Editing Mudgee (section)

===Early British colonisation (1821 to 1850)===
[[File:Mudgee Post Office (2712968826).jpg|thumb|left|Mudgee post office]]
James Blackman, leading a small expedition in the latter half of 1821, was the first British colonist to enter the Mudgee district.<ref name="adb">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Greaves|first=Bernard|title=Blackman, James (1792–1868)|id2=blackman-james-1790|access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref> Not long after, Lieutenant [[William Lawson (explorer)|William Lawson]] who was then commandant of [[Bathurst, New South Wales|Bathurst]], made several further expeditions to Mudgee. Both Blackman and Lawson found the site to be an Aboriginal settlement or ''bimmel'' inhabited by around 100 people who called the area ''Mudgee'' or ''Mujjee''.<ref name="gapps" /><ref>{{Citation| author1=H. Selkirk| title=The Discovery of Mudgee| journal=Journal and Proceedings| year=1920| issn=1325-9261| volume=6| location=Sydney | publisher=Royal Australian Historical Society| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-593173379| id=nla.obj-593173379| access-date=16 January 2022 | via=Trove}}</ref>

In February 1822, George and Henry Cox, sons of [[William Cox (pioneer)|William Cox]], followed the trails set up by Blackman and Lawson with 500 head of livestock, and established a grazing property at [[Menah]], {{convert|3|km|mi|abbr=on}} north of the current town. The Coxes were soon in conflict with the Mudgee clan who drove away their workers and livestock. George Cox gathered some men at Bathurst and returned to Menah where a two hour fight later ensued, resulting in six Mudgee people being killed and one of Cox's employees being speared to death.<ref name="gapps" />

The violence in the region worsened in June 1824, when Theophilus Chamberlain, who was the Coxes' superintendent of their Mudgee property holdings, led a number of punitive expeditions against the local Aboriginal people. A skirmish at Guntawang to the north of Mudgee resulted in some settlers being killed, with around 70 or more Aboriginal people dying in follow up raids. [[Martial law]] was declared by Governor [[Thomas Brisbane]] in August 1824, leading to further killings of the Wiradjuri people in the Mudgee area. Descendants and workers of the Coxes later described this period as one where "an immense number of natives, men, women and children were slaughtered" and "the bodies of the blacks were piled together and burnt...like old tar barrels". The violence forced the Coxes to abandon Guntawang, and relieving Chamberlain of his duties, they shifted their enterprise to nearby Dabee.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264003075 |title=A Reminiscence. |newspaper=The Bligh Watchman And Coonabarabran Gazette |volume=24 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=29 August 1900 |accessdate=16 January 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157616186 |title=Mudgee in the Early Days. |newspaper=[[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]] |volume=XIV |issue=1499 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 September 1907 |accessdate=16 January 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/engage-learn/schools/classroom-resources/multimedia/interactives/bells_falls_gorge_html/cabinet_items/transcript_declaration_of_martial_law|title=Transcript: Declaration of Martial Law|website=nma.gov.au|access-date=26 September 2016}}</ref><ref name="gapps" />

The Cox family remained prominent landholders around Mudgee for many decades, owning the Dabee, Menah and Burrundulla properties. William Lawson and his descendants also continued to be leading pastoralists in the region, holding estates such as [[Putta Bucca]] and Havilah.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157751144 |title=The late Mr. N. S. Lawson |newspaper=[[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]] |volume=XLIV |issue=2026 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 December 1912 |accessdate=16 January 2022 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

The site of the Mudgee township was surveyed in 1837 and the first land sales occurred in August 1838. It has been incorrectly claimed that [[Robert Hoddle]] designed the village. Although Hoddle was the first surveyor in the region, marking out the boundaries of Putta Bucca and Bombira, by the time the village was gazetted, he had already left the district to become leader of the Port Phillip Survey.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story/2219836/streets-of-mudgee-robert-hoddle-and-mick-lahy-credit-where-credit-is-due|title=Mudgee Guardian|date=15 April 2014|access-date=11 June 2017}}</ref> John Blackman built a slab hut, the first dwelling in Mudgee and its general store.<ref>{{cite web|last=Yap|first=Brian|title=John Blackman|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~yewenyi/426.htm|work=Freepages|publisher=Ancestry.com|access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref>

By 1841 there were 36 dwellings, three hotels, a hospital, a post office, two stores and an Anglican church. St John's Church of England was consecrated on 6 May 1841.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162113751 |title=ST. JOHN'S, MUDGEE |newspaper=[[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]] |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=4 June 1936 |access-date=31 October 2017 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The police station moved from Menah in the mid-1840s and an Anglican school was established in that decade.