The Military Station archaeological site is a heritage-listed former stock station, military station, depot and provision depot and now archaeological site at 200 Jenolan Caves Road, Hartley, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1815 to 1832 by convict labour. It is also known as Military Station Archaeological Site and Burial at Glenroy, Cox's River Military Station and Government Provision Depot. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 October 2010.
History Colonial history The military station archaeological site located at Glenroy is located on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people. Wiradjuri country is generally defined as the land bordered by the Lachlan, Macquarie and Murrumbidgee rivers in Central New South Wales. The name Wiradjuri means, "people of the three rivers" and traditionally these rivers were the primary source of food for the Wiradjuri people. Lying at the foot of the Sandstone escarpment and on the banks of the River Lett, the Hartley area may be considered a topographic interface between the mountains and the plains that also forms a cultural border between neighbouring Aboriginal groups and languages: the Wiradjuri People and the Gundungurra People. Archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal people followed long established routes through the landscape, and generally left the cold highlands for the milder plains during the winter months. Paths between the Coxs River Valley, Megalong Valley and Burragorang are documented in the descriptions of daily life in the Megalong Valley contained in Cullenbenbong and Green Mountains by Bernard O'Reilly. Prior to the arrival of settlers, the Lett Valley provided Aboriginal people with a wide spectrum of bush foods, medicinal plants and campsites on the elevated slopes along the valley sides and ridges. Traps and poisons such as hickory bark were employed to catch or stun the fish and eels in the river. By controlled firing, the understorey of the vegetation was kept open and accessible, as well as encouraging regrowth of new plants, which in turn attracted game. This gave the bushland an open park like quality so much admired by the colonists.
Lachlan Macquarie and his family arrived in Sydney in January 1810 to accept his commission as Governor of New South Wales. Macquarie's first year as governor was considered a success and set the tone and character for the twelve years of Macquarie's administration. He re-organised government departments and created a strong focus on the construction of quality public works using convict labour that transformed Sydney, Parramatta and the new townships, a number of which still exist in the twenty first century. By 1822 Macquarie had listed 265 works of varying scale which had been carried out during his tenure as governor. Other important outcomes of his administration included the opening of a new market-place in Sydney in October 1810 and the first public fair held "by regular authority" at Parramatta in March 1813 . In July 1813 the colony obtained coinage in place of the noted of hand and barter system previously used and at the end of 1816 Macquarie encouraged the creation of the colony's first bank. Macquarie's administration also had particular concern for public morality and his policies concerning the Aboriginal people reflected a humanitarian conscience. Significantly, Macquarie understood that one of the most important issues of the colony was the need to increase agricultural production and livestock. Despite his efforts to encourage farmers to improve their properties alternate spectres of glut and famine continued to threaten the economy during most of his administration.
Exploration of the settlement was another important focus of Macquarie's administration. He encouraged so much exploration that by the time he left the colony the explored area was many times what it had been when he arrived. Macquarie embarked on his first tour of the outlying districts on 6 November 1810. This was the first of a series of tours including two visits to Van Diemen's Land in 1811 and 1821, three to Newcastle, one to Port Macquarie, which he founded in 1821, and one to the Illawarra in 1822.
The news of Blaxland, William Wentworth and Lawson's crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 and the prospect this presented for access to new lands was cause for excitement for Macquarie who saw it as a sign of the colony's glorious destiny. However, he knew that for the present, New South Wales was a small convict colony and that this destiny was firmly in the future. The Cumberland Plain was sufficient land for the small colony and enough to govern without extending it further west. In late 1813 Macquarie sent Surveyor George Evans to follow the explorers trail and officially verify, and hopefully improve on their findings. Evans travelled further than Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in that he crossed the Great Dividing Range into the interior, founding the O'Connell, Mitchell, Macquarie and Bathurst Plains. Macquarie was extremely pleased at the news of the plains and proposed to build a road to the new country. While some of Macquarie's eagerness can be attributed to his desire to visit the new country, it was also considered necessary to officially claim the region west of the mountains. The construction of Cox's Road would serve this purpose both symbolically and practically in that it laid suitable foundations for later development, and provided a means to take the colony's starving stock to the new country. Macquarie commissioned William Cox to build the new road even before permission had been received from London.
William Cox's road across the Blue Mountains reached the junction of the Lett and Cox's River in December 1814 and crossed the rivers by two bridges. The bridge over the River Lett was built in a day and was a low level bridge long and wide. The Cox's River bridge was a larger bridge finished in seven days with side beams made of large felled trees. It was long with causeways leading to it from the highlands on each side. The latter were filled with stones and covered with earth. Soon after completion of the road Governor and Mrs Macquarie, and a party of servants and dignitaries including: John Thomas Campbell Esquire, Secretary; Captain. H. C. Antill, Major of Brigade; Lieutenant. John Watts, Aid de Camp; William. Redfern Esquire, Assistant. Surgeon; William. Cox Esquire, J. P.; Sir John. Jamison, Knight; John. Oxley Esquire, Surveyor General; James. Meehan, Deputy Surveyor General; George. W. Evans, Deputy Surveyor; J. W. Lewin, Painter & Naturalist journeyed over the Blue Mountains on the new road to visit the newly accessible areas and proclaim the town of Bathurst on 7 May 1815, the first inland town of the colony.
The party departed Sydney in April 1815. On 29 April they reached the westward edge of the Blue Mountains, admiring the mountain pass he called Cox's Pass and the beautiful vale beyond which he named Vale of Clwydd. At the distant end of the vale was Cox's River, also named by Macquarie during this journey. The party proceeded and reached the river at 3pm, stopping to set up camp on the left bank of the westward branch of the river for the next two nights. The site had good grass and water for the cattle travelling with the party. The following day, Sunday 30 April, the entire travelling party was gathered after breakfast for divine service, the first Anglican service west of the Blue Mountains. The remainder of the day was spent resting or leisurely exploring. The party continued its journey to Bathurst on Monday 1 May. The party camped at the site on the return journey, arriving on 13 May. The next day, a Sunday, the party gathered for prayers before spending the day exploring the locality once again.
William Hassall crossed the mountains during the winter of 1815 to inspect the cattle herd that had been fixed to a station at the beginning of the Vale of Clywdd. He found that a number had died. Therefore, he moved the herd to a station more exposed to the morning sun, "a very pleasant hill opposite the bridge" where the Governor had camped. Hassall believed the station to be an excellent stand for oxen, although too hilly for the cows and calves. They could feed on the Vale of Clwydd, including the side towards Mount Blaxland. Hassall and the men accompanying him marked out a place for a yard and huts. By 27 March 1816 Hassall was able to inform the Governor that the men had built an excellent stockyard with a good marking pen and three huts in line with the rear of the stockyard. One was next to the yard for the stockmen, the middle hut of a similar size for the store and the next divided into two rooms, one for the soldiers and one for the overseer when he goes to inspect the stock. They were built of split logs and stringy bark shingles. The doors and shutters were made of broad split wood due to being unable to get sawyers to the site to saw boards.
In 1816 the site then known as the Government Provision Depot, was plundered by a group of Aboriginals from the other side of the Blue Mountains and the stockmen driven away. Official records do not indicate that any conflict between Aboriginal people and European expeditions and travellers took place prior to European arrival to survey Cox's Road. As a result of the 1816 incident, Macquarie sent a detachment of men from the 46th Regiment under the command of Sargeant Jeremiah Murphy to go to the depot and remain there to protect the Government stockmen, cattle and provision depot and to keep communication open between the coast and Bathurst. The regiment was instructed to ensure that Aboriginals did not come within . Permission was given to fire upon the Aboriginals to compel them to leave. If they still refused they were to be taken as prisoners and sent to Parramatta. The lives of all the women and children were to be saved where possible when an attack on "hostile natives" Aboriginals was required. The instructions to Murphy noted that rather than being local, the Aboriginals who had attacked the depot were from the eastern (Sydney) side of the Blue Mountains. It is not revealed which district they came from. No subsequent altercations were recorded at the Depot. These instructions are considered to represent the establishment of military protection at Glenroy.
The 1816 raid coincided with a spate of Aboriginal raids along the Nepean River in the first four months of 1816 and were part of a series of ongoing raids in the Nepean area since 1814. The incident at the depot is believed to be one of only four (recorded) "violent" confrontations west of the Blue Mountains between the opening of Cox's Pass in 1815 and 1822, and possibly the first. Other incidents included the possible killing of an escaped convict (location not recorded), the spearing of one of William Lawson's horses and the killing of Private James King of the 48th Regiment in unknown circumstances. The relative peace ended following the arrival of Governor Brisbane in 1821 in Sydney who, among other things, ended Macquarie's limit on inland settlement and granted settlers large tracts of land around Bathurst, assigning convicts to the settlers to work these lands. The number of sheep and cattle rose from 33,733 to 113,973 between 1821 and 1825 and alienated land increased from in the same period, placing Wiradjuri land use under threat. Attempts to find compromises failed due to the scale of the encroachment of settlement and raids by Aboriginals escalated from 1822 until 1824. Governor Brisbane declared martial law in the district in August 1824. This lasted several months before a peace was restored and martial law revoked in December 1824. While it is believed that 22 settlers were killed on the Bathurst frontier during this period, the number of Aboriginal deaths remains disputed