Colony of New South Wales: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|British colony (1788–19001788–1901)}}

| s1 = AustraliaColony of Tasmania

| s2 = NewColony of South WalesAustralia

| flag_s1s4 = FlagColony of Australia (1901–1903).svgVictoria

| flag_s2s5 = Flag of New South Wales.svg= Colony of Queensland

On 18 January 1788, the [[First Fleet]] led by Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] founded the first British settlement in [[Australian history]] as a [[penal colony]]. Having set sail on 13 May 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip assumed the role of governor of the settlement upon arrival. On 18 January 1788, the first ship of the First Fleet, [[HMS Supply (1759)|HMS ''Supply'']], with Phillip aboard, reached [[Botany Bay]]. However, Botany Bay was found to be unsuitable by Phillip. After Phillip led the exploration of [[Port Jackson]], he sailed and reached [[Sydney Cove]] on night of 25 January 1788. On the morning of 26 January, men on board this ship went ashore and started clearing land for a camp. In the afternoon-evening, they erected a flag pole, raised the Union Jack, and the officers ashore made toasts to the Royal Family and the success of the colony. Likely, some, or all, ships of the First Fleet were present for the flag raising. On the morning of 27 January, all the fit male convicts, marines, and likely some ships' crew went ashore to establish the camp and find food. The female convicts came ashore on 6 February 1788. About midday on 7 February, the convicts, marines and others who were staying were gathered by the Governor for the reading of the proclamation of New South Wales and a long reading of the rights of the convicts and others. Thus, the Colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed on 7 February 1788. Before that, British naval administration applied.<ref>{{Cite web |title=7 Feb 1788 - Colony of NSW formally proclaimed |url=https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/magazine/onthisday/7-february-1788 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601090936/https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/magazine/onthisday/7-february-1788 |archive-date=1 June 2022 |access-date=15 July 2022 |website=State Archives & Records}}</ref> BeforeThe thatcolony faced extreme difficulty in its earliest years from water scarcity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gergis |first=Joëlle |last2=Garden |first2=Don |last3=Fenby |first3=Claire |date=1 July 2010 |title=The Influence of Climate on the First European Settlement of Australia: A Comparison of Weather Journals, BritishDocumentary navalData administrationand appliedPalaeoclimate Records, 1788–1793 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/envhis/emq079 |journal=[[Environmental History (journal)|Environmental History]] |language=en |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=485–507 |doi=10.1093/envhis/emq079 |issn=1084-5453 |access-date=28 April 2024}}</ref>

{{main|VictoriaColony (Australia)#Historyof Victoria}}

In the [[Australia Act 1986]], the states of Australia achieved independence from the United Kingdom as constituents of Australian confederation. The Act followed discovery that, when Australia ratified the 1931 Statute of Westminster, only the federal state became independent of the United Kingdom becausedue itto wasState forgottenconcerns thatof Australiaa wasgrab afor power by the Commonwealth confederacyGovernment. The 1986 Act thus clarifiedended the British government no longer had any's authority over the six Australian unitary states in confederation, just as wellit ashad noceased longerto havinghave authority over the AustralianCommonwealth federalduring state,the andinter-war thatperiod. allAll colonial-era laws were no longer were subject to powerImperial powers of disallowance and reservation. Acts of the federal state, i.e. the Commonwealth of Australia, remain subject to power of disallowance and reservation by the monarch of Australia, per sections 59 and 60 of the Australian Constitution. But as the Australian monarch can act only on the advice of the Australian Prime Minister, those two provisions are effectively dead letters.