birth of british australia

why was a penal colony established at Botany Bay?

• fertility and emptiness of the land

• felons could no longer be sent to the American colonies

• prevent the French from making any territorial claims

• by the late 1780’s, prisons were overcrowded and urbanisation led to more crime

Norfolk Island

877 miles east of Sydney, produced pine tree and flax, crucial to building ships

first settlers

732 convicts - 2/3 had been sentenced for minor theft and the average age was under 30

• majority of women listed as domestic servants but likely many prostitutes

• Americans, Germans, Norwegians and Jewish people

• minority of Irish political activists

initial issues with settlement

• lacked fresh water/soil unsuitable for cultivation

• no plough available to till the soil

• within 6 months, all the livestock had been eaten/disappeared

• building efforts hampered by the difficulty of making bricks → convicts weren’t knowledgeable farmers/carpenters/hunters

impact of Governor Phillip

• allocated work on the basis of the skills he found among convicts

• prepared for equipping the 1st & 2nd fleet → high survival

• sending convicts to Norfolk Island 1790 → better rations for others

• insistence that rations be shared equally → no riots

• settled the colony in Parramatta → more fertile

2nd fleet

government chose private firm Camden, Calvert and King → at least ¼ died during voyage from diseases and starvation

irish rebellion

general distrust for Irish Catholics, 1804 → attempted rebellion against Governor King

New South Wales Corps

replaced the marines, assumed significant powers in the colony

rum was the default currency until 1812 when silver money was dispatched

macquarie dispatched with new regiment to take over

key features of aboriginal societies

survival skills were strong, weak in technological advancements (mainland had fire/tasmania didn’t, wheel hadn’t been developed + land not cultivated)

between 300,000 - (750,000 - 1,000,000) inhabitant pre-British settlers

Terra Nullius

Captain Cook declared the land ‘nobodies’ land, deemed it unnecessary to engage with the Aboriginal people because they hadn’t cultivated the land

relation between aboriginals and settlers

attempts to be friendly, Phillip flogged convicts who stole from Aboriginals in front of them

30 May 1788

2 convicts murdered by local Aboriginal people

impact of small pox

estimated 50% coastal populations wiped out as Aboriginal people had no resistance

settlers in van diemans land

aboriginal people affected by venereal disease as they had no resistance to it, aboriginal populations were hunted, starved and poisoned until they were wiped out

when was martial law declared

1828 to force aboriginal people in settled districts

when did the last tasmanian aboriginal person die

1876

number of convicts 1831 - 40

51,200

how many convicts were transported 1788 - 1810

11,800

demographic 1828

the free population (20,870) outnumbered the prison population (15,728)

reason for settling in van diemans land

its port had strategic value → whaling, could put reoffending convicts there + could function semi - independently

governor arthur’s administration in VDL

More totalitarian, free settlers + convicts assigned labour

Robert Campbell

1805 → sailed to England with 260 tons of oil from the rendered skins of 13,700 seals

wool trade

1805 → sheep numbers rose to 20,000. Wool industry expanded between 1820 - 40. exports of wool were valued at £2,000,000 by 1830

Blue Mountains

expedition dispatched 1813 after period of droughts. a road was commissioned across in 1814, convicts and settlers began to populate area

AAC

Australian Agricultural Company established by Royal Charter in Britain and given 1,000,000 acres in NSW for agricultural development

why was western australia settled

provide trading links with india, china and the islands to the north

what was the company that settled WA

Swan River Company - sent 10,000 free settlers but they struggled with famine

Bigge Report

1819 → Lord Bathurst + John Thomas Bigge

• convict labour should primarily be assigned to sheep farms

• early pardons and tickets of leave under Macquarie and land grants for emancipates should cease

• positions of responsibility should not be given to emancipates

impact of Bigge Report

• mass convict transportation and the influx of private capitol on a grand scale

• transportation to become an ‘object of terror’

• consolidated Australian colonies reputation as places of dire punishment and depravity

1823 NSW act

altered the power and position of governors in existing colonies

• legislative council created. Exclusives were asked to serve in the assembly to advise governors

• justice system became independent of the governor and a supreme court established

• VDL was to operate as a separate colony + a legislative council + supreme court separate too

legislative councils 1828

enlarged from 7 - 15