An 1818 armed attack on a Wodiwodi camp in the Illawarra illustrates colonial frontier violence and the failure of colonial courts to hold settlers accountable.
Key Facts
- Date
- 1 October 1818
- Victims killed
- Approximately 6 Wodiwodi people
- Number of settlers involved
- 9
- Location
- Minnamurra River, Illawarra, New South Wales
- Presiding magistrate
- D'Arcy Wentworth
- Governor who dissented
- Lachlan Macquarie
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Nine settlers, led by landowner William Frederick Weston and overseer Cornelius O'Brien, claimed they sought to recover two muskets lent to Aboriginal people. Armed with muskets, swords, and improvised weapons, they approached a Wodiwodi campsite on the Minnamurra River in the early hours, a move Governor Lachlan Macquarie later argued showed clear hostile intent toward Indigenous Australians.
In the early hours of 1 October 1818, the settlers attacked the Wodiwodi camp along the Minnamurra River in the Illawarra region. Approximately six Wodiwodi people were killed. Dharawal witness Young Bundle testified that the settlers killed all those they encountered in the camp. Survivors and participants later gave testimony before magistrates in Sydney in a subsequent inquiry.
The inquiry concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove vigilante action, a finding Governor Macquarie strongly contested. The presiding magistrate, D'Arcy Wentworth, later came to own over 5,000 acres in the area that had belonged to those killed. No settlers faced criminal punishment, reflecting broader patterns of colonial impunity in frontier violence against Aboriginal Australians.