Bathurst, where the spirits prowl and whisper painful, bloody truths | Paul Daley

Indigenous warrior Windradyne is buried outside the city where ‘so many bad things happened in colonial times’

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Dinawan Dyirribang wanders across the dusty, baked crown of the heights of Wahluu. He points out an ancient scar tree – one of his ancestors having long, long ago stripped it of some bark for a basket or perhaps a shield – and an old grinding stone, all the while speaking in his whispery, warm voice about the restless spirits.

He says the spirits are all over the peak of this place known to motorcar racing fans the world over as Mount Panorama. Just as they are about the majestic New South Wales colonial city of Bathurst – Australia’s oldest European inland settlement – that stretches out in a grid on the plains below.

Related: Australia’s frontier war killings still conveniently escape official memory | Paul Daley

The city is a monument, staggering for its beauty, captivating in its rustic colonial charm

Related: Pressure builds for a national keeping place for Indigenous remains | Paul Daley

Related: Map of massacres of Indigenous people reveals untold history of Australia, painted in blood

It is a classic sibling rivalry story, something like our Cain and Abel

Poisoned dampers had been purposefully left exposed in shepherds’ huts in order to tempt the blacks to steal and eat

This was the moment – the spark that ignited the fire for Windradyne

Related: If we are to recognise heroes, where are the stories of Aboriginal courage? | Tony Birch

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