Lachlan and the Indigenous Australians
We won't deny we would like to report that Macquarie was a great man who enabled the First Australians to exist with pride within their great culture. Unfortunately, that's not possible. Admittedly, he does not appear to have been an outstandingly cruel man who believed black people would never be more than servants of the white people, as many christians of the time were preaching.
But he was very much a man of his age, albeit a somewhat liberal one. He wanted to "civilise" the Indigenous Australians, meaning, he wanted them to become like black English people, christian, and wearing pants, at least as regards the men. He wanted them to farm, not wander the bush "uselessly and wastefully".
His patriarchal approach lasted until 1818. Lachlan's wishes for the First Australians would never be met, for two main reasons. The first was that the Indigenous Australians had no idea of what he was trying to do, or why. They had not the tiniest knowledge-base to enable them to understand. The British didn't just speak a different language, but their entire way and purpose of life was completely alien.
Of course, this lack of understanding was mutual. Neither side would, or indeed could, attempt to understand the other. The British, for example, had no idea the great grassy plains they so admired were entirely created by these people they regarded as uncivilised. They were absolutely certain the Indigenous Australians didn't farm, and yet almost the entire landscape was created for specific purposes.
The British also had no idea that not all First Australians were completely nomadic. That large towns existed, some permanently occupied, some temporarily occupied. The whites had no idea the First Australians built dams to control water flow for agricultural purposes, or that they had at least one factory that produced smoked eel, or that other factories produced stone tools and painting materials.
Further, the British had no idea the Indigenous Australians harvested seeds and grains, and stored them in constructions and containers of various sizes, some quite large, some above and some below ground. Not all FirstAustralians, of course. And the factories were nothing like British factories. But nonetheless it was all there for the finding.
The First Australians the whites knew around Sydney didn't need to resort to these means to make a living, because before the British invaded their land the local waters and bush produced more than plentiful food. But no longer, and tensions among some people were rising.
And all this brings us to the second problem Macquarie had. Modern Australia, despite its multicultural policies, has carloads of oh-so-brave bogans who shout safely from their cars at women and children, and people who rant about the construction of mosques, and others who rave about halal food, and yet more who complain about occasional advertisements in Arabic and claim Australia is different from Islam, in the apparent lack of understanding that of course it is, because Australia's a country and Islam is a religion. And Macquarie had the same kinds of people, among both settlers and soldiers, who regarded the First Australians as some kind of sub-human animal.
And this is how the problem started. In Macquarie's first couple of years, the white settlements, especially on the outer borderlands, were in boiling conflict with tribes both defending their land and hunting for food. He was convinced discussion and kindness would win more than violence. So, he invited First Australians to dine with him, and threw birthday parties for his son to which First Australians were invited. Mind you, he didn't go so far as to mix white and black guests, throwing another party for the whites. Macquarie knew there were barriers he could not step over, however much he might have wanted.
Macquarie also established a boarding school for First Australian children. But sadly he instructed that the children were not to leave until the boys were 16 and the girls 14. Then he seems to have been surprised that some parents stole their children back, and some children simply fled. In 1819 a missionary reported that when seen by a First Australian group, the men stayed put, but the women picked up the children and fled.
When the missionary asked why this was done, he was told there had been too much experience of men stealing their children to take to Macquarie's institution. Yes, Macquarie almost undoubtedly meant well, but he seems not to have been able to properly consider the consequences of his actions. And so the stealing of children began, justified, as always, as being in the child's best interests. Good grief!
Anyway, 1811-1812, was highlighted by an extremely severe drought. The hunt for food took a serious turn when the Gandangara came down the Blue Mountains into what is today the Camden (known then as Cow Pastures) area. Their hunt, involving those strangely easy to kill white fluffy things the whites brought with them, and the bigger creatures with the very leathery skin, and the strange plants the whites used for food, inevitably led to violence.
Houses and sheds were burned, farm animals speared, and crops were ripped up. Who killed who first is unknown, and of course we don't have a First Australian account of events. However, at least nine white children, women and men were killed. The records indicate one Indigenous woman and two children were killed. This is more than probably an understatement. However when Macquarie sent the military in to catch the ringleaders they were completely unsuccessful.
Severe drought was the cause of a further outbreak of violence in 1816. Seven whites were killed in March. This time Macquarie appears to have lost all patience with the perpetrators. He sent out detachments of soldiers with the most horrific orders, which have appalling consequences.
The soldiers are to kill any Indigenous adults (men and women) who appear to want to escape, and hang their bodies conspicuously in trees to terrorise the rest of their people. There is to be no trial, nor is there to be any determination of guilt.
On the 17th of April, Captain James Wallis and his troops sneakily made their way to an Indigenous Australian camp near William Broughton’s Farm at Appin. Finding them all asleep, Wallis appears to have decided they were attempting to escape him by travelling into dreamland, and ordered his men to start killing.
According to Wallis, fourteen men and women were murdered, and five injured in the initial fire. Understandably, the rest were panicked, and either accidentally or purposefully plunged over a nearby precipice. No apparent attempt was made to identify those killed at the bottom of the precipice, or even count how many there were. One can assume it probably included the women and children who were not shot.
Macquarie instituted a range of repressive measures to force the Indigenous people to accept white supremacy. It didn't work, at least for some. In August, a shepherd was speared to death, 50 of his sheep were flung over a precipice, and the rest had their eyes gouged out. Because of the precipice we can only wonder if this was both a revenge attack, and an indication as to how many died at Appin.
However, the Appin massacre is a very black stain on Macquarie's character, and a highly shameful occurrence in an otherwise reasonably fine governorship. But, when heroising Macquarie, as so many Australians very understandably do, especially when he's compared to most of the other ghastly governors, Appin should be remembered. If, for no other reason, than to show heroes are human, and mostly have all-too-human failings, just like the rest of us. And, of course, because the people killed there deserve to be properly remembered.
Interestingly, at much the same time the third Indigenous Australian to visit England, Daniel Moowattin or Mow-watty, was tried and hanged for rape. My goodness, wasn't white settlement a resounding benefit for Australia's original residents.