Pemulwuy
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- For the Sydney suburb named after Pemulwuy see Pemulwuy, New South Wales
Pemulwuy (born about 1758, died 1802) 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.
Pemulwuy is believed to have been a member of the Bediagal (Bidjigal) clan of the Darug people.
In 1790 he speared Governor Philip's gamekeeper John MacIntire, who is believed to have killed Aborigines. MacIntire later died. An expedition was organised in retaliation but failed to find any Aborigines.
From 1792 Pemulwuy led raids on settlers from Parramatta to the Hawkesbury River. In 1797 he was wounded and captured by an African convict named John Caesar after a raid on the government farm at Toongabbie. Despite having buckshot in his head and body and wearing a leg-iron, he managed to escape from hospital.
In November 1801 Governor Philip Gidley King outlawed Pemulwuy and offered a reward for his death or capture.
In 1802 Pemulwuy was shot by Henry Hacking.
Pemulwuy's head was severed, 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 1805.
Pemulwuy's skull is believed to have been returned to Australia in the 1950s but has since been lost. In 1998 a skull was identified as Pemulwuys, 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 and its return to Australia with an ongoing controversy is remarkably similar to that of Yagan, a Western Australian Noongar who was killed there 30 years later.
Australian writer David Dale wrote an alternate history in which Pemulwuy succeeded in his struggle and drove away the white settlers (see [1]).
