute to Governor Macquarie, very much in keeping with the image that Macquarie liked to present – the visionary leader, dispenser of justice and mercy. It also probably explains why Mr. Robinson was the colony’s poet laureate and his occasional slips with a pen did not get him into too much trouble. Robinson’s Odes are significant because anniversaries and celebrations naturally lend themselves to the mythologizing of the past and the blurring of what actually happened.
‘A BRITISH CHIEF! Who, on Australia’s Shore,
First cherish'd Arts, and bade young Science
soar;
Bade active Labour course the distant Soil,
But sent bright Hope to animate their Toil;
And when His Justice dealt the gracious Meed,
MERCY- stood by - to consecrate the deed. The Ode was largely indistinguishable from its predecessors, extolling Britain over other countries, celebrating the triumph of Britain bringing light into the darkness. The only originality in this work was its reference to cannibalism.
Apart from inserting some apostrophes, I have retained Mr. Robinson’s spelling and the Gazette’s layout.
‘ODE
FOR THE QUEEN's BIRTHDAY, 1816
BY MR. MICHAEL ROBINSON. WHEN Spain's proud Genius saw COLUMBUS brave
Jan. l8, 1816.’124 On the 2nd March 1816, 20 to 30 Aboriginal warriors plundered Palmer’s farm at Bringelly.125 On the following day, seven workers crossed the Nepean in pursuit. In the fight that followed four of them were killed and one wounded. The incident is particularly noteworthy in that it was the first recorded use of muskets by Aboriginal warriors against settlers. On Monday 4th March, about sixty warriors plundered Wright’s Bringelly farm. Around the 12th March a stock keeper was killed at Cowpastures and an attack made on a government cart on the road to Bathurst, suggesting that Aboriginal unrest was widespread.