It was the beginning of the nineteenth century in Australia, and a number of early settlers, bringing some wealth with them from the old country, took up holdings in various parts of the region on what appeared to be good grazing land. These early settlements were created with minimal resistance from the original Aboriginal owners of the land, because they usually moved their campsites further away into the bush to escape detection. Aboriginal people were not very numerous in the area where this story began, and certainly presented no real threat to anyone. But because some of the settlers were becoming increasingly annoyed with the disappearance of a few of their sheep, they eventually decided to hold a meeting to discuss what could be done about it.