The Birth of British Australia - Topic 4.1 Flashcards
Australia's role as a penal colony from 1788
Why was Australia set up and how did New South Wales first develop?
Due to the American War of Independence, transportation of criminals to America was disrupted, so a new colony was needed to send convicts away from Britain, to cope with the prison crisis at hand.
There were approx. 1420 people on board the First Fleet, 775 of whom were convicts. 732 made it to Australia. Most of the convicts were petty criminals who had reoffended, with very few being political criminals; there were no murderers.
Joseph Banks, an expert botanist, had recommended Botany Bay however, Botany Bay was deemed unfit for life when the Fleet arrived and instead settled north at Port Jackson, Syndey Cove.
In the first six months, all the livestock was gone, there was no plough to till the soil or no animal to pull it and Sydney yieled little from hand-grown crops of inexperienced convicts. The settlers traded with the Aboriginies to obtain food, and construction work was hampered as making mortar and bricks was difficult.
The convicts mostly coming from the city meant they were little help in farming, carpenting and hunting and generally didn’t work well as a team
How did Governor Phillip improve the situation at Port Jackson?
What were his policies and actions?
1788-1792
- Preparations for the journey - Thorough and painstaking, his prep saw little death on board, and most settlers survived until the Second Fleet arrived in 1790
- A colony at Norfolk Island - Sending nearly 200 convicts, 30 children and 80 marines had reduced the strain on the colony to provide food and it was hoped that Norfolk Island could make flax and be a shipbuilding trading post for the government. The mutton bird on the island meant the settlers didn’t starve (although it went extinct) and more settlers survived than died
- Control of food stores - Phillip insisted on rations being equal and hugely resented the marines but had to keep them to maintain order. Although food was limited, there was enough to keep people going and with it all being fair, there were no riots either
- Better farmland - Settling a colony at Parramatta meant farming could be more successful as the area was more fertile and gave land grants out to ex-convicts after serving their sentence to work on the land.
What happened during William Bligh’s tenure?
1806-1808
He suffered a mutiny when he was the Captain of the Bounty in 1789. He was made Governor of New South Wales 17 years after the mutiny. He was Governor for only two years after he attempted to curtail rights of free-born settlers and the New South Wales Corps.
He was one of three governors during the Rum years, where the New South Wales Corps dominated life in the colony as the NSWC controlled the majority of the rum in the colony, which was the main currency in the colony before sterling was introduced. The NWSC rebelled and mutinied against Bligh in 1808 dubbed the Rum Rebellion.
How did Lachland Macquarie change the colony?
What improvements were made?
1809-1821
- Throughout Macquarie’s governorship, he mainly sided with the Emancipists and the Currency who made up small farmers in the new Macquarie towns along the Hawkesbury and not the Exclusives
- The privates that were brought with Macquarie were loyal to him, and so he never feared a mutiny to that of Bligh. He dismantled the NSWC to continue the smooth development of the colony, control the trade economy in the colony and continue to reinvest into the infrastructure and people of NSW
- Macquarie was very paternalistic and optimistic of the colony and what it could do. The colony became less drunken and more respectable.
- Communication between London and Sydney became more frequent
- Carrot-and-stick approach was amicable to convicts as the prospect to own land and have independence was appealing to poor Georgian folk
- Benefit of clergy was needed to cohabit, and with marriage, women’s economic status improved slightly, as if their husbands died, they could inherit business and property and run them independent of male control
- Specials were in demand in the colony as they made us of all the skills they had. The colony’s first architect, Francis Greenway, built public buildings; George Crossley was able to practice law and advised Bligh during the Rum Rebellion; William Refern delivered the Exclusives’ babies and those of the Rum Hospital alike
What problems did Macquarie face as Governor of NSW?
- Female convicts that arrived from the boats who didn’t have a marine or sailor to protect them when they arrived at NSW were often raped when they first set foot in Australia. The marines and sailors would often be able to provide female convicts with protection, shelter and food for them and their children. Macquarie ensured that convicts got the same basic rights as free settlers and Exclusives. Literate convicts were in high demand to be put in employment in schools or as house servants and skilled workers.
- Poor balancing of relations between the Exclusives, and the Currency and Emancipists meant that the Exclusives nearly always had a bone to pick with Macquarie, which eventually led him to being summoned by a parliamentary committee on his leadership in NSW.
- His conflict with the Aboriginals in the Hawkesbury river area led to a punitive party to kill 14 Aboriginies in 1816.
How did the settlements along the Hawkesbury River develop?
The land near the Hawkesbury was fertile and the mouth of the estuary was a good source of oysters. Macquarie established five new towns up the river between 1810-11; at the expense of the local Darug band and were “pacified”. These five towns were named: Windsor, Pitt Town, Castlereagh, Richmond and Wilberforce. Each town was developed of a set plan and was built with a school, a church and an inn.
How did Macquarie towns develop and grow under the governor?
His paternalistic attitude meant he oversaw the construction of several significant public buildings and infrastructure throughout the colony. The colony was making a profit, with all of it being reinvested in the colony, instead of it being sent back to London, and with the money, he built roads, schools, barracks and churches.
The Rum Hospital was built in the centre of Sydney at no cost to the colony because the builders were given rum as payment and the hospital helped cushion economic depression, droughts, floods and caterpillar plagues by providing employment and income for Currency and Emancipists.
The road that was built through the Blue Mountains opened by grazing plains on the other side, boosting the wool industry and woolling becoming the pre-eminent industry of Australia.
