In the years of his absence from Port Jackson the British settlement had spread from the western limit of Parramatta across to the Hawkesbury River, Prospect, Concord, Homebush, Cook’s River, Kissing Point, Lane Cove, Field of Mars and Ryde. Conflict had been sporadic with deaths on both sides. In March 1797 Pemulwuy led a raid on the government farm at Toongabbie. He was pursued to the outskirts of Parramatta where he was wounded and taken prisoner. He escaped from the hospital and during the following four years Pemulwuy undertook a number of raids but it was not until 1801 that he was outlawed. Bennelong’s position during this period is unclear. Pemulwuy exerted a considerable influence over a significant portion of the indigenous peoples within the area of British settlement, in this respect any superior position that Bennelong may have enjoyed in 1792 had disappeared. There are however, indications that not everyone was prepared to take Pemulwuy’s lead. Some of his companions who had taken part in his campaign reported to the British authorities that they had been forced to do so. During the years of Pemulwuy’s campaign Bennelong appears to have established leadership over a band composed of remnants of Burramattagal, Gadigal and possibly Wallamedagal and Wangal. According to Joseph Holt in the period.1801-1802 the band numbered up to one hundred people. If this figure is correct then Bennelong’s group constituted a sizeable portion of the surviving eora. Holt was residing on part of Lt. William Cox’s Brush Farm estate that encompassed part of Dundas and Ryde. Holt’s Farm was located near the present Kings Road and Stewart Streets, Ermington, between the Parramatta River and a branch of The Ponds Creek.[1] Bennelong’s group may have been located in the Ryde-Dundas region in response to Governor King’s exclusion of Aboriginal people from Parramatta and its environs following Pemulway’s activities. The exclusion was not lifted until Pemulway’s death in June 1802.
The year 1802 also saw the arrival of the French scientific expedition under the command of Nicolas-Thomas Baudin. The official account of the voyage appeared as Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes, written by François Péron and completed by Louis Freycinet. In regard to the indigenous inhabitants of Port Jackson the account of the Baudin expedition drew heavily upon the extant published works such as those of Collins and Tench. Members of the expedition did however make contact with a number of eora including Bennelong. He is referred to as Bannelon and Ben-nil-long. Peron describes him as a Gweagal – this would appear to have been derived from an imperfect reading of the available accounts of the settlement.
While in the Ryde district Bennelong and his group also made use of James Squire’s estate at Kissing Point. James Squire (1755?-1822) was a former convict who established a successful brewery and farm at Kissing Point. He was the first person to successfully raise hops in the Colony and the wharf and tavern at his establishment made Kissing Point a popular stopping place for river traffic. Squire had received his first grant at Kissing Point in 1795 so he was present during the conflicts that took place between eora and the settlers in the 1790s. he was a popular figure with the poorer classes and by Joseph Lycett’s account he was a much respected member of the community.[2] His hospitality extended to Bennelong’s group that was now being referred to as the ‘Kissing Point Tribe’. D. D. Mann writing in 1809 indicated that Bennelong had virtually ceased to enter the settlements and refused to be drawn back into the society that he had formerly been part of, despite being encouraged to do so. He maintained some semblance of his traditional life ‘and now lives in the same manner as those who have never mixed with the civilized world.’[3]
Bennelong’s final years at Kissing Point have been characterised as the decline of an alcoholic ending in his death on 3 January 1813. Bennelong certainly drank alcohol, as did virtually every other adult male in the Colony. He was introduced to alcohol immediately after his capture but at that time he drank wine and refused spirits. He overcame his aversion to spirits and imbibed on a regular basis. Most of the reports of his alcohol-charged rage came after his death.
The precise cause or causes of his death remain unclear. One less biased report comes from 1815 in which he (Bennelong) died after a short illness.[4] His death may have been hastened by a number of elements – alcohol and a lifetime of wounds being among them. The precise location of his burial remains uncertain. The earliest description comes from the Reverend Charles Wilton, minister of the Parish of the Field of Mars, in the Australian Quarterly Journal. Writing in 1828 Wilton stated that: ‘’He [Bennelong] lies between his wife and another Chief amidst the orange trees of the garden’.[5]
[1] I tell him to not let his people take any of my melons or corn, or, if he would, I would be murray angry with him. He say bail—that means ‘never fear.’ He would walk out and let out a shout, and every one of both sexes would come and get their orders, and would obey it as punctual as a soldier on his post. He hold up his hand and say Murray tat tat pointing his hand and telling them where they were to go to make their camp, and, at the same time, he would tell them not to touch anything of Master or he would murray pialla them. Pialla is to spear them to death. All this should be done and the gin should go and get mogra [fish] for Missus. (Joseph Holt quoting Bennelong in Holt in O’Shaunessy 1988: 68–72)
[2] 'He was … universally respected and beloved for his amiable and useful qualities as a member of society, and more especially as the friend and protector of the lower class of settlers. Had he been less liberal, he might have died more wealthy; but his assistance always accompanied his advice to the poor and unfortunate, and his name will long be pronounced with veneration by the grateful objects of his liberality'. (Joseph Lycett quoted in James Squire entry Australian Dictionary of Biography)
[3] Their attachment to savage life is unconquerable; nor can the strongest allurements tempt them to exchange their wild residences in the recesses of the country, for the comforts of European life. A singular instance of this fact occurred in the case of Be-ne-long, who was brought to England by Governor Phillip, and returned with Governor Hunter. For some time after his return, it is true, he assumed the manners, the dress, and the consequence of an European, and treated his countrymen with a distance which evinced the sense he entertained of his own increased importance; and this disposition was encouraged by every method which suggested itself to the minds of those of the colony with whom he associated; but, notwithstanding so much pains had been taken for his improvement, both when separated from his countrymen, and since his return to New South Wales, he has subsequently taken to the woods again, returned to his old habits, and now lives in the same manner as those who have never mixed with the civilized world. Sometimes, indeed, he holds intercourse with the colony; but every effort uniformly fails to draw him once again into the circle of polished society, since he prefers to taste of liberty amongst his native scenes, to the unsatisfactory gratification which arises from an association with strangers, however kind their treatment of him, and however superior to his own enjoyments. (Mann 1811)
[4] ‘old Bennelong is dead, Philip told me he died after a short illness about two years ago, & that they buried him & his wife at Kissing point’. (Old Philip to ship’s surgeon Joseph Arnold in Arnold, ‘Journal’, 18 July 1815, Mitchell Library, C720: 401)
[5] Wilton 1828: 137