Bathurst
The Bathurst Plains are home of the Wiradjuri people. The first European to describe meeting the Wiradjuri was George Evans in 1813. He was the Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales and had been sent by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to find a passage west to confirm the findings of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth, who had found a way over the Great Dividing Range earlier that year. Evans reached the site of present day Bathurst on 9th December 1813 . The river that formed where the Fish & Campbell joined, he named the Macquarie River, known to the Wiradjuri as the Wambool (winding river). William Cox built a road with convict labour from the west of Sydney, across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst in only 6 months and built a government depot on the western side of the river in 1814. In 1815 Governor Macquarie travelled the road to Bathurst & on 7th May 1815 proclaimed the future town of Bathurst, naming it after the then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl of Bathurst.
The initial settlement was on the eastern side of the river when 10 men were given 50 acres of land each (one of whom was a Thomas Kite, who's son built Woolstone House in 1870 to replace the cottage Thomas built in 1840). Conflict between white settlers & the local Wiradjuri broke out in the 1820's as the Wiradjuri were pushed into places where bush food was scarce. They saw an abundance of food around the white settlers & helped themselves, killing some sheep as there appeared to be more than enough to share. This led to some Wiradjuri being killed by some white settlers and then payback killings by the Wiradjuri in response. Hostility escalated with Wiradjuri resistance being led by a young warrior named Windradyne amongst others. Due to the ongoing hostilities, then Governor Brisbane declared martial law on 14 August 1824. The Commandant at Bathurst, Major Morisset, was given greater powers to deal with the Aborigines, troop numbers at Bathurst were increased to seventy-five, and magistrates were empowered to administer summary justice. With the armed settlers now backed by the military the violence quickly escalated, and the Wiradjuri were terrorised and killed in increasing numbers. While there were reports of massacres of warriors as they attempted to bury their dead, the main victims appear to have been the Wiradjuri women and children, shot, poisoned, and driven into gorges. Recent estimates suggest that between a quarter and a third of the Wiradjuri in the Bathurst region were killed during these hostilities.
With the loss of so many warriors and the severe damage caused to their society, Windradyne gathered the Wiradjuri and determined to meet with Governor Brisbane to seek a formal end to hostilities. It was customary at the time for the Governor to hold an annual feast or conference for the Aboriginal people in late December in the marketplace at Parramatta. The Wiradjuri, led by Windradyne, travelled nearly 200 kilometres across the mountains to attend the feast on Tuesday 28 December 1824, with Windradyne becoming the focus of attention and receiving a formal pardon from Brisbane. The Sydney Gazette reported:
“... There appeared to be 7 or 8 different tribes that flocked in from various quarters of the Colony ...at about noon there were nearly 260 men and women in a circle, exclusive of numbers of fine children. Between one and two o'clock, a reinforcement of the Bathurst tribe arrived, which was supposed to have increased the number to near upon 400 ... This was the first conference, we believe, in which any of the New-country tribes deigned to visit the feast; but, upon occasion of the amicable intercourse lately re-established between them and the Bathurst settlers, they were induced to break through all fear, and behold those wonders ...
What contributed to give peculiar interest to the scene was the circumstance of the noted Saturday (Wyndradyne) being at the head of his tribe. ... Saturday is, without doubt, the most manly black native we have ever beheld—a fact pretty generally acknowledged by the numbers that saw him".
Governor Brisbane wrote a report to Earl Bathurst “... I am most happy to have it in my power to report to Your Lordship that Saturday, their great and most warlike Chieftain, has been with me to receive his pardon and that He, with most of His Tribe, attended the annual conference."
And so began the European settlement of the town of Bathurst, New South Wales...
The initial settlement was on the eastern side of the river when 10 men were given 50 acres of land each (one of whom was a Thomas Kite, who's son built Woolstone House in 1870 to replace the cottage Thomas built in 1840). Conflict between white settlers & the local Wiradjuri broke out in the 1820's as the Wiradjuri were pushed into places where bush food was scarce. They saw an abundance of food around the white settlers & helped themselves, killing some sheep as there appeared to be more than enough to share. This led to some Wiradjuri being killed by some white settlers and then payback killings by the Wiradjuri in response. Hostility escalated with Wiradjuri resistance being led by a young warrior named Windradyne amongst others. Due to the ongoing hostilities, then Governor Brisbane declared martial law on 14 August 1824. The Commandant at Bathurst, Major Morisset, was given greater powers to deal with the Aborigines, troop numbers at Bathurst were increased to seventy-five, and magistrates were empowered to administer summary justice. With the armed settlers now backed by the military the violence quickly escalated, and the Wiradjuri were terrorised and killed in increasing numbers. While there were reports of massacres of warriors as they attempted to bury their dead, the main victims appear to have been the Wiradjuri women and children, shot, poisoned, and driven into gorges. Recent estimates suggest that between a quarter and a third of the Wiradjuri in the Bathurst region were killed during these hostilities.
With the loss of so many warriors and the severe damage caused to their society, Windradyne gathered the Wiradjuri and determined to meet with Governor Brisbane to seek a formal end to hostilities. It was customary at the time for the Governor to hold an annual feast or conference for the Aboriginal people in late December in the marketplace at Parramatta. The Wiradjuri, led by Windradyne, travelled nearly 200 kilometres across the mountains to attend the feast on Tuesday 28 December 1824, with Windradyne becoming the focus of attention and receiving a formal pardon from Brisbane. The Sydney Gazette reported:
“... There appeared to be 7 or 8 different tribes that flocked in from various quarters of the Colony ...at about noon there were nearly 260 men and women in a circle, exclusive of numbers of fine children. Between one and two o'clock, a reinforcement of the Bathurst tribe arrived, which was supposed to have increased the number to near upon 400 ... This was the first conference, we believe, in which any of the New-country tribes deigned to visit the feast; but, upon occasion of the amicable intercourse lately re-established between them and the Bathurst settlers, they were induced to break through all fear, and behold those wonders ...
What contributed to give peculiar interest to the scene was the circumstance of the noted Saturday (Wyndradyne) being at the head of his tribe. ... Saturday is, without doubt, the most manly black native we have ever beheld—a fact pretty generally acknowledged by the numbers that saw him".
Governor Brisbane wrote a report to Earl Bathurst “... I am most happy to have it in my power to report to Your Lordship that Saturday, their great and most warlike Chieftain, has been with me to receive his pardon and that He, with most of His Tribe, attended the annual conference."
And so began the European settlement of the town of Bathurst, New South Wales...
Former Police Barracks building built in 1875 - now Bathurst City Community Club (Bowling club). The western side of the Macquarie River was originally reserved as government land (until 1833) and this building replaced an army barracks & gaol on the site built in 1822.
Statue commemorating George Evans in Kings Parade
"Commemorating the discovery by Evans of the Bathurst Plains and the opening of the West 1813"
The Uniting (Methodist) Church, William Street, Bathurst. Opened in 1860.
Carrington House, the former Masonic Hall, a Victorian Era Theatre, in Keppel Street, built in 1889
St. Stanislaus College, built in 1873
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Holy Trinity Church, Gilmour Street, Kelso, built in 1834.
The graveyard of Holy Trinity Church - the grave with the metal plaque is that of Lt Col. James Morisett (+ his daughter)
Old Government Cottage. Long thought to have been the oldest building in Bathurst (thought built 1817), this building has recently been discovered to have been built in 1850 (which still makes it one of the oldest in town).
Bathurst Courthouse was opened in 1880, designed by colonial architect James Barnett.
Machattie Park, opened in 1890.
Bathurst Courthouse on a smoky day 18/10/13.
The wing on the left is the Bathurst Historical Society, the right one is the Music Conservatory
View down William Street, Bathurst.
Early morning Winters day
Chifley House (b.1880's) - Ben Chifley lived in this house with his wife Elizabeth from 1914, He was Australian PM from 1945 to 1949
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Woolstone House, Bathurst.
Built in 1870 by the son of one of the first 10 white settlers, Thomas Kite to replace Thomas' earlier cottage built in 1840.
The Boer War Memorial & the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon, Kings Parade.
Lord Kitchener opened the Boer War Memorial in 1910 built to commemorate those locals who died serving in this war. The Carillon was built to honour local citizens who had fought in
WW 1 and was dedicated on Armistice Day, 11 November 1933.
Brooke Moore Centre, built in 1852 as the Methodist Parsonage.
St Barnabas Anglican Church, built in 1881.
Logan Brae (b. 1877). Built by Dr John Busby for his wife & their 11 children. It was donated to the Sisters of Mercy in 1909.
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View towards Bathurst from Mount Horrible.
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View from Boundary Road Reserve looking E/N/east over Bathurst & The Bathurst Plains
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Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Boundary Road Reserve.
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The RAAF Roulette's perform stunts above the crowds at Mt Panorama prior to the start of the Race - Sunday 13/10/13.
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Mount Panorama, Bathurst 1000 V8's Race Day - October 2013
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Mount Panorama, Bathurst 1000 V8's Race Day - October 2013
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A partial lunar eclipse over Bathurst Plains. 21/12/2010
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A Full Moon rises over the Bathurst Plains - view east from Rose Street.
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A winters day, Bathurst. 2012
view over the flood plains on the east side of the Macquarie (or Wambool) river looking west.
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