Part of Redbank Communities
On-site Heritage Centre

76 Arthur Phillip Drive
North Richmond 2754

02 4760 1400

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Part of Redbank Communities
On-site Heritage Centre

76 Arthur Phillip Drive
North Richmond 2754

02 4760 1400

Richmond Hill

The Battle of Richmond Hill is recognized as the earliest recorded battle between Aboriginals and European colonists. In the late 1700s, as these new occupants cleared lands for farming, the local Aboriginal people faced a depletion of their food supplies and were forced to abandon their traditional hunting grounds. Tensions escalated, and in 1795, British troops were dispatched from Sydney with the explicit objective of wiping out the local Aboriginal population.

A memorial garden

In 2010 a memorial garden was created to remember the Aboriginal men and women who suffered and fell from colonial violence. Located on the former Belmont Estate property currently owned by St. John of God, the memorial was created by local reconciliation group Projects for Reconciliation in consultation with many indigenous and non-indigenous groups, and was funded by Reconciliation NSW.

The Richmond Hill Memorial sits on the land of the St John of God Hospital in Richmond and is maintained by the hospital gardeners.

An extract from The Conversation, Friday Essay, published Feb 24, 2023

The Battle of Richmond Hill is described by John Connor in the book The Australian Frontier Wars 1788–1838 as possibly the first frontier war on this continent and the first recorded battle between Aboriginal people and settlers. According to Connor, it took place in an area the settlers had named Richmond Hill, along what they called the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, in May-June 1795.

The land belongs to the Dharug peoples, and the arrival of more than 400 settlers in the area in 1794 resulted in numerous crimes, including the destruction of native food sources, stealing Dharug children to work as unpaid labour and holding them against their will, the murder of Dharug people, and even the torture of a Dharug child.

The Dharug responded by killing settlers, raiding farms and taking corn. Raiding was so intense that Lieutenant-Governor William Paterson perceived it to be a serious threat to the future of the Hawkesbury settlement and ordered a detachment of the New South Wales Corps to kill any Dharug they found and hang their bodies on public display as a warning to others. The conflict that resulted took lives from both sides, even of children.

A permanent garrison was deployed to the region, the corps was expanded and troops were distributed among the farms to regularly seek out and kill Dharug. The Dharug became the first Aboriginal people to develop tactics for use specifically in frontier warfare, responding with a sustained campaign of raiding that lasted until 1805 and included stealing corn, attacking farmhouses, and using fire to destroy structures and crops.

Read the full article here: https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-killed-by-natives-the-stories-and-violent-reprisals-behind-some-of-australias-settler-memorials-198981

Recognising the 1795 massacre commonly referred to as the Battle of Richmond Hill, the memorial is under the custodianship of Dharug people in partnership with St John of God Hospital.

Dharug man, Chris Tobin was involved in the creation of the memorial and in an interview with The National Indigenous Times in 2019 he notes that his role was inspired by a quote from Australian journalist John Pilger recognising that in each country town stands a memorial to those Australians who travelled to protect their homelands, but none to those who fought against foreign invasion.

"I'm one of the people that are active in Dharug history, because the people before us were the generation that was told to keep quiet. My sisters and I some of the educated mouthy ones I guess," laughed Mr Tobin. "We have a massacre site on our Country, it was time to memorialise that."

"Four hundred settlers are moved in in 1794. Yam beds around the river are removed and corn was planted. When the corn was ripening a report when back to Parramatta that stated that there were sightings of Aboriginal people intending to take the corn. Sixty Red Coats were deployed under the instruction to hang any Aboriginal person they killed to drive away others.

"Not long after, the Red Coats find a camp at night and shoot it up. We don't know how many died. They took five prisoners to Parramatta, one of the women taken was carrying a baby who had been shot through her body. The baby died in hospital and the prisoners were released three days later."

"The memorial was a grassroots thing, we approached the brothers of St John of God, who immediately wanted to support us and that is really powerful".

Established in 2002 through community consultation, the project was coordinated by local reconciliation group Projects for Reconciliation and was funded by Reconciliation NSW.