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This week Hawkesbury Council passed a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) with a vote of 10 councillors for and 2 against.
RAP is a formal commitment by an organisation (company, school, council, government agency, non-profit, etc.) to take practical actions that support reconciliation, improve relationships, and foster respect and opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
While Council follows slowly in the wake of many other organisations, businesses, and government institutions, it is worth remembering that Hawkesbury is the birthplace of the first documented reconciliation action plan and it was negotiated between Yarramundi & Governor Macquarie.
Knowing our big history and true telling, brings respect and understanding to why RAP's have been enacted across Australia and now by Hawkesbury Council.
Hawkesbury history of war and peace through reconciliation
The early 19th century in the Hawkesbury was marked by escalating frontier tensions, as expanding settler agriculture collided with the hunting grounds, river systems and cultural estates of the Dharug. Amid this turbulence emerged Yarramundi a highly respected karadji (healer) and leading elder of the Boorooberongal clan.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie, seeking stability on the colony’s frontier, came to recognise Yarramundi’s authority, intelligence and diplomatic capacity. Their recorded interactions are among the earliest documented intercultural negotiations in New South Wales.
The First Recorded Meeting Macquarie’s Journal, December 1814
On 28 December 1814, Macquarie held a large “Native Feast” at Parramatta to open the newly established Native Institution. In his own journal, he lists “Yarramundi, Chief of the Richmond Tribes” among the Aboriginal leaders who attended.
Macquarie recorded that the gathering’s aim was to “conciliate the affections” of Aboriginal people and encourage cooperation during a period of frontier violence.
This event is significant because it positions Yarramundi as a recognised leader, an intermediary capable of representing multiple Dharug groups to the colonial government.
Between 1814 and 1815, as white settlement intensified along the river flats, Dharug groups were increasingly pushed to the margins of their own country. In response, Aboriginal warriors began targeting farms, not as random attacks but as acts of resistance against land dispossession. The tactic included burning crops, spearing livestock, reclaiming corn and wheat stores and driving settlers back from key riverbanks.
Settlers retaliated with armed pursuit parties, often acting without official sanction. Macquarie’s diaries from this period show growing frustration and concern about escalating violence.
In March and April 1816, several settlers were killed in a series of confrontations near the Nepean River. Macquarie interpreted these events as a coordinated uprising, although historians note they were more likely defensive actions by groups protecting land and resources.
Macquarie convened his Executive Council and authorised military retaliation, issuing strict orders:
“To inflict exemplary and severe punishment.” Macquarie, Government Order, 9 April 1816
This marked the beginning of formalised punitive expeditions against Aboriginal people. Macquarie deployed three detachments of soldiers from the 46th Regiment into the Hawkesbury River district, the Nepean River valley and the Cowpastures (Camden/Appin)
Their instructions were to track down “hostile natives”, capture or kill warriors, and take women and children into custody, a practice Macquarie believed would force Aboriginal groups into submission.
Key features of the campaign were night raids and surprise ambushes designed to disorient groups and break resistance; taking children as hostages; Macquarie believed placing Aboriginal children in the Parramatta Native Institution would “civilise” future generations. Scorched-earth tactics such as destroying food supplies, camps and tools to force Aboriginal communities off the rich Hawkesbury river flats.
Although centred south of the Hawkesbury, the Appin Massacre on 17 April 1816 is considered part of the same military campaign. Captain James Wallis led a night march off a cliff edge, driving a group of Dharawal people over the precipice. Macquarie praised Wallis’s actions in an official dispatch. This event sent shockwaves through all surrounding nations, including the Dharug of the Hawkesbury.
Aftermath on the Hawkesbury: A Diplomatic Opening
The violence of 1816 had devastating consequences for Aboriginal families, many of whom were displaced, injured, or killed.
However, Macquarie soon realised the punitive strategy was not sustainable. He returned to diplomacy, scheduling Native Feasts, issuing pardons, and opening negotiations with Aboriginal leaders.
This is where Yarramundi re-enters the historical record prominently. Macquarie’s journals from late 1816 and 1817 list Yarramundi (Yellomundy), Courage (another Boorooberongal elder), Nurragingy and Colebee (Yarramundi’s relative) attending official meetings and receiving government-issued tokens of leadership.
Historians interpret these gatherings as Macquarie’s attempt to formalise a peace agreement after the violence of 1816 and as moments where Aboriginal leaders used diplomacy to protect what remained of their land, families and autonomy.
The 1816 Peace Negotiations
After a period of violent conflict in 1816, Macquarie shifted from punitive expeditions to diplomacy. His administration again sought out known leaders, including Yarramundi, to help restore calm across the Nepean and Hawkesbury.
While Yarramundi is not individually quoted in the surviving documents, Macquarie’s communications reference “Chiefs of the Richmond Hill Tribes” and confirm they were involved in discussions aimed at stabilising the districts.
Historians such as Grace Karskens (The Colony, 2009) and James Kohen (The Darug and Their Neighbours, 1993) identify Yarramundi as one of the principal Boorooberongal leaders active during these negotiations.
The 1817 Native Feast - Public Recognition of Leadership
On 28 April 1817, Macquarie hosted another large gathering, this time at Parramatta, again listing “Yarramundy Chief of the Richmond Tribe” among those present.
Macquarie distributed blankets, medals and certificates recognising Aboriginal leaders a symbolic gesture mirroring European customs of honour and hierarchy.
This formal acknowledgement by the colonial government effectively recognised Yarramundi as one of the first Aboriginal diplomatic figures in NSW’s recorded history.
Historians and Dharug knowledge-holders note that Yarramundi’s interactions with Macquarie were grounded in longstanding Aboriginal diplomacy of respectful dialogue, negotiation of shared spaces, and maintaining peace and reciprocal obligation
These meetings were not simply colonial “gifts” but moments in which Aboriginal leaders asserted agency during a time of upheaval.
The Family Legacy: A Material Outcome of Diplomacy
The diplomatic relationship between Aboriginal leaders and the government during Macquarie’s period continued into the next generation with Maria Lock (Yarramundi’s daughter) enrolled as one of the first students of the Native Institution (1814). A ward in today’s Hawkesbury Hospital bears her name. Yarramundi successfully petitioned for land as the daughter of a recognised Aboriginal leader. Her land at Blacktown is noted in the archival land grant records, making her one of the earliest Aboriginal landholders in the colony.
This legacy, education, landholding and cross-cultural cooperation grows directly from the relationship first formalised in interactions between Yarramundi and Macquarie.
Why This Matters Today
The 1816 conflicts mark a turning point in Hawkesbury history, the height of frontier violence in the region and the consolidation of settler occupation. The forging of early Aboriginal–government diplomacy through figures like Yarramundi and the disruption of cultural practice, movement and connection to Country makes the survival and continued presence of Dharug families extraordinary.
For cultural tourism, heritage interpretation and truth-telling initiatives, this story provides the essential historical context for understanding Yarramundi’s leadership, Macquarie’s policies and the origins of Aboriginal–colonial relationships and reconciliation in the Hawkesbury.
Hawkesbury Council RAP
The RAP acknowledges that the Hawkesbury LGA sits on the traditional lands of the Dharug people and the Darkinjung people who have been custodians of this land for over 65,000 years.
RAP's are structured around three key pillars, building meaningful partnerships with First Nations peoples/communities, acknowledging, valuing and promoting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories, and identities, and creating pathways for First Nations people, such as employment, procurement (buying from Indigenous-owned businesses), education, inclusion, and equitable access.
The adoption of a RAP by Hawkesbury Council strengthens community awareness of our local history on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples, who have cared for this country for more than 65,000 years. It helps us better understand and acknowledge the elders past, present and emerging and the vital contributions they continue to make to our shared community life.
Importantly, it also creates a framework for respectful future action.
References: Lachlan Macquarie, Journals 1810–1822, Grace Karskens, The Colony: A History of Early Sydney (2009), James Kohen, The Darug and Their Neighbours (1993), Keith Vincent Smith, Bungaree: The First Australian (context for Aboriginal diplomacy during the Macquarie era)
