User:Fj42/St John's Anglican Church Precinct

St John's Anglican Church Precinct is an exceptional group of ecclesiastical buildings set in a beautiful landscape of mature and exotic tree plantings and open grassed slopes. The precinct is an important regional landmark and along with the Camden Park House and the township of Camden express the power structures the Macarthur Family wished to instill in the local community. The focal point of the precinct is St John's the Evangelist Church deliberately placed to dominate the historic Camden township. The Macarthur Family funded the construction of most of the buildings and heavily patronised the operation of the church throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The land of the precinct is a remnant of Macarthur Family gifts.

Traditional Owners
The Camden district sits on the boundaries of of three Aboriginal groups. The Gandangara to the west and south, the Dharawal/Tharawal to the south and east and the Darug to the north. The naming and grouping of the people is complex and uncertain. The plight of these people is poorly documented as contemporary accounts record the events from the settler's perspective. There are reports of 70% mortality due to smallpox with mystery about the source of the disease. There is an account of the tragedy of these people and the destruction of their way of life called 'The Dharawal and Gandangara in colonial Campbelltown, New South Wales, 1788-1830'

Cattle Lost
The story begins with wild cows. In 1787, the First Fleet took on livestock in Cape Town amongst the animals were some black Cape Cattle (probably Drakensbergers). David Collins wrote "the black cattle were large, very strong, and remarkable for the great space between their horns". Later, he noted "On November 8th 1787 1 bull, 1 bull-calf, 7 cows were embarked on board the Sirius into stalls". However Phillp King states November 10 was the boarding day and the numbers were 1 bull, 1 bull-calf and 6 cows. The animals were polled to prevent injury during the voyage. The trip from the Cape was good, "but even this good fortune was not enough to preserve the Cattle on board the Sirius, which were so badly provided for as to be nearly starved, three of the Cows calved on the passage the whole of which died, the Cows having scarce sufficient to keep themselves alive, could not support the young; One of the Cows big with calf also died before we made the Land" in January, 1788. Upon landing the small held pastured in the area known as the Domain. Two bulls and four cows were lost in early June 1788, Collins attrbutes the loss to "some strange and unpardonable neglect in the convict who had been entrusted with the care of the cattle". It seems the convict was accustomed to leaving the cattle unsupervised during his lunch break. By September all hope of recovering the cattle was lost and the one remaining cow became unmanageable and was shot.

Cattle Found
In 1795 the wild cattle were found thriving, south of the Nepean River. The area became known as the Cowpastures.