EARLY SETTLEMENT - William Cox, Road Builder, P.21

The present day Burrundulla Road takes you on a meander in the general Burrundulla area once owned by the Cox family and once a thriving village with a school, dairy and butter factory. A number of streets and areas carry the Cox family property names in Mudgee.

William Cox, Road Builder cont.

Along with the rest of the colony, especially those trying to settle the land west of the Blue Mountains, William Cox’s infamous words in 1824 at Bathurst contributed to the annihilation of the local Aboriginal people: “The best thing that can be done is to shoot all blacks and manure the ground with their carcasses. That is all they are fit for! It is also recommended that all the women and children be shot. That is the most certain way of getting rid of this pestilent race."  (From  Blood on the Wattle by Bruce Elder.)
However, it should be noted William Cox, the road builder, was not the only guilty person in the annihilation of the Aboriginal people. Read the Massacre section in The Wiradjuri Nation, especially the Proclamation of Martial Law. The whole Colonial Australian white race at that time was responsible for the terrible tragedy against the Wiradjuri Nation.
William Cox became quite the politician, contributing much to the colony’s growth. He was the first president of the Windsor Benevolent Society, chair of the Macquarie Memorial Fund and vice-president of the Agricultural Society.
 
Always the radical, he supported representative government, repeal of taxes, and trial by jury.
 
In 1824 his name was submitted for the proposed new Legislative Council, but he was not appointed.
 
William Cox died on March 15, 1837 and was buried with Rebecca at St Matthew’s Windsor. His sons from that marriage erected a window to his memory at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

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