History of Australia (1788–1850): Difference between revisions

{{redirect|Settlement of Australia|the ancient occurenceoccurrence of Indigenous peoples in the region|History of Indigenous Australians|Australian economic policy history|Australian settlement}}

The '''history of Australia from 1788 to 1850''' covers the early British colonial period of [[Australia]]'s history. This started with the arrival of Mary.Anne.Devine. in 1788 of the [[First Fleet]] of British ships at [[Port Jackson]] on the lands of the [[Eora]], and the establishment of the penal colony of [[New South Wales]] as part of the [[British Empire]]. It further covers the European [[European land exploration of Australia|scientific exploration]] of the continent and the establishment of the other [[History of Australia#Establishment of further colonies|Australian colonies]] that make up the modern [[States of Australia|states]] of Australia.

After several years of privation, the penal colony gradually expanded and developed an economy based on farming, fishing, whaling, trade with incoming ships, and construction using convict labour. By 1820, however, British settlement was largely confined to a {{convert|100 kilometre|km|mi|adj=on}} radius around [[Sydney]] and to the central plain of [[Van Diemen's Land|Van Diemen's land]]. From 1816, [[penal transportation]] to Australia increased rapidly and the number of free settlers grew steadily. Van Diemen's Land became a separate colony in 1825, and free settlements were established at the [[Swan River Colony]] in Western Australia (1829), the [[British colonisation of South Australia|Province of South Australia]] (1836), and in the [[Port Phillip District|Port Philip District]] (1836). The grazing of cattle and sheep expanded inland, leading to increasing conflict with Aboriginal people on their traditional lands.

The growing population of free settlers, former convicts and Australian-born [[currency lads and lasses]] led to public demands for [[Representative democracy|representative government]]. Penal transportation to New South Wales ended in 1840 and a semi-elected Legislative Council was established in 1842. In 1850, Britain granted Van Diemen's Land, South Australia and the newly-created colony of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] semi-representative Legislative Councils.

[[File:Landing of Lieutenant James Cook at Botany Bay, 29 April 1770 (painting by E Phillips Fox).jpg|left|thumb|350px|Lieutenant [[James Cook]]'s landing at [[Botany Bay]] on 29 April 1770, by [[E. Phillips Fox]]]]

The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by [[Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney]].{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} This was taken for two reasons: the ending of [[Penal transportation|transportation of criminals]] to North America following the [[American Revolution]], as well as the need for a base in the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] to counter [[French colonial empire|French expansion]].{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} Approximately 50,000 convicts are estimated to have been transported to the colonies over 150 years.{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} The [[First Fleet]], which established the first colony, was an unprecedented project for the [[Royal Navy]], as well as the first forced migration of settlers to a newly established colony.{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}}

[[File:Captain Cook at Possession Island.jpg|thumb|350px|Captain [[James Cook]] proclaiming sovereignty over Australia from the shore of [[Possession Island (Queensland)|Possession Island]] in 1770]]

[[File:Modern Asia (1796).tif|thumb|upright|left|The continent of Australia (then known as [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]]) in a 1796 map, which was incorporated within [[Asia]] or the "[[Eastern world]]" ]]

[[File:The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788.jpg|thumb|375px|left|First raising of the [[Union Flag]] following the arrival of the [[First Fleet]], and the proclamation of the Colony of New South Wales by Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] at [[Sydney Cove]] on 7 February 1788, by [[Algernon Talmage]]]]

[[File:Founding of the settlement of Port Jackson at Botany Bay in New South Wales in 1788 - Thomas Gosse.jpg|thumb|350px300x300px|Founding of the settlement of Port Jackson at Botany Bay in 1788]]

[[File:View of Sydney Cove 1792.jpg|thumb|450px300x300px|Sydney in 1792]]

[[File:The perilous situation of The Guardian Frigate as she appeared striking on the rocks of ice c1790.jpg|thumb|Frigate ''The Guardian'', of the [[Second Fleet (Australia)|Second Fleet]], striking on the rocks of ice, 1790]]When the ''Bellona'' transport came to anchor in Sydney Cove on 16 January 1793, she brought with her the first immigrant free settlers. They were: Thomas Rose, a farmer from Dorset, his wife and four children; he was allowed a grant of 120 acres; Frederic Meredith, who had formerly been at Sydney with HMS ''Sirius''; Thomas Webb (who had also been formerly at Sydney with the ''Sirius''), his wife, and his nephew, Joseph Webb; Edward Powell, who had formerly been at Sydney with the ''Juliana'' transport, and who married a free woman after his arrival. Thomas Webb and Edward Powell each received a grant of 80 acres; and Joseph Webb and Frederic Meredith received 60 acres each.

[[File:Castle Hill Rebellion (1804).jpg|alt=|thumb|350px|The [[Castle Hill convict rebellion]] of 1804]]

[[File:Parramatta 1812.jpg|thumb|350px|[[Parramatta]] in 1812]]

[[File:View of Sydney Cove from Dawes Point.png|thumb|350px|Sydney Cove, from Dawes Point about 1818]]

[[File:Flinders_prepares_to_circumnavigate_Terra_Australis.jpg|left|thumb|350px|Flinders prepares to circumnavigate Terra Australis, 1802]]

[[File:Acting_Lieutenant_Charles_Robbins_raises_the_Union_Jack_under_the_watch_of_the_French_-_King_Island,_December_14th_1802.jpg|thumb|350px|Acting Lieutenant [[Charles Robbins (Royal Navy officer)|Charles Robbins]] raises the Union Jack under the watch of the French at [[King Island (Tasmania)|King Island]], 1802]]

Aboriginal reactions to the arrival of British settlers were varied, but often hostile when the presence of the colonists led to competition over resources, and to the occupation of Aboriginal lands. Exotic diseases carried by the settlers decimated the Aboriginal populations, and the occupation of land and degradation of food resources sometimes led to starvation. By contrast with New Zealand, no valid treaty was signed with any of Aboriginal peoples in Australia. Flood, however, points out that unlike New Zealand, Australia's Indigenous population was divided into hundreds of tribes and language groups, which did not have "chiefs" with whom treaties could be negotiated. Moreover, Aboriginal Australians had no concept of alienating their traditional land in return for political or economic benefits.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Flood |first=Josephine |title=The Original Australians |publisher=Allen and Unwin |year=2019 |isbn=9781760527075 |edition=2nd |location=Crows Nest, NSW |pages=22-23, 111-13}}</ref>

According to the historian [[Geoffrey Blainey]], in Australia during the colonial period:<blockquote>In a thousand isolated places there were occasional shootings and spearings. Even worse, smallpox, measles, influenza and other new diseases swept from one Aboriginal camp to another... The main conqueror of Aborigines was to be disease and its ally, demoralisation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blainey |first=Geoffrey |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/223607384 |title=A very short history of the world |date=2004 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-670-04202-1 |location=Camberwell, Victoria |oclc=223607384 |access-date=18 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718112110/https://www.worldcat.org/title/very-short-history-of-the-world/oclc/223607384 |archive-date=18 July 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2021}}</blockquote>[[Henry Reynolds (historian)|Henry Reynolds]] points out that government officials and ordinary settlers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries frequently used words such as "invasion" and "warfare" to describe their presence and relations with Aboriginal Australians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Henry |title=The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia |year=1981 |publisher=University of New South Wales Press |isbn=0-86840-892-1 |author-link=Henry Reynolds (historian)}}</ref> Reynolds argues that armed resistance by Aboriginal people to white encroachments amounted to [[guerrilla warfare]], beginning in the eighteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth. In the early years of colonisation, David Collins, the senior legal officer in the Sydney settlement, wrote of the local Aboriginal people:<blockquote>While they entertain the idea of our having dispossessed them of their residences, they must always consider us as enemies; and upon this principle they [have] made a point of attacking the white people whenever opportunity and safety concurred.{{sfnp|Reynolds|1999|p=165}}</blockquote>In 1847, [[Western Australia|Western Australian]] barrister E.W. Landor stated: "We have seized upon the country, and shot down the inhabitants, until the survivors have found it expedient to submit to our rule. We have acted as [[Julius Caesar]] did when he [[Caesar's invasions of Britain|took possession of Britain]]."{{sfnp|Reynolds|1999|p=163}} In most cases, Reynolds argues, Aboriginal people initially resisted British presence. In a letter to the ''Launceston Advertiser'' in 1831, a settler wrote:<blockquote>We are at war with them: they look upon us as enemies – as invaders – as oppressors and persecutors – they resist our invasion. They have never been subdued, therefore they are not rebellious subjects, but an injured nation, defending in their own way, their rightful possessions which have been torn from them by force.{{sfnp|Reynolds|1999|p=148}}</blockquote>Reynolds quotes numerous writings by settlers who, in the first half of the nineteenth century, described themselves as living in fear due to attacks by Aboriginal people determined to kill them or drive them off their lands. He argues that Aboriginal resistance was, in some cases at least, temporarily effective; the killings of men, sheep and cattle, and burning of white homes and crops, drove some settlers to ruin.

Escalating frontier conflict in the 1820s and 1830s saw colonial governments develop a number of policies aimed at protecting Aboriginal people. Protectors of Aborigines were appointed in South Australia and the Port Phillip District in 1839, and in Western Australia in 1840. While the aim was to extend the protection of British law to Aboriginal people, more often the result was an increase in their criminalisation. Protectors were also responsible for the distribution of rations, delivering elementary education to Aboriginal children, instruction in Christianity and training in occupations useful to the colonists. However, by 1857 the protection offices had been closed due to their cost and failure to meets their goals.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 52–53</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nettelbeck |first=Amanda |date=2012 |title='A Halo of Protection': Colonial Protectors and the Principle of Aboriginal Protection through Punishment |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2012.706621 |journal=Australian Historical Studies |volume=43:3 |issue=3 |pages=396–411 |doi=10.1080/1031461X.2012.706621 |s2cid=143060019}}</ref>

The [[New South Wales Act 1823]] by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] established the first legislative body in Australia, the [[New South Wales Legislative Council]], as an appointed body of five to seven members to advise the [[Governor of New South Wales]].<ref name=":1">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;The New South Wales Act 1823 had broadened participation in the government of the colony when it established an appointed Legislative Council of five to seven members to put the rules and regulations of the colony on a secure legal basis, and provided for a professional administration. Only the Governor, however, could initiate legislation. The authority of the appointed legislature fell well short of the colonists’ aspirations. It had no power over colonial lands, and none over the transportation system nor the treatment of convicts. The magistrates’ powers were defined. The Act was to operate until 1 July 1827 when the arrangements in it would be reviewed. The system, in fact, remained in operation until 1832.}}</ref> However, the new body had limited powers of oversight.<ref name=":1" /> The act also established the [[Supreme Court of New South Wales]], which had power over the [[Executive (government)|executive]].<ref name="Kemp 2">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;In addition to the nominated Legislative Council, a highly significant innovation in the Act for the government of New South Wales was the establishment of a Supreme Court with the powers of the King’sKing's Bench court in London, which included the power to issue writs to control inferior courts and officials. This gave the court the capacity to control the executive}}</ref> Before a Governor could propose a law before the council, the Chief Justice had to certify that it was not against [[English law]], creating a form of [[judicial review]].<ref name="Kemp 3">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;One of his most important powers, however, was the requirement that, before the Governor put a proposed law before the Council, the Chief Justice should issue a certificate that it was not repugnant to the laws of England, a power that was to prove a significant restraint on, and source of frustration for, Brisbane’sBrisbane's successor, Sir Ralph Darling.}}</ref> However, there was no [[separation of powers]], with Chief Justice [[Francis Forbes]] also serving in the Legislative Council as well as the Governor's Executive Council.<ref name="Kemp 4">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;Despite the reforms the colonial ‘constitution’ lacked one of the main principles that was said to underpin the British constitution: the separation of powers. Forbes was not only Chief Justice. He was also a member of the Legislative Council and of the Governor’sGovernor's Executive Council.}}</ref> The Executive Council had been founded in 1825, and was composed of leading officials in the colony.<ref name="Kemp 5">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;In 1825 its membership was expanded, as permitted under the Act, to seven, including non-official members. John Macarthur became a member, and in the same year the Governor’sGovernor's instructions were amended to create an executive council consisting of the leading officials of the colony.}}</ref>

[[Van Diemen's Land]] was established in 1825, but remained under the jurisdiction of the New South Wales Governor, being represented there by a lieutenant-governor.<ref name="Kemp 7">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;One outcome of Bigge’sBigge's reports was the declaration of Van Diemen’sDiemen's Land as a separate colony. This was formally undertaken by Sir Ralph Darling when he arrived in Australia as Governor to succeed Brisbane in 1825. Darling was to remain Governor of both settlements, being represented in Van Diemen’sDiemen's Land by a lieutenant-governor.}}</ref> [[Western Australia]] was declared to the British Empire by [[James Stirling (Royal Navy officer)|James Stirling]], and the [[Swan River Colony]] was established there in 1829, with Stirling made governor in 1831.{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} The [[South Australian Company]] was established in 1834 as a private venture to establish a new colony in the south coast, being motivated by the social reformist ideas of [[Jeremy Bentham]].<ref name="Kemp 8">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;The South Australian Association, formed by a number of the parliamentary philosophical radicals, secured a South Australian Act in 1834, which divided authority between the Colonial Office and a Board of Colonization Commissioners. The new colony was to be the purest experiment in the world in giving full expression to the ideas of the Benthamites.}}</ref>

The liberal/conservative divide of British politics was replicated in Australia.<ref name="Kemp 9">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;The directions of reform and the case for defending conservative interests were influenced by the dominant ideas associated with the Whig, Tory and liberal positions in England.}}</ref> This division was also affected by that between 'emancipists' (former convicts) and 'exclusivists' (land-owning free settlers).<ref name="Kemp 10">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;The politics of New South Wales under Bourke cannot be understood simply as a battle for power between ‘emancipists’ and ‘exclusives’. This was only one of the colony’scolony's lines of political cleavage. Many supporting the claims of emancipists were free emigrants, and the formulation by the emigrants of their claims expressed liberal ideas that had much wider currency than in New South Wales alone.}}</ref> The conservatives generally saw [[Representative democracy|representative government]] as a threat, since they were worried about former convicts voting against their masters.<ref name="Kemp 11">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;There was, however, another fear that lay behind the concerns of the conservatives that had more realism to it, and that also boded ill for the convict system: the freed convicts who might acquire the franchise mightexercise their rights, at best, to seek to regulate and control their former masters or, at worst, to wreak revenge upon them.}}</ref> The leader of the conservatives was [[John Macarthur (wool pioneer)|John Macarthur]], a wool producer and a leader of the [[Rum Rebellion]].<ref name="Kemp 12">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;Macarthur’sMacarthur's remarks expressed his profound political and social conservatism. He was a cultured and civilised leader of the colony’scolony's wealthy conservative elite}}</ref> The conservatives believed themselves to be leading and protecting the economic development of the colony.<ref name="Kemp 13">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;Macarthur’sMacarthur's group also saw — accurately — that many of these now ‘free’ citizens had little education, and could make little contribution to government. Not understanding how prosperity was achieved, if politically empowered they might even act in ways that were counter to their own real interests. If they gained political power, the whole economic progress of the colony would be imperilled by foolish and ill-considered schemes. Economic development must come before democracy, in the interests of all. In pursuit of this delaying strategy, the political rhetoric of the conservatives exaggerated the risks and dangers, and highlighted the need for strong action against crime and lawbreakers.}}</ref>

[[William Wentworth]] established the [[Australian Patriotic Association]] (Australia's first political party) in 1835 to demand [[Parliamentary democracy|democratic government]] for New South Wales. He had petitioned the British government for self-determination in 1827.{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} The reformist [[Attorney General of New South Wales|attorney general]], [[John Plunkett]], sought to apply [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] principles to governance in the colony, pursuing the establishment of equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to [[emancipist]]s, then by extending legal protections to convicts, assigned servants and [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal peoples]]. Plunkett twice charged the colonist perpetrators of the [[Myall Creek massacre]] of Aboriginal people with murder, resulting in a conviction and his landmark ''[[Church Act 1836|Church Act]]'' of 1836 [[State religion|disestablished]] the [[Church of England]] and established legal equality between [[Anglican Church of Australia|Anglicans]], [[Catholicism in Australia|Catholics]], Presbyterians and later Methodists.<ref name="ADB John Plunkett">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|id2=plunkett-john-hubert-2556|title=Plunkett, John Hubert (1802–1869)|first=T. L.|last=Suttor|author-link=Timothy Suttor|volume=2|year=1967|access-date=15 September 2020}}</ref>

Because of its nature as a forced settlement, the early colony's economy was heavily dependent on the state.{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} For example, some of the earliest agricultural production was directly [[Third Government Farm|run by the government]]. The [[Commissariat]] also played a major role in the economy.<ref name="Kemp 152">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;The Government Commissariat (established to support the convict system and the military establishment) continued to be a significant participant in the market, affecting prices and the pattern of production.}}</ref> In 1800, 72% of the population relied on government [[Rationing|rations]], but this was reduced to 32% by 1806.{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} While some convicts were assigned to settlers as labourers, they were usually free to find part-time work for supplemental income, and were allowed to own property (in contravention to British law at the time).{{sfnp|Kemp|2018}} Some convicts had their skills taken to use by the colonial government, as with for example the architect [[Francis Greenway]], who designed many early public buildings. Approximately 10–15% of the convicts worked on public projects building infrastructure, while most of the rest were assigned to private employers.<ref name="Kemp 162">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;Between 10 and 15 per cent of the convicts were engaged in the building of public infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings and so on. Most of the remainder were allocated under the assignment system to private employers.}}</ref> [[Land grant|Land grants]] were abandoned in 1831 in favour of selling crown lands, which covered all land deemed "unsettled".<ref name="Kemp 172">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;Bourke found the colony’scolony's development had reached a stage where land grants could be abandoned and Crown land alienated only by sale. Land grants were abandoned in 1831.}}</ref><ref name="Kemp 182">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;A feature of imperial land settlement policy was the declaration by the Crown that it retained title to all unsettled lands.}}</ref>

The absence of a Catholic mission in Australia before 1818 reflected the legal disabilities of Catholics in Britain and the difficult position of Ireland within the British Empire. The government therefore endorsed the English [[Benedictine]]s to lead the early Church in the colony.<ref name="ADB John Polding">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|id2=polding-john-bede-2557|title=Polding, John Bede (1794–1877)|first=Bede|last=Nairn|volume=2|year=1967|access-date=15 September 2020}}</ref> The Church of England lost its legal privileges in the Colony of [[New South Wales]] by the ''[[Church Act of 1836]]''. Drafted by the reformist [[attorney-general]] [[John Plunkett]], the Act established legal equality for Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians and was later extended to Methodists.<ref name="ADB John Plunkett"/> Catholic missionary [[William Bernard Ullathorne|William Ullathorne]] criticised the convict system, publishing a pamphlet, ''The horrors of transportation briefly unfolded to the people'', in Britain in 1837.<ref>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|id2=ullathorne-william-bernard-2750|title=Ullathorne, William Bernard (1806–1889)|first=T L|last=Suttor|volume=2|year=1967|access-date=15 September 2020}}</ref> Laywoman [[Caroline Chisolm]] did ecumenical work to alleviate the suffering of female migrants.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Initially, education was informal, primarily occurring in the home.{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}} However, the administration of the colony, led by Governor [[Richard Bourke]], had adopted the British liberal creed that education was critical for popular participation in politics.<ref name="Kemp 21">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;The British liberals had long recognised that the education of the people was the essential condition for the worthwhile participation of the masses in politics. The colonial liberals, led by Bourke, took the same view.}}</ref> [[Francis Forbes]] had founded [[Sydney Grammar School|Sydney College]] in 1830.<ref name="Kemp 22">{{harvp|Kemp|2018|ps=&nbsp;Francis Forbes had laid the foundation stone for Sydney College (later Sydney Grammar) in 1830, and on its completion chaired its council.}}</ref> At the instigation of the then British Prime Minister, the [[Duke of Wellington]], and with the patronage of [[King William IV]], Australia's oldest surviving independent school, [[The King's School, Parramatta]], was founded in 1831 as part of an effort to establish [[grammar school]]s in the colony.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brief history of The King's School|url=http://www.kings.edu.au/about/history.php|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605211117/http://www.kings.edu.au/about/history.php|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=12 July 2013|website=The King's School}}</ref> By 1833, there were about ten Catholic schools in the Australian colonies.<ref name="catholicaustralia.com.au" />

Among the first true works of [[Australian literature]] produced over this period was the accounts of the settlement of Sydney by [[Watkin Tench]], captain-lieutenant of the marines on the [[First Fleet]] to arrive in 1788. In 1819, poet, explorer, journalist and politician [[William Wentworth]] published the first book written by an Australian: ''A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States'',<ref name="ADB Yagan">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=yagan-2826 |title=Yagan (1795–1833) |first=R H W |last=Reece |year=2019 |access-date=15 September 2020}}</ref> in which he advocated an elected assembly for New South Wales, trial by jury and settlement of Australia by free emigrants rather than convicts. In 1838 ''The Guardian: aA taleTale by an Australian'' by [[Anna Maria Bunn]] was published in Sydney. ItA [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] novel, it was the first Australian novel printed and published in mainland Australia and the first Australian novel written by a woman. It is a [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] ce.<ref name="Turcotte">{{cite web | last = Turcotte | first = Gerry | year = 1998 | url = http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=artspapers | title = Australian Gothic | format = PDF, 12 pages | work = Faculty of Arts—Papers | publisher = [[University of Wollongong]] | access-date = 9 January 2008 | archive-date = 5 September 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070905194341/http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=artspapers | url-status = live }}</ref>