The Birth Of British Australia 1788-1829 Flashcards
Why did the British go to Australia
The Industrial Revolution in Britain led to more poverty which led to more crime. From this, crime increased and prisons became full. Australia was formed as a penal colony to send prisoners
What was transportation
Sentence given to criminals
Why choose Australia
So far away and could forget about the convicts
How many transported over the whole tome
160k
Why was NSW chosen
Due to flat, fertile land, free flak
Joseph banks role
• took part in the voyage - he was interested in plants that could be used for practical purposes
• instrumental in recommending and establishing Australia as a penal colony.
• wanted to use hemp as a product
When we’re first ships sent
May 1788
Info on the first fleet
11 ships arrived in 1788, 250 days after departure, 1.4k people, 15k miles, youngest person 9, oldest 82
42 died on journey
Governor responsible for first fleet
Arthur Philip 1788-92
How did Philips create the initial settlement
• priority was to find water and create a settlement
• despite cooks promises, no fresh water source at Botany Bay and soil not suitable for cultivation of British crops.
• had to keep moving into Sydney cove.
• survived relying on aboriginal people who they traded British goods for kangaroo meat
How did Philips allocate labour
Allocated work based on skills he found among criminals
Educated convicts were set to the work of record keeping for the convict administration.
Some success of Philips first settlement
• 1821 growing number of freed convicts who were appointed to position of trust and responsibility
• convicts also worked on the land for free settlers
• gave priority to the construction of necessary buildings
• rewarded signs of industry by personal condemnation and sometimes appointed to positions of trust
• interested himself in life of aboriginals
Failures of Philips first settlement
• lack of equipment led to slow progress
• community dependent on overseas supplies for most of its needs
• effective discipline vital
• things turned sour with aboriginals
Second fleet
6 ships, 1006 convicted
1/4 died enroute, further 40% within 6 weeks
Used a private company
Third fleet
11 ships, 2067 convoys, 182 died on board.
Who were emancipists
Previous convicts that were freed that could apply for land and became settlers of NSW.
Who are exclusives
Previous guards that could stay and become settlers
Who were the NSW Corps
Military force that the colony had formed following the first fleet
Took over government in run rebellion.
Causes of rum rebellion
• power struggle between government and private entrepreneurs over how the colony should be run
• blighs autocratic style put the backs up of too many vested interests
What was the rum rebellion
1808
• The only successful armed takeover of government in Australian history
• Bligh sent to take back control following NSW corps takeover of colony known as rum years
• arrested John MacArthur.
• 26 Jan 1808 MacArthur deposed Bligh and took control of the colony.
John MacArthur
• arrived in Sydney in 1790 and was appointed as commandant at parramatta, second settlement.
• championed woll industry
Merino wool
• argumentative man who quarrelled with many governors.
• key person in rum rebellion
Who’s sent to restore peace after rum rebellion
Macquarie.
Context of time during Macquarie
• the end of the napoleonic wars.
Problems in 1809 that Macquarie faced when he arrived
• alcoholism
• no currency
• no resources
• not making money.
Changes Macquarie made
Imported 40k Spanish dollars, cut holes in to double
Organised streets of Sydney, naming them
Developed roads and bridges
Ruling on alcohol consumption, pubs closed on Sundays
Dissolved NSW corps takeover
First professional lawyer
Tickets of leave and early pardons
Employed people to positions of authority.
Explain the land grants to ex convicts
Emancipated granted land at paramatta
Added 5 new towns near the hawsbury river
Exclusives resented Macquarie giving land to emancipates. Complained to London.
Macquarie towns
Spent more than London wanted on building
Therefore no money sent back to London
Built schools, roads, barracks, churches and bridges
Build the rum hospitals
Evidence to suggest Macquarie was not all good (essay)
Critics in London as he was spending too much and had too many convicts working for government
Spent £3m to send nothing back to London
Existence of bigger report
Appin massacre
Crossing the blue mountains
1813 colony too crowded. Every inch of land has been leased.
10 failed expeditions to cross blue mountains.
3 settlers trekked the contains, took 3 weeks
They saw enough grass to support the stock of this colony for thirty years.
Macquarie chose 60 convicts that would get pardons if they finished the road, 126 miles, in 6 months.
How much did Macquarie term cost Britain
3m
When he went 100 pound to transport and keep a convict for a year
When he left 30 pound.
Number of convicts working for government when Macquarie left
4001
Findings in the Bigge report
Criticised awarding land grants to comvits
Convict Labour should be assigned to sheep farms not public works
Early pardons and tickets of leave granted
Positions of responsibility should not be given to emancipates.
6 recommendations of the biggest report
Convicts should be serving their sentences and treated more harshly
Should be deployed as labour for exclusive harmless
Only provided food and shelter
Emancipates not given government roles
Judicial independence for courts
Expansion of sheep grazing to make more profit
Result of bigge
Macquarie resigned
New South Wales act
1823
Created legislative council
Council met in secret, had power to overrule governor and decide taxes
Created Supreme Court
VDL seperate colony.
Australia courts act
1828
Governor as well as British government could appoint members
Oath ofSecrecy removed
Ling term implications of bigge
Next governor Brisbane implemented recommendations in full
George Arthur first governor of VDL
MacArthurs company awarded 1m achres of land
Development of cattle farming
Norfolk Island
Sydney had run out of resources , Norfolk Island was a source of much-needed supplies.
Maintaining island expensive.
Shipwreck left bare people on the island
Loads of birds came to the island and they killed tjem for food
200,000 birds killed in just over threee months
Van diemens land
1803+
C. 75,000 convicts between 1803-1853
Few escaped and died in bushes
By 1806 colony starving
Convicts realised they could survive better as bush rangers. 2000+
George Arthur info
• Fist and longest serving governor
• increased amount of convicts on public works
• tickets of early leave and pardons
• 1825 executive and legislative council
• expected SC to uphold autocratic rule
Evidence of harsh approach form George Arthur
• severe punishments and flogging on convicts who disobeyed regulations
• instituted the chain gang
• 260 convicts executed
• convicts made to work through 7 levels of punishment
George Arthur and aboriginal people
Restored law and order, ended threat of bush rangers
However, also fought the aborigini people forcing them off VSL to a settlement on flinders island where they died
Black war.
Whaling
Commenced late 18th century
Whale blubber melted down to be used for lamp fluid oil, lubricants and candles.
Became Australia’s first viable industry by 1805
By 1832 accounted for 52% Of exports
Seals
Cheaper, safer, easier to hunt seals
Their hide, blubber, oil were lucrative exports.
150,000 killed between 1801-10
By 1830, Australian fur seal almost extinct
The move to Western Australia
James Stirling looked for a settlement that would keep the French off and be staging posts for British ships.
He urged the British authorities go make a settlement at swan river with himself as governor.
Agreed in 1828 with change in tory government.
Stirling made a company with Thomas peel with financial backing from a Jew called levey.
Levey was a nonce do they kept his investment secret.
The government agreed to give the company 250,000 aches on the swan and 250,000 more when it settled on the river with 400 people.
By 1832, swan river had under 1,500 white colonists. By 1839, it still had all its wheat and flour shipped on from Hobart.
Some economic reasons for the move to Western Australia
• would be a staging post on routes to the far east
•area rich in farming land that was ideal for growing a range of crops and fruit ideally suited to the Mediterranean climate of Western Australia.
• offered the opportunity for young people from Britain, especially younger men, to emigrate to an area of economic potential
• Stirling persuaded the government to provide land grants that meant the gov didn’t have to fund the colony
•
Other reasons for the move to Western Australia
• swan river easily navigable, this encouraged further exploitation and development of the interior where, later in the century important minerals were discovered.
• deter the French - discourage their settlement and trading links with the far east
• Royal Navy felt that Western Australia would be an ideal base to defend British interests in the pacific and was attracted by vast quantities of timber
• stop escaped convicts going there
Explain the end of transportation
Opposition to transportation of felons had been growing.
Transportation go NSW ended in 1840, by which some 150,000 had been sent.
Transportation to VDL continued until 1853
The loss of convicts was a disaster for Western Australia.
Who was Ben belong
• A senior member of the Eora people
• captured in 1789, ordered by Arthur Philip who wanted to build a relationship with aboriginal people.
• bennelong escaped after a few months
• Bennelong maintained a good relationship with Philips after he left
• when Philips went to England, bennelong went with him.
The appin massacre
• Macquarie
• 1816 April
• was a result of Macquarie ordered for members of the 46th regiment to lead punitive expeditions in a few districts.
• Macquarie preferred three military captains to lead detachments across the colony to clear the land of aboriginal people.
• when captain Wallis went into appin, he just killed everyone for no reason, they didn’t resist anything
Impact on the Eora people in NSW
• first people the British encountered 1788
• 2.5k people
• tensions quickly developed between British and Eora
• Philips instructed no robbing the aboriginals, didn’t follow
• aboriginal retaliated by stealing shovels
• two convicts murdered 1788
• lots of aboriginal died from smallpox
Smallpox epidemic
Wiped out 50% or more aboriginal’s people
Some as biological warfare by the British
Others say it was transmitted from other things
After quarantine, Philip concluded it came from somewhere other than the first fleet
How did the British settlement effect aboriginals
By 1850, population reduced from 350k to 80k
This was due to revenge attacks and impoverishment
Also suffered due to force assimilation, cultural imperialism and European attitudes.
Pumulwuy
• two years after first fleet, aboriginal warrior began to resist the invasion of white settlers.
• seriously wounded in 1797
• had a clubbed foot
• Philip initially maintained good relations
• pumulwuy featured significantly in the resistance to british
What was the black war
• attacks started as soon as early settlement arrived and continued as a result of competition for supplies exacerbated.
• in 1823, European land grants increased 10 fold
• to resist, aboriginal people engaged in resistance activities such as guerilla warfare.
• Arthur declared martial law in 1828 and attempted to restrict the movement of aboriginal people
• killed around 900
Flinders island
Final 200 aboriginal people weee forcibly removed to flinders island where they died soon from starvation.
Aboriginal genocide in VDL
• disease played a huge part in the death of aboriginal people
• they were hunted, starved and poisoned until the population was wiped out
• settler violence was not checked by the authorities
• bushrangers regarded aboriginal people as vermin and had no problem killing them
• a proclamation was passed restricting aboriginal people to settled districts in the north east corner of the island.
