Blacks Camp

At the time of European settlement, the Wellington area was occupied by a group of Wiradjuri speakers. Wiradjuri designates the people of the land of three rivers; the Wambuul (Macquarie)), the Kalare (Lachlan River) and the Murrumbidjeri (Murrumbidgee River). Wiradjuri territorial lands are thought to have extended from the Great Dividing Range in the east and were bordered by the Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrunbidgee Rivers. Evidence of the occupation of the Wellington area by the Wiradjuri in pre-contact times survives in the form rock shelters with deposits, a carved tree, scarred trees, open camp sites, grinding grooves sites and bora (ceremonial) grounds.[1]

European settlement in the Wellington area commenced with the establishment of a convict agricultural station in 1823. By 1839 most of the frontage of the Macquarie River was taken up by squatters, and the first land holders in the Wellington Valley area date from the 1830s. As European settlement in the Wellington area intensified, the Wiradjuri were increasingly driven off their traditional lands. The Wiradjuri moved to a series of missions and camps around Wellington including: The Wellington Valley Mission, Apsley Mission, Blake's Fall Mission (also known as Apsley Mission), Blacks Camp, Wellington Town Common Camp and Nanima Reserve.[1]

Blacks Camp was a riverside Aboriginal camp that appears to have been a remnant part of Rev. William Watson's privately run mission known as the Blake's Fall Mission. Rev. Watson and his wife Ann arrived in Wellington Valley in 1832 as part of a mission team sent by the London-based Church Missionary Society to bring Christianity to the Wiradjuri People. A mission was established at the site of the former convict agricultural station in Wellington Valley.[1]

Rev. Watson's policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families led to bitter confrontations between the Rev. Watson and other missionaries at the Wellington Mission. In c. 1839 Watson was dismissed by the Church Missionary Society. Watson and his wife left the mission along with a small group of Wiradjuri People and established a private mission, known as Apsley Mission, just outside the boundary of the Wellington Valley Mission site.[1]

Approximately eight years after establishing Apsley Mission, Rev. Watson, his wife Ann and their small Aboriginal community of about thirty individuals, moved to a new site on the bank of the Macquarie River (portion 97 and portion 303 of the Parish of Wellington). Rev. Watson call the new site Apsley Mission, but it was also known as the Blake's Fall Mission.[1]

Blacks Camp was situated on approximately 8.5 hectares (21 acres) of land adjacent to the site of Blake's Fall Mission. The camp, which was located approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of the mission, is the earliest known Aboriginal camp in the Wellington district. The date the camp was established is not known but it is likely that Wiradjuri people were camping at the site during the period the mission was in operation. According to Wiradjuri elders, some of the residents at the camp came from outside the Wellington district, including women and children who survived a massacre in the Rylstone area. Blacks Camp continued to be used as an occupation site by the Wellington Aboriginal population after the mission site was sold to the Offner family and run as a dairy in c. 1866.[1]

A profile of the camp's inhabitants in the early 20th century can be obtained from the 1908 application by Aboriginal families for a school. At the time the application was submitted, the population of the camp was about ninety people in fourteen households. Of the ninety or so residents, sixty of these were children, forty of whom were aged between four and fifteen. A few years later (c. 1910) the camp was inspected by the local Council's Sanitary Inspector. The Inspector reported that Blacks Camp comprised eighteen huts sheltering around eighty persons. In one three-roomed hut the inspector noted that as many as thirteen people lived and slept in the hut and he stated that other huts in the camp accommodated similar numbers. The inspector also noted in his report that a number of the camp's occupants suffered from lung troubles and several of the camp's residents had died from consumption.[1]

In 1910 residents at the camp were relocated to the newly established Nanima Reserve, although it appears that a residual population remained at the camp site until c. 1940s. Today there are no standing structures on the site but building materials and artefacts left behind by former residents are scattered across the former camp site.[1]

Oral testimony from Wiradjuri elders states that Blacks Camp contains burial sites. There are no headstones remaining to indicate the location of the graves. The camp site is thought to contain fourteen grave sites relating to the Dawkins, Goolagoon, Gotch, Holland, King, May, Mickey, Nolan, Riley, Stanley, Stewart and Wighton families as well as other families of Wellington and surrounding districts. In addition to the grave sites, the former camp site also contains two traditional Aboriginal sites: a scarred tree;[2] and a shell midden.[1]

As various areas in the State were settled by non-Aboriginal people, Aboriginal people were moved off their traditional lands. Displaced Aboriginal communities established camps on vacant land and reserves on the fringes of newly established settlements. Blacks Camp is one of two 19th century Aboriginal camps known to have been established in the Wellington area.[1]

As at 14 December 2009, a relatively small portion of the site (approximately 25 to 30%) has been subject to cropping and the site has also been subjected to river floods. Today, there are no standing structures associated with the Aboriginal camp on the subject site but building materials and artefacts, left behind by former residents, are scattered across the site.[1][3]

There are no above ground structures present on the site. The site has been subjected to flooding and a section of the site has been cropped.[1]

During the 1960s or 1970s a residence for the research station's caretaker was built on the site. Above ground tanks and a number of sheds have also been erected on the site. The southern end of the site has been used for cropping purposes. A small number of electricity poles are present on the site.[1][3][5]

Under Commonwealth native title legislation a claim has been made by the Wiradjuri people for a broad land area in the Wellington district and this claim is likely to include Blacks Camp. Under NSW native title legislation a claim has been made by the Wiradjuri people for the subject lots. This claim has not yet been resolved. The above advice was received from John Gibbins, from the Department of Lands, on 11 January 2010.[1]

The title documents indicate that the land is gazetted as a reserve.[1]

• Bickford, Anne (1998). Archaeological Assessment of Part of Wellington Valley Settlement Site.
• Barbara Le Maistre (1993). Aboriginal People at Wellington.
• McDonald, D. I. (1968). They Came to A Valley: Wellington NSW.
• David Andrew Roberts (2000). "Binjang" or the Second Vale of Tempe: The Frontier at Wellington Valley, NSW 1817-1851.
• Griffin nrm Pty Ltd (2004). Maynggu ganai Historic Site Wellington Valley 1823-1844: draft conservation management plan.
• Thurlow, Lee (2008). Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment for Area known as 'Blacks Camp' (Wellington Working Farm Project) University of NSW.
• Thurlow, Lee (2001). Wiradjuri Tribes and Clans of the Wellington Valley 1817 to 1910.
• Thurlow, Lee (1996). Black's Camp to 1910.
• Porter, Robert (1906). History of Wellington: a record of the growth of the town and district.
• Kass, Terry (2001). Wellington Thematic History (Draft).
• Wellington Council (2004). Wellington Community Based Heritage Study.

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Blacks Camp, entry number 01865 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 2 June 2018.