Battle of Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill Memorial, Castlebrook Memorial Garderns, Windsor Road Rouse Hill

On the morning of Monday 5 March 1804 men in drab convict clothes moved through the trees of Castle Hill in an area mostly unsettled, carrying guns, pitchforks and poles. It was the first battle between convicts and soldiers on Australian soil. Convicts were mainly Irish, who were working on the government farm at Toongabbie.

No one could miss the red coated soldiers under the leadership of Major George Johnston. Soldiers and their civilian supporters strode along the Windsor Road after a quick march from Sydney Town during the night. Governor King had been warned that a band of Irish convicts had broken out of the Castle Hill Barracks the night before with the intention of joining other rebel convicts and marching firstly on Parramatta and then on to Sydney to seize ships in the harbour and had planned to commandeer a ship home to Ireland.

News of the uprising spread quickly to Sydney and Governor King dispatched soldiers of the NSW Regiment. The rebels never made it to Parramatta but turned away towards the north-west. Major Johnston caught up with them and more than 10 convicts were killed and nine court-martialed and hanged over the next few days. None of the Government forces were killed or wounded. Phillip Cunningham was badly wounded and was hanged without trial on the steps of the government store. His grave is located at Windsor, in Sydney's west. William Johnston and two fellow convicts were hung at Castle Hill.  Cunningham, at first thought to have died during the skirmish, Rest of the convicts were returned to imprisonment.

Many convicts were political prisoners and were members of the United Irishmen's Society. They were concentrated in the Barracks at Castle Hill to work on the Government Farm. In the farm they were planning for the freedom.

Unfortunately plans were easier to make than to carry out. It was very difficult to get word to the other convict barracks and to sympathisers in the towns. It was impossible to stop an informer from going to the authorities in Parramatta.

Vinegar Hill was named after a similar hill in Ireland, which was also the scene of battle in the 1798 United Irishmen's uprising. Some of the rebels at Sydney's Vinegar Hill were veterans of the Irish Vinegar Hill. In 1988, a monument was erected at the site of Vinegar Hill and the names of many politicians and councilors at the time. In 2004 another plaque was placed having the names of the men who lost their lives on 5 March 1804.