Station plundered
On the afternoon of Friday 19 March, Patrick Ryan, ‘Crown Prisoner and Government Stockman stationed at the Swallow Creek’, was out grazing ‘the Government Cattle in his Charge’ when ‘a large Body of Blacks to the Best of his Beliefs about one hundred and Fifty in number came and herded his cattle in various directions’. Alone and unarmed, Ryan ran and was ‘pursued by about Twenty of the mob who came up with him, one of which knocked him down’. He was then held down and stripped of his clothes and released. He took off once again, making for a hut ‘about a Mile and a Half distant’ up the Swallow Creek valley, where he ‘gave the alarm to the other two Stockmen’ who were there, Michael McKeyley and John Anderson. McKeyley then ‘went up to the Judge Advocate’s Station’ at Kings Plains and ‘immediately gave the alarm to the Military’ stationed there. Anderson remained at the hut, and according to Ryan’s later statement to Magistrate Lawson and Commandant Morisset, ‘the Blacks came shortly after about Sixty in number, came to the Hut took possession of the Provisions and eat what they required’. Then in what can only have been preparation to carry off supplies, the Wiradyjuri ‘tied up the Blankets Bedding and every thing the Hut contained’.
People involved
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Sources
- Wylde to Goulburn, ‘Re attack by natives’, SRNSW, NRS 897, 6065; 4/1798, pp. 312–14.
Event mentions
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Station plundered19 Mar 1824 — Swallow Creek Govt StationOn the afternoon of Friday 19 March, Patrick Ryan, ‘Crown Prisoner and Government Stockman stationed at the Swallow Creek’, was out grazing ‘the Government Cattle in his Charge’ when ‘a large Body of Blacks to the Best of his Beliefs about one hundred and Fifty in number came and herded his cattle in various directions’. Alone and unarmed, Ryan ran and was ‘pursued by about Twenty of the mob who came up with him, one of which knocked him down’. He was then held down and stripped of his clothes and released. He took off once again, making for a hut ‘about a Mile and a Half distant’ up the Swallow Creek valley, where he ‘gave the alarm to the other two Stockmen’ who were there, Michael McKeyley and John Anderson. McKeyley then ‘went up to the Judge Advocate’s Station’ at Kings Plains and ‘immediately gave the alarm to the Military’ stationed there. Anderson remained at the hut, and according to Ryan’s later statement to Magistrate Lawson and Commandant Morisset, ‘the Blacks came shortly after about Sixty in number, came to the Hut took possession of the Provisions and eat what they required’. Then in what can only have been preparation to carry off supplies, the Wiradyjuri ‘tied up the Blankets Bedding and every thing the Hut contained’.Source: Wylde to Goulburn, ‘Re attack by natives’, SRNSW, NRS 897, 6065; 4/1798, pp. 312–14.