In 1838 due to 'outrages' on the recently opened overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip (Melbourne) through Aboriginal country and to the north, Governer Gipps increased numbers of Mounted Police recruited from the military, and established more bases for them along the 3 major overland routes north, west and south. In the Australasian Chronicle on 22 Nov 1839 Major Nunn, the Commandant of the Mounted Police, reported on the locations and numbers of police, saying that their establishment had been complete, with the proviso that Wellington, Mudgee, Yalbreth and Yass were temporarily withdrawn due to exhorbitant costs. This was a precursor to the bloodiest decade of the Australian Wars, the 1840s.
