[2] Four hundred British settlers moved onto the lands of the Darug people along the Hawkesbury River in 1794 and began to construct farms.

[3] Indigenous people saw the corn on their land as a replacement carbohydrate of the yams and when it ripened, both men and women began carried it off in nets and later blankets.

[4][5] An Indigenous boy was killed by settlers and Governor Arthur Phillip had previously ordered that Aboriginal people remain unharmed, so Lieutenant John Macarthur held an inquiry into the murder.

Indigenous people probably heard the screams, then in retribution attacked the settlers' neighbours, who survived the incident and this was possibly a case of mistaken identity.

The people killed were unfortunately the most friendly of the blacks, and one of them more than once saved the life of a white man.In May 1795 New South Wales Corps soldiers fought against Indigenous Darug warriors at Richmond Hill.

Acting Governor William Patterson deployed 62 soldiers to the Hawkesbury River with the instruction to hang any Aboriginal they could find and to drive others away.

[4][5][7] A memorial garden exists at St John of God Hospital Richmond commemorating Aboriginal victims of the battle and colonial violence across the region.

The settlers used the word yam to describe edible plants with carbohydrate-rich fleshy parts that grow underground, such as tubers, rhizomes, corms or bulbs.

A more common yam was the vine plant Dioscorea transversa, which was found in woodland areas of the Cumberland Plains, but not along the river.