The Emancipist: 'On His Own Hands'

The Emancipist: ‘On His Own Hands’ 1840 – 1858 “You must fetch wood an’ water, bake an’ boil, Act as butcher when we kill; The corn an’ taters you must hill, Keep the gardens spick and span. You must not scruple in the rain To take to market all the grain. Be sure you come back sober again To be a squatter’s man.” (The Squatter’s Man – Traditional) As an emancipist, William was now ‘on his own hands’ in the colloquial vernacular of the time meaning he was his own man and not beholden to anyone or the Crown. William’s freedom in 1840 coincided with the end of the transportation era in the colony of N.S.W. As befitted a newly emerging and confident state, pressure had been mounting from within the colony for an end to the transportation of criminals in favour of encouraging free settlers. On the 22nd of May 1840, an order was made by the Government that no more convicts be brought to the colony of NSW effective from the 1st of August 1840. The last load of convicts, 270 males, was subsequently deposited at Port Jackson from the ‘Eden’ on the 18th of November.1 Prior to this, the pastoral industry had continued to grow through the 1830s, as settlers continued to take land beyond the official ‘limits of settlement’ bringing continual conflict with Indigenous landholders. The land was being taken up by squatters from the English aristocratic or military classes as well as through less official means by emancipated and escaped convicts. Pressure was growing on Governor Bourke to act against the illegal use of Crown Land and, in 1836, legislation was passed. Those wishing to claim land for running stock beyond the limits of settlement would be required to pay an annual licence fee of ten pounds for the occupation of otherwise unalienated Crown Land.2 Thus, the scene was set for decades of conflict to come, as the Frontier Wars raged with the inexorable push west and north into the interior in search of new agricultural land. Indigenous populations would be devastated by murder and disease and new settlements mercilessly established. There are suggestions a member of the 73rd Regiment of Foot patrolling from the Hunter Valley between 1810-14 may have been the first European in the Mudgee district3; however, historically the debate has been over whether William Lawson or James Blackman discovered Mudgee first. Blackman, then the Superintendent of Police at Bathurst, is generally accepted as being the first European to explore the Mudgee valley. In 1821, he’d struck out from Bathurst and headed north to Sofala where he crossed the Turon River and travelling north east toward country held by Walker at ‘Wallerawang’ eventually discovered the ‘Cudgee-gang River’. Blackman and his party of four then followed the river downstream for about twenty five to thirty miles before coming across the reedy swamps of Burrundulla, east of present day Mudgee, and turning around.4 William Lawson, Commandant at Bathurst and himself a military man of His Majesty’s Veteran Regiment of the New South Wales Corps, followed in Blackman’s steps in November of the same year travelling over 400 miles and apparently reaching the fertile flats west of the Burrundulla swamps. Lawson subsequently organised a party of six men, including an Indigenous man they called Aaron, in 1822 with the intention of following his previous route to find a pass through the Liverpool Ranges in search of grazing land still further north. Aaron refused to continue past the descent into the Cudgegong valley as he was now entering land of another tribal group - the descent today known as Aarons Pass. Nonetheless, Lawson again made it to the present-day site of Mudgee blazing a line of trees to mark his route and followed the river west where he crossed it at ‘Menah’ before heading north east.5 Following the discovery of verdant grazing country along the Cudgegong River at Mudgee, Lawson encouraged his friends, George and Henry Cox, to also pursue the opportunity represented by the newly discovered grazing lands. With blatant disregard for its existing Indigenous owners, the two parties agreed to divide the district between them with Lawson taking up the land to the north of the river and the Cox’s the land to the south.6 Their arrangements were confirmed by several grants of land made by the governor with William Lawson granted 717 acres and Henry Cox land at ‘Cullenbone’ giving them ownership of the best country around Mudgee.7 This was to later become a source of angst for those wishing to see Mudgee develop, as claiming the almost exclusive ownership of the best land along the Cudgegong River prevented closer settlement around the flourishing village.8 Others to also be granted land in the following years included Lawrence Dulhunty in 1824 who acquired 2000 acres at ‘Putta Bucca’, east of Mudgee on the upper Cudgegong, near today’s Rylstone, Robert Fitzgerald was granted ‘Dabee’ and Edward Cox ‘Rawdon’. Further down river from Mudgee Robert Lowe received ‘Wilbetree’ and his step mother Sarah, ‘Goree’. In the valley of Lawson’s Creek, north east of Mudgee, William Hayes was granted ‘Havilah’ and further upstream James Walker acquired ‘Lue’. The Cox brothers also originally held ‘Guntawang’ before relinquishing it to Richard and Edwin Rouse in the face of bitter opposition from local Indigenous clans.9 While these were the official land grants dividing up the Mudgee valley, there seems little doubt those in possession would’ve also taken advantage of opportunities on surrounding unclaimed land, both licence and unlicensed, with the Coxes subsequently establishing runs throughout the south of the Mudgee district. In this way the land was claimed for the subjects of the Crown and the fate of the local Wiradjuri tribes was sealed. Some had been peaceful and welcoming originally; Lawson’s group in 1822 was entertained at Menah by a large gathering on the night they camped there.10 Relations soon deteriorated, though, as the reality of what it meant began to set in with the original inhabitants suffering the destruction of their people and way of life in the face of overwhelming force. Many runs north of Mudgee in the Coonamble district were taken up in this manner by those already established within the nineteen counties which made up the limits of settlement encircling Sydney. Some of those who held land around both the Mudgee and Coonamble districts in subsequent years included members of the Walker, Blackman, Lawson, Rouse, White, Cox and Lowe families. Their runs were usually managed by overseers and staffed by ticket of leave men with the holders of those far flung runs seldom living on them. William already had a lengthy association with the Cox family, and it may be that early interaction around Mudgee that resulted in him working in the Coonamble district for either the Coxes, or on their recommendation, for someone else. The irony of William gaining his freedom just as transportation ceased was probably not lost on him as the news would’ve travelled quickly along the bush telegraph given the shortage of labour and insatiable demand for men required to look after stock, and construct outbuildings and yards on the licensed runs further out. William was now well-placed to capitalise on the opportunities and set about working in the pastoral industry around the Mudgee district and later in the isolated country along the Castlereagh River to the north. To prevent the newly arrived free emigrant and emancipated convict from spurning the labour market in favour of establishing their own properties on the back of the high wages they were able to command, the government raised the price of land. This cynical move was taken to ensure the wealthy could obtain the labour needed to maintain the colony’s growth and prevent the proliferation of labourers making the move to becoming landed smallholders. Consequently, land previously made available at five shillings an acre was suddenly worth one pound an acre.11 This measure alone might have accounted for the gap of eighteen years before William had freehold title to land of his own at Campbells Creek. A plan of the survey undertaken of the Meroo Creek tributaries in early 1843 shows the catchment of Campbell’s Creek, or Guigong Creek as it was also known, and reveals the limited extent of settlement in the area at the time. The only infrastructure identified on the plan consists of two sets of sheep yards, one at ‘Kellaris’, later held by Timothy Kirwin, and the other on country at the top of the creek which would later be taken up by William Hundy. A track to ‘Suttor’s Sheep station’ and Married Man’s Creek in the vicinity of ‘Warratra’ is the only other note to identify European settlement of the valley.12 The sons of William Cox , George and Henry, had established runs in addition to their early holdings of Guntawang, Burrundulla, and Menah at various locations around the south of the Mudgee district including World’s End (at the bottom of Meroo Creek), Bocoble (near the head of Campbells Creek), and at Cullenbone (south west of Mudgee).13 The sheep yards at the top of Campbells Creek may well have been used to protect sheep overnight on their Bocoble run, or possibly even the Toolamanang run (on the southern boundary of present day Pyramul) held by George Suttor, son of William Suttor of Brucedale. The presence of Cox holdings, and the sheep yards at the same location as the land William was ultimately granted is unlikely to be a coincidence.

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