Windradyne (c. 1800 – 21 March 1829) was an Aboriginal warrior and resistance leader of the Wiradjuri nation, in what is now central-western New South Wales, Australia; he was also known to the British settlers as Saturday.

When Windradyne visited Parramatta to meet with Governor Thomas Brisbane in December 1824, the Sydney Gazette (using the British appellation for him of Saturday) wrote that: He is one of the finest looking natives we have seen in this part of the country.

He is not particularly tall, but is much stouter and more proportionably [sic] 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.

[1] Writing in his obituary, George Suttor described Windradyne's appearance and character as: ... a man who never suffered an injury with impunity, in his estimation revenge was virtue, his head, his countenance, indeed his whole person, which was admirable formed, was a fine specimen of the savage warrior of New Holland. ...

his height was near 6 feet, he was of a brave but impetuous disposition ...[3]Hostilities between the Indigenous Australians and the British settlers began just a few months after the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, with casualties on both sides occurring as early as May 1788.

For the first twenty-five years of British settlement, the Wiradjuri's land in the central part of New South Wales remained isolated from the settlers due to the intervening barrier of the Blue Mountains.

[8] From a peak later named Mount Blaxland, the explorers claimed to have seen "enough grass to support the stock of the colony for thirty years" on the other side of the mountains[7]—the Wiradjuri country.

Later that year Governor Lachlan Macquarie sent his surveyor George Evans to confirm the findings of the explorers, and in 1814 commissioned a road to be built across the Blue Mountains, which was completed in early 1815.

Evans wrote in his journal: Returning we saw smoke on the North side of the River, at Sun sett as we were fishing I saw some Natives coming down the Plain; they did not see us until we surprised them; there was only two Women and four Children, the poor Creatures trembled and fell down with fright; I think they were coming for Water; I gave them what Fish we had, some Fish Hooks, Twine and a Tomahawk, they appeared glad to get from us; two Boys ran away; the other small Children cried much at first; a little while after I played with them they began to be good humoured and laugh ...[11]Macquarie himself met with some members of the Wiradjuri camped at what would become Bathurst on his trip in 1815, making a positive report about their skills and nature, concluding with "They appear to be very inoffensive and cleanly in their persons",[12] a quite positive assessment for the time.

Macquarie's aide, Major Antill, also remarked positively of the Wiradjuri, writing in his journal "They appear to be a harmless and inoffensive race, with nothing forbidding or ferocious in their countenance ...

On 10 May he wrote: After breakfasting this morning we were visited by three male natives of the country, all very handsome good looking young men, and whom we had not seen before ... 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.

Brisbane favoured a faster pace of settlement, and a flood of settlers were granted land in the region; their influx quickly strained the available resources, as well as relationships with Wiradjuri people.

[13] In December 1823 'Saturday' was implicated as the instigator of hostilities that led to the death of two convict stockmen at Kings Plain;[1] outraged settlers appealed for military assistance, and soldiers were dispatched to arrest him.

He had proved himself their friend on previous occasions ...[4]The revenge attack on the settler, Samuel Terry, occurred on 24 May at Millah Murrah in the Wyagdon Ranges north of Bathurst, where he and six other stockmen were killed, with his hut burnt down, and his sheep and cattle slaughtered.

While there were reports of massacres of warriors as they attempted to bury their dead, the main victims appear to have been the Wiradjuri women and children, shot, poisoned, and driven into gorges.

[1] With the loss of so many warriors and the severe damage caused to their society, Windradyne gathered the Wiradjuri again and determined to meet with the Governor to seek a formal end to hostilities.

The Wiradjuri people decided that would be an ideal and safe venue for the proposed meeting, with a large number of the Aboriginal community from throughout the colony present, and the Governor on the spot, therefore making any reprisals against Windradyne unlikely.

There appeared to be 7 or 8 different tribes that flocked in from various quarters of the Colony ... His Excellency the Governor, attended by His Staff, honoured the aboriginal groupe [sic] with His presence about noon; at which time there were nearly 260 men and women in a circle, exclusive of numbers of fine children.

He is supposed to have suffered severely from unusual agitation, in consequence of the efforts that were resorted to for his apprehension, owing to which he is said to have decreased so considerably in size as not to be above half the man he was previous to the commencement of the recent sanguinary contests.

We should have remarked that Saturday wore a straw hat, on which was affixed a label, with the word "PEACE" inserted, besides a little branch representing the olive, which rather increased the interest as regarded him.

[5]A number of factors indicate a British influence on Windradyne here, possibly that of the Suttors—the straw hat with the word peace in English, the olive branch, even the knowledge that he would be relatively safe at the feast.

[1][3] An anonymous author writing from "B-------e" on 24 March 1829—thought to be George Suttor from 'Brucedale Station'—sent a biography of "Saturday" to The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser that was published on 21 April of that year.

He continued talking to his countrymen, till life was extinct, in the hospital at Bathurst, near which place he was buried, his body wrapped in his mantle, and his weapons deposited in that grave ...[3]It concluded with a Latin quotation from Terence, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alicuum puto, meaning "I am a man, I consider nothing human as alien to me".

They claimed that Windradyne removed his bandages and discharged himself from the hospital, returning to his homeland and his people, who were camped on the Suttor's Brucedale Station about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of Bathurst.

A Wiradjuri burial site on Brucedale Station containing two graves was marked by the Bathurst District Historical Society in 1954 with a monument, plaque, and stone axe-head as the "resting place of Windradene [sic]".