Colonising Australia was no easy feat and was something that
did take years to sort out even before sending convicts to the new country. All
I am doing is pointing out the basics to the fledgling colony and not a huge
essay that would end up going for hundreds of words. Some information could be
a little outdated especially Geoffrey Blainey’s The Tyranny of distance. I did get two versions of information
about La Perouse and his vessels. I am not opening the whole debate over what
was or wasn’t happening within the new penal colony. This is just some simple
information about the very beginning. If you do want to read further on the
subject there is plenty of literature around that gives in depth details.
Colonising Australia
England had a problem with criminals in London during the
1700s and needed ideas on where to send the undesirables. When the war in
America had begun, transportation of criminals to the plantations had stopped.
This would have been the American war of Independence in 1776, where they
wanted to separate themselves from Britain. Around 1,000 people had been sent
to America a year until the war. The government debated over other locations to
send the criminals though India had no need for labour and the East India
Company would have to be paid for transport. They were also afraid if criminals
were sent to Africa they would band with the Negros to destroy the British
forts.
They did have the idea to send people to far off places to
have a distant colony. In 1777, Sir Joseph Banks suggested sending people to
Botany Bay as he had been on the voyage with Captain James Cook. Banks
explained escape would be impossible, no wild animals or hostile natives though
at the time the House of Commons dismissed the idea. Some convicts were sent to
America and Honduras in 1785, but both countries refused them. The penitentiary
act of 1779 had been replaced by in 1784 by another act to transport of felons
and other offenders.
The idea of a colony began gaining momentum in 1779 with
rumours of a settlement and in 1883 another person who was on Cook’s voyage,
James Mario Matra wrote to the government about the colony. By 1785 there had
been suggestions settlements in New South Wales, New Zealand, New Caledonia or
Norfolk Island would be both disposal places for convicts and have commercial
advantages. The scheme to have a penal colony in Botany Bay was announced in
1787. By 1788 an act had passed for a criminal court in the colony and the
transportation act was extended to include the new colony. Arthur Phillip in
1784 had been given the commission of governor.
Other reasons
There could have been other reasons for the colony in New
South Wales and the dumping place of undesirables. There had been suggestions
as early as 1756 by Frenchman, Charles de Brosses for a French colony in New
Britain. There were objections within England about the creation of the colony
especially about the expense and being no place to send felons. Others had
ideas the colony could be an asylum for American refugees. People also didn’t want
to rock the boat with the trading monopoly of the East India Company.
The fleet arrival
The 11 ships of the First Fleet entered Botany Bay within
two days of each other in January 1788 on a journey that had taken 8 months and
a week. Phillip had arrived at Botany Bay on the 18th of Jan. By the 20th the rest of the slower
ships including the Sirius had arrived.
They did find Botany Bay to be unfit, so sailed to Port Jackson which was a
better location for the founding of the new colony. The fleet did have problems
exiting the Bay to move to Port Jackson something that was witnessed by the
French.
The French arrive
The French had arrived not long after the first fleet had in
1788. The two ships had been spotted and were at first thought to be English
ships. It was actually Jean – Francis de Galaup, comte de La Perouse a French
explorer with the ships La Boussole and L’Astrolabe. They had been on a journey that had began
nearly two years before. On board were many scientists from Botanists to
natural historians. The French stayed in the area for 6 weeks. The two ships
would later be lost after leaving the colony on the 10th of March.
Luck would have it that La Perouse would send his journals, some charts and
letters on board a British naval ship The Alexander one of the ships used in
the first fleet.
Australia Day?
It was on the 26th of January 1788 that Arthur
Phillip and his men raised the flag proclaiming the land to belong to Britain.
The marines had shot volleys and the officers had drank to the King’s health.
It wasn’t until the 7th of February when Phillip formally proclaimed
Australia to be established. The convicts did not step ashore until the 27th
of January and for many the first time they had been ashore in more than a
year.
Natives
The natives around the area of Sydney Cove had come to visit
Phillip while they had been exploring the area. The people were curious about
the Europeans and food being cooked in a metal pot. In Botany Bay some
Aboriginal people had been observed carrying spears and shields and some
officers had gone ashore to meet them. Surgeon White had shot at them with a
pistol to frighten them and had been written to say that it had the desired
effect as the bullet had hit a shield. Over the first few months of the colony
there had been little contact with the native people.
Weather
It had been noted that the weather was harsh and the
colonists were not prepared for the climate. There had been summer storms where
five sheep had been struck by lightning while under a tree.
Shelter
After two years not many of the colonists had been upgraded
from tents to crude shacks with walls made from the bark of the cabbage tree.
In the first year only four timber buildings had been built. The governor himself
lived in a framed tent for the first 18 months. The first brick building
completed was the governor’s house.
Flax
One of the reasons to send people to the colony was said to
be for flax that had been found on Cook’s voyage. There had been thoughts to
create a colony on Norfolk Island for this purpose. France had been interested
in Flax too and on a journey that began around 1785, a French expedition under
Jean de La Perouse arrived at Norfolk to secure specimens. He had been
prevented by strong surf on the island to land. The next leg of the journey would take him to
Botany Bay.
It had been known that the New Zealand natives could weave
flax and a request had been sent to get people from there to show the
colonists. In 1793 two maori men were delivered, one was a warrior and the
other a priest. It soon became known that women were the experienced ones at
weaving as the men were inexperienced. Britain at the time along with other
countries relied upon flax from the Baltic so wanted to have their own market.
Other visitors
including Second Fleet.
Apart from the early French visitors after the arrival of
the First Fleet there were other visitors in Australian waters. Maori were
visitors to the penal colony around 1800 called Tipahee and son. Other ships
were traders like with the Dutch East Indies trader Waaksamheyd in 1790 that helped with a convict escape. Other ships
were usually American Whalers. The Second Fleet began arriving in 1790, which
one of the first was the Lady Juliana.
Sources:
Blainey, Geoffrey The tyranny of distance, Sun books, Melbourne, 1966.
Hill, David, 1788
The brutal truth of the first fleet, Random House, North Sydney, 2008.
Hughes, Robert The Fatal Shore, Vintage books, 2003.
Parker, Derek Arthur
Phillip, Woodslane Press, Warriewood, 2010.
Shaw, A. G.
L, 'The beginning of transportation to Australia' Convicts
and the colonies: a study of penal transportation from Great Britain and Ireland
to Australia and other parts of the British Empire, London: Faber and Faber,
1966. pp. 38-57.
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