It was estimated by contemporary local observers, George Bridgman and Father Bucas, that in the decade from 1850 to 1860 roughly 50% percent of the original Aboriginal population of the Pioneer Valley had been killed. The Native Mounted Police were considered the major cause, shooting down the local population in the ongoing frontier wars, but introduced diseases from which the Indigneous people had no immunity, also played a key role. The general trend in the Mackay area was described lightheartedly by the aristocratic Harold Finch-Hatton: