Australia Philately: Black Town

An exploration party lead by Governor Arthur Phillip first visited Boongarrunbee while searching for farming land. Boongarrunbee was part of a major area which Phillip had named the Cumberland Plains, after the Duke of Cumberland.

In February, Governor Phillip granted land to 11 convicts whose terms had expired. They established themselves at the base of Prospect Hill. Due to their lack of knowledge and experience in farming, as well as poor equipment and meagre rations, only six of remained after a few years.

The arrival of the first settlers prompted the first organised Aboriginal resistance to the spread of settlement, with the commencement of a violent frontier conflict in which Pemulwuy and his Bidjigal clan played a central role. This ended in violent attacks in February 1798 in which dozens of settlers were killed. Retaliation by the Colonists was fast with many aboriginals killed, including those who had no involvement in the attacks.

A reconciliation was started by the Aboriginal people, negotiated by their women and one of the Prospect Hill settlers, John Kennedy. On 1 May 1801 Governor King took drastic action, issuing a public order requiring that Aboriginal people around Parramatta, Prospect Hill and Georges River should be “driven back from the settlers” habitations by firing at them’. King’s edicts appear to have encouraged a shoot-on-sight attitude whenever any Aboriginal men, women or children appeared.

In 1802 Governor Philip Gidley King set aside an area in the central Cumberland Plains for a government-run livestock farm.

A period of drought between 1814 and 1816 resulted in the escalation of violence between settlers and local Aboriginal people. In April 1816 Governor Macquarie responded to the violence by ordering a punitive expedition. Groups of soldiers were sent from Sydney to Cowpastures, the Appin, Parramatta and Windsor districts and along the banks of the Nepean. Governor Macquarie directed the soldiers to capture or kill Aboriginal people involved in the disputes with settlers. A number of Aboriginal guides accompanied these parties, including Colebee and Nurragingy.

Following the punitive expedition of 1816, Macquarie, in recognition of their involvement in the expeditions, jointly granted Colebee and Nurragingy 30 acres of land. The grant was registered in 1819, but was only registered in Colebee’s name. Colebee did not stay long on the grant but Nurragingy stayed there growing various crops and practising animal husbandry.

In 1823, the Black Town Native Institute Institution was moved from Parramatta.