Remembering Country: History & Memories of Towarri National Park ...

Likewise, land granted to Henry Kiernan in 1828 along a creek to the
east of Mount Towarri was to become Kiernans Creek. 5 Dr Joseph Docker
established Thornthwaite in the 1830s. However, it was Stephen Coxen
and his younger brother Charles who, in the late 1820s and 1830s, would
acquire large tracts of land that eventually stretched up Thompson’s Creek
towards Mount Tinagroo. 6 By 1828 over 1.5 million acres (607 500 hectares)
of land had been granted in the Hunter River and Port Stephens districts. 7
Of this area just over 33 000 acres (13 365 hectares) were either cleared or
cultivated, and significant numbers of sheep, cattle and horses grazed. 8
Many of the early settlers were probably apprehensive of Aboriginal
people. Elsewhere in the Hunter, violent clashes between white people
and the Wonnarua had occurred by this time. In the Upper Hunter
there was both cooperation and conflict. Some white people befriended
Aboriginal people and learned about their culture and landscape; others
were uninterested and avoided contact, still others forcibly drove Aborigines
from their land and considered them mortal enemies.
Amity and outrage
When zoologist John Gould visited Stephen Coxen’s Yarrandi station
in 1839, he commented that the Upper Hunter tribes were ‘extremely
harmless and well disposed’. 9 Gould actively collected bird specimens
while at Yarrandi, and on his excursions on foot and on horseback he
was expertly assisted in locating a large variety of birds and eggs by two
Aboriginal men, Larry and Jemmy. 10 Yarrandi, reputedly meaning ‘place
of possums’, suggests that settlement did not translate into an immediate
shortage of traditional foods for the indigenous population. And while it
is contended that the use of Aboriginal language for property and place
names was a form of appropriation, it could also illustrate an exchange of
information based around a shared interest in land.There is evidence that
Stephen Coxen developed relationships with Aboriginal people that went
beyond that of employer – employee. John Bungarie, an Aboriginal boy in
Coxen’s employ, was educated with Coxen’s own son in Sydney.While at
school he distinguished himself academically, and later, following Coxen’s
death, forged a career in the native police in Queensland. 11
Francis Little of Invermein interacted with the Wonnarua and provided
the government with information about the people he had observed. In
1828 Little explained that two ‘tribes or families’ lived in the Scone district,
the Tullong and the Murrawin.These were no doubt Wonnarua families.
During this time the Tullong family group, of about 40 people, maintained
their traditional attachment to country around Dart Brook and continued
to access an important camping ground on Coxen’s Yarrandi station.The
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Murrawin group, centred on the Pages River to the north-west, likewise
continued to enjoy access to much of their country. 12
So on some white properties Aboriginal people could still frequent
old camp sites and collect seasonal foods. They interacted with white people
yet were not reliant on them. They shared their knowledge of wild foods
and often assisted settlers with shepherding, tracking and clearing the land
in exchange for goods they deemed desirable. The Wonnarua did daily
chores like carting wood and water in return for tobacco or corn. 13
Some white people, such as Francis Little, recognised how helpful some
European goods were to Aboriginal people and urged the government
to provide blankets and tomahawks. 14
But not all white people were willing to accommodate Aboriginal
people on what they believed was legally their land. Despite the British
law which stated that ‘any act of Injustice or wanton Cruelty to the
Natives’ was forbidden, and that even when the settler’s life or property
was threatened,‘effectual’ and ‘most humane’ means were to be employed, 15
much blood was shed.The Wonnarua were not passive victims of
dispossession, however. Rather, they defended their land according to
carefully conceived and implemented plans shaped by their own laws
and customs. 16 The Wonnarua uprising of 1826 was one such example.
Fighting for country
Late in 1825 the Wonnarua conferred with the Wiradjuri people around
Mudgee, who had led an uprising during the previous year that had
resulted in the declaration of martial law at Bathurst. 17 When several
attacks occurred in the southern part of the Hunter Valley, and recently
established properties around Scone were raided in 1826 – including
Francis Little’s Invermein – white people demanded official protection.
In the meantime, settlers took the law into their own hands, organising
devastating retaliatory expeditions.
In defending their land the Wonnarua evolved a range of strategic
responses which posed a serious threat to the invaders’ life and property.
Through careful observation, Aboriginal people were able to gather
intelligence on Europeans and became quickly aware of the economic
importance of the settlers’ property. Livestock and horses were killed, and
dwellings and crops were torched. Their superior knowledge of the country
gave the Wonnarua a distinct advantage, as was the case following the raids
on maize crops around Scone, when Aboriginal people ‘took up a strong
position’ and ‘rolled rocks and stones’ down upon the pursuing party,
forcing them to withdraw. 18 The government responded by sending
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A HISTORY OF TOWARRI