Fringe camps are established

Fringe camps are established from the very moment that towns come into being. They are often located on lands reserved for purposes including town commons and water reserves. The decreasing number of women and girls in these camps are frequently employed as domestic servants by white townspeople. The rapid decline of available Aboriginal women as partners according to kinship laws is strikingly demonstrated by Aboriginal men dwelling on the fringes of settlements at new ports along the Hawkesbury River. Men in fringe camps sometimes agree to guide punitive expeditions against Aboriginal people on the basis that they will be permitted to take women after their men are killed. (Lucas, 20, Ford p137).