DISPOSSESSION AND VIOLENCE: A BRIEF NOTE ON THE NEWCASTLE-LAKE
MACQUARIE REGION IN THE 1820s-1830s.
by Greg Blyton
Withstanding the immense misconceptions within
Australian historiography in relation to Indigenous people is
a reality. This reality concerns a determined people who defended
their heritage, land and waterways in the Hunter region against
British colonization throughout the 19th century. British occupation
occurred in this region primarily along the waterways including
the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie and at each point of initial
contact there was a reliance on military force to dispossess Indigenous
people.
Commencing at the mouth of the Hunter River in
1804 with the establishment of a penal settlement, colonization
slowly extended along this waterway to around Maitland until the
Hunter Valley was opened up for civilian occupation following
the transfer of the colony to Port Macquarie during the 1820s.
The period from 1822 to 1826 saw the land, waterways and lives
of Indigenous people along the Hunter River, come under direct
threat from British colonists with the occupation of Crown Land
Grants. These grants amounted to over half a million acres and
nearly 1,000 colonists became landowners in the Hunter Valley
under English Common Law. When the British began occupying these
Crown Land Grants conflict erupted with Indigenous people who
actively defended themselves and their land against invaders who
would not share resources and abused the women.
A petition was presented to Governor Ralph Darling
in August 1826 from British occupants along the Hunter River requesting
military assistance to combat resistance by Indigenous people.
Darling responded to perceived aggressions by Indigenous people
by sending in military forces to 'oppose force with force' and
instructed the civilian sector to use force if necessary against
Indigenous people who followed the Governor's order. The official
record stated that four Indigenous men were shot under military
escort while attempting to escape and several more were gaoled
during this period. Around the same time in 1826 the evangelical
missionary Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld at Lake Macquarie wrote
of a "war" which commenced against the Aborigines of
the local Hunter River districts.
At Lake Macquarie conflict with Indigenous people
wasevident in the early 1830s when more colonists came to the
region and began occupying Crown Land Grants around the lake shores.
Once more Indigenous people actively defended themselves and their
land from the invaders and as was the case with the Hunter River
landholders, the colonists requested military assistance to counter
Indigenous resistance. Once again the Governor sent in military
forces and in the official record state several Aboriginal people
are shot and gaoled.
As a result there is a truth within the history
of Australia over the past two hundred years that Indigenous people
were overthrown by military conquest along the Hunter River and
Lake Macquarie. Lands were taken from Indigenous people by force
and the days of native people paddling their canoes along the
majestic waterways of the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie were
gone. While diseases such as smallpox had a significant part in
the decline of native populations in NSW, Indigenous peoples also
died from violent conflict during the British occupation of their
land and waterways. This is clearly the case along the Hunter
River and at Lake Macquarie.
The truth of Australia's ancient social history
is very important to the future of this nation. This concerns
the reconciliation of the past and the acceptance that while tribal
life disappeared at the end of the nineteenth century native people
survived to face a future unlike any their ancestors could ever
have imagined. It is important for a country to acknowledge the
past, not to only enjoy its proud deeds, but to accept the misfortunes
of the past and grow from this acquiescence. Australia must learn
to nurture tolerance and understanding, embrace reconciliation
and forgiveness and in the process enrich the national identity
and future of this land. It is too late to change the past, but
it is not too late to acknowledge this truth.
Greg Blyton
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