In another massacre during the period of martial law, Wiradjuri peoples who were camped on the escarpment at Bells Falls Gorge were encircled by soldiers and given the option of jumping into the falls or facing gunfire. Unaware of the dangers of martial law, a group of Wiradjuri people approached a party of soldiers who were offering food. Mr Elder's book details other massacres including in Billywillinga about 20km north-west of Bathurst. Upon their return, the white farmer, who misunderstood the situation, gathered neighbours to slaughter an unreported number of "thieving blacks". Under the belief that the potatoes were growing on their tribal lands, the Wiradjuri people felt they had a customary right to the produce.
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In early March 1824, a farmer showed a group of Wiradjuri people how to cook potatoes in what has become known as the Potato Field Incident.
( ABC Central West: Sonia Feng) The Potato Field Incident and other massacres Wiradjuri elder Dinawan Dyirribang at the site of the Bathurst potato field massacre. The proclamation of martial law by governor Thomas Brisbane ordered any retaliatory bloodshed be stopped by any means necessary, with the use of firearms against the Wiradjuri in the area west of Mount York on the Great Dividing Range.Īuthor Bruce Elder, who wrote Blood on the Wattle, which details the massacres and mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians since 1788, said martial law was "used to justify every atrocity and every massacre". With their traditional hunting grounds destroyed, the Wiradjuri people became increasingly involved in skirmishes with white farmers. A history of bloodshedīetween 18, the white population increased tenfold in the Bathurst region, from 114 to 1,267.
Wiradjuri elders and others yesterday marked the anniversary with an inaugural ceremony at Bathurst's Bicentennial Peace Park. Martial law was declared across the Bathurst region on August 14, 1824, leading to a sharp rise in conflict between settler society and the Wiradjuri peoples. A bloody part of Australian history has been examined at Bathurst in central NSW on the 193rd anniversary of its declaration of martial law.
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