Anti-racist activist Stephen Langford faced court on March 30, charged with trying to add a direct quote from Governor Lachlan Macquarie to the statue of Macquarie in Hyde Park, in which he outlines his determination to massacre First Nations people.
Langford has been fined and faced court many times for fixing Macquarie’s quote on the statue, with blu tack or soluable adhesive.
Currently the statute bears the words: “Major General Lachlan Macquarie Governor of NSW 1810-1824.”
Langford wanted to add the following words from Macquarie: “All Aborigines from Sydney onwards, are to be made prisoners of war and if they resist they are to be shot and their bodies hung from trees in the most conspicuous places where they fall so as to strike fear into the hearts of surviving natives.”
Langford told Green Left that it is “ridiculous that this statue remains without a message of what Macquarie really said”. He said First Nations City of Sydney councillor Yvonne Weldon had successfully moved a motion in October 2023 for five statues of colonial rulers to be reviewed, but that nothing had been done.
“They should do so immediately then I wouldn’t have to attach the truth to the statue,” Langford said.
Macquarie ordered the massacre of Dharawal and Gandangara people, who lived within the south western region of Sydney on 17 April, 1816.
This followed two years of resistance by Dharawal, Dharug and Gandangara people and was the “first military ordered massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia”, according to the Campbelltown City Council’s Appin massacre information sheet.
Macquarie wanted to “secure the Cumberland Plain to expand the colony westward beyond the mountains”. Three military detachments led expeditions in the Liverpool district, Hawkesbury, Nepean and Grose Valleys.
Supporters, including from the City of Sydney for Palestine, gathered at the court to show Langford solidarity. He was fined $220 for attempting to set the record straight.
[An Appin Massacre Memorial Event Ceremony 2026 is being held on April 19 at Cataract Dam Picnic Ground, Appin Road, Appin NSW.]
