as european expansion Flashcards
What were some of the ways that the Europeans claimed the land?
- Establishing new settlements
- Military outposts
- Convict settlements
- Expansion in eastern Australia
- New settler colonies — Perth and Adelaide
How did Europeans establish new settlements?
As new areas were explored by Bass and Flinders, parties of marines and convicts were sent out to set up
settlements in some of the locations they had identified. Two settlements were established in late 1803. The
first was at the mouth of the Derwent River in Tasmania.
Also in late 1803, another settlement of 455 persons, mainly convicts and marines, was established
at Port Phillip, near the modern-day Victorian town of Sorrento. However, the Port Phillip site proved
completely unsuitable: the soil was sandy and the tides made entry to the harbour difficult. At the end of
January 1804, the party moved to join the Derwent River settlement. A convict, William Buckley, was left
behind and for the next 30 years he lived with the local Aboriginal communities.
What were the military outposts for?
Military outposts were set up in remote parts of the coastal regions to prevent other countries claiming land.
They were staffed mainly by marines and some convict labourers. In 1824, military bases were first established
at Port Essington and Melville Island in what is now the Northern Territory, but these failed to survive.
A more successful settlement was established in 1826 at King George Sound on the south coast of
Western Australia. This was the first port of call for ships after sailing across the Indian Ocean, and was also
a base for American whalers. This was one of the few settlements where Aboriginal people and European
settlers were able to co-exist. This settlement is discussed in more detail in subtopic 2a.3.
What were the Convict Settlements like?
The governors in Sydney were faced with the problem of what to do with transported convicts who continued
to cause trouble. Their solution was to establish places of secondary punishment to which such troublemakers
could be sent. Three of these remote prisons were established: on Norfolk Island, established in the fi rst year of settlement; at Moreton Bay (near modern-day Brisbane); and at Port Arthur in Tasmania.
The Moreton Bay convict settlement was established in 1824 and reached its maximum convict population
of 947 in 1831. Initially, to preserve its isolation, settlement in the area by free settlers was not permitted.
However, with its convict population declining and pressure on the land from free settlers increasing, the
convict settlement was closed in 1835 and the area offi cially opened up to free settlers in 1838.
The most notorious convict colony was at Port Arthur, 60 kilometres south of Hobart. It began as a
timber station in 1830, but from 1833 to 1853 it was a convict settlement renowned for its severe treatment
of convicts, with the use of both physical punishments and psychological torture.
What was the expansion in eastern Australia like?
Until 1815, apart from the settlements on Norfolk Island, Hobart and Launceston, most colonists lived within
60 kilometres of Sydney. However, with the crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, and the completion of
a road across the mountains two years later, the inland plains were opened fi rst to explorers and, very soon,
to settlers following in their footsteps. Bathurst was established as a city in 1815 and the Goulburn area was
settled in the early 1820s. In the north, the New England area was also settled in the early 1820s and the
fi rst settlers established stations on the rich black soil of the Darling Downs of south-eastern Queensland in
1840. To the south, the grasslands south of the Murray, called the Port Phillip District, were settled.
In Tasmania most of the pastoral land available had been claimed by the 1830s and, in October 1834,
James Henty landed on Portland Bay on the southern coast of Victoria. This had been a port used by sealers
and whalers, but Henty now claimed 20 000 acres (8100 hectares) for grazing his sheep. At the end of May
in the following year, John Batman left Launceston with seven Sydney Aboriginal people and went through
a process of ‘negotiation’ with the local Aboriginal peoples to purchase land from them. In August of the
same year, another party led by John Fawkner landed on the southern part of Port Phillip Bay.
What were the new settler colonies — Perth and Adelaide?
A group of financiers in England drew up plans to establish a new type of colony that would be a
settlement of free people and not need convict labour. One of the people promoting this settlement was a
naval officer, Captain James Stirling (1791–1865), who had spent two weeks in 1827 exploring the Swan
River on the continent’s south-western coast. Plans were drawn up to establish a colony where people were
given far greater land grants than in the early days of the settlement at Sydney in the hope that this would
allow them to be more productive.
At Swan River on 29 May 1829, Captain C.H. Fremantle took possession of the whole of Australia that was not included within the boundaries of New South Wales. James Stirling requested that he be made
Lieutenant Governor of the new colony. He proclaimed the foundation of the colony on 18 June 1829.
However, from the start the colony struggled to survive. It was isolated, and the sandy soil was more
suitable for running sheep than growing food. During Stirling’s ten-year term as governor the population
never reached more than 3000.
The situation had become so desperate that in 1850, on its inhabitants’ request, it became a convict
settlement at the same time that other colonies were no longer accepting convicts. Convicts continued to
arrive until 1868.
In 1829, the same year that the Swan River settlement was formed, the National Colonisation Society
in England began making plans for a colony in South Australia. One of its leaders was Edward Wakefi eld
(1796–1862). His plan was for settlers to buy land instead of being given grants; the money from these
sales would be used to develop the colony. He also believed that if people paid for their land there would
be an added inducement to make sure it made a profit.
In England, by the late 1820s, there were new attitudes developing towards settlement in Australia.
Important factors in these changes of attitude included:
- The wars with France were over but there was high unemployment as soldiers returned to civilian life.
- Attitudes to slavery and prisons were changing. There was now far more emphasis on the reform
aspects of prisons rather than just being for punishment. - The Americans were now competing with the British in the cotton industry and British textile
manufacturers were turning to wool. Australia was gaining a reputation as an excellent source for fi ne wool. - Pressure was building up for parliamentary reform and, in the Great Reform Act of 1832, the number
of men able to vote doubled. However, electors were still a small minority of the adult male population
because you needed to be very rich to vote.
In 1834 the British Parliament passed the first South Australia Act and further refinements were made in 1842.
Two distinctive features of the act were:
- Once the population of the colony reached 50 000 it would have its own constitution and be
self-governing. - In a hand-written attachment (see Source 4), Aboriginal occupants were to keep their rights over their
land.
