Exploration and Settlement in Colonial Australia

52 Pages·2012·4.575 MB·English

by  Joel Weston

Australian Timelines
Exploration and Settlement
In ColonialAustralia
by Joel Weston
ISBN 978 086427 259 1
Published in electronic format by
Trocadero Publishing
GPO Box 1546
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
ABN 28003214748
[email protected]
www.trocadero.com.au
Created and produced in Australia
Copyright © 2011 S and L Brodie
The information in this eBook was
current at the time of writing
IMPORTANT NOTICE
This work is protected under
Australian and international
copyright laws and conventions. No
part of this work may be copied,
duplicated, saved to another
system, stored in any electronic or
other system, or reproduced in any
shape or form without the written
permission of the copyright owners
and the publisher. This copy is
licensed only to the purchaser and
may not be passed on to any other
person or organisation in electronic,
printed, or any other form.
By accessing this eBook you are bound by
international copyright laws. Any unauthorised
use, copying, duplication, resale, broadcast,
diffusion, saving to another system, storage in
any electronic or other system, in any shape or
form, is not permitted. Any breach of these
terms will be subject to civil prosecution.
AUSTRALIAN TIMELINES
Other books in this series
The Governors 1788–1850
Immigration Since 1788
Prime Ministers and Their Governments
The Constitution: The Document that Created the Nation
The Commonwealth of Australia: Evolving into a Nation
Convicts: The Story of the Penal Settlements that
Created Australia
Gold: The Precious Metal that Brought Instant Wealth
and Long-term Prosperity
The States: Their Place in Federal Australia
About the Money: Australia’s Economic History
Australia at the Time of Federation
The Industrial Revolution and its Impact on Australia
How Communications United Australia
Bushrangers: Australia’s Wild Colonial Boys
The Role of Women in Australian History *
Other Trocadero series
AUSTRALIA YEAR BY YEAR DEFENDING AUSTRALIA
1788 to 1809: From First Fleet to Rum Rebellion World War I: The Australian Experience
1810 to 1845: From the Macquarie Era World War II: The Australian Experience
to Ending Transportation The Cold War: Australia in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam
AUSTRALIAN DECADES The Anzac Spirit: Australia’s Military Legend
The 1950s: Building a New Australia THEY MADE AUSTRALIA
The 1960s: Reshaping Australian Society Leaders in Inventions and Innovation *
The 1970s: It’s Time for Change
ASIA-PACIFIC TIMELINES
THE NATIONAL IDENTITY European Colonialism in the Asia-Pacific
Faiths, Religions, Beliefs in Modern Australia Shogunate Japan: 800 Years of Military Rule
Australian Origins Imperial China *
Volume 1: Afghanistan to Italy
Volume 2: Japan to Zimbabwe ASIA-PACIFIC RELATIONS
Immigrants Who Changed Australia Australia’s Pacific Neighbours
Australia’s Asian Neighbours
LINKING THE NATION
Japan: The Story of the Nation
Australia’s Airlines:
How the Skies Were Conquered China: The Story of the Nation
Australia’s Railways: India: The Story of the Nation
How the Land Was Conquered Indonesia: The Story of the Nation *
AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY
Influencing Australia * Please check www.trocadero.com.au for publication date
Settlement of Australia by Europeans began on
26January 1788. On that day Captain Arthur Phillip of
the Royal Navy stepped ashore at Sydney Cove,
accompanied by his officers and a detachment of Marines.
Early Days 3
Beside the steadily flowing Tank Stream they erected a
flagpole and raised Britain’s Union flag. A proclamation
Land and Corruption 6 by the King was read, claiming just over half the continent
as a possession of Great Britain for the penal colony of
Into the Unknown 10 New South Wales.
Thus the European
Big Business 14 concept of land
ownership and control
was imposed on the
Heroic Explorations 17
continent. The steady
dispossession of the
Squatters and Settlers 22
traditional indigenous
inhabitants began. The
Epic Journeys 29
spirited resistance of
the Aboriginal peoples
The Rush for Gold 34
was no match for the
military firepower of
The Squatters 38 the new arrivals.
The First Fleet rounds South Head to
Traditional forms enter Port Jackson in January 1788
Heart of the Land 41 of land tenure were
incomprehensible to
Increasing Mobility 48 Europeans. Such ‘ownership’ stood no chance in the face
of the colonialists’ voracious appetite for land. With all
the backing of the British legal system the indigenous
Index 49
peoples would be forced off any land that a European
wanted for grazing, growing crops, mining, or just
building places to live.
Until each colony gained self-government in the mid-
1850s, allocation of land was made under regulations
brought to Australia by Governor Phillip, amended and
evolved to suit the times. In 1855 the British Parliament’s
Waste Lands Repeal Actgave each colony, except Western
Edited by Lynn Brodie
Australia, control over Crown lands. Unoccupied Crown
ISBN 978 086427 259 1 land was also referred to as ‘unalienated land’.
Copyright © 2011 S and L Brodie
All rights reserved
Published by Trocadero Publishing
GPO Box 1546 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
www.trocadero.com.au For links to websites of interest, please go to
Produced in Australia www.trocadero.com.au/explorationsettlement
2
XtÜÄç Wtçá 3
Almost as soon as the Sydney Cove settlement was
established,Phillip began to explore the surrounding
countryside. In March 1788 he ventured north to Pittwater, and
the following month headed west along the northern shore of
Port Jackson [Sydney Harbour]. From there he sighted the Blue
Mountains in the distance.
In the headwaters of what would become known as the
Parramatta River, he found a region far better suited to
agriculture than Sydney Cove. On 2November 1788 the first
satellite town, Rose Hill [Parramatta], was established.
Few of the people from the First Fleet — soldiers,
Captain Arthur Phillip RN administrators or convicts — had a clue about agriculture in
Governor of New South Wales this new land where the seasons were reversed and nothing was
1788–92 familiar. It was late 1789 before James Ruse finally grew wheat
successfully at Rose Hill, for which he was given a free grant of
four hectares of land.
In June the following year Phillip again sailed north to
Pittwater and Broken Bay. This time he ventured further inland.
Following the path of the river he named the Hawkesbury,
Phillip explored upstream to the junction with the Grose
River. From there he trekked up Richmond Hill to survey the
surrounding country.
At much the same time Watkin Tench, one of Phillip’s
Marine officers, marched west to a wide river he called the
Nepean. Unknown to either Tench or Phillip, the Nepean and
the Hawkesbury were the same river. Between them Phillip and
CROWN LAND Tench laid the groundwork for settlement of the wider region.
At the end of 1789 the first attempt was made to tackle the
From the beginning, the whole of
Blue Mountains. William Dawes and George Johnson led a
New South Wales was deemed to
small expedition that trekked west from the Nepean for
be Crown land until it was granted,
leased, licensed, or later sold to 24kilometres. The rugged countryside and sheer scale of the
individuals or organisations. This escarpment drove them back.
principle applied to all lands in
British colonies or possessions of
the time.
The principle of Crown land was
created after the invasion of Britain On 26 January 1788, on the shores of Sydney
by William the Conqueror in 1066. Cove, Captain Arthur Phillip presides over the
raising of the Union flag and the claiming of
William’s Crown land concept eastern Australia as a colony of Great Britain
remains the basis of land tenure in
Australia today.
All lands not specifically owned by
non-government persons or
organisations are deemed to be
Crown land. This includes land on
which government-owned buildings
are located, dedicated parks, national
parks, defence land, airports, and
uninhabited regions in the centre of
the continent.
They are called Crown lands because
they are ‘owned’ by the states or the
Commonwealth of Australia. ‘Crown’
means the monarch, who is head of
state. Around 25 per cent of the
Commonwealth is considered to be
Crown land.
4
Granting land
Before leaving England in 1787, Phillip had formulated
a plan for granting land in the new colony to stimulate
agriculture. He put this system, which gave away the
land for free, into practice by 1790.
Male emancipists — convicts who had served their
terms or been pardoned — received 30acres [12hectares]
of land, with an additional 20acres [8hectares] if they
had a wife, and a further 10acres [4hectares] for each
child. This certainly encouraged marriage among convicts
and stimulated the birth rate.
Initially Phillip granted land very sparingly, no more
than 1600hectares in five years. He would not make a
grant unless he was sure the recipient was able and
willing to work the land. Early days at Sydney Town
Also eligible were Marines, and later
soldiers, who stayed on at the end of
their service. They could apply for Most of the new settlers, deciding
50acres [20hectares], while non- farming was not for them, sold out to
commissioned officers (NCOs) could be the likes of Lieutenant William Coxof
granted 100acres [40hectares]. The the New South Wales Corps in the
granting of land to members of the early 1800s. Cox grew wheat and corn
military would ultimately lead to some and raised sheep and cattle on the land.
of the worst corruption in the colony. He, in turn, sold it to Gregory Blaxland
in 1806.
Grants for the military It had always been Governor Phillip’s
plan to introduce free settler farmers to
Demand for land increased rapidly as the colony. They would develop
convicts endedtheir terms. As many agriculture without the long period of
had been imprisoned for years before learning that the convicts needed.
leaving England, they served only a short The first such settlers arrived on the
period in New South Wales before ship Bellonain January 1793. They
being freed. included farmers, gardeners, a baker
Members of the military quickly and a blacksmith, with their families.
realised that owning land was a much Their land grants, called Liberty Plains,
better prospect than the paltry pay were in the area between what is now
offered by service life. Thus began the The forbidding presence Strathfield and Bankstown.
uniquely Australian obsession with land of the Blue Mountains
ownership that carries through to the Expanding the boundaries
present day.
Phillip departed Sydney on 11December 1792 after Under Governor John Hunter (1795–1800), the area of
a gruelling five years as Governor. Almost three years agriculture expanded considerably. The most important
would pass before Captain John Hunter replaced him region was along the banks of the Hawkesbury, north-
in 1795. west of Sydney Town. The only drawback was the river’s
In the interim the colony was controlled by Lieutenant- tendency to flood disastrously. Known as Green Hills, it
Governor Major William Grose, Commander of the New was first settled by Europeans between 1791 and 1794.
South Wales Corps. Grose quickly abandoned Phillip’s The region was renamed Windsor by Governor Lachlan
conservative land grant policy, handing out property to Macquarie in 1810.
anyone who asked. He was particularly generous to
fellow Corps officers. Settling the Hunter
New settlements In September 1797 Lieutenant John Shortland, while
in pursuit of convicts who had commandeered
North of Parramatta, a settlement was established at HMSCumberlandas it was departing Sydney, sailed into
The Ponds in July 1791. Fourteen families took up land a fine deep river about 100kilometres north of Port
grants in what later became known as the Dundas Jackson. Shortland named the river after Governor Hunter.
Valley. A similar settlement arose six kilometres west of On its banks he found evidence of large deposits of high-
Parramatta at Prospect Hill. quality black coal.
5
RELUCTANT EXPLORERS
Although they did not plan on being
explorers, the survivors of a
shipwreck provided some good
information about the south-east
coast of New South Wales.
In February 1789 the sailing ship
Sydney Cove went down in the
Furneaux group of islands in Bass
Strait. After struggling ashore on the
mainland, the crew opted to walk
along the coast to Sydney Town.
Their heroic journey covered
640 kilometres. They were within
40 kilometres of their destination The settlement on the banks of the Derwent River
when they were rescued. that would eventually become Hobart Town
The region was first settled by convicts in 1801. Known as
King’s Town, after Governor Philip Gidley King (1800–06), it
was a place for the worst offenders in the convict population.
They dug coal and cut timber — jobs they were not trained for
so did poorly. Although some coal was shipped to Sydney Town,
the settlement was abandoned within a year.
By 1804 it was re-established, now bearing the name
Newcastle after Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. This
settlement was more substantial. Most of the population were
Irish convicts from the failed 1804 rebellion at Vinegar Hill,
north of Parramatta. They had been sentenced to hard labour
in the coalmines.
Van Diemen’s Land
Until 1803 the Hunter River settlement was the furthest the
colonists had ventured to establish new permanent locations.
This changed on 8September 1803, when Lieutenant John
Bowen arrived at Risdon Cove in the estuary of the Derwent
Captain John Hunter RN River on the southern coast of Van Diemen’s Land. With him
Governor of New South Wales were soldiers, convicts and free settlers, a total of 49 people.
1795–1800 While Risdon Cove was excellent for defending the settlement,
it lacked water and decent agricultural land.
Colonel David Collins arrived in January 1804 to take
command. He quickly vacated Risdon Cove, moving everything
across the river to Sullivan’s Cove. Convicts from Port Phillip
disembarked there on 21February, and a group of free settlers
PORT PHILLIP FAILURE followed the next day. This settlement became permanent,
ultimately growing into Hobart Town.
On 7 October 1803 Colonel David On the northern coast of the island, in October 1804, Colonel
Collins arrived at Port Phillip Bay
William Paterson chose the eastern side of the Tamar estuary
on the south-eastern coast of the
continent. He had been sent from to found George Town, named for King GeorgeIII. The
England to establish a settlement in settlement remained there for just over a year; in March 1806 it
the area later called Sorrento. relocated to the western side of the river at York Town. This
From the start Collins was unhappy eventually became Launceston.
with the location, which promised From these two settlements there quickly developed a
little. With Governor King’s
voracious appetite for the fine grazing and agricultural areas of
permission, Port Phillip was
Van Diemen’s Land. Settlers began moving into surrounding
abandoned and Collins went south
to take command of the troubled areas to take up land grants. In 1807 a group of former convicts
Van Diemen’s Land settlement. from Norfolk Island established New Norfolk and Pittwater in
the south and Norfolk Plains in the north.
6
An idyllic depiction of the land around the Nepean River
_tÇw tÇw VÉÜÜâÑà|ÉÇ
John Macarthur, formerly of the
New South Wales Corps, whose
arrogance and cunning set the
standard for the widespread
corruption in New South Wales
The land grant policy was heaven-sent for speculators.
Prominent among this group were officers of the New South
Wales Corps, whose job was supposed to be guarding the
convicts. Many who were granted land did nothing with it,
being city-bred with no understanding of farming. Soon
speculators would approach them with offers too good to refuse.
Before long, land ownership was concentrated in fewer and
fewer hands.
Some landholders refused to sell, prompting officers of the
Corps to use unethical means to force them out. These included
ruthlessly exploiting their monopoly on trade in the colony to
pull reluctant sellers into line.
Macarthur’s empire
Captain Philip Gidley King RN Few of the corrupt officers of the New South Wales Corps
Governor of New South Wales
could match the arrogance or cunning of John Macarthur.
1800–06
Arriving at Sydney in 1790 as a lieutenant, he was almost
immediately in conflict with Governor Phillip. After Phillip’s
departure in 1792 Macarthur became closely allied with Major
The government station at
Cowpastures, the land that John Francis Grose, the Corps commander and Acting Governor for
Macarthur was desperate to secure three years, who made him Inspector of Public Works.
for his wool-growing enterprise Macarthur benefited hugely from Grose’s large-scale granting
of lands. He obtained a 100-acre [40hectare] grant at
Parramatta which became Elizabeth Farm. With unrestricted
access to convict labour he quickly cleared the land, which
secured him a further 100-acre grant. From this beginning
Macarthur acquired new plots through further grants or from
grantees who found farming too difficult.
After a duel with his commanding officer, Colonel William
Paterson, in 1801, Macarthur was sent to England to face a court
martial. His wife Elizabeth remained behind and developed
their flock of merino sheep into the best in the colony.
Land at Cowpastures
In England, fortunately for Macarthur, there was a huge
demand for fine wool. He promoted himself as the principal
authority on Australian wool. The Colonial Office authorised
7
his resignation from the army and return Hacking’s party travelled 30kilometres
to Australia. He left with an order for ARE WE ALONE? further west than anyone else had done,
the Governor to grant him more than but made no headway against the great
In the early 1790s many
5000acres [2000hectares] of land to barrier. Two years later George Bass and
convicts at Sydney Town were
further develop the wool industry. two companions attempted to go south
obsessed with the idea they
The land he wanted was at were not the only Europeans around — rather than over — the
Cowpastures, where Camden is today. It on the continent. They did mountains, but they too were thwarted.
not believe such a vast land
was some of the best grazing land in the Francis Barralier departed Parramatta
mass could not have been
colony and much sought after. The area in 1802, crossing the Nepean on
settled by other Europeans.
had gained its name when explorers 6November for a seven-week journey.
Despite all efforts to kill it, the
discovered a herd of European cattle He covered 225 kilometres before being
idea of another settlement
grazing in the region. It turned out they just 300 kilometres south- forced back by exhaustion, the difficult
were descendants of livestock that had west of Sydney became terrain and dwindling supplies.
escaped from incompetent handlers in firmly established in the Back at Parramatta, he waited just
convicts’ minds.
the very early days of the colony. one week before setting out again, this
Despite his orders from London, To disprove the theory once time trying a south-westerly route.
Governor Philip Gidley King (1800–06) and for all, Governor John Despite considerable progress, Barralier
Hunter sent former convict
delayed granting the land for as long as was once again halted by the rugged
John Wilson and a small team
he could. Meanwhile Macarthur was to investigate. They penetrated landscape south of the Jenolan Caves.
permitted to occupy it in 1805 until a considerable distance to the During that same year botanist George
matters were clarified with the Colonial south-west, battling through Caley explored around Picton Lakes
harsh countryside.
Office. The Camden estate gradually before crossing the Nepean on a journey
became the heart of the Australian fine- They found no new civilisation; west. His group penetrated the rugged
wool industry. however, they did bring back land around the Warragamba River and
much-needed information
into the Burragorang Valley. On a second
about the Southern Highlands
Widening the reach region and the area where assault on the mountains, this time from
Goulburn would be located. a northerly direction, Caley departed
By the end of the first decade of the the Richmond Hill area and travelled
19th century much of theprime grazing west for twelve days. He was eventually
and agricultural land around Sydney Town halted by an inaccessible valley.
— the region that was now being called the Cumberland By 1810 considerable intelligence had been obtained
Plains — had been taken. A large proportion of it was in about the Blue Mountains region. Gregory Blaxland, a
the hands of officers or former officers of the New South wealthy immigrant merchant and landowner, led several
Wales Corps. expeditions into the Warragamba River area. He developed
Expansion directly to the west was blocked by the a theory that the barrier could be overcome by travelling
forbidding barrier of the Blue Mountains. Emancipists in the watershed of the Warragamba and Grose rivers.
and new settlers followed John Macarthur’s lead, seeking
fresh lands to the south-west. Settlements were Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth
established at Bringelly, Appin and Airds from 1809.
By 1812 the situation was desperate on the Cumberland
Contemplating the Blue Mountains Plains. Fourteen years of generous land grants had used
up most of the good land in the Sydney basin. Governor
In the early days of the Sydney Town settlement there Lachlan Macquarie (1810–21) was faced with a severe
was plenty of land for drought that put great pressure
those who wanted it. Even on available grazing land.
so, natural curiosity drove Expansion of the settled areas
people to wonder what west of the Blue Mountains was
lay beyond the so-far now essential.
impenetrable barrier of Macquarie commissioned
the Blue Mountains. Local Gregory Blaxland to lead an
indigenous people knew, expedition to tackle the mountain
but nobody thought to barrier. With him was surveyor
ask them. William Lawson and adventurer,
Numerous attempts provost marshal and former
were made to penetrate jockey WilliamC Wentworth.
inland following Dawes
and Johnson’s failed
expedition of 1789. In
August 1794 Henry Sydney Cove 1810