Following the successful Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth expedition to find a route through the "impenetrable" Blue Mountains in 1813, this allowed the colony to expand onto the vast fertile plains of the west.

The enormous influx of British colonists put massive strain on the traditional food sources[citation needed] and sacred landmarks of the Wiradjuri.

[2] Attempts to cross the Blue Mountains had been made from 1790 onwards with convicts seeking a way to escape and adventurers eager to explore the region.

The Wiradjuri inhabited an area bounded by the Blue Mountains in the east, the western slopes in the south, and the change of open forest to grassy plains in the north and west.

The tribes led by Windradyne lived in the eastern parts of this territory, connected to the other groups by a common language as well as cultural and trade links.

Macquarie wrote: "We found here also three male natives and four boys of this newly discovered tract of country, who showed great surprise, mixed with no small degree of fear, at seeing so many strangers, horses and carriages but to whom they soon appeared to be reconciled on being kindly spoken to.

In his journal, Macquarie writes of being visited by three male natives and that "to the best looking and stoutest of them I gave a piece of yellow cloth in exchange for his mantle, which he presented me with".

[citation needed] Following Governor Brisbane's decision to open the flood gates to the west of the Blue Mountains, various attacks were soon made against the growing settlement.

In 1822, Wiradjuri warriors attacked a station on the Cudgegong River in which they drove away the stockman, let the cattle out of the yard and killed several of the sheep.

[14]In early 1824, on the river flats opposite the town of Bathurst, a farmer, Antonio Hose Rodrigues, in a friendly gesture offered a group of passing Wiradjuri people some potatoes.

[15] One settler account describes an encounter that took place soon after the Potato Field Incident: Our hut was one day surrounded by a large party of blacks, fully equipped for war, under the leadership of their great fierce chief and warrior, named by the whites ‘Saturday’.

While Windradyne and his warriors engaged the area north-east of Bathurst, to the south related tribes also attacked, terrorising settlers and driving off cattle.

Governor Brisbane's declaration read: WHEREAS THE ABORIGINAL NATIVES of the Districts near Bathurst have for many Weeks past carried on a Series of indiscriminate Attacks on the Stock Station there, putting some of the Keepers to cruel Deaths, wounding others, and dispersing and plundering the Flocks and Herds; themselves not escaping sanguinary Retaliations.

AND WHEREAS the ordinary Powers of the CIVIL MAGISTRATES (although most anxiously exerted) have failed to protect the Lives of HIS MAJESTY'S Subjects; and every conciliatory Measure has been pursued in vain; and the Slaughter of Black Women and Children and Unoffending White Men, as well as of the lawless Objects of Terror, continue to threaten the before mentioned Districts; AND WHEREAS by Experience, it hath been found that mutual Bloodshed may be stopped by the Use of Arms against the Natives beyond the ordinary Rule of Law in Time of Peace, and for this End Resort to summary Justice has become necessary: NOW THEREFORE, by Virtue of the Authority in me vested by His Majesty's Royal Commission, I do declare, in Order to restore Tranquillity, MARTIAL LAW TO BE IN ALL THE COUNTRY WESTWARD OF MOUNT YORK; And all Soldiers are hereby ordered to assist and obey their lawful Superiors in suppressing the Violences aforesaid; and all His Majesty's Subjects are also called upon to assist the MAGISTRATES in executing such Measures, as any one or more of the said Magistrates shall direct to be taken for the same purpose, by such Ways and Means as are expedient, so long as Martial Law shall last; being always mindful that the Shedding of Blood is only just, where all other Means of Defence or of Peace are exhausted; that Cruelty is never Lawful; and that, when personal Attacks become necessary, the helpless Women and Children are to be spared.

Bolstered by a local settler militia, the detachment began conducting several sweeps across the landscape to restore order and enforce martial law.

However, these proved to have little impact on Wiradjuri or settler activities; according to historian W. H. Suttor, "The proclamation of martial law was as undecipherable to the natives as an Egyptian hieroglyph".

He is not particularly tall but much stouter and more proportionable limbed than the majority of his countrymen; which combined with a noble looking countenance and piercing eye, are calculated to impress the beholder with other than disagreeable feelings towards a character who has been so much dreaded by the Bathurst settler.

He goes on to say that 'it is impossible perhaps at all times to prevent the infliction of injury upon them by individuals and...if justice cannot always be done, it deserves consideration upon such occasion whether the wrong may not be repaired by compensation.

'[25] Colonel William Stewart, appointed Head of NSW Police and Lt Governor of the Colony helped oversee some of the government response to the Bathurst Uprising.

[27] At the conclusion of the war, the NSW colonial government also recognized the need to have a mounted infantry to effectively place the frontier under British control.