1850 to 1860s Aboriginal people protest about government neglect and cruelty. When the blanket distribution ceases “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”. Two decades later during the early-1860s, one “blackfellow” tells local clergy in the Maitland district that “if the blankets did not soon come all the blackfellows would come down to the township and walk about naked”. (Report from the Select Committee on the Condition of the Aborigines for the Hunter region, in Lucas, 56-60)