(1) Sydney Basin: The Country of the Dharug speaking peoples

Gudyarra (war) and the Bicentennial of Martial Law, 2024 (1) - Sydney Basin: The Country of the Dharug speaking peoples


Map: A. Maie

26 January 1788 - the British First Fleet arrives in Warrang/Sydney Cove, the country of the Cadigal peoples. During the year people straying unarmed outside the camp boundary are in danger of being attacked, killed or go missing.   Everyone is warned not to venture beyond camp without armed guards. (https://maietime.blogspot.com/2020/01/elizabeth-pulley-sets-sail-vii-fifth.html)

1788 – Explorations are conducted during the year to the north and west.  All are accompanied by armed guards.  Governor Phillip begins planning a satellite settlement at the head of the river on Burramattagal country.  Conflict between the locals (Eora – people of this place) and the new arrivals (Berewalgal – people from far away) continues.  https://maietime.blogspot.com/2020/02/1788-elizabeth-pulleys-first-year.html

1789 – The smallpox outbreak in April-May decimates the Eora (locals).  Infection spreads across the Sydney basin, including to Broken Bay and Dyarubbin (Hawkesbury-Nepean river).  By June armed British exploratory parties have reached Dyarubbin (Nepean-Hawkesbury river) and in December one party reaches Colomatta (the lower Blue Mountains). (https://maietime.blogspot.com/2020/02/1789-elizabeth-pulleys-second-year.html)

1790 – The second fleet arrives, the settlement at Burramatta/Rose Hill is established with a garrison and soldiers, convicts are transferred there and the local Barramattagal peoples and neighbouring clans protest formally to Governor Phillip.  Phillip reinforces the detachment.  Conflict follows.  Convicts are given arms for protection.  First mention of the warrior Pemulwuy. (https://maietime.blogspot.com/2020/02/1790-elizabeth-pulleys-third-year-and.html)

Burramatta - The Place of the Eels (Image: A. Maie)

1794 – Convicts and ex-convicts begin to move north-west squatting around Dyarubbin (Nepean-Hawkesbury river).  This leads to conflict and all-out war with the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples which continues on and off for decades.  (https://maietime.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-move-to-dyarubbin-mulgrave.html)

Dyarubbin (Image: A. Maie)

August 1794 – Henry Hacking and party attempt unsuccessfully to cross Colomatta/Blue Mountains.

1792-1805 – As the colony expands north and south so do Aboriginal raids and intermittent war.  Escalation leads to punitive raids, massacres, rape, torture, decapitation, hanging and taking of children.  Pemulwuy, a Bidjigal man from Kamay/Botany Bay, leads a resistance army against the expanding settlements.  He is a marked man, hunted down on orders from Governor King, and shot. His head is cut off and sent to Sir Joseph Banks in England.  It has not been located.  On Pemulwuy’s death his son, Tedbury, continues the resistance until he too is shot in 1805.  Other warriors, including ‘Bulldog’ and ‘Mosquito’, are arrested.  ‘Mosquito’ is finally hung in 1825. 

January 1798 – John Wilson, John Price and a party of soldiers discover a possible crossing further south although John Wilson seems to have made many forays into the mountains previously.

1802 – Francis Barralier a refugee from the French Revolution who is assisting the NSW Corps, and a party including Gogy ‘king of the mountains’, crosses within 2km of the Great Divide.

May 1813 – Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth, who are searching for grazing land for their cattle, reach Gundungurra country (Mt. Blaxland), 12km short of the Great Divide. 

Gundungurra Country (Image: A. Maie)

November 1813 – Three months later Assistant Land Surveyor George Evans and party, with ‘horses, arms and ammunition’, follow Blaxland’s, Lawson’s and Wentworth’s route and makes it over the Great Dividing range to Wiradjuri Country, where Bathurst now stands.

Further Reading

© A. Maie, 2024

Endnote:  Photos taken during performance series Centre of the Storm (1988-2000)


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