Pemulwuy was born around 1750 and was an Indigenous Australian man who was born in the area of Botany Bay in New South Wales. He is noted for his resistance to the European settlement of Australia which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. He is believed to have been a member of the Bidjigal (Bediagal) clan of the Eora people.

Overview

Pemulwuy was the leader of the Bidjigal people and lived near Botany Bay. In 1790 Pemulwuy and 4 other Aboriginal tribesmen speared Governor Philip's gamekeeper John McIntyre, who is believed to have killed Aboriginal people, and subsequently McIntyre died. Arthur Phillip then despatched an officer called Watkin Tench (who kept detailed diaries) to hunt Pemulwuy and his followers, but they had vanished.

Soldiers were soon ordered to patrol farming areas and protect the settlers. Pemulwuy and his warriors then began using fire as a weapon. They lit fires in the hope of destroying the British farms, fences, crops, stock, houses and supplies. The British responded by organising revenge attacks against the Eora people. The Eora camps were attacked while the men were away hunting. Elderly people, women and children were shot and either wounded or killed.

Pemulwuy persuaded the Eora, Dharug and Tharawal people to join his campaign against the newcomers. From 1792 Pemulwuy led raids on settlers from Parramatta, Georges River, Prospect, Toongabbie, Brickfield and Hawkesbury River. In 1797, Pemulwuy led roughly 100 fighters (including some escaped Irish convicts) into "the Battle of Parramatta" and confronted the English troops near the river. Pemulwuy was shot seven times and taken to a nearby hospital. Despite having buckshot in his head and body and wearing a leg-iron, he managed to escape from hospital. This gave further substance to the belief that he was a carradhy (clever man). He often joked amongst the natives that having been frequently wounded, he could not be killed by English fire-arms. Pemulwuy was reputedly known as the rainbow warrior as he wore the colours of all the (Aboriginal) tribes.

He led several attacks which resulted in head-on confrontations with the New South Wales Corps, including the sacking of the Lane Cove settlement and the capture of Parramatta.

Death

In November 1801 Governor Phillip Gidley King outlawed Pemulwuy and offered a reward for his death or capture.

In 1802 Pemulwuy was shot dead in an ambush by a patrol. He was then decapitated and his head was preserved in spirits and sent to London to Sir Joseph Banks accompanied by a letter from Governor King who wrote: "Although a terrible pest to the colony, he was a brave and independent character."

Pemulwuy's son Tedbury continued the resistance until he himself was killed in 1810.

Pemulwuy's skull is believed to have been returned to Australia in the 1950s but was since lost. In 1998 a skull was identified as Pemulwuy's, but there is an ongoing dispute between a group of Aborigines from Taree who believe that the skull is actually that of a Taree man and Redfern Aboriginal undertaker Allan Murray who believes it to be Pemulwuy's and wishes to have the skull buried and a statue erected.

The saga of the sending of Pemulwuy's head to England (ostensibly for scientific research) and its return to Australia with an ongoing controversy is remarkably similar to that of Yagan, a Western Australian Noongar who was killed 30 years later.

The guerrilla tactics used by Pemulwuy were the same used by many Aboriginal groups on the frontier. There were other warriors, including Yagan in Perth, that have become well known; but Pemulwuy was the first to show the British settlers that the Aboriginal peoples were going to resist colonisation

Legacy

Pemulwuy, New South Wales is now a suburb dedicated to Pemulwuy for the assistance of the local Dharug. Pemulwuy, New South Wales is a suburb of Sydney with the postcode 2145, which it shares with neighbouring Greystanes, Pendle Hill, Wenworthville and Westmead. A park in the Sydney suburb of Redfern has also been named in his honour.

It has also been rumoured that a film is being considered for Pemulwuy, like those of his similar parallels, Robin Hood, William Tell, and Che Guevara.