The design bears the Government imprimatur of a Ducal Crown set between two sprigs of leaves

Medium
Collectables

Literature
Following the successful first crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, encouraging reports of the vast grasslands on the western plains led to a visit in 1814 by George Evans, the Deputy Surveyor of Lands of the Colony of New South Wales. Evans was suitably impressed and thought that the lands were so vital to the expansion of the Colony that they deserved to be named the ‘Bathurst Plains’ after Lord Bathurst, the British Secretary for War, and the Colonies. Settlement was slow to begin with, and the small numbers of colonists coexisted peacefully with the native Wiradjuri people. However, in November 1821 the numbers of settlers and livestock increased dramatically when Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane granted temporary grazing rights to settlers by way of 200 ‘tickets of occupation’ covering 100,000 acres of Wiradjuri land. These rights were given to well-connected individuals, such as George Innes and Captain John Piper, whose holdings of 2,000 acres each were later converted to full land grants in 1823. The traditional way of life and customs of the Wiradjuri people were soon under threat, and from 1822 they began a campaign of guerrilla attacks on property outstations, including one owned by the explorer William Lawson, whose worker, William Mowbray, was killed in an attack. Acting on the advice of Lawson, Governor Brisbane issued King Plates to the heads of the five tribes of the Bathurst region in an effort to stem the attacks. Still, skirmishes continued until 1824, when the introduction of Martial Law forced the Aborigines to broker peace, bringing an end to the Bathurst War. Three of the Brisbane plates have been identified in private collections: Thommy Weavers, King of Curvy, Kangaroo Swamp; King Wagor-Day, Black Rock, Bathurst & Jacob, King of Bathurst, and evidence would suggest that this plate is another that was issued by Governor Brisbane and with the title of ‘King of Bathurst Plains’, is perhaps the most important. Like the other three that have been sighted, it is sand-cast with a crescent moon shape. But unlike the others, it bears the imprimatur of a Ducal Crown set between two sprigs of leaves mirroring the military gorgets worn by officers in the British regiments between 1760 and 1830, which feature at their centre the Royal Crown of George III. The significance of the Ducal Crown is important because it is subservient to the Royal Crown and was used on other early King Plates to signal that the recipient was a servant of the King of England. It’s this formalised style used on this plate presented to ‘Jackey Jones King of Bathurst Plains', which confirms that it was a government-issued plate, as distinct from those distributed by private landholders. And, of course, as a Brisbane plate issued during the ‘Bathurst War’, it ranks of great historical importance.