Topics: Events
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1845 - North Coastal - view
The
Catholic Archbishop of Sydney gives evidence for the reasons for decline in
Aboriginal numbers, referring to “the aggressive mode of taking possession of
their country which necessarily involves a vast loss of life to the native
population … I have heard myself a man, educated and a large proprietor of
sheep and cattle, maintain that there was no more harm in shooting a native,
than in shooting a wild dog … I fear also, though I am ashamed to say it, that
I have reason to believe that poison has been, in many instances, used.”
1845 - North Coastal - view
The
Sydney Morning Herald reports the
“last Aboriginal of Sydney had died, a beggar who slept outside the gates of
the Legislative Assembly”. In reality there were many hundreds of survivors of
the invasion.
1846 - 1864 - North West - view
Aborigines are regularly or occasionally working throughout the Hunter Valley as farmhands, stockmen, domestic servants, trackers, timber getters and other such roles on many larger properties
1846 - North West - view
Death of Biraban
1846 - North West - view
Aboriginal population of the Hunter region is reported as sharply diminishing
1846 - North West - view
“from the want of sufficient Legal Evidence owing to the testimony of an aboriginal unconverted to Christianity, not being admissible in a criminal prosecution, I found that it would have been useless to have committed the assaulter Hauttey for trial
1847 - North West - view
Johnny is arrested near Sackville on a charge of being of unsound mind. Johnny “vent[s] his spleen in rather a novel fashion…by flooding the ear of one of his captors with…saliva”. Johnny is sent to the Hospital for the Insane , Parramatta
1848 - North West - view
Jacky-Jacky returns south to a hero’s welcome, before returning to his people around Singleton
1848 - North West - view
Jackey is honoured for his fortitude and loyalty to the explorer. Sir Charles Fitzroy , the governor of New South Wales, presents him with a silver breast-plate
1848 - North West - view
Aboriginal man dives into a deep waterhole in the bed of Sugarloaf Creek (now South Creek) and finds the boy’s body
1849 - North Coastal - view
Bowen Bungaree, Bungaree’s son, sails with other Koories to the Californian gold
fields with Richard Hill because of their skill in sailing boats and in the
hope to be given jobs to carry the crowds of gold seekers flocking to the
Eldorado. Black Bowen is the only one to return. He speaks with ridicule about
America, “That country! No wood for fire, but plenty cold wind … no good for
me! No good for blackfellows!”
On
his return Bowen resumes his duties as a Police Tracker and reports to police
the activities of two assigned servants (convicts) who had escaped and are
petty thieves on the Northern Beaches. The men are captured and sent to prison.
Bowen’s reputation is now well established, for example he tracks and uses his
gun to hunt the bush-ranger Casey. Bowen wear grand clothes, Farrell describes
him: “He was in full rig with dress coat, his hair knotted up behind with three
feathers stuck in it”.
1850 - North West - view
Allowing for administrative anomalies, blanket lists record a diminishing number of Aborigines receiving blankets between the Hawkesbury River and Upper Hunter districts
1850 - North West - view
M’Gill , tells the government official in the Lake Macquarie region that “they all cursed the Governor”. At the same time, several Aborigines in the Hunter region demand to know why “the governor does not give [us] blankets to wear in winter, when it is murry cold”
1850 - North West - view
During 1869:“blacks of the [Paterson] district muster in strong force at the Court-house, in hopes of receiving their usual supply of blankets [but]…had to go away disappointed”
1850 - North West - view
Numerous Aboriginal groups decide to try their hand at farming in pockets of vacant land existing within the mosaic of white settlement
1850 - North West - view
The focus shifts from Wollombi to the Hunter River with the construction of the railway through Singleton and major flooding which causes severe hardship to people living in Wollombi region
1851 - North West - view
We see no Blacks here between Freeman’s Reach and Portland Head
1851 - North West - view
Murphy, Tommy Potts, Martin and King John of the Maitland tribe, and Jemmy and Richard Wiseman of the Sugarloaf tribe are apprehended. The jury returns a verdict of wilful murder against some other Aboriginals unknown
1851 - North West - view
“The Evangelizing of the Aborigines…must be carried on, if at all, in other localities than Windsor…I am not aware that there is a single one left in the parish. A few wander hither, from other places
1851 - North West - view
With discovery of gold 1851, governments and churches largely ignore Aboriginal people for thirty odd years