An extensive history of the Wiradjuri people of the district was compiled by Jim Birtles and others in the Mudgee District History website. The website is no longer accessible. This data has been retrieved from the Internet Archive (The Wayback Machine)
Aboriginal tribes in Mudgee belonged to the Wiradjuri Nation, which extended from the Blue Mountain eastern ranges to the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers in the west, with the Murray River forming the southern border and the Wellington plains and hills the northern border. About 7,000 Wiradjuri people lived in the Bathurst region, when it became the European ruling area and the first town settled west of the Blue Mountains.
At Bathurst in 1824, Governor Macquarie found the Wiradjuri a handsome people, truly ‘noble savages’ unaffected by civilized settlement. The governor found them peace loving, content, shy, gracious and having a certain uncivilized innocence as well as being inoffensive and clean in their person. He described the Wiradjuri people as being clothed in mantles made from the skins of opossums, neatly sewn together and the outside of the skin decorated with carvings.
The Wiradjuri nation was split and sub-split into many tribes. In Mudgee, the Mowgee clan extended over a 50km radius. The Mowgee women’s totem was the wedge tail eagle (Mullian) and the men’s totem the crow (Waggan). They settled around the Cudgegong River, using its resources for food, and water.
The Mudgee district holds many sacred Aboriginal sites and cave painting, some sites with evidence of tool making. Some of the better known and accessible sites include Hands on the Rocks; The Drip; Babyfoot Cave (more information following).
Many Mudgee districts were named after the local Wiradjuri tribal areas, including Mudgee itself (nest in the hills), Lue (Loowee, a chain of waterholes), Gulgong (a gully), Wollar (a rock water hole), Menah (flat country), Eurunderee (a local tree), Guntawang (a peaceful place), Cooyal (dry country), Wilbertree (a long switch), Gooree (native chasing live animal), Burrendong (darker than usual) The Aboriginal name of the Rylstone area was Combamolang.
Aboriginal people known to the explorer William Lawson, based in the Bathurst settlement, told him there was a fine country towards the north-west of Bathurst, which later became described as the ‘land of milk and honey’.
In 1821, James Blackman jnr and an Aboriginal guide called Aaron (Aaron’s Pass near Mudgee is named after this Aboriginal man), travelled across the Turon River to the bold granite hill now known as Aaron’s Pass—but Aaron refused to pass this spot - the new land belonging to another tribe. Sadly, Aaron was killed by Aboriginals at the long-water hole at Dabee, near Rylstone at a later date. But at this time, Aaron pointed Blackman in the general direction, and Blackman went on to explore the Cudgegong River region. Blackman followed the Cudgegong River for about 20 miles (42 km) and came to the Burrundulla Swamps, but did not reach the Aboriginal camp at Mudgee, as Lawson did later that year, claiming the discovery of Mudgee for himself.
In 1822 Blackman and Lawson traced a route from Wallerawang to Dabee, near Rylstone. Later that year, Lawson returned to Bathurst and persuaded George and Henry Cox of Mulgoa in Sydney to settle the land with him. They agreed between them that Cox would have the land south of the Cudgegong River and Lawson the land north of the river. The first settlement of Mudgee was at ‘The Camping Tree’ on Menah. The tree still sits beside the river on the Wilbertree Road (see map, P.3).
Although at first relationships between the white and black people were amicable, soon the early settlers battled with the local Wiradjuri tribes over pastoral grazing land, the settlers wanting the prime land along the Cudgegong River, which was the Wiradjuri home. As settlement escalated in the 1820s, kangaroos and possums, major food sources for the Aboriginal people were slaughtered by the white people and sacred sites were desecrated. There were many massacres in the Mudgee district, most stories of them passed down by local folklore rather than official records. Some of them are listed in the section on massacres following.
Aarons Pass; Past & Passing
by Mickel Murphy Cowie (C)
Aarons Pass so named by James Blackman circa 1820 to acknowledge his native guide’s help in marking the trail from Bathurst to the Cudgegong River Valley. Soon after Lieutenant W M Lawson’s diary records “they crossed the Turon River, went North East to Crudene (sic) to a long granite hill where “the guide Aring or Aaron” after pointing out the direction of the country they were seeking, resolutely refused to move any further, as he feared the hostility of the tribe beyond his own saying: “Baal that not my country, there is where you are seeking, me go no further” and no inducement could alter his resolve.”
But it seems Aaron soon overcame his fears, perhaps assuaged by the white settlers protection for Lawson journal entry for 26 November circa 1821 records that Ering the black native led him “S.E. by S. through a fine grazing country to Troben called Davy” (Dabee or The Dabee Plains).
Aaron’s collaboration with the white settlers was also acknowledged in August 1822, W M Lawson, then Commandant at Bathurst requested brass plates for five of the local aboriginal chiefs, including Aaron “Chief of the Tabellbucco Tribe”.
Soon after W M Lawson was exploring the Goulburn River his journal entry on the 30th November 1822 says he enquired of his native guide “Ering” (Aaron) regarding the mouth of the river and the native replied “where the white man sits down”. Identifying Newcastle as the confluence and confirming the Goulburn as a tributary of the Hunter River.
In September 1823 Thomas Hawkins, was the acting coroner investigating the brutal murder of Peter Bray an assigned servant of William Lee at Bathurst Plains. Hawkins reported to the Judge Advocate “Earing, (Aaron) a black Chief of the Tabellbucoo Tribe states that he went to the hut in company with the Jurors and saw the tracks of the natives”…”the Jury are of the opinion from the statements of Earing, that the deed was perpetrated by the four Black Natives known by the names of Jackey, Taylor, Charley and Cougo-gal.” There is no evidence of any investigation into the events that precipitated the murder of Peter Bray or the motive of the four natives that Earing identified as the perpetrators.
In his History of Mudgee circa 1910, GHF Cox tells of Aaron’s aid to the Cox family “the faithful native guide Aaron having so frequently mentioned Dabee, in high terms” the Cox’s investigated and selected the property later known as “Rawdon…for many years it was used as a breeding station”. And then adds “Aaron, who was killed in a tribal warfare between the blacks at the long-water hole at Dabee”.
Rumours of Aaron’s death moved a correspondent identified as “Candid” to write to the Editor of The Sydney Gazette on Thursday 12 August 1824; “Do not the despatches, that arrived at Head-quarters (Parramatta) in the beginning of this month affirm, that in an affair that took place at or near Mudjee (sic) five blacks were killed? Is old Aaron dead or alive? If dead in what way did he die?” A press clippings from the Cox family papers says “immense number of the native men women and children were slaughtered at Mudgee….And amongst them poor old Aaron, he was shot in the long reach of water at Dabee.” Thus Aaron’s forebodings were realised, murdered in alien tribal country probably by associates of the white men he led to the Cudgegong Valley and Dabee Plains
The pioneer Blackman; Lawson; Cox and Lee families lost a willing guide and servant commemorated at Aaron’s Pass. But I suspect the Aboriginal tribes of the Cudgegong, Capertee and Goulburn River Valleys had mixed feelings about Aaron, the Wiradjuri Tribal Chief who eagerly led the white dispossessors to their tribal country.
Mickel Murphy Cowie
Martial Law was declared by the Governor from August 14 to December 11, 1824 by His Excellency Sir Thomas Brisbane, Knight, Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Captain-General in and over His Majesty’s Territory of New South Wales, and any Wiradjuri person could be shot without impunity. Armed settlers patrolled the countryside, murdering the Aboriginal people on sight. The Aboriginal people fought back for their land, many massacres of the white people being in retaliation for the war crimes against them.
The leader of the then Wiradjuri Nation, Windradyne, known to white people as ‘Saturday’, led his people in the resistance against the invasion. In December 1824 Windradyne met with Governor Brisbane at an annual gathering in New South Wales to try and make peace. Windradyne had travelled 200kms to attend the meeting. Governor Brisbane later wrote to his superior, Earl Bathurst, secretary of state for war and the colonies in England : “I am most happy to have it in my power to report to your lordship that Saturday, their great and most warlike chieftain, has been with me to receive his pardon, and that he with most of his tribe, attended the annual conference.” Windradyne, thought to be born about 1800, died in 1829, the details of his death vague, though it is believed he was injured in a tribal fighting, sent to Bathurst Hospital, but discharged himself and on removal of his bandages, died of gangrene. He is buried on ‘Brucedale’ on the Sofala to Bathurst Road on the outskirts of the Mudgee district. His gravesite is recognised as of State significance.
From 1835 to 1845 the Aboriginal population went down 50 percent, and even further by the Gold Rush days, but the Gold Rush destroyed what little evidence of Aboriginal culture was left, the people largely gone and the sacred places fading into the background. Today there has been a resurrection of Aboriginal pride in their culture and those places are being found again and honoured. However, some of the most beautiful of them, particularly The Drip, are being threatened once again by white man’s culture—coal mining (more information coming). Many Aboriginal people moved to the plateau above Hill End (west of Mudgee) and to Wollar (48km north-east of Mudgee) where they mixed marriages and the purity of the race gradually died out. The Maitland Mercury noted on September 11, 1900 that Aborigines at Wollar were forcibly moved to a mission station at Brewarrina, for the safety of the Gulgong townspeople, because of the fear of Jimmy and Joe Governor, the Aboriginal brothers who went on a three month murder rampage, killing 10 people, one victim being 70-year-old Kiernan Fitzpatrick, who was shot in front of his Wollar hut. (More details following)
Peggy Lambert, the last Aboriginal in Rylstone, east of Mudgee, was born about 1830 and buried in the Aboriginal section of the Rylstone Cemetery in June 1884. Peggy only gave birth to one full blooded Aboriginal child. Her husband, Jimmy Lambert, locally known as the ‘King of the Dabee tribe’, was given a brass plate in return for 1000 acres of his tribal country. Jimmy Lambert was tribal chieftain of Yerromun Plains Bonegarley. He was born about 1830 and is buried at Aaron’s Pass, on the Mudgee Road. His brass plate is now held by his great great great great grandson, Paul Perrin of Queensland. Paul also has a silk and gold sash believed to have belonged to Peggy Lambert, Queen of the Dabee Tribe. Paul says a bridge built in Rylstone in the early 1900s was officially opened by Jim Lambert cutting the ribbon, an honour bestowed upon him because of the high esteem he was held in by the people of Rylstone. The peers of the bridge still remain. The Canberra Museum has photos of Jim and Peg Lambert, but it is not presented on this site out of respect for the Aboriginal custom of not presenting photos of an Aboriginal deceased person. (For more information, including a possible correction, CLICK HERE.)
Another well known Aboriginal man in the Rylstone district was Jimmy McDonald an Aboriginal tracker at Rylstone Police Station.
William Cox spoke in his memoirs of Tom Penney, the last of all the Aboriginal peoples in the district, who died about 1876. Mr Cox noted Aboriginal people were no longer seen in the area at that time. However, there is conjecture at the moment that Aboriginal woman, Diana Mudgee, lived at Piambong with her third partner and died in 1902, being buried nearby. Diana’s third partner, Robert Raynor acquired a property at Piambong in 1855 after the couple had three children at Grattai. Robert died in 1874 in a dray accident. Because they were not legally married, Robert’s property was sold, but Diana was buried at Piambong in 1902. There will be more information on Diana Mudgee included at a later date.
In the 1840s, blankets and other government issues were still being handed out to the Aboriginal people, and corroborees were still held in the Mudgee hills in the 1850s.
In more recent years, Aboriginal people have returned to the Mudgee region. They are banding together to work and encourage each other in reconciliation with the people of the region. Mudgee has its own Aboriginal Land Council.
Wiradjuri Nation: Massacres, Martial Law is declared
Massacres
There are 20 massacre sites officially recognized around the Bathurst region and many unofficial sites around the Mudgee region. More than 19 white people were killed in the early six year period of settlement, the largest the Bells Falls massacre. Mudgee was counted in the Bathurst region in those early days of settlement.
February 1821
Cox’s Billyeena station on the Cudgegong River, 5kms NE of Mudgee. George Cox led a shooting party against the Wiradjuri people. It is not recorded how many Aboriginal people were shot.
1822
Wiradjuri men attacked Billyeena Station, which was then one of only two stations north of Mudgee. The Wiradjuri men let the cattle go free and killed some sheep, then disappeared. The attack was counted as a ‘warning’ attack for the white men to leave.
It is said Chamberlain, the foreman for George Cox was responsible for Martial Law being declared on August 14, 1824. Chamberlain is said to have killed 19 Wiradjuri people for steeling cattle.
Bathurst 1822
On William Lee’s farm 10kms north east of Bathurst, A convict shepherd was killed by Wiradjuri on the farm.
March 1824
The Green Family History[2] . Written by Queen Peggy’s G Granddaughter Madge Cowie, nee Green in 1965 Madge recounts her father (Peggy’s grandson) telling of the Dabee Massacre at Brymair in the Capertee Valley.
“We were driving to Cudgegong & few miles out of Rylstone, on the right hand side of the road he pointed to a spot and said” That is where old King Jimmy Lambert last of the Dabee Tribe is buried. If we could look at him, we would find a bullet in his leg which he got when he was in his teens.” The tribe at that time” he said, were camped in the Brymair Valley, near Rylstone, two shepherds had built a hut & yards & were minding a flock of sheep for some of the landholders. They coaxed a young Lubra into the hut & kept her there for days; she escaped to her people & the men went down, killed the shepherds, burnt the hut, & were eating the sheep for some time before a man came down to bring provisions to the shepherds. When he saw what had happened he hurried to tell his master or masters – Enraged at the loss of their men & property, they sent a detachment of soldiers down to punish the natives.
The Redcoats caught them unprepared: the blacks ordered their women & children to climb into the trees on the flat & they ran up the mountainside to the cover of rocks and trees. The soldiers knew better than to follow them into somewhere unknown to them & well known to the natives. Young Jimmy was shot in the leg as he ran up the mountain. The soldiers, balked of their revenge, turned back across the flat & shot down every woman & child hiding in the trees. Among them the young lubra, raped by the shepherds.”
Without their women they would soon die out. I have never heard mention of any native women other than (Queen Peggy who must have escaped into the bush) & her two daughters, my Grandmother, Rose & her sister Auntie (Jane ?) Rodgers. I don’t remember Auntie’s Christian name she was always known as Auntie. Peggy at this the time of the killing ‘ must have been a very young girl & the only one left to mate, later, with Jimmy. Her daughters were half-white & were probably born to her before her marriage to Jimmy.
By my reckoning the Dabee massacre occurred during the period of Marshal Law declared by Governor Brisbane in 1824
March 1824
Kelso on the potato field on the banks of the Macquarie River, where a farmer showed Windradyne, leader of the Wiradjuri people how to cook potatoes. The Wiradjuri people returned next day for more, believing the land, and therefore the potatoes, were theirs. There is no record of how many tribesmen, women and children were killed on that day, but Windradyne escaped.
Arsenic cooked in dampers was also used to kill Wiradjuri people at this time.
May 24, 1824
Warren Gunyah station, Wattle Flat, Mr Lyndall’s farm. Two stock keepers killed and another speared by Wiradjuri men, discovered by William Lee and George Cheshire.
Also on that day at Bathurst, Wiradjuri attacked and burnt a small hut and killed sheep and three shepherds - John Donnelly, Joseph Ross and David Brown - at the Windurndale Riverlet near Bells Falls at Milalah-Murrah, where Samuel Terry built his homestead on a Wiradjuri sacred site where initiation ceremonies were performed, despite protests from the Wiradjuri people. Mr Tindell also lost three servants and had sheep destroyed and huts burned to the ground. A retaliation party set out and William Lawson Jnr recorded they ‘fell in with a horde of their women and dispatched them in return for the men’.
May 1824
William Lane’s farm. Seven white men were killed by Wiradjuri tribesmen.
Before July 1824
Four stockmen killed on William Lawson’s holdings, Upper Station on the Campbell River at Bathurst.
Also before July 1824, 15kms north east of Rockley, possibly on Captain Kings Creek on Kings Plains on the Campbell River, two stockmen belonging to William Lawson’s crew killed, their faces ripped apart in an attempt to scalp them.
Shepherds abandoned their herds around the region in large numOral tradition says 60 to 70 Wiradjuri were killed in retribution for this incident, but official sources put the number at five.
Brigadier General Sir Thomas Brisbane (Governor Macquarie’s replacement) issued the proclamation of martial law on 14 August 1824.f martial law on 14 August 1824.
MARTIAL LAW IS DECLARED August 14, 1824
WHEREAS the Aboriginal natives of Bathurst, have for many weeks past, carried on a series of indiscriminate attacks on the Stock Stations there; putting some of the keepers to cruel deaths, wounding others and dispersing and plundering the flocks and herds, themselves not escaping sanguinary retaliation:-
AND WHEREAS the ordinary powers of the Civil Magistrates (although most anxiously exertered) have failed to protect the lives of His Majesty’s subjects, and every conciliatory measure has been pursued in vain; and the slaughter of black women and children and unoffending white men, as well as the lawless objects of terror, continue to threaten the before mentioned districts:-
AND WHEREAS by experience, it hath been found, that mutual bloodshed maybe stopped by the use of arms against the natives beyond the ordinary rule of law in time of peace, and for this end, resort to summary justice has become necessary say:-
NOW THEREFORE by virtue of the authority vested in me by His Majesty’s Royal Commission, I do declare in order to restore tranquility, Martial Law to be in force in all the country westward of Mount York. And all soldiers are hereby ordered to assist and obey their lawful superiors in suppressing the violence aforesaid, and all His Majesty’s subjects are also hereby called upon to assist the Magistrates in executing such measures as anyone or more of the said Magistrates shall direct to be taken for the same purpose, by such ways and means as are expedient, so long as Martial Law shall last.
August 24, 1824
500 acres of land will be offered to anyone apprehending Windradyne. Plus 75 extra soldiers were recruited for the region in this declaration of war on the Wiradjuri people.
August 12, 1824
Bathurst – Emu Plains, Sidmouth Valley and Two Mile Creek
Three Wiradjuri women dead from gunshot wounds found by Henry Trickey near Captain Raine’s property on a government reserve, five miles from O’Connell Plains after John Hollingshead, farm labourer, attacked and speared by Wiradjuri at Mrs Hassall’s farm. Hollingshead survived.
John Johnson, William Clarke, John Nicholson, Henry Castles, John Crear went hunting for the men and reported they found about 30 Wiradjuri and shot some of them, the number unrecorded, in ‘self defence’ as they threatened the white men. Forty five severed were Aboriginal heads were souvenired by British settlers, boiled down, polished and sent to England some time after this incident and it is thought they were from this massacre. Henry Trickey, who found the three Wiradjuri women dead, saw the five men the next day and the five men were later charged with murder of the three women. The five were brought to trial but later acquitted, the Rev Thomas Hassall giving ‘glowing’ witness to William Clarke and John Johnson’s excellent characters. Henry Trickey disappeared after this court case. Wiradjuri tribesmen had a corroboree during this period to invoke their spiritual power against the British settlers.
August 26, 1824
Bathurst, Mill Post station, a second attack after the Milalah-Murrah on Richard Lewis’ property, which was built on a sacred site for initiation ceremonies. Wiradjuri killed the gate keeper and destroyed his hut.
August 27, 1824
Bathurst, Warren-Gunyah station, Wattle Flat, the morning after the Mill Post murder, on Mr Lyndall’s neighbouring farm, three shepherds killed and huts destroyed.
August 1824
Bathurst north, at Millah-Murrah station, three Wiradjuri women and a boy killed in retribution for the shepherd’s murders.
September 6, 1824
Mudgee, Wiradjuri caught dispersing cattle by George Cox’s shepherds. Major Morrisett, William Lawson the overseer, Mr Rankin and Mr Walker on mounted horseback killed between five and sixteen Wiradjuri men.
September 6, 1824
Mudgee, Wiradjuri burial site on the banks of the Cudgegong River: Three Wiradjuri men killed here, including the warrior Blucher.
1824
Bathurst:
A military party sent out to ‘quell the blacks’. Oral history according to J. Burke and Aden Ridgeway says the Wiradjuri people were seen to be nuisances because they killed whites and stole their food, so soldiers rounded up the Wiradjuri people and moved them to the Capertee Valley, where they shot them.
This massacre was recorded by WH Suttor in his diaries, who said the Wiradjuri were shot down without respect. Mr Suttor said the Wiradjuri people had a camp in the Capertee Valley, which was attacked by white soldiers because of the declaration of war, which, he said, was ‘as undecipherable as an Egyptian hieroglyph’. Mr Suttor said the soldiers pretended to be friends, placing food for the Aboriginal people within musket range, and it was mostly women and children who were shot as they came for the food. Mr Suttor referred to the massacre as an ‘exterminating war’.
1824
Bathurst: Rainville, 4kms south east of O’Connell
About 50 to 60 Wiradjuri warriors killing stock on Rockley, rushed a mob of sheep which were not found for weeks on the farm of William Webb-Shannon, who assisted with the coroners inquiry into the murder of the three women.
1824
Bathurst, Clear Creek, 15kms north east, a shepherd killed by Wiradjuri men in his hut. A retribution party gathered the men and drove them into a gorge and shot the entire mob.
1824
Brucedale Station, Bathurst, 13kms north, north east on Macquarie Plains, Winbundale Riverulet, Pine Ridge. Brucedale was owned by Henry Suttor, a family strong in the Bathurst/Mudgee region today.
Henry Suttor is recorded as being exceptionally kind to Wiradjuri people, allowing them access to his (their) land. His friend, Penneegrah, taught him the language and he also met Windradyne. Today Henry Suttor’s descendants have a memorial to Windaradyne on Brucedale.
1824
Billiwilinga Station, 14 miles north west of Bathurst, past Mt Rankin. An Aboriginal family of about 30 people killed by soldiers offering food.
1824
Bathurst, Bells Falls Gorge, Wattle Flat, north on Macquarie River. The Bells Falls Massacre.
Aboriginal families surrounded and driven off a cliff at the gorge. Those who tried to escape shot. Windradyne officially accepted defeat and was put in solitary confinement. Oral folklore says Windradyne attended a public gathering at Parramatta, where he accepted forgiveness, wearing a straw hat with an olive branch to make peace with the governor, though no treaty was signed.
Jimmy and Joe Governor
Much has been written about Jimmy and Joe Governor.
One version of the story of Jimmy and Joe Governor was told in Thomas Keneally’s book, made into a film, ‘Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith’. There is also much local folk lore about the two infamous outlaws.
The area around Wilpinjong and Wollar was first inhabited by Wiradjuri people, with many camping places and Aboriginal paintings remaining.
The area has a local ‘gilgai’, a waterhole caught in a rock, which would also have been an Aboriginal watering place.
Jimmy Governor traditionally camped at Wilpinjong. He frequented the area with his brother, Joe, and a full blood Aboriginal Jacky Underwood.
Jimmy and his brother were part Aboriginal/part white. The three men slaughtered ten people over a three month rampage in the Ulan/Wollar area in 1900, retribution for ill treatment and discrimination. One victim, 70-year-old Kiernan Fitzpatrick, was shot in front of his hut near Wollar.
In her book Chimney in the Forest, Belle Roberts tells that Jimmy and Joe Governor killed Alex McKay of Sportsman’s Hollow Creek, near his home just west of Ulan on the Gulgong Road on July 23, 1900. He was buried in the Presb yterian section of the Gulgong Cemetery, his headstone inscription saying: “Brutally murdered on July 23, 1900 at Ulan”.
Belle says the outlaws stole horses, food and ammunition from other nearby properties and headed to the Turill-Durridgere area, intending to kill members of the well known pioneer family, the Nevell family, but did not find them.
They circled back and killed Kierman Fitzpatrick, an Irishman who lived about a mile from Wollar.
Belle says Jimmy Governor was wounded by Bert Byers, from a local pioneer family. Joe Governor was shot by a farmer near Singleton and Jimmy was also captured, bringing their reign of terror to an end.
Belle writes that Roy Governor, a brother of the infamous two, visited the Turrill, Ulan, Wollar and Moolarben area in the late 1940s to see his brothers haunts, disturbing the local residents considerably by his presence.
Jimmy and Joe reportedly hid in the caves in the Wilpinjong area on Bungulla.
He was seen travelling through the Wilpinjong valley after the murders, travelling through the Carr property where local folklore says Annie Carr hid under the bed to avoid him.
Well known author of bushranger history, Andrew Stackpoole writes that Jimmy Governor was born in Talbragar NSW in 1867 and baptised a Church of England, being a half-caste Aborigine. Jimmy became a horsebreaker, wood splitter, station hand and black tracker with the NSW Police at Cassilis. Jimmy was well educated.
Jimmy was well liked in the Gulgong, Cassilis region, but he had a tendency to violence and depression. In 1900 he married a white girl, 16-year-old Ethel Mary Jane Page, at Gulgong. The couple were employed by John Mawbey at Breelong, near Gilgandra. Because he married a white girl, the couple received a lot of abuse and taunts, particularly from Mrs Mawbey and another woman, Helen Kerz.
Jimmy and Ethel were joined by other members of Jimmy’s family, and because he was employed, he became responsible for feeding them. Many of his family also disapproved of his choice of a bride, which resulted in a lot of tension and infighting. Ethel went to the Mawbey homestead to ask for a ration of flour and words developed between Mrs Mawbey, Helen Kerz and Ethel.
On being told of the conflict, Jimmy approached Mr Mawbey, who promised the rations would be provided, but Jimmy returned to the homestead to demand an apology from the women with his mate, Jacky Underwood, armed with a Winchester rifle and two axes. After another altercation, the two men axed the two women to death, then murdered two Mawbey children and a friend, Elsie Clarke. Another boy, Bert, managed to escape and raise the alarm.
A manhunt for the Jimmy, Joe and Jacky ensued, with Jimmy using his police tracker knowledge to outsmart and embarrass the hunters. A 73-year-old man was murdered at Ulan and his wife critically wounded, two women, one pregnant, and a 15 month old baby at Poggy Station near Merriwa were battered, one woman surviving, another old man at Wollar murdered and a 15-year-old girl raped. In all, nine died and three were seriously wounded, all either women, children or aged people.
The transgressors also broke into a number of homes and sheds and ransacked them, and all in all, 80 crimes were committed. One thousand pounds was posted for their capture. People feared for their lives, from Dunedoo to Gulgong, to Barrington Tops, Port Macquarie, Nundle and the Moonee Range.
Jacky Underwood was caught and hanged at Dubbo on January 14, 1901.
Jimmy was shot in the mouth on October 13 by two civilians. In pain he fled but was caught two weeks later at Bobbin Creek, north of Wingham and taken to Darkinghurst Gaol in Sydney and hanged on January 18, 1901.
Joe headed to the Aboriginal settlement at St Clair, north of Singleton. He was shot by two graziers between Muswellbrook and Singleton on October 31.
Ethel Governor eventually remarried and had 10 children. She died in 1945 in Newington State Hospital.
As a result of the rampage, the Aboriginal people of Wollar were forcibly removed to the Brewarrina mission.
The Mudgee Mail and black tracker, Georgie Miranda.
July 13, 1863, one of the biggest local holdups, south of Pine Ridge at Big Hill near the Dividing Range.
Bushranger Fred Lowry and John Foley held up the Mudgee Mail. Larry Cummins was said to be the lookout for them.
The bushrangers escaped with gold and about £6,000 in old bank notes that were being taken to Sydney for destruction by Australian Joint Stock Bank official Mr Kater.
Mrs Smith, wife of innkeeper John Smith, boarded the coach at Ben Bullen, but luckily, as often was the case, she was not robbed of the £200 she carried. Her husband and Mr Kater had alighted from the coach to walk up the hill, as was tradition.
£500 pounds reward was offered for capture of the robbers or recovery of the money.
Foley was arrested by Hartley police three weeks later with some of the bank notes on him and sentenced to 15 years hard labour, but he was released in September 1873.
Lowry was shot by police and died in August 1863. For the capture of the robbers the reward money was shared by the seven policemen and black tracker, Georgie Miranda who captured them.
2002: Interview with Aboriginal elder, Rylstone man, Wally Washbrook.
In April, 2002, journalist Diane Simmonds interviewed Rylstone resident Wally Washbrook, whose grandfather was an Aboriginal in the Letche, Murray River Tribe, which is now extinct.
Mr Washbrook said he listened to his grandfather very carefully and learnt about his culture from him, and has subsequently spent much of his life teaching others about Aboriginal culture.
Mr Washbrook has a collection of Aboriginal artefacts that originally came from Victoria, but said they still have a story to tell to others about Aboriginal life.
Trading between the tribes had some strange results, with some of those Victorian relics, including a war axe, originally coming from Gulgong.
Mr Washbrook’s most precious artifact is a carved boab nut from the bottle tree, passed down to him from his grandfather. The nut is intricately carved, with an emu and patterns that would have belonged to his grandfather’s tribe.
Mr Washbrook said every Aboriginal tribe has its own particular patterns that are used in paintings and drawings, and no other tribe is allowed to use them.
The patterns today are copyright, and cannot be used by anyone without permission from the tribe the patterns belong to.
Each intricate pattern has religious and cultural meanings, which are layered, and each layer only known to the person authorized in the tribe to know that level. The deeper the meanings, the more secret they are.
Mr Washbrook said Aboriginal people carried little as they travelled from place to place, and made new tools from local stone, sharpening and grinding them on harder stones.
Camps were usually beside water, and this assisted in the grinding process.
“They made the tools on the occupational site at the camp,” Mr Washbrook said, showing some abandoned spear head artefacts that were not finished because of one problem or another.
Mr Washbrook said a war axe would have a groove in the axe to attach a handle, often made from wattle roots and glued and tied onto the axe with heated gum from grass trees, and sinews from a kangaroo’s tail.
He said women used to do the general work, using grinding stones to turn seeds into flour.
Many Aboriginal utensils were decorated with totem markings and some tribes had totem poles, with one such pole found in the Murray Mallee area, part of Mr Washbrook’s educational collection.
Mr Washbrook was once a National Parks and Wildlife officer and loves to take people through the local bushlands surrounding Rylstone to see the Baby’s Feet Cave and the bushranger Thunderbolt’s cave.
He said the baby’s feet on the cave is quite clear to see on an overhanging cave painted with hands (See page 7).
The hands were painted on the caves by Aborigines during their lifetime, and painted out (or over) when they died.
George Cox lived at Mulgoa, Sydney before he came to Mudgee. At the time of George Cox’ settlement on Winbourne, Mulgoa, it was known to be home to the Aboriginal tribe called Dharug, a peaceful tribe that lived and worked on Cox’ Winbourne estate.
The tribe did clash, however, with the neighbouring mountain tribe, the Gundungurra, especially during drought times when food was scarce. The Gundungurra tended to clash with Europeans, whereas the Dharug remained peaceful.
The Mulgoa Valley was the boundary between the two clans, who spoke different languages, however, the valley was used by both for food and the two shared trade, some ceremonies and the food and water available. Water came from the Nepean River.
There was much traffic between Winbourne and Burrundulla at Mudgee, particularly with Cox’ workmen and domestic servants.
Some of Cox’ workmen married Aboriginal women. (More information about Diana Mudgee following). Diana Mudgee partnered and had children by three men, two of them Cox’s workmen. Perhaps readers will be able to forward me more information about this.
George Cox’s Letters to his Sons also suggests Aboriginal people married and moved from Winbourne to Mudgee and vice versa.
The Aboriginal people at Winbourne were known as the Mulgoa or Mulgoey or Mulgowi clan of the Darug people. The Darug people were a large language group occupying the Cumberland Plain Woodland.
In the 1980s, Jim Kohen, an archaeologist specializing in Darug history, wrote a report on archaeological evidence of Aboriginal people on Winbourne, which is held in the archives onsite. His writings include a book, The Darug and their Neighbours, (Kohen 1993), which lists more than 3,000 descendants of some early Darug families.
Jim’s archaeological findings confirmed that Aboriginal people first lived on Winbourne, which now bears a plaque in the courtyard of the now Retreat and Conference Centre acknowledging them as ‘traditional Indigenous owners’.
Many Europeans lived in the Mulgoa Valley, including James Norton, who built ‘Fairlight’ north west of Winbourne (1822) and Blaxland, who had a large farm, ‘Regentville’ (1815) at the northern end of the valley.
Winbourne is associated with the family of William Cox, the Blue Mountains road builder. Three of William Cox’s sons built houses in the valley. Henry Cox built Glenmore (the present golf club), Edward built Fernhill (now largely restored) and George built Winbourne, starting in 1824 or so. William, the road builder, lived at ‘The Cottage’, near the present site of St Thomas’ Church, before moving to Clarendon at Richmond.
It is known that some of the Mulgoa tribe worked at Winbourne as labourers, and the women worked as domestic servants. Cox records his praise for their work and also the fact they were paid in food and a moderate quantity of weak rum punch. The workers slept at their own ‘camps’.
It is also known the workers travelled to and fro from Winbourne at Mulgoa to the Cox farm at Burrundulla, Mudgee, moving sheep backwards and forwards to be grazed, cleaned, sheared etc. So there was regular contact between the Mulgoa clan and the Wiradjuri people.
George Henry Cox took over Winbourne when George senior died and built the stone stables in 1882 that are still standing today. There is not much evidence of the local Aboriginal people at that stage.
However, during World War II, some Aboriginal people were flown from an institution in Alice Springs to the Anglican presbytery at St Thomas’ Church, which became their home. The children attended Mulgoa Public School, and became part of the town. The mother of one of them took a job at Winbourne as a ’maid’ and her daughter, Joyce, joined her there. They lived for a while in a tiny bedroom (virtually a broom closet) off the front (eastern) verandah.
When the war ended most of the children were sent back to Alice Springs by the Aborigines Welfare Board, but Joyce went into hiding, causing a major public uproar. She was eventually allowed to stay.
In the 1980s, Joyce worked for Aboriginal and Catholic agencies in the Mt Druitt area. At that time she often took visitors to Winbourne to show them the room where she slept.
Many of the children that returned to Alice Springs did well in life, and at a re-union hosted by the Brothers’ community in the late 1990s at Winbourne, told of their time at Winbourne. A group of Darug people, led by Chris Tobin, danced traditional dances in the courtyard at Winbourne at that reunion.
Winbourne came under the ownership of the Christian Brothers, with novitiate groups from 1959 to 1983, then educational retreats and conferences up to today, and many spiritual activities.
The natural environment was restored as much as possible, and Winbourne became a centre of spiritual renewal for all Australians.
During this time, Shirley Smith, or ‘Mum Shirl’ as she was known, came to Winbourne and took part in the programming that gave the novices an experience of what it was like to be an Aboriginal in Australia at that time, visiting Aboriginal communities, gaols and places of cultural significance. She also organized large groups of Aboriginal people from Redfern to visit Winbourne.
A bark painting of a kangaroo from Arnhem Land was given by Mum Shirl to the Brothers’ community, which was first hung in the chapel and later moved to the Brothers’ new community dwelling. Joyce also gave one of her own paintings to the Brothers’ community, which now hangs on their community room wall. She also brought many Aboriginal groups to Winbourne on school retreats.
After Jim Kohen’s survey, Winbourne became a popular retreat for Aboriginal people, with more formal conferences taking place including the biennial conference in 1997 organized by the National Coordinating Group (Indigenous Ministries), which brought Aboriginal people from five Australian states together.
However, many Aboriginal visitors felt a disquiet about Winbourne, and more particularly at Eisenhuth House, where a presence of death was felt. The feelings were so widely held, that a special cleansing ceremony was held to release the spirits and heal the land.
Winbourne now preserves its Aboriginal sites, with archaeological signing and further development of the site as a significant place for traditional Aboriginal people and Australian history.
Aboriginal tribes and customs—Triamble Valley
There were two aboriginal tribes in the Triamble, Macquarie River region. The Aboriginal name for the Macquarie River was Wambool, meaning ‘meandering’.
The tribe Thomas Charles Codogan Sutter first encountered in early 1830 was the Waradgerie tribe, and no instances were ever recorded of them attacking the early white settlers. They were said to have been an off-shoot of the main tribe who lived further down the river and Triamble Creek, who were known as the Wompanjee tribe.
It is not known for certain where the tribal boundary was placed on the river, but it is known that the Wompanjee held the area west of Suttor’s Long Point, on to the basalt plain overlooking the Macquarie, where a large cairn of stones, plus several smaller cairns, marked the boundaries between them and the Waradgerie.
The diet of the two tribes consisted of fish from the river and wallabies, kangaroos, opossums, ducks etc. The little rock wallabies were said to have been very plentiful around the boulder strewn drop from the tablelands to the river on one side, and the Triamble Creek on the other. I, as a boy, played in the small natural caves formed amongst these boulders, and remember how smooth the wallabies had worn them.
Aboriginal cooking:
These aboriginals had a very simple and unique method of cooking the fish and ducks. They would simply cake the fish and ducks with clay, then lay them on a bed of hot coals. When cooked, the clay would be broken away, taking the scales and skin of the fish and the feathers of the ducks. The insides would shrivel into a hard ball.
Aboriginal clothing and craft
Apart from their diet, opossums were highly sought by these indigenous people for their skins, these they used to make articles of clothing and rugs etc. By sewing them together with bark fibre. This they obtained from the inner bark of kurrajong and stringybark trees. I believe they preferred the kurrajong. The women were very proficient at weaving baskets out of these bark fibres. These were used for carrying food etc.
One method they used in catching these opossums was to cut them out of hollow trees. It is said they could smell opossums in a tree. This I do not disbelieve as they possessed much greater senses than ours; for instance, their eyesight was phenomenal, they could see items quite plainly that we would require magnifying glasses to see, and in distance we would requite field-glasses to equal them. Once they had found a possum in a tree, they would chop a hole in the tree trunk, using their primitive stone axes. When I was a boy, many of these trees were evident, my father and uncles pointed them out to me; where they had cut their holes would be overgrown, a tree’s method of healing, but in many instances the back marks of their stone axes were very evident. With ring-barking killing the trees for clearing purposes, very few of these trees can be found today.
Unfortunately, very little is known of these aboriginals, except that they were excellent stockmen and proved very valuable assistants to the Suttors on their Triamble holdings.
Child minding
These aboriginals had an unique and safe way of keeping their piccaninnies secure when their mothers were otherwise occupied. They would dig a round hole in the ground, just deep enough for the child’s head to be above ground, then throw in an opossum or kangaroo shin rug, then place the piccaninny in, and he or she was perfectly safe until the mother returned. These holes were dug with what they called pogen sticks and these were made from specially selected hardwood, to which they had ground sharp points. These tools were practically essentially for the women, and they used them for all digging purposes.
Trading
My father told me many years ago, as the aboriginals on the Macquarie and Triamble valley had ample fish, but no flint stones to make their stone axes, spearheads and skinning knives etc from. They would meet with the tribes from the higher country in the Hargraves area, names of which remain unknown. Where the meeting place was has long been lost in the mists of time, but here a barter system was adopted. The tribes from the higher country, where flint stones were plentiful, would barter flint for fish from the river. This was said to have begun countless years before the white man, and continued until the black tribe died out.
Tool making
Their method of making tools from flint stones was quite simple, especially their spear heads and skinning knives. They would simply place larger flint stones in a fire, which would cause them to explode and shatter, and from these fragments they would select long pieces for the spear heads. For skinning knives they would select flat pieces, that would have a smooth side for their thumb, tapering off to a sharp edge. I have found and still find skinning knives and the odd spear head in the paddocks of ‘Kelloshiel’.
Exactly the same method was used in making their scrapers. Scrapers were very important implements to the indigenous people, widely used by both male and female. The women used them for scraping fat and meat off the skins of kangaroos and possums etc when preparing them for rugs and articles of clothing. Broken bones were used also as scrapers as well as flints.
The males used them for smoothing all their wooden weapons, such as boomerangs, spears, nulla nullas etc. I believe they also used sand, and for a final very smooth finish, charcoal and ashes.
When one considers the workmanship in making boomerangs crafted to such a fine balance as to make them to return, with only their primitive stone axes to cut them out and roughly form them, then flint and scrapers and sand for a final finish, one must admire their skill and perseverance.
Making their stone axes was a different matter. These necessitated many laborious hours, grinding edges and grinding them into shape. For this purpose they used sandstone. The old hands knew of several spots where this sandstone was available, and where they had their grinding sites. They also used sandstone for sharpening their pogen sticks.
Flint stones
I will now divert from the aboriginals to relate a humorous incident that occurred years ago. Writing of these flint stones reminded me of the incident. My father, brothers and myself, plus a young city cousin, George Sherwin, were digging out wild tobacco bush in ‘Burrawilla’ on the side of the steep hill, opposite the slab hut. As the morning progressed, Dad sent George off to boil the billy for lunch. As time went by, with no call from George to announce that the billy was boiled, we thought we had better go and investigate. As we approached the fire, guided by the smoke, George called out, ‘Don’t go there! Someone is trying to shoot us!
Upon investigation we discovered George had lit the fire in a gully on top of a bed of flint stones, which were exploding and flying out in all directions, sounding very like rifle shots—what a sight—the billy tipped over and the water all split and George flat on his belly behind a large tree. This gives you some idea of how flint stones react to fire.
When one studies the formation of the basalt tablelands in the Triamble Macquarie River area, one cannot help being intrigued with the formation. The tablelands drop off into steep gorges, fringed by basalt boulders resembling mediaeval fortresses. These gorges sweep down through series of small creeks and gullies into the river, then rise up again on the other side, miles away per ground, but only a short distance as the crow flies. Scattered through these gorges and hillocks of basalt are slabs of what was at one time molten lava, with smooth water worn stones embedded in them, also several outcrops of small basalt hills, topped with white or off-white waterworn stones. The Triamble aboriginals had their version of what caused this unusual land formation.
‘There was a huge fire spitting out of the top of Mt Canoblas, also spitting out masses of molten lava which flowed down through a depression from Mt Canoblas to below Triamble. The devils causing this eruption became very violent, causing the earth to shake and tremble, which burst the lake at Bathurst. The huge mass of water from this lake, flowed down through the molten lava, cutting out the gorges as we see them today.’
JACK DRISCOLL
The last of the Triamble aboriginals that I can remember was a half-cast named Jack Driscoll. Jack’s father, also named Jack, was an Irishman and his mother a full-blood aboriginal. To which tribe she belonged, I have no idea, but the location of their home would have been in the Wompanjee tribe area. Jack senior has been described as a squat, nuggetty powerful man. He was very proficient at working pit-saws in saw-pits.
SAW PITS
Saw-pits were very primitive, but effective method of cutting building material; one must remember this was back in the mid 1800s, years before the innovation of suitable engines to drive the circular saws as we see them today. All the original floor-boards on the verandah of the Triamble Homestead were but in this manner by Jack Driscoll senior, in a saw-pit at ‘Echo’ at the head of ‘Dirt Hole Gully’ - the depression of this saw-pit can just be found today.
There were many of these saw-pits in existence many years ago—one was on ‘Kelloshiel’ in the small paddock I named the Saw-Pit, due to its existence. When I purchased Kelloshiel, this was all portion of a large paddock and this area was covered with dead timber, and the saw-pit plus its timber framework were all destroyed in the timber clearing process, but the depression of the pit can still be found. I was told much of the timber on the ‘Weroona;’ homestead, built by Herbert Mattick in 1860 was cut in this pit. The Weroona homestead, I think, was pulled down in 1910 by WBN Suttor, and moved to ‘Beechworth’.
To construct a saw-pit, firstly a long hole, eight or ten feet in length would be dug, deep enough for a man to stand up in, the sides of this pit would be timbered for added strength, with a timber frame around the top. Logs would then be rolled onto this framework for sawing. This was done by two men, the man on top would put the greatest effort into pushing the saw down, biting into the timber, the man underneath, his main job was to push the saw up for the next downward thrust, and so on. This man had a very unpleasant job as he had to work in a shower of sawdust all day. Working saw-pits was an extremely hard and laborious work for both men. The saws used in these pits were large saws, similar to cross-cut saws. I have two in my possession, given to me by the late WBM Suttor, and he said they were used in the saw-pit on ‘Kelloshiel’.
More on Jack Driscoll
I have no recollection of Jack Driscoll senior or his wife, but have very vivid memories of Jack junior. He lived on the bank of the Macquarie River, near the junction of a creek called ‘Racketts Gulph”. Both Jack’s parents died there, and are buried on a small spur down the river from their home. These graves would now be under many feet of water from the Burrendong Dam. Jack lived there until some time in the late 1830s and worked for my father on ‘Echo’ and his brother Hubert Suttor of ‘Leitaleinna’, and later another brother, Charles after he acquired ‘Leitaleinna’. Jack, although a half-caste, retained many of the black instincts and superstitions. For instance, he would never step under the roof of a white man’s dwelling, nor would he accept food from a white woman’s hand. Jack was very fond of goat meat. When he lived on the river, wild goats could be found on the opposite side. When Jack wished to shot one, or a rabbit for meat, he would only take one bullet—when queried in this respect he would always reply “I only want one”. Here the hunting instincts of his mother’s forebears came to the fore—he would stalk his game for hours, with goats, maybe days, until he was certain to kill with one shot.
Poor old Jack would now and again break out and go on a drinking spree. Usually he would walk the nineteen or twenty miles from his home to Hill End. We, as youngsters, would see him trudging along the road in front of ‘Echo’ and were fully aware what he was about. Sometimes on a very heavy spree, he would stay away a fortnight.
When his mother died, his father having predeceased her, Jack decided to report her death to the Stuart Town police. Possibly after trudging sixteen miles through the river hills in the summer heat, he had developed a capital thirst and thought he would have a ‘quick one’ on the way to the Police Station. Unfortunately, this ‘quick one’ developed into many. As a result, some time elapsed before he sobered up sufficiently to remember the purpose of his trip. (Such was life in those days, living in such isolation) Some time later, a well meaning acquaintance, obviously not knowing of his mother’s death, asked Jack how she was. Jack possibly not fully understanding the query replied “Oh, she was very plurry high! Thank you kindly”. Jack always added the words ‘kindly’ to ‘thank you’.
A funny incident I can recall. Dad wished to see Jack about something, so rode down to see him. I went along too. Jack was not at home, so we rode around inspecting some sheep (Dad owned the land upon which Jack lived) then returned to his home, and saw him walking down Racketts Gulph carrying a bucket of water. This mystified Dad. As a walk up this creek water would be a very long and tiring walk. Whilst ample water flowed close by in the river. So we waited for Jack to approach, and Dad asked him why. “Oh Boss” he exclaimed, “the water in the river has been polluted. I drank it yesterday, and blue flames shot out of my mouth—a bilious attack. I will never drink it again!” Poor old chap. He had obviously suffered a bilious attack and blamed it on the river water. To explain the difficulty in obtaining water from this creek, I must point out that all the creeks and gullies falling into the Macquarie River are the same. Where they head on the Triamble tableland, they have ample water, with excellent springs, then when they commence their final plunge, through very steep gorges, on their way to the river, the beds of these creeks and gullies become very stony and boulder strewn, also very porous, as all the water goes underground; so you can appreciate Jack would have had to clamber over this boulder strewn creek bed for a long way before he came to water.
Jack Driscoll lived in his house until sometime in the late 1930s when his home burned down. He came up to ‘Echo’ and tried to tell Dad, “Me no home”. Dad thought he was saying “Me no hoe” as he was employed in digging seedlings out. Dad offered him another mattock, thinking he must have broken his. This caused more confusion than ever. Eventually Dad understood he was saying “Me no home”. Upon fully understanding his house had really burned down, Dad set about questioning him as to how it happened. Jack replied, “It was burned down by electricity.” This presented quite a poser, as there was no electricity in the area at that time and nobody would have thought Jack would have heard the word, he being quite uneducated. What caused his house to burn down was never resolved for certain, just that Jack was becoming old and possibly careless with fire. As his dwelling was constructed of sheets of stringy-bark, both roof and walls, it would be very subject to fire.
It was then decided that as Jack was getting on in years, it would be more appropriate to build him a dwelling much closer, so Charles Suttor decided to build him a hut on ‘Leiteleinna’. This was on the Triamble Creek, on the western side of where the ‘Wing Vee’ homestead stands today, in late December, 1942, only to find him dead. He had been dead for a number of days. In such situations the local police were notified, in this instance, the sergeant from Hill End, as this was his area, and he patrolled it on horseback. As Jack had been dead for some days, and as there were no suspicious circumstances, they merely rolled him in one of his blankets, dug a grave quite close to his hut and laid the old chap to his final rest. He was the last of the Driscoll family. They all lived, died, and were buried in the Triamble district, but their name is perpetuated by the paddock where they lived on the river, being known as Driscolls paddock, also a large waterhole in the river near where they lived, has always been known as Driscoll’s Hole. From this hole Murray Cod of enormous size have been caught—it has always been very popular with fishermen. Of course, with the Burrendong Dam, there is no longer an individual hole, but topographic maps still show the area as Driscoll Hole.
It is very sad that the once proud people of the Wompanjee and Waradgerie tribes that once roamed the hills and valleys of theTriamble Macquarie region have died out and disappeared almost without trace. All that remains to remind us of their existence is one cairn of stones on the tableland on ‘Wing Vee’ and occasional artefacts that can be found also, maybe the occasional tree from which they cut their opossums. Their utter disappearance remains a mystery, one thing is certain—they were not rounded up and shot by the early settlers as happened in other areas of the State, nor were they forced to depart due to ill treatment. Maybe that they saw the white man take over their land, and perhaps the will to live died slowly in the face of change, which was beyond their comprehension and to which they were unable to make adjustment.
Note: I omitted to mention that Mrs Driscoll was known as the ‘Echo’ washerwoman, as she did the washing, apart from other household duties, for Grandmother, Mrs Henry Edward Suttor, in the old original ‘Echo’, also in the second ‘Echo’ homestead, and I understand, continued to do so until due to advancing years, the walk of between three or four miles from their home on the river became too much for her.
The Aboriginals of Bathurst by CE Suttor, March, 1993.
It is well recorded that when the first explorers discovered a passage onto the Bathurst plains, the natives were not at all troublesome; very frightened at first, then curious and friendly, and always responded to friendly gestures. This party was led by the Assistant Surveyor of Lands, Mr George William Evans. The route they had followed down off the main dividing range was via Mt Tarana, north of the pass, now marked by the Tarana Railway Junction. Mr Evans was tremendously impressed with the country. This was on the 1st December 1813. He wrote in his diary on 6th December 1813, “I conceive it strange we have not fell in with the natives. I think they are watching us, but are afraid.”
Evans and his party continued to explore the country, naming the river the Macquarie, after Governor Macquarie. The aboriginal name for this river was ‘Wambool’, meaning meandering. Surveyor Evans and his party returned to Sydney in January, 1814, with no reported instances of trouble with the natives.
Governor Macquarie, after reading Surveyor Evans’ glowing reports of the vast tract of excellent grazing land over the Blue Mountains, lost no time in planning a road over them. This project was put in charge of William Cox JP, with a gang consisting of twenty-eight men (convicts and six soldiers). The road was commenced on 18th July, 1814, and on the 14th January, 1815, after less than six months, Cox reported this remarkable road complete.
The Governor set out with a party on the 15th April, 1815, to inspect the work and explore the land so glowingly described by Evans. Macquarie, in his diary records the events of his arrival on Tuesday 4th May, 1815: “We arrived at the depot at half past 1pm; the guard being turned out to receive us and the whole of the people gave us three cheers. We found here also, three adult male natives and four native boys of this new discovered tract of country, who shewed great surprise, mixed with a small degree of fear, at seeing so many strangers, horses and carriages, but to which they soon appeared to be reconciled on being spoken to. They were all clothed with mantles made of skins of opossums, which were very neatly sewn together. They appeared to be very inoffensive and cleanly in their persons.”
One of the Governor’s party, Major AC Antill, in his journal reported at much greater length on the natives, of which I will only include his summary: “They appeared to be a harmless and inoffensive race, with nothing forbidding or ferocious in their countenances. They were perfectly mild and cheerful, and laugh at everything they see, and repeat everything they hear.”
Governor Macquarie’s party remained in the Bathurst area until 12th May, 1815.
Pastoral expansion in the Bathurst area was very slow until the appointment of Governor Brisbane, in December, 1821. After this, expansion was very rapid. It was from this large influx of settlers that trouble with the natives developed.
I now take you to extracts from an article on the aboriginals, written by a Miss Jane Piper, daughter of Captain John Piper, formally of ‘Alloway Bank’ and later ‘Westbourne’ Bathurst.
Customs of the Aboriginals.
“There was a large camp near ‘Westbourne’ in the thirties. Their shelters consisted of two sheets of bark, under which a black and his woman slept at night. The men provided the food consisting of opossum, lizard, snake, and other delicacies. The women cooked it by throwing it on red-hot coals, skinned but not disembowelled. When cooked it was laid on a piece of bark and the man sat down to it on the ground, his woman seated at his back. He tore the food to pieces with his fingers, and threw the bones over his shoulder to his woman.”
When Miss Piper was eight years old, there was a fight with a hostile tribe not far from her home. Sad to say, a woman was the cause. An Aboriginal woman had been stolen and the siege of Troy was repeated on a humbler scale. The weapons used were spears, nulla-nullas, boomerangs and womerahs. The blacks prepared themselves for battle by painting themselves with coloured pigments. Needless to say Bathurst won. What became of them is not related, but the victory cost six lives, with a few minor casualties. The fallen heroes were buried with much ceremony, the bodys being placed in a sitting posture, and the heads bowed on the knees. The war weapons of the deceased were placed inside the opossum rug in which the body was wrapped. During the burial the women cried and wailed terribly, the dead man’s woman cutting her head and body severely, causing streams of blood to flow, and the men and women joined in a sort of chant, setting forth the virtues of the deceased. Women are buried anywhere.
I have been unable to discover any substantive evidence of any atrocities committed by the blacks against the first European settlers, but have read of several instances of some unscrupulous settlers, enticing them to eat damper, then feeding them poisoned damper, causing many to die in awful agony. Maybe these settlers did this in retaliation for misdemeanours by the blacks, such as killing sheep to feed themselves, but I have been unable to turn up any evidence of such misdeeds.
Rebellion.
In the year 1824, a foreigner named Antonio had cultivated a patch of land on the Macquarie River opposite Bathust and grown potatoes. One day quite a large number of blacks came by. Antonio, moved by generosity gave them some. Next day, they, having appreciated the gift and no doubt thinking they were there for the taking, as yams were, arrived in force, and began helping themselves. This was not to Antonio’s liking. He quickly roused the people of the settlement, who rushed down and attacked the blacks, killing many and wounding several others.
After this, the blacks commenced general atrocities, killing many isolated shepherds and destroying many sheep. In a short time, these hostilities led to the death of several aboriginals and white settlers. This would have been the ‘Wiradajuri’ tribe under the leadership of the great tribal leader called Windradyne, alais Saturday.
It was undoubtedly during this uprising that the following occurred:
A large party of blacks, fully armed, and obviously on the warpath, led by their ferocious leaderWindradyne, arrived at the ‘Brucedale’ homestead and threatened William Henry Suttor, who was alone at the time. After he spoke to them in a friendly manner, in their own language, they departed, leaving him in pece. The same night they called at a shepherd’s hut on ‘Milla Murrah’ and killed all those present (six I believe). This became known as the ‘Milla Murrah Massacre’. Here, it was reported, the blacks had previously been handed poisoned damper. Whether there was any truth in this rumour I am unable to say, but as Milla Murrah was owned by the Suttor family at the time, if the shepherd concerned did feed poisoned damper to the aboriginals, it wold have been contrary to his master’s wishes. If so, he paid for his disobedience with his life, but unfortunately for his family, theirs too. The hut where these people lived has thereafter been called ‘Murdering Hut”.
Eventually this aboriginal problem under Windradyne became so serious that martial law was proclaimed throughout all the country lying west of Mt York. Under these conditions the blacks were shot down without respect or mercy, getting the worst of it, they moved to the deep valleys and hills in the Capertee country, where they were eventually cornered and killed in a most atrocious manner. The soldiers offered them food, knowing they would be hungry, especially the women and children, having been kept constantly on the move. This food was placed on the ground, well in the open. In a supposedly friendly gesture, but when they approached to get it, the soldiers opened fire, killing all women and children. Only Windradyne and a few other males escaped.
After this atrocity, committed by the army, the Government pardoned Windradyne, and he eventually became very friendly with the white settlers and was reported to have always been extremely fond of children irrespective of colour. Ironically, he was wounded in a tribal fight, and died of gangrene, caused by his wounds. Windradyne died in 1830 and was buried at ‘Brucedale’. His grave is located in a very aquiet and secluded spot, and is visited by aboriginals from all over the State. In 1966 a plaque was erected in his honour over his grave.
The Bularidee Tribe
Sandwiched between the Waradgeries at Triamble and the Wiradajuries of Bathurst, were the Bularidees who roamed the hills onto the Macquarie River from well below the junction of the Wimburnda River, down to the Granits, south of Hill End, and onto the Turon River. Nothing much is known of this tribe, except that they were reported as being of very fine physique possessing very keen eyesight, and extraordinary powers of endurance. Their staple diet was wallabies and goanna, eaten in other localities. There is no record, or local tradition of any clashes between the Bularidees and white settlers. Nothing now remains of this once proud tribe who once ranged the Upper Macquarie and Lower Turon Rivers. The decent from these once proud warriors to a few drink-sodden mis-fits, as reported last seen in Hill End many years ago is very sad. As with so many of these aboriginals, assimilation with the whites, and being introduced to alcohol and tobacco was their ruination.
Conclusions:
I have compiled this record of the aboriginal tribes for the sole purpose of giving you, my descendants, some idea of what type of people they were, who roamed the country down the Macquarie between Bathurst and Triamble.
They were a very honourable race of people, with their own customs and laws, unfortunately for them, these laws failed to conside with the white man’s laws e.g. Under our British law, if a man took another’s life, the court would sit and hear his case, and if found guilty, he would invariably be sentenced to death by hanging (that is as the law stood back in the 1800s. Of which time I write).
If an Aboriginal took another’s life, the tribal elders would meet and consider the matter, and if they were convinced the person concerned was guilty of murder, they would condemn him to deth by spearing, and would decide who the person or persons were to carry out the deed (I have read that occasionally as many as three may be named, especially if he was a famous warrior). Under white man’s law, this person or persons once the ordered execution had taken place, would be arrested and sentenced to death for murder. So you can see how the scales of justice can weigh very queerly when involved in two different cultures, back in the 1800s.
These aboriginals wee here many thousands of years before white man and it cold be said they wee a very backward unindustrious race of people, who made no attempt to till the soil to grow their food—maybe they found no necessity to do so, nature had provided them with an abundance of game, with kangaroos, wallabies, opossums, duck, snakes, goannas etc. plus ample fish in the waterways. Also nature had provided them with several edible berries, but not blackberries or briars. Blackberries are not a native plant of Australia, they were imported into Hill End, possibly in the late 1860s by an unsuccessful goldminer, who thought up the idea of brewing blackberry wine to sell to the miners, but unfortunately for him (‘Blackberry Tommy’ as he was nicknamed) before his blackberries had matured and produced, the gold at Hill End cut out—but not the blackberries. They have spread and become a very severe menace in Australia. The briars were introduced int Australia in the mid 1800s by Mrs Janet Rankin (one of your ancestors) wife of pioneer George Ranken, as a flower in her garden at ‘Kelloshiel’ Bathurst.
We must cast our minds back to those years long gone, to before European settlers came with their sheep and cattle—what would the native grasses have been like then, with nothing but kangaroos and wallabies to eat it? I imagine it would have been quite long and coarse, providing ample seeds for the women to gather. These seeds they would grind, using specially selected grinding stones to make their flour, from this flour they would make small cakes, quite hard as they hadn’t any baking powder or they would make a paste and eat it raw. This about takes care of the food requirements.
There being no predators in Australia, such as lions and tigers etc. against which they would require weapons of defence, their spears, boomerangs, nulla nullas were quite adequate, as these were sufficient to kill kangaroos, wallabies etc for food. Apart from food, the only other use they had for weapons would be fighting tribal wars, which it appears, occurred quite frequently. These tribal wars were nearly always brought about by the infringement of members of one tribe into another tribes territory, or by a warrior from one tribe stealing a woman from an adjoining tribe. These instances were always very violently opposed, as is explained by Jane Piper in her atticle.
The aboriginals had a very strong moral code—much stronger than ours with our European laws, if a man covets another’s wife, the matter is usually resolved in the divorce courts. In tribal laws, the woman’s husband is quite entitled to kill the other man—in fact, this is expected of him by the tribal elders. Any interference with an under age girl bears one penalty—death.
Here again, the laws of the two cultures come into conflict, as under white man’s laws those carrying out the sentences would be arrested and tried, and if proved guilty would be sentenced to death.
Aboriginals were permitted more than one wife, especially the tribal elders, the number appears to depend on the husband’s ability to support them, also it was the custom to promise a girl child, when a wee piccaninny, or often at the time of birth, to a tribal elder. I have not read of an instance of the appointed husband forcing his attentions upon such a girl before maturity, as is often quoted—quite the reverse. These girls when they began to mature and go through the changes of life as all girls do, were placed exclusively under their mother’s care and were guarded very closely. She, the mother, had full say when she considered the girl had reached a sufficient stage of maturity for marriage (age did not enter into it). Then the mother would take her daughter to the gunyah of her promised husband, and she was then considered his wife. This custom was the cause of a tremendous amount of discontent, especially when a teenage girl was forced to accept a husband, who in many instances was in excess of sixty years old, especially when she already had her favourite amongst the young tribal bucks. This often resulted in the girl and her young buck running away. This was the cause of more internal upsets in the tribes than anything else I have ever read about, as there was only one penalty for them when caught. The young buck would be speared to death, but there is a grey area here as regards the girl, as to whether she was spared and accepted into the tribe and by her husband, or also killed.
I am not sure if the practice of more than one wife was the custom in this area, as Jane Piper, in her article, only makes mention of one woman, but it was the accepted custom in the north of Australia and Arnham Land. The allocating of female picininnies at birth was practised extensively in all areas.
Ifs and buts
We now enter the ‘ifs and buts’. If Antonio had never planted his potato patch, or if he had a little moe understanding and realised these natives would not have understood his potatoes were not there for the taking, as were yams. Also, if those early European settlers had looked upon the natives as people; it appears in several instances many of them looked upon the natives as some sort of noxious animals which had to be exterminated. In addition, where have British soldiers ever fired upon unarmed, defenceless women and children, to the extent of utter extermination, as happened in the Capertee slaughter? If all these instances had not occurred, one cannot help wondering what would have been the eventual situation between the early settlers and the natives in the Bathurst area. Would they have learned to live in harmony together, or would the natives, resenting the occupation of their lands, and thinking the white settlers were weak and soft, have raised up against them? These facts we will never know. One thing my descendants can be sure of—your ancestors had no part in any atrocities or ill-treatment of these indigenous people. This fact is firmly confirmed by the rements of the Wiradjurie tribe, wishing the leader Windradyne to be buried on ‘Brucedale’, where they must have felt assured he was being laid to final rest on friendly soil.
As with the Bularidee, Waradgurie and Wampanjee tribes of the Turon Macaquarie and Triamble areas, the Wiradjurie tribe who roamed the Bathurst district also appears to have disappeared, almost without trace.
The story of Diana Mudgee is inspirational. Diana was an Aboriginal woman who was fostered by a pioneer white family. She raised ten children and owned her own 500 acre block of land, thanks to help from her benefactor, George Cox. Born in Mudgee in 1826, Diana would have lost her parents at a very young age, possibly because of the Wiradjuri Massacres.
Diana is referred to as Diana Mudgee, but she also went by other names, including Jennings, Knight, Philips/Phillips and Rayner/Raynor. She is commonly remembered however, as Diana Mudgee.
It is not known how she came to live with the Cox family, however, at a very young age, possibly 13 years old, she was living with Cox’s servant James Knight, who was the overseer of ‘Winbourne’ at Mulgoa, and had a baby to him, Sarah in 1839. Diana and James did not wish to marry, but another servant, William Phillips, wanted to marry her and on 8th January 1840, William Grant Broughton, Archbishop of Australia, answered a letter from George Cox asking that a young woman, presumed to be Diana, be allowed to be baptized so she could marry William Phillips. After a lengthy negotiation with the Australian Archbishop gave permission for Diana to marry William Phillips, a convict worker on Cox’s property, even though she was never baptized. They married on 8th September 1840.
George Cox, pioneer of Mudgee, was involved with Diana and her family for many years. We do not know why, except that he was known to have a number of Aboriginal people in his care and was known for his kindness and compassion to his employees, taking his quest to look after them and be responsible for them very seriously, even providing for them in his Will.
George Cox was the son of William Cox, the man who built the road over the Blue Mountains in 1814. He had a property at Mulgoa, Sydney, ‘Winbourne’ , and his son, George Henry Cox managed his Mudgee property, ‘Burrundulla’. There is documentary evidence that Diana lived both on ‘Winbourne’ and ‘Burrundulla’.
Diana and William Phillips were married at St John’s Anglican Church in Mulgoa in 1840. They had two children, Mary Anne and Emma. William Phillips mysteriously disappeared and Diana and Robert Rayner, also a convict who worked for George Cox, became partners and eventually had seven more children. William Phillips died in 1852 and her relationship with Robert Rayner continued until he died on 16th October, 1874 – run over by a dray on the Piambong Road near Mudgee. Robert had acquired 30 acres of land at Piambong in 1855 and another 30 acres in 1859, but because he and Diana were never married and therefore, the children illegitimate, the property was sold at public auction.
However, all was not lost, because Diana became the conditional owner of land in 1885, long after Robert’s death. It is known the Cox family continued their mentoring of Diana as there is documentation that George Henry Cox assisted Diana to make the improvements (fencing and ringbarking) required by law to her property in 1885 at her conditional purchase. The note is written by licensed surveyor William Abernathy.
"At time of survey improvements had been effected by the helper of the run G. H. Cox, consisting of wire fence £15. ringbarking £1.5f Total £16.5 shillings".
Diana lived to be 78 years of age. She raised ten children and had three partners after having her first child at 13 years of age. She was also the owner of 500 acres of land in 1885, in an age where it was nigh impossible for an Aboriginal woman to do so. The descendants of Diana Mudgee have every right to be very proud of her.
Diana Mudgee
Born Mudgee 26/12/1826, died Piambong 1902.
Diana was under the protection of George Cox when she became pregnant to James Knight. It appeared that neither Diana nor James wanted to marry each other. James married Eliza Rayner and they had 3 children. James continued to work for the Cox family of Mulgoa and accidently shot himself getting through a fence at Mulgoa in 1847. Eliza then married John Neill and had 6 children. Diana married William Phillips.
Diana, partner to James Knight at Mulgoa.
|Sarah Anne Knight/Phillips was born 23/12/1839 and died 25.10.1919 at Wellington. She married William Collins.
|William Edward Collins
| Caroline Collins (one of twins) married Henry Beamont Delauney. She died at 30 years old and had 3 boys.
|Jane Collins (the other twin)
|Walter Collins
|Emma Collins
|James Collins
|Sarah Collins married Herbert Patrick Hyde, ?, ?, Kim
|Thomas Collins
|Shedrick Collins
|George Collins
|Ruth Collins
|Harriet Collins
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Diana married William Phillips and had 2 children.
| Maryanne
|Emma, who married Basil Dickinson of Piambong.
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Diana partnered Robert Raynor and had 3 children at Grattai.
They moved to Piambong and Robert acquired 30 acres of land at Piambong in 1855 and another 30 acres in 1859.
Diana and Robert eventually had seven children between them, bringing Diana's children to ten. He was accidentally killed by a dray passing over him on Piambong Road near Mudgee on 16th October, 1874. Because he and Diana never married, having no person of kin to him in the said ‘Colony’ the land and property were sold at public auction. This is probably around the time Elizabeth and John Blackhall moved to Spicers Creek.
Diana partnered Robert Raynor and had 3 children at Grattai.
They moved to Piambong and Robert acquired 30 acres of land at Piambong in 1855 and another 30 acres in 1859.
Diana and Robert eventually had seven children between them, bringing Diana's children to ten. He was accidentally killed by a dray passing over him on Piambong Road near Mudgee on 16th October, 1874. Because he and Diana never married, having no person of kin to him in the said ‘Colony’ the land and property were sold at public auction. This is probably around the time Elizabeth and John Blackhall moved to Spicers Creek.
|William born 1847 (Philips/Raynor) died 1922 at Cunnamulla.
|Elizabeth 1848, at Grattai. Married John BlackHall. Had 15 children. Died 1922
|Thomas Rayner married Florence Langford.
|Elizabeth married Thomas Collins and had 5 children, one called Noeline.
|Jane born 1851 married Frederick ‘George’ Vitnell in 1872 and had 6 children.
Diana and Robert moved to Piambong in 1855. She died 1902 and is buried at Piambong.
|Shadrack born 1855 at Piambong married Sarah Ann Metcalf 1877
|Phoebe married Alexander James Collison*
|James
|Caroline Raynor born 1858 Piambong. Died 1860
|Harriet Raynor born 1861 Piambong married Richard Smith 1878
|Thomas Richard 1880 died 1896
|Alice Eve born 1881 died 1882.
|Thomas Raynor, born 1866 died 1871.
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* Note: This states that Phoebe Rayner a granddaughter of Diana Mudgee married Alexander James Collison. A Phoebe May Rayner certainly did marry Alexander James Collison but it was a different Phoebe Rayner to that stated in the above article. The confusion probably comes from the fact that they are both born in Mudgee but only one is recorded as Phoebe Rayner the other as Phebe M Rayner.Phoebe Rayner (BDM/NSW 26125/1885) is the daughter of Shadrach Rayner (or Shadrack Phillips as he was born to Diana Mudgee) and Sarah Metcalf.
Phebe M Rayner (BDM/NSW 22979/1890) is the daughter of George Rayner and Frances Makpace.
It is definitely this Phebe M Rayner (Phoebe May Rayner) who marries Alexander James Collison as can be seen from the following death article from the Mudgee Guardian and North West Representative newspaper on 6 September 1951.
It states her age as 61 which means she was born in 1890.
Also on her death certificate as Phoebe May Collison (BDM/NSW 23086/1951) it states her parents as George and Frances.
