'In May 1824, what can only be described as a period of all-out, total
gudyarra ('war' in the Wiradyuri language) had begun west of the Blue
Mountains. Relations between Wiradyuri people and the colonists in the
country around Bathurst had completely broken down, and the number of
raids and killings occurring across isolated stock stations in the
district had intensified.'
In Gudyarra, Stephen Gapps - award-winning author of The Sydney Wars -
unearths what led to this furious and bloody war, beginning with the
occupation of Wiradyuri lands by Europeans following Governor
Macquarie's push to expand the colony west over the Blue Mountains to
generate wealth from sheep and cattle.
Gudyarra traces the co-ordinated resistance warfare by the Wiradyuri
under the leadership of Windradyne, and others such as Blucher and
Jingler, that occurred in a vast area across the central west of New
South Wales. Detailing the drastic counterattacks by the colonists and
the punitive expeditions led by armed parties of colonists and convicts
that often ended in massacres of Wiradyuri women and children, Gapps
provides an important new historical account of the fierce Wiradyuri
resistance.
'This isn't just a war for Wiradjuri country, this is a war for
Australia: the country we are still to be. Our nation begins here.' -
Stan Grant
'The untold story of the Wiradyuri War of resistance against a World
Empire' - Uncle Bill Allen Junior, Wiradyuri Elder
'In Gudyarra, Stephen Gapps plots in meticulous detail the brutal war
between the British and the Wiradyuri for possession of the Western
Plains of New South Wales. A masterly account of both sides of the
conflict, Gudyarra offers new understandings of the complexity of
frontier history and the need for all Australians to reconcile with the
past.' - Lyndall Ryan
'This is an important book, indeed essential reading for anyone
wanting to understand the new direction in the history of the frontier
wars.' - Henry Reynolds
