Following the ‘discovery’ of the established Indigenous trading route over the Blue Mountains by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson in 1813, after they were shown the way by their two Darug guides,^[42] the lands of the western plains were soon invaded by graziers looking for pastures for their sheep. By 1824 the white population had increased to 1267 people with 91,636 acres cleared and fenced, and 113,973 sheep and cattle by 1825.^[43] The traditional lands of the Wiradjuri were being consumed by aggressive landowners, including John Oxley and John Macarthur, ‘who were devouring land with the obsessiveness of obese gluttons’.^[44]

Frustrated at the destruction of sacred areas, the removal of possum and kangaroo habitat which formed a staple of their diets, the Wiradjuri were forced to kill settler livestock for food. The retaliation was swift; Windradyne was captured by Major Morisset and kept in leg irons for a month, to teach him a lesson. It had the opposite effect. Within a short period after his release he witnessed members of his family murdered by whites and within days he formed an efficient group of warriors using guerrilla tactics. He attacked isolated farming huts, beginning with a hut that when built had desecrated a sacred site used in male initiation, according to local oral tradition.^[45] The pastoral industry had destroyed a site vital to sustaining Indigenous knowledge systems.

Windradyne’s actions seem justified to an extent. But the declaration of martial law that followed was used to justify atrocities and massacre of the Wiradjuri people. It was an extreme over-reaction encouraged by absentee landowners who lived in Sydney and could not keep farm staff employed due to fear of the Wiradjuri.^[46] Brigadier General Sir Thomas Brisbane (Governor Macquarie’s replacement) is still held accountable by the Wiradjuri for the slaughter of their people^[47] in an all-out war from October 1823 to 11 December 1824 which reached a peak of destruction following Brisbane’s proclamation of martial law on 14 August 1824.^[48]