Many convicts in the Castle Hill area…

Many convicts in the Castle Hill area had been involved in the 1798 rebellions in Ireland and subsequently transported as exiles-without-trial to the Colony of New South Wales from late 1799.

Phillip Cunningham, a veteran of the 1798 rebellion, and William Johnston, another Irish convict at Castle Hill, plan an uprising in which over six hundred and eighty-five convicts at Castle Hill intend to meet with nearly eleven hundred convicts from the Hawkesbury River area, rally at Constitution Hill, and march on Parramatta, then Sydney (Port Jackson) itself.

According to Helen Mackay, their goal was to establish Irish rule in the colony and obtain ships for those that wanted to return to Ireland to help revive the failed Irish Rebellion of 1803.

John Cavenah sets fire to his hut at Castle Hill at 8:00 on the evening of March 4, 1804, as the signal for the rebellion to begin.

While this fire is not seen by the convicts at Green Hills, today's Windsor, on the Hawkesbury River, Cunningham activates the plan to gather weapons, ammunition, food and recruits from local supporters and the government farm at Castle Hill.

With Cunningham leading, about two hundred to three hundred rebels break into the Government Farm's buildings, taking firearms, ammunition, and other weapons.

The constables and overseers are overpowered and the rebels now go from farm to farm on their way to Constitution Hill at Parramatta, seizing more weapons and supplies including rum and spirits, and recruiting others to join their cause.

Their move had been informed from the intelligence gathered a year previous when twelve convicts decamped from Castle Hill, scouring the surrounding districts seeking out friends and sympathizers.

On capture each and every one had the same story—they were heading to China by crossing over the Blue Mountains.

When news of the uprising spreads there is great panic among the colony of around five thousand inhabitants with officials such as Samuel Marsden fleeing the area by boat, escorting Elizabeth Macarthur and her children, as an informer had advised that an attack will be made on the farm to draw troops away from Parramatta.