Encounter at 'Guntawang'

Date: 1 Jul 1824 – 31 Jul 1824
Place: Guntawang' near Mudgee
In late July, ‘Candid’ wrote to the Gazette, concerned to know the true extent of Wiradyjuri people who had been killed over the last two months. In one ‘instance’, Candid asked, ‘was not the resistance of the blacks so obstinate that, notwithstanding the fire of the English, the blacks were the masters of the field?’ There are no other details of the engagement that ‘Candid’ mentions. It seems in July there was a battle or skirmish ending in a Wiradyjuri victory that those involved – or the Bathurst authorities – were reluctant to mention. This may well have been what William Cox’s son, George, was later to describe as an ‘encounter’ at ‘Guntawang’, where he said ‘no less than seven whites were killed, while the number of blacks slaughtered was never ascertained’.

People involved

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Sources

  • ‘Candid, July 29’, Gazette, 12 August 1824, p. 2; Cox, ‘History of Mudgee’, p. 44; ‘The Bathurst Blacks’, ‘Honestus’, Gazette, 9 August 1824, p. 2, Gazette, 12 August 1824, p. 4; ‘Subscriber’, Gazette, 5 August 1824, p. 4

Event mentions

  • Encounter at 'Guntawang'
    1 Jul 1824 – 31 Jul 1824 — Guntawang' near Mudgee
    In late July, ‘Candid’ wrote to the Gazette, concerned to know the true extent of Wiradyjuri people who had been killed over the last two months. In one ‘instance’, Candid asked, ‘was not the resistance of the blacks so obstinate that, notwithstanding the fire of the English, the blacks were the masters of the field?’ There are no other details of the engagement that ‘Candid’ mentions. It seems in July there was a battle or skirmish ending in a Wiradyjuri victory that those involved – or the Bathurst authorities – were reluctant to mention. This may well have been what William Cox’s son, George, was later to describe as an ‘encounter’ at ‘Guntawang’, where he said ‘no less than seven whites were killed, while the number of blacks slaughtered was never ascertained’.
    Source: ‘Candid, July 29’, Gazette, 12 August 1824, p. 2; Cox, ‘History of Mudgee’, p. 44; ‘The Bathurst Blacks’, ‘Honestus’, Gazette, 9 August 1824, p. 2, Gazette, 12 August 1824, p. 4; ‘Subscriber’, Gazette, 5 August 1824, p. 4