Myths and Mysteries of the - Australian History Mysteries

Activity page12CSource 7Bathurst was founded at the terminus of Cox’s Road on theorders of Governor Lachlan Macquarie who selected thesite on 7 May 1815. It is the oldest inland town in Australia.The name Bathurst comes from the surname of the BritishColonial Secretary Lord Bathurst. It was intended to be theadministrative centre of the western plains of New SouthWales, where orderly colonial settlement was planned. Thesettlers who crossed the Blue Mountains were harassed byWiradjuri warriors, who killed or wounded stock-keepersand stock and were subjected to retaliatory killings. Inresponse, Governor Brisbane proclaimed martial law on14 August 1824 to end ‘… the Slaughter of Black Womenand Children, and unoffending White Men …’. It remainedin force until 11 December 1824.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathurst,_New_South_Wales andhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_frontier_wars#New_South_WalesSource 8 Biography of Windradyne (c.1800–1829)Windradyne (c.1800–1829), Aboriginal resistance leader,also known as SATURDAY, was a northern Wiradjuri man ofthe upper Macquarie River region in central-western NewSouth Wales. Emerging as a key protagonist in a periodof Aboriginal-settler conflict later known as the ‘BathurstWars’, in December 1823 ‘Saturday’ was named as aninstigator of clashes between Aborigines and settlers thatculminated in the death of two convict stockmen at KingsPlains. He was arrested and imprisoned at Bathurst for onemonth; it was reported that six men and a severe beatingwith a musket were needed to secure him.After some of the most violent frontier incidents of theperiod, including the killing of seven stockmen in theWyagdon Ranges north of Bathurst and the murder ofAboriginal women and children by settler–vigilantes nearRaineville in May 1824, Governor Brisbane placed thewestern district under martial law on 14 August. Thelocal military was increased to seventy-five troops, andmagistrates were permitted to administer summary justice.Windradyne’s apparent involvement in the murder ofEuropean stockmen resulted in a reward of 200 hectaresbeing offered for his capture. The crisis subsided quickly,although the failure to capture Windradyne delayed therepeal of martial law until 11 December. Two weeks later heand a large number of his people crossed the mountains toParramatta to attend the annual feast there, where he wasformally pardoned by Brisbane.The Sydney Gazette described Saturday as ‘withoutdoubt, the most manly black native we have ever beheld… much stouter and more proportionable limbed’ thanmost Aborigines, with ‘a noble looking countenance, andpiercing eye … calculated to impress the beholder’. Anotherobserver thought him ‘a very fine figure, very muscular… a good model for the figure of Apollo’. His sobrietyand affection for his family and kinsmen were consideredremarkable.Apparently remaining camped in the domain at Parramattafor some time after the 1824 feast, Windradyne thenreturned to Bathurst. He declined to attend GovernorDarling’s feast the following year. In later years, he wasintermittently reported as being involved in raids on maizecrops or in clashes with settlers around Lake George. In1828 an Aboriginal man being led to his execution forthe murder of a stockman at Georges Plains attemptedvainly to pin the crime on the ‘notorious Saturday’.Mortally wounded in a tribal fight on the Macquarie River,Windradyne died a few hours later on 21 March 1829 atBathurst hospital, and was buried at Bathurst.Windradyne had been closely associated with George Suttorand his son William Henry, who were strong advocates onbehalf of Aborigines during and after the period of martiallaw. Both lamented his passing in the Sydney press inApril 1829. One of William Henry Suttor junior’s AustralianStories Retold (1887) placed Windradyne at the scene ofthe Wyagdon attacks in May 1824 and described how hiswarriors had spared the life of the author’s father …In 1954 the Bathurst District Historical Society erected amonument beside a Wiradjuri burial mound at Brucedale,attaching a bronze plaque commemorating ‘The restingplace of Windradene, alias ‘’Saturday”, last chief of theAborigines: first a terror, but later a friend to the settlers….A true patriot’. His death date was erroneously givenas 1835.In the late twentieth century Windradyne was transformedfrom a local figure to a character of national importanceas a resistance hero. A suburb at Bathurst and a studentaccommodation village at Charles Sturt University, WaggaWagga, were named after him. In May 2000 his presumedresting place was put under a voluntary conservation order,the occasion celebrated by Wiradjuri descendants and theSuttor family, continuing a 180-year-old friendship andcreating a potent symbol of reconciliation.David Andrew Roberts, Online Dictionary of Australian Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/windradyne-132513 Add any information to your summarytable on activity page 3A.4 Write a brief paragraph or do a comicstrip sketch for your own historytextbook (in box 8 of activity page 3C)to explain to readers what the main impactsof the crossing of the Blue Mountains were.The crossing of theBlue Mountains opened thewest to an immediate rush ofsettlement. True or False?42Myths and Mysteries of the Crossing of the Blue Mountains