The Move to Dyarubbin I: Mulgrave Place/Bulyayorang
First I wish to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Original Custodians of Dyarubbin/Deerubbin (Hawkesbury-Nepean rivers), the many clans of the Dharug, Darkinjung and Gundungurra nations, and to their elders past and present.
I also wish to acknowledge those who died
fighting for their Country in the wars that continually ignited around
Dyarubbin from 1794 to 1816 between Aboriginal tribes and families and the new
arrivals – the First Australian Wars.
Aboriginal peoples be aware that this story may contain names of deceased persons and material that is highly upsetting.
Dyarubbin (photo: A. Maie)
In the 1800 Muster[1] Anthony, Elizabeth and family are listed as having a grant at Mulgrave Place. So at some stage after their son John’s birth and baptism at St. John’s Parramatta in 1796 it appears as if they had uprooted their young family from The Ponds and moved north-west to Dyarubbin/Hawkesbury-Nepean river.
Anthony sold the Ponds grant, Ropes Farm, to John Larkam for £50 and there was a civil court case about the sale on 4th July 1797[2], so it was sold before then. Although their next child’s, Sarah’s, baptism in March 1798 is recorded at St. John’s Parramatta, Anthony is not included as living at The Pond’s farm on the list compiled by Rev. Samuel Marsden and Assistant Surgeon Thomas Arndell at a ‘meeting of settlers’ in February, 1798.[3] Anthony is listed, however, among those petitioning the government in 1801 for assistance due to losses in the 1798 floods and drought at South Creek/Wianamatta.[4] The floods were in March 1798, the month of Sarah’s birth. So it could possibly be that they had moved there soon after selling Rope’s Farm.
They ended up at around the junction of the Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers
and South Creek confluence, called Mulgrave Place/Bulyayorang[5] or
Green Hills, a distance of 42.3 kilometers from The Ponds. The court case about the sale of The Ponds
seems to indicate that “stock, Indian corn, potatoes &
moveables” were not included in the sale.
As eight pigs
are listed at both The Ponds and Mulgrave Place/Bulyayorang it is possible they were taken on the move. There is no mention in the 1800 Muster of the
horse.
Hawkesbury/Nepean river and South Creek confluence. (Photo: A. Maie)
There were two ways of reaching Mulgrave Place/Bulyayorang. One was a three
day journey by boat from Parramatta to Sydney Cove/Warrane, up the coast to the Hawkesbury River/Dyarubbin and continuing along the river to Mulgrave Place/Bulyayorang. The second, initially a two day journey on
foot from Parramatta/Burramatta, had
been reduced to eight hours along a track built by Governor Grose. According to Grace Karskens most convicts and
ex-convicts travelled on foot, which is perhaps the way Elizabeth, Anthony and
the family travelled with their pigs and other ‘moveables’.
Drawing: A. Maie
British discovery and settlement of Dyarubbin.
Governor Phillip had been exploring the Hawkesbury since 1788, returning a number of times over the next couple of years. In 1791 the party had travelled with the assistance of Colbee, a Gadigal man, and Bollederry, a Burramatta man, as guides. During the 1791 expedition they had met up and had a peaceful encounter with local elders Gombeeree and his son Yellowmundi from the Boorooberoongal clan.[6]
Since 1793/4 convicts and ex-convicts had also begun venturing further afield, some escaping and squatting around the area. Grace Karskens[7] suggests that the gradual exodus could have been triggered by James Ruse selling off his farm in October 1793 and others following.[8] At the end of 1794 there were 400 settlers in the area, including a number from The Ponds and Liberty Plains: Anthony’s and Elizabeth’s neighbours.
By 1794 the runaway group along the Hawkesbury/Dyarubbin was requesting grants. Governor Grose was taken by surprise, agreed,
and by 1796 the surveyor Charles Grimes had created a map of grants for the
area. Anthony’s name does not appear on
that list so he and his family had not arrived when the list was compiled.[9]
Drawing from Grimes 1796: A. Maie
Settler/Aboriginal relations.
Archaeological evidence has been uncovered of Aboriginal life and culture in the area from 50,000 years ago.[10] By the time of British arrival in 1788 the Nepean-Hawkesbury river system was called Dyarubbin/Deerubbin after the yams (dyirrabin) which were a major food source for the local Dharug. The banks and flat areas along the river were used for cultivation, ceremony, meetings and tool-making by the clans and families.[11]
Captain Hunter and party had visited the area in 1789 and had noted that the banks between Portland and Richmond Hill were churned over by the women’s digging sticks and it looked as if the yam beds were being cultivated. The next month Lieutenant Bradley noted the same along both sides of the river.
The squatters who arrived in the area around Wianamatta/South Creek in 1793/1794 immediately set up camps along the banks, choosing the area because the soil was fertile due to regular flooding. It was not long before they began to clear the land of trees and scrub and replace the yam beds with maize. When the local Dharug people attempted to gain access they were driven away.[12]
This is where the story is no longer so easy to tell, for Dyarubbin was from the beginning of the new arrivals one of the locii of the conflict, war and massacres between the new arrivals, government agencies and local Aboriginal clans and families, which continued on and off over decades.
For example, in April of that first year as the squatter’s crops were beginning to ripen a Dharug man who was attempting to take maize from a farm was killed. At some stage a detachment of NSW corps was posted there to guard the crops. When the local Dharug people came to collect food the detachment opened fire, killing two men, decapitating one and taking the head back to Sydney/Warrane from where it was sent to England.
There was another recorded murder in September 1794 of a young boy from a group of Dharug people on the other side of the river from the camp. He was bound, repeatedly dragged over a fire, thrown in the river and then shot.[13] Similar recorded incidents included the rape and torture of a young woman from Pemulwuy’s family[14], the torture and killing of a young Aboriginal boy in 1795 and the capture of three and the shooting, murder and hacking to pieces of two Aboriginal boys in 1799 (one escaped).[15] When the Dharug fought back Acting Governor Paterson[16] sent the NSW corps on a series of ‘search-and-destroy’ raids with instructions to erect giblets where the bodies would be hung, which resulted in the 1795 massacre at Richmond Hill.
This became a repeated story[17], as was the abduction of Dharug women and children, as was payback and ‘punitive missions’. Collins reported that Aboriginal parents would gather near the farms and beg settlers to return their children,[18] and that Dharug boys and youth were being ‘employed’ on Dyarubbin farms. Whether they were willing or not, or paid or not is anyone’s guess.[19]
There is no way Elizabeth and Anthony would not have known. Each confrontation would have been the talk of the settlement. The 1799 murder even made it to trial and the men gaoled. But they were released after a few days and the local Aboriginal people threatened to burn everything down.
Elizabeth, Anthony and family.
By the time of Elizabeth’s, Anthony’s and family’s arrival the numbers of squatters and settlers along Dyarubbin had grown to 700. In 1800 Muster of “convicts who had been emancipated or whose sentences had expired” the family is registered as having a grant, with 10 acres of wheat, 5 acres of maize, 8 pigs and off stores. So they were self-supporting.
It was still a struggle and they were probably living as basically as they had been since arrival.[20] Their plot would have been only partly cleared and cultivated, surrounded by bush, unfenced and with the stock roaming freely. Nearby waterways and swamps would be used for hunting and foraging. Their home would have been bark and timber and, as Karskens points out, not that much different to the local Dharug and Darkinjung who would be living, hunting, foraging and conducting ceremonies nearby.[21]
A store for the storage of grain had been built at Green Hills, Mulgrave Place in 1795 and by 1798, similarly to what occurred while the family was farming at The Ponds, the more wealthy were monopolising the store, setting up as ‘middlemen, and forcing farmers to sell at reduced price’.[22] So the underground market in distilled liquor continued in spite of governmental proclamations forbidding the practice.
In addition there was the constant threat of local Dharug people raiding their crops as access to Indigenous food sources was increasingly blocked. Every year as the corn ripened around April and May the raids would begin. Some farmers would fight back and it would end in a war, with crops and sometimes homes burned followed by reprisals by the settlers and military, and with what was becoming the usual horrendous acts of depravity. Some farmers decided it was easier and safer to share.[23]
Flood,
drought and infestation
Then there were the floods and drought. Anthony had already made a claim for what he had lost in the 1798 flood and drought and that creditors were threatening to throw the claimants in gaol.[24] Local Aboriginal people had been warning about an immanent high flood and in March 1799 it arrived. According to Collins two to three days of rain ‘at the Hawkesbury’ resulted in a flash flood, rising ‘fifty feet above its common level’ in a few hours and destroying grains, stock and homes of the settlers.
The government house and storehouse were swept away and ‘Many of the people were taken from the ridges of their houses by a few boats they had amongst them.’[25] Settlers ended up living on credit with notes/assignments as security and were given seed wheat on the Government account. However there was not enough bedding and clothing in the public store to supply the need.
In March and October of 1800 Dyarubbin flooded again. Collins noted that all the adjacent land, with corn and crops, were under water with some lives lost.[26] Then in March 1801 there were three floods in three weeks. It was reported that stocks of swine nearly all drowned and the banks of Dyarubbin were eroding and slipping away.
In January of 1802 Anthony ‘of the
Hawkesbury’ is mentioned in ‘Petition for assistance re: indebtedness’. So they had probably been badly affected by
the floods and drought. Therefore it is
interesting to note that on the list of free from convicts in Bonwick Transcripts, Anthony is listed for the 1802 Muster, probably held during
July-August, as having ‘30 acres held with 8½ acres clear, 8½ acres in wheat
& maize, 8 hogs, 3 off stores’.[27] There is no indication on the muster whether
he had been given a grant or was renting.
%20cropped.jpg)
Image from Centre of the Storm 1999-2000
Welcome
Susannah and William
At some stage around 1801 Elizabeth gave birth to their fifth surviving child, Susannah.[28] In the 1802 Muster under ‘No. in family’ Anthony is listed as having ‘3 off stores’, which is a little confusing as there were Robert (13yrs), Mary (c. 11yrs), John (6yrs), Sarah (4 yrs) and Susannah (c.1yr). I can understand that Susannah was not counted as she was probably still being breastfed. Perhaps the family was receiving part assistance.
Then sometime around 1804 or 1805 William was born. Although there is no real information about his birth he is included in the 1806 Muster with all his siblings – ‘landholder with 6 children’ and ‘not dependent on Govt. stores’.
So by 1806 Elizabeth and Anthony have six children all of whom Elizabeth would have birthed by herself or with the help of a midwife.[29] Elizabeth had performed the role of midwife for Susannah Holmes while imprisoned in Norwich Castle. Perhaps she also assisted in other births on arrival and was likewise assisted by other women. There are mentions of women acting as midwives around the Hawkesbury in the early 1800’s.
Relief
from war
It is possible that, except for isolated incidents, the wars along Dyarubbin may have temporarily subsided during the early 1800’s giving Elizabeth, Anthony and family some relief. It appears that the locus of fighting during this time was focussed on Parramatta/Burramatta, Toongabbie and Georges River into which the settlement was expanding; the home-country of the Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy.
The Pemulwuy-led resistance army had not ceased fighting the British since 1790 in spite of Pemulwuy being shot with buckshot, captured, and escaping with chains intact in 1797. In May 1801 Governor Philip Gidley King[30] issued a proclamation that Aboriginal people were to keep away from the settlements and could be shot on sight. On 22 November that year Governor King sent the marines out with an order that Pemulwuy was to be captured dead or alive and a reward to be given for the capture or kill.[31]
Pemulwuy was killed in June 1802 and beheaded. His head was sent to Sir Joseph Banks in Britain. It has still not been located.
By 1803 Governor King noted that Aboriginal people about the Hawkesbury were ‘much attached’ to the settlers and ‘very active and useful in securing some fugitives’[32] – the fugitives probably being the Irish convicts who were raiding settlers farms and hiding in the bush near one of the Aboriginal camps across the river west of Yarramundi.[33]
Then by the 1804 harvest Aboriginal raids on crops along Dyarubbin began in earnest and the war re-ignited with increased ferocity. The locus of fighting and retribution in the area spanned from Windsor/Green Hills to further down the river and the newer outlying settlements at Sackville Reach and Portland Head. According to Karskens, “the peace attained in 1802 dissolved into war and ‘bushranger-like’ action by 1804”.[34] During 1804 violence was widespread throughout many of the settlements – from Lane Cove/Cammeraygal country to Georges River/Bidjigal country – with killings on both sides and crops and houses set alight. By 1805 the war spread to Cowpastures/Dharawal country as that land was taken over by settlers as well.
A number of approaches were made by Aboriginal elders and groups during 1804 to broker peace and gain access to their own Country and staple food as they were continually being shot at by settlers. In December 1804 Governor King promised to keep areas further downriver free from settlement. Later governors did not honour this agreement.
The attempted peace agreements did not stop the conflict, and violence continued throughout 1805. In April 1805 local chief constable Andrew Thompson led a retribution party, probably for two settlers killed earlier in the month. They crossed the river towards the mountains and, with the assistance of Aboriginal guides, hunted down ‘Branch Natives’ at a tool-making camp, killing ‘a considerable number of them’. Governor King turned his attention to the previous killing of the two settlers and ordered All Natives responsible to be given up and settlers prosecuted if found harbouring them.
The attacks and retributions did not stop.
‘down
time’
All was not doom and gloom. The early ex-convict settlers along Dyarubbin seem to have been a close-knit community and on the whole supported each other, especially during and after the floods. Although there were as yet no pubs it is likely that liquor was available from private illegal stills, although Governor King did attempt to to crack down on the practice. In June 1806 Anthony was mentioned in a court case regarding Robert Crumby, who was living at South Creek/Wianamatta, working a still, during which it was claimed that Anthony had been given a still from John Smith of South Creek/Wianamatta.[35] Although Anthony was not charged Samuel Marsden, who presided over proceedings, was not convinced.[36]
So there could well have been a number of social events - including for marriages, deaths and after successful harvests – with liquor, music, dance and sporting activities as occurred ‘back home’ in Britain[37]. One of the traditions was that of ‘tin-kettling’ where tin cans, pots and metal objects were banged to welcome home the newly married couple or wake them in the middle of their wedding night. Sometimes the revellers would be invited in and “the night is spent in singing and dancing or playing cards”. This tradition was still being performed in the 1960’s.[38]
Then in March 1803 the first newspaper, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, was published becoming the major source for news and government proclamations.
The settlers in the area had been agitating for a school for a number of years and in 1804 Governor Bligh ordered the construction of a church which would also serve as a school, with the aim to be completed by October. It opened shortly after in a granary in Windsor/ Bulyayorang .[39]
Relations
with the government
Governor King seemed to be initially popular with the small farmers and was lauded by the Hawkesbury settlers in their New Year address in 1803 “for his anti-monopoly stance, the maintained wheat price, the premiums on livestock awarded to encourage agriculture”[40]
In November of the following year (1804) Anthony was one of over 200 settlers who signed, with an X, a memorial to merchant Robert Campbell as he departed briefly for England to set up trade deals. Campbell, who was known for ‘fair trading, reduced prices and generous credit’, was instrumental in breaking the monopoly of the NSW Corps over trade and agriculture.[41]
Even so inequality began to creep in with Governor King’s granting of double-sized lots to discharged soldiers of the NSW corps according to rank. By 1804 he was giving large estates along the river to friends, the surgeon, Rev. Marsden, his own wife, and five of his children. Not all those given grants stayed on their property. Some were absentee landlords living on their other properties or in Sydney/Warrane and some went back to England never to return.[42] This obvious favouritism would inevitably have been resented by those who were still struggling and many, like the Rope family, ended up working for, or leasing from, the larger landholders.
By now some of the local Aboriginal
people, obviously realising nothing was going to change and assessing where the
power resided, began to cultivate relationships with those on the larger estates
acting as guides, go-betweens and providing entertainment for guests. This also offered protection for the larger
estates and they were rarely attacked.[43]
%20cropped.jpg)
Image from Centre of the Storm 1999-2000
Time
to move
Elizabeth, Anthony and family seemed
to have remained around Mulgrave Place/ Bulyayorang
for near on ten years before moving on. While
we will never know the real reason they let go their property, the flood in
1805 and the major flood in 1806[44]
as well as crops being invaded by blight, smut and caterpillars during this
period would not have helped. I have not yet found anything to indicate the
exact date of their move. However as the
court case in the Hawkesbury in June 1806 was to do with people living at Mulgrave
Place/South Creek/Wianamatta it could
be Elizabeth, Anthony and family were still there or contacts remained. Whatever the case by the Muster in August 1806
the family had moved and were renting from James Badgery at Agnes Banks.
[1] Although
there was a survey of the population of NSW in 1795, the 1800 Muster was the
first muster to survive. “Musters were used to number people and to note whether
they were victualled (received provisions) from the Government, as a means of
assessing whether the Colony would be able to maintain itself without
assistance from the public stores, and as a control over the convict
population” (State Archives, https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/ )
[2] The
court record indicates that the trial was held in Sydney. I have also seen information that Anthony was
from Green Hills (Mulgrave Place) at the time but I have not as yet found anything
else to support this. During the trial
John Larkham claimed that “everything on the Farm except stock, Indian corn,
potatoes & moveables was included in the Bargain” but that “about 5 Acres?
of Wheat and 60 Rod of Barley was on the farm and that he purchased” was
missing. Mary Ware who was living with
John Larkham gave evidence in support of the claim. Anthony responded that he “did not Sell the
Crop with the Farm”. Thos Tilley, who had travelled out on the Alexander with Anthony and also had a
grant at The Ponds responded “that he heard the Deft Rope say that the Plt had
purchased the Crop with the Farm”. The
court decided on behalf of the plaintiff.
The day before this, on 3rd July, Anthony is also mentioned
in relation to owing money to William Morgan - “William Morgan agt Anthony Rope
for the sum of £14…settled”. State
Archives, 2/8147, Rough Minutes,
Civil Jurisdiction, NRS 2656. Also
mentioned in Cobley, Sydney Cove, 1795-1800, p. 155
[3] In
March 1798 Governor Hunter
writes, in relation to Marsden’s and Arndell’s update on the original grants
and settlers at the Ponds, that they “had
2 or 3 prisoners allowed them to labour…who were both fed and clothed from his
Majesty’s stores also…Notwithstanding…many of them have been long since
ruined”. It appears that “amongst
sixteen farms who had grants of land given to them four only remains”. Some farms had been sold to pay off debts,
others had been rented. (Historical Records, Collection Series 1, vol. 2 (1797 -
1800), p. 141-145)
[4] They were not believed and the claims were dismissed.
[5]
Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose called the district 'Mulgrave Place' in
honour of his friend Lord Mulgrave whose patronage he had enjoyed in England. (Grose to Dundas, 29 April, 1974)
[6]The Boorooberoongal
clan were based around today’s Richmond, and Yarramundi is considered to be
named after Yellowmundi. Later the Europeans called Yellowmundi ‘chief of the Richmond
Tribe’ and he was known as a garadyi (clever man). There are descendants of Yellowmundi still living in the area today.
[7] Karskens, The Colony, pp. 117, 118
[8] Karsken’s research has shown that among
the 22 in the initial group there were 14 First Fleeters - 7 who were shipmates
of Ruse on the Scarborough, 4 from
the Alexander and 3 from the Friendship, as well as 9 wives and 7
children. (The Colony, p. 120)
Elizabeth and Anthony must have known them.
[9]
Charles Grimes’ A Plan of the Settlement in New South Wales is dated 1796. However this would be when it was completed
so he must have been in the area prior to that. He was appointed to the area 4th
April 1794 and returned during 1796. A date appeared for the Rope’s arrival in
the area when I was researching twenty years ago – 30th December
1796 - and I have not yet been able to find the source to confirm it. There are, however, grants recorded as being
given on this date.
[10] Karskens, Burnett, Ross, Traces in a Lost Landscape: Aboriginal
archaeological sites, Dyarubbin/Nepean River and contiguous areas, NSW,
Australia (Data Paper) https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue52/8/index.html
[11]
According to Kohen’s research along the Nepean from Castlereagh to Richmond/Marrengorra were the Boorooberongal clan of the Dharug-speaking people, further south,
from Castlereagh to Mulgoa were the Mulgoe
or Mulgowey clan; and west of the
river from Emu Plains to the Burragorang Valley were the Gundungurra-speaking Booroogoorang
(p. 141)
[12] As the yam beds were the responsibility of women they could
well have taken part in the raids.
[13] Collins p. 329 quoted in Lyndall Ryan, Untangling Aboriginal Resistance.
[14] We first came across Pemulwuy in 1790 when he speared and killed John McIntyre, Governor
Phillips gamesman. His continuing organised war against the British since that
time has been well documented.
[15] The boys had been living with Captain Powell, who
instigated the massacre supposedly to revenge two Hawkesbury farmers being
killed. Newly arrived Lieutenant Hobby,
who was appointed Commanding Officer of the Hawkesbury corps, spoke on the
perpetrators’ behalves. (Collins, pp. 435-437 and Karskens, The Colony, 460,461)
[16] When Major Grose left the colony in December 1794
William Paterson, who was second-in-command of the NSW Corps, acted as
Administrator until Governor John Hunter arrived in 1795.
[17] Reverend Thomas Fyshe Palmer to Doctor John Disney,
Sydney, 3 June 1796, (MSS 948:18, ML) “The Natives of the Hawkesbury … lived on
the wild yams on the banks. Cultivation has rooted out these, and poverty
compelled them to steal Indian corn … They [soldiers and settlers] came upon
them [natives] unarmed, and unexpected, killed and wounded many more. The dead
they hang on gibbets, in terrorem. The war may be universal on the part of the
blacks, whose improvement and civilisation will be a long time deferred. The
people killed were unfortunately the most friendly of the blacks, and one of
them more than once saved the life of a white man.”
[18] Karskens,
‘People of the River’, p. 133
[19] When many of these young people grew up they would
return to their communities and then become part of the resistance armies.
[20] In 1798
‘their houses and persons wore the appearance of poverty and beggary’” (Collins
2, 133 quoted in Karskens, The Colony,
132)
[21] Karskens, People
of the River’, Introduction
[22]
Collins, p. 377
[23] In
The Colony Karskens suggests that
interactions between local Dharug and Darkinjung peoples and the newcomers were
probably more nuanced: that there were times of co-operation and working
together and that some settlers were reluctant to get involved or take
sides, This frustrated Governor Hunter
who wrote in 1796 that settlers had ‘invited Aboriginal people into their
homes, shared food with them, given them shelter’ (Karskens, The Colony, 464 & Hunter
in HRA 3, 25 + Collins)
[24] Collins notes that in November-December 1798 the
harvest was poor because of the drought (p.384). However, there was little sympathy for the
Hawkesbury settlers and their claims were dismissed. (Report of Charles Grimes
1801 quoted in Karskens, The Colony,
132)
[25] Collins, pp. 408, 409
[26]
Collins, p. 438
[27] Karskens
does comment that, as the area supplied food for the colony, during the first
decade the government supported victims of floods with food, clothing and other
supplies. However the benevolence ended with Governor Macquarie who arrived in
1810 and wanted it paid back. (Karskens, The
People of the River, 268). She also
noted that, because of the fertility of the soil, crops appeared to rebound in
a very short period of time.
[28] Susannah’s birthdate is not clear. According to one source Susannah died on 25th
December 1885 at the age of 84 years which places her birth in 1801, and that
would make sense.
[29] Another child, Elizabeth, died soon after birth while
they were living at The Ponds.
[30] Philip Gidley King had taken over from Hunter in
September 1800.
[31] There were also white bandits who had joined Pemulwuy’s army and not all settlers
supported the government reprisals. Reverend Samuel
Marsden however did, ordering convict servants in Parramatta/Burramatta to join the soldiers. George Caley, who refused to comply, was
gaoled.
[32] King to Earl Camden, 9 May 1801, HRNSW Vol. V
[33] Irish convicts had been absconding and planning
mutinies since they began arriving. A
number of rebellions were squashed and the perpetrators punished. In 1803 Gov. King had built stone barracks at
Castle Hill especially for Irish convicts. The aim of the mutiny was to attack
Parramatta/Burramatta and Sydney/Warrane and either return to England or
set up an Irish republic. 300 Irish
finally put their plan into action in 1804. They did not get far due to Rev.
Marsden’s informants and were forced to retreat against the 28 soldiers and 67
armed civilians led by Captain-Lieutenant George Johnston. They ended up at Vinegar Hill where they were
tricked into surrendering and a number were shot - ‘The Battle of Vinegar
Hill’. Nine rebels were hung. It would have been the talk of the
settlement. (Karskens, The Colony,
pp.292 ff.)
[34] Karskens, The
Colony, p. 481. In spite of the conflicts
– raids, payback, murder – some Aboriginal people continued to work on settler
farms.
[35]
Robert Crumby had been caught distilling liquor by James Craig. While giving evidence Craig also implicated
Anthony describing a conversation he had with John Smith, a settler of South
Creek, who told Craig he had given his still to Anthony. It was then claimed that a copper had been
stolen from Chief Magistrate and Mrs. Arndell’s home by one of their servants,
with the aim of converting it into a still, and had been handed on ending up in
Anthony’s possession. (King Family Papers, 19-20 June 1806, ML A1980/3, pp
47-9)
[36]
‘Rope we are convinced has got Mrs Arndell’s copper and has made use of
it as a still, but we have no proof.’ (King Family
Papers, 19-20 June 1806, ML A1980/3, pp 47-9)
[37]
Records were scarce
for this period however they do exist for later in the nineteenth century,
including in descendant Toby Ryan’s memoirs.
In People of the River
Karskens examines these records in Chapter 9, ‘The people’s pleasures’
[38] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/72705759, and Joy Shepherd on FB.
[39]
Bonwick, pp. 239, 240 and Murray & White, p. 135
[40]
Quoted in Karskens,
The Colony, p. 185
[41] As well Campbell’s company, Campbell & Co, was
heavily involved in Australian trade and “largely initiated the colonial
sealing industry”. Trove: Records of the Colonial Office (as filmed by the AJCP), Port Jackson: Offices and Miscellaneous, 1 January 1806 to 31
December 1806
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-915456316/view; Margaret J.E. Steven.
Phd. Thesis: “Robert Campbell, Colonial Merchant 1769-1846.
ANU. 1962. pp.82,83; and https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/campbell-robert-1876
[42]
Karskens, People of the River, 94,
95, 145
[43]
Karskens, People of the River, 437
[44] During the flood in March 1806 water
rose 90 feet beyond ordinary level. As
more land was in cultivation the devastation was great and all wheat was
destroyed in the area. (Karskens, People
of the River, p. 246)
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