The cannon were landed and could have travelled to Parramatta but military research data shows that boomerang throwers moved more rapidly than gun-aimers could alter the cannon's range and bearing. Gum trees were a particular hazard for NSW Marine Corps Detachment.

It appears that some Indigenous Ratepayers were indignant and irate at footpath maintenance by Parramatta Colonial Good Works and Charity Settlement. Along with central links for welfare and gold digging on the family farm , this led to Aboriginal customers lodging complaints,spears and the occasional friendly bullet.

Nick,

Fascinating. Can you cite that research ? In any genuine academic journal ?

Funny, I don't recall any mention of footpaths, even after fifty thousand years. Why were they irate ? Were they laid with too little irony and sarcasm ?

Joe

"fort , .. are to protect those inside them, not to go forth and aggress against innocent locals. "
Did Edward I build castles in Wales for showcasing English arts and crafts ? Was Stirling castle for highland bagpipe and haggis Grand Final , where Robert Bruce kept his poultry, fowls and chickens.?

Sadly the "military data " about boomerang troops was dud , sorry about that. They did have cannon at Parramatta redoubt which had Aboriginals but not Russians . Dunno , English tended to make Welsh and Scots chuck things , quite unreasonable.

"In July 1788 Lieutenant William Dawes was directed by Governor Phillip to construct a redoubt
near present day Macquarie Place. This was completed in November and a flagstaff and two 6
pounder brass cannons from HMS Sirius emplaced.. It is highly likely that the 6
pounder brass gun at Victoria Barracks is one of the guns emplaced at the redoubt in 1788
and hence is of very high significance to the history of European settlement of Australia.
The first recording of brass SBML 6 pounder guns appears in 1788 when two were emplaced in a
redoubt near present day Macquarie Place, Sydney. By 1801 there are four 6 pounder brass field
piece guns recorded. Two at Barrack Parade and one each at Sydney Guard House and Parramatta."

OK then Charles what do you put on the 2 cannon ? A$ please not pom pounds .

Isn't it amazing what we take for granted ? It just truck me, being of fairly feeble brain in today's 41-degree heat, that I always assumed that the vast majority of the SA Aboriginal population came from Missions (and government settlements). It struck me like a smack in the chops only a few years ago, working on the Protector's Letters, that this may not have been so, although it fitted the notion of people being herded onto Missions.

But looking back at the 1971 Census, I vaguely noticed that there were supposed to be about nine thousand Aboriginal people in South Australia. Going back just a few years, there were about five Missions/settlements around the State, Pt McLeay of course, Pt Pearce, Umeewarra at Port Augusta, Koonibba west of Ceduna and Ernabella up in the North-West. I knew that, at a maximum, none of them had a population over three hundred. Okay, that's a maximum of fifteen hundred back in, say, 1950, out of maybe eight thousand back then.

So even bending the figures a bit, barely 20 % of the Aboriginal population were based at Missions or settlements. The other 80 % were scattered around in country towns, and in Adelaide - and there were probably many more in Adelaide than anybody realised.

My point is that one can accept something without thinking of it too deeply, even when it glaringly conflicts with another aspect of reality, if one thought about it. Two different realities, in other words, in the one head.

If we have no particular reason not to, we believe what we hear or are told: if it sort of makes sense, we run with it. We don't carefully analyse everything before we accept it.

Just ruminating in the infernal heat ......

Joe

win, win. Yes some were in missions and some not. One line of reasoning is gunpowder and Brown Bess used in American discussions in 1776. A typical broadside of a Royal Navy ship of the late 18th century could be fired 2–3 times in approximately 5 minutes, .

We don't know the rate of fire at Parramatta during shire council votes.

Brown Bess
Cartridge 0.69 inches (18 mm) musket ball, undersized to reduce the effects of powder fouling
Action Flintlock
Rate of fire User dependent; usually 3 to 4 rounds a minute
Muzzle velocity Variable
Effective firing range Variable (50–100 yards)

The first frontier war began in 1795 when the British established farms along the Hawkesbury River west of Sydney. Some of these settlements were established by soldiers as a means of providing security to the region. The local Darug people raided farms until Governor Macquarie dispatched troops from the British Army 46th Regiment in 1816. These troops patrolled the Hawkesbury Valley and ended the conflict by killing 14 Indigenous Australians in a raid on their campsite.Indigenous Australians led by Pemulwuy also conducted raids around Parramatta during the period between 1795 and 1802. These attacks led Governor Philip Gidley King to issue an order in 1801 which authorised settlers to shoot Indigenous Australians on sight in Parramatta, Georges River and Prospect areas."

Cannon don't have sights , a bit hit or miss.

Thanks Nick,

Of course, the next step in promoting an assertion which may conflict with one compartment of one's brain but is accepted by another, is to get it up on Wikipedia. It looks authoritative up there. It doesn't have to have any back-up evidence. And just being up there, makes it even more certain in one's schema. It has gained cachet.

Then along comes Nick ....

Joe