David Collins describes the open resistance of the Indigenous people in both Sydney and the Hawkesbury area in May 1795:

At that settlement [on the Hawkesbury] an open war seemed about this time to have commenced between the natives and the settlers; and word was received over-land, that two people were killed by them . … The natives appeared in large bodies, men, women, and children, provided with blankets and nets to carry off the corn, … and seemed determined to take it whenever and wherever they could meet with opportunities. In their attacks they conducted themselves with much art; but where that failed they had recourse to force, and on the least appearance of resistance made use of their spears or clubs. To check at once, if possible, these dangerous depredators, Captain Paterson directed a party of the corps to be sent from Parramatta, with instructions to destroy as many as they could meet with of the wood tribe (Bè-dia-gal); and, in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places, whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung.

Pemulwy, or some of his party, were not idle about Sydney; they even ventured to appear within half a mile of the brickfield huts, and wound a convict who was going to a neighbouring farm on business. As one of our most frequent walks from the town was in that direction, this circumstance was rather unpleasant; but the natives were not seen there again.

(David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1, Chapter 28. London, 1798)