Attacks continue at the Hawkesbury

The Darug severely wound a man travelling by boat on the Hawkesbury River. John Wimbow, who is living with an Aboriginal woman at the Hawkesbury River, shoots and kills John Caesar for a reward of five gallons of rum.(Source: Collins [1798] 1975:381). Hawkesbury settlers agree they will assemble for mutual protection when Aboriginal people are seen near their farms. ‘It has been intimated to the governor, that two white men had been frequently seen with the natives... and were supposed to direct and assist in those acts of hostility by which the settlers had lately suffered,’ writes Collins.

The vast majority of the yam beds have been destroyed and replaced with crops. When Koori people attempt to harvest or burn the crops growing on the riverbanks they are driven off.

  • David Collins