Political History of Australia

By the early 1820s, colonial administrators in Sydney were determined to establish a settlement in what we now know as Queensland. The essential in choosing a spot were a decent harbour and river.

The Brisbane River was ideal but nature had hidden its mouth behind mangroves, sandbars and low islands. James Cook had sailed past it in 1770. Matthew Flinders had entered Moreton Bay in 1799, searched for a major river but left convinced none existed. Even John Oxley looked likely to miss it too until he had an extraordinary stroke of luck.

For several...

What You Need to Know About the Bathurst War (1822-1824)

Relations between the settlers and the Aboriginals of the Bathurst region were remarkably good for a few years ... but then the arrival of 100,000 sheep and cattle changed that. Skirmishes began in 1822 and then escalated.

By mid 1824 the newspapers in Sydney were referring to the violence as a war. Governor Thomas Brisbane declared martial law and sent in the troops.

It became a conflict of vengeance but was its origin a dispute about land or food?

What is too often left out...

This episode examines the nuance of Aboriginal life in Australian bush pre-1788. Life in the bush was often fun along with the usual ups and downs of life … but it was a warrior society driven largely by competition over scarce resources in the absence of individual property rights. Through the detailed first-hand testimony of William Buckley and others who lived for years among traditional groups, the episode describes the good times but also the cycles of revenge, disputes over women, and night-time massacres, while contrasting this with the rapid decline of such violence once colonial authority and property rights to...

William Wentworth returned to Australia in 1824. He was a man on a mission – to overthrow the ruling clique in the colony who were hostile to even modest democratic reforms.

Wentworth’s weapon of choice in this battle was a free press.

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William Wentworth was described by Manning Clark as ‘Australia’s greatest native son.’

When Governor Macquarie departed Australia, his campaign to lift the social status of the emancipists was in tatters. All the institutions were lined up to defend the status quo.

William Wentworth was a member of one of Britain’s most distinguished families. He was not a convict … but his mother was and his father, while not an emancipists, too often behaved like one. When it dawned on Wentworth that the current order relegates him permanently to a lower caste he set out to...

Last time the emancipists were on the back foot but then two hammer blows hit with Governor Macquarie’s departure.

The new governor of NSW, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was a tough Major-General who had seen a lot of war. Governor Brisbane immediately sent an unmistakable message that he was a friend of the Exclusives.

A few months later the findings of the Bigge Report hit Australia. Governor Brisbane was tasked with fundamentally reshaping Australia away from Macquarie’s egalitarian direction.

But Bigge opened the door to an Australian legislature and now...

In this episode we say farewell to Governor Lachlan Macquarie after twelve years in Sydney. He championed the name Australia, made 26 January an official public anniversary, and was the first leading figure to address the colony as a people — “Fellow Citizens of Australia.”

From first arrival to last days he backed emancipist rights, and that stance cost him the exclusives, the church, the courts and London. His last years were hard. In his farewell in Hyde Park he still said, “I anticipate the applause of posterity.” Classic Macquarie — arrogant, but accurate.

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Plea...

Governor Lachlan Macquarie was on a sincere mission to lift up the former convicts known as emancipists. For years that project had gone his way — until the colonial establishment struck back and set out to put these “uppity” emancipists in their place.

In this episode the church, the courts and then London itself flip from supporting the Governor to becoming his trenchant critics. Macquarie never wavers from his pro-emancipist stance, but under pressure he begins to act foolishly act in anger. London’s answer is decisive: Commissioner John Bigge is sent with wide-ranging powers to audit the...

In early New South Wales, more than four-fifths of the non-Aboriginal population were convicts, former convicts, or their children. Once free, these people — the emancipists — discovered that money and talent could not wash away the ex-convict stain. Wealthy exclusives still treated them as second-class subjects. This episode asks ‘what mobilised a scattered group of successful ex-prisoners into a political force?’

Governor Macquarie brought the best of them into the open. Architect Francis Greenway, merchant Mary Reibey, the “Botany Bay Rothschild” Samuel Terry, and Dr William Redfern all flourished under his protection. Then, in 1815, the new Supreme Court...

Episode 38 follows John Macarthur after he slipped out of New South Wales just before Lachlan Macquarie arrived to restore order. Having masterminded the Rum Rebellion, Macarthur exploited a legal loophole in Lord Castlereagh’s arrest orders and spent more than eight years in England. After the Rum Rebellion trial, Macarthur was stuck in England because if he returned to NSW he faced immediate arrest.

So Macarthur waged a stubborn, years-long campaign against the Colonial Office to return home without having to admit to any “impropriety.”  When he finally sails back in 1817, the colony he left has change...

In September 1803 Lieutenant John Bowen raised the Union Jack at Risdon Cove on the Derwent, founding the first European settlement in Van Diemen’s Land. The next year, Governor King in Sydney, under orders from London, sent Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson to command the proposed second settlement on the island at Port Dalrymple along the north coast. By late 1804 the island was formally divided at the 42nd parallel: the southern County of Buckinghamshire under Collins and the northern County of Cornwall under Paterson. Two settlements, two very different commanders, and two rival experiments in colonial survival.

This...

In 1803, Governor Philip Gidley King in Sydney sent two ships to near modern day Hobart. There had been multiple earlier European visits to Van Diemen’s Land but these ships were going to stay and build a permanent British settlement.

Governor King’s response was both reactive and decisive. By planting a permanent British presence on the Derwent — first through the small, improvised party under John Bowen and then through the far more substantial expedition led by David Collins — Britain converted a theoretical claim into effective occupation. The rapid establishment of settlements in both the south and...

Last week 'The Women's Pioneer Society of Australasia' invited me to speak about the Political History of Australia podcast.

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The people of what we now call Tasmania had lived in complete isolation since rising seas carved out Bass Strait around 10,000 BC, transforming their homeland from a southern peninsula of the Australian continent into the world’s most isolated island.

European contact began in 1642 when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman claimed the land for the Netherlands. It was not until the 1770s, however, that a rapid succession of French and British visitors began to recognise its strategic value. When Bass and Flinders confirmed Van Diemen’s Land was a separate island in the late 1790s, the news...

This episode we pause the story of Governor Lachlan Macquarie to take a panoramic tour of Australia’s near-abroad and Australia’s infant settlements in the early 1820s. 

With the Napoleonic Wars finally over and Britannia ruling the waves, London was able to focus more attention to its continental claim in the south. We survey the remarkably benign geopolitical setting in this corner of the globe and see how that freed up the colonists to focus on building a civilisation.

We’ll travel clockwise around the map. First, the promising inland township...

In 1813 New South Wales was a fast-growing, optimistic society. The colony’s teenage growth spurt could no longer be contained by the rugged sandstone wall of the Blue Mountains just 50 kilometres west of Sydney.

There were multiple valiant efforts to cross the Blue Mountains but it took the determination of Gregory Blaxland, backed by William Lawson and William Wentworth, to finally crack the code by staying on the high ridges instead of following the valleys. Macquarie quickly capitalised on their breakthrough, commissioning a proper road and founding the inland settlement of Bathurst in 1815.

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After the upheaval of the Rum Rebellion, London finally responds. In late December 1809, Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie arrives in Sydney Harbour. He moves quickly to be sworn in as governor on New Year’s Day 1810. Unlike his predecessors, Macquarie does not ease into power. He seizes it.

From his first days in office Governor Macquarie moves with startling speed and authority. He orders the discredited New South Wales Corps home (though hundreds of soldiers choose to stay and become settlers), replaces them with his own professional regiment, and issues a sweeping Nullification Proclamation that wipes away alm...

The men who led the march on Government House to depose Governor William Bligh in 1808 knew there would be consequences. Yet the Rebel Administration played a weak hand with skill and restraint. Beyond removing Bligh at gunpoint, they worked hard to appear measured and proper at every step.

In this episode we examine London’s firm response to the Rum Rebellion: dispatching 800 battle-hardened troops from the 73rd Regiment, ordering a court martial, and recalling the New South Wales Corps. Lachlan Macquarie arrives in Sydney at the end of 1809 and is sworn in as governor on New...

On the evening of 26 January 1808 the New South Wales Corps marched on Government House and did something extraordinary: they deposed Governor William Bligh at gunpoint. It remains the only successful armed overthrow of government in Australian history. What followed was one of the strangest and most revealing chapters in our early colonial story — the Rebel Administration.

For nearly two years the colony was run by the very men who had arrested Bligh. John Macarthur effectively became the de facto ruler for a time, land grants flowed freely, regulations were slashed, and the rebels insisted this was...

The label Rum Rebellion was a smear dreamed up decades after the seismic events of 26 January 1808. Those dramatic events were not about rum. It was fight over what the future of NSW should be.

For some including Governor Bligh, NSW was to remain a large-scale open prison with a simply economy of small scale ex-convict farmers and an iron grip control by the state. But 20 years into the colony and too many residents could see that this land had too much potential to be limited by the other vision. The day of the Rum Rebellion was f...

As 1807 unfolded, the little British colony of New South Wales was politically charged. Previous governors had attempted to reassert official authority by writing to letters to London and saying mean words about John Macarthur and his ‘trading faction.’ Governor Bligh arrived knowing the job of bringing down Macarthur was his job and his alone.

There were a series of scandals that erupted across 1807. Almost all involved John Macarthur and Governor Bligh. Each dispute got more acrimimonus until Governor Bligh ordered the arrest of John Macarthur.

The criminal trial took place in the heart...

Captain William Bligh assumed office as the Governor of New South Wales in August 1806. Bligh had had a brilliant career at sea but it had been sullied by reports of him being a horrible boss. The governorship of New South Wales was seen by Bligh as a way to redeem his reputation … but rather than change his ways, he doubled down on all his worst traits. Bligh arrived with the mindset of a war-time governor. New South Wales was an administrative mess – Bligh would use state power to knock it into shape.

The first thing Governor...

More than anyone, Sir Joseph Banks (the botanist who sailed with Captain Cook) deserves credit for creating modern Australia. For years, before and after the First Fleet, Banks served as the unofficial Minister for New South Wales.

As Banks aged however his judgement slipped and by 1804, his sway over the colony was slipping. So Banks decided to bet big by sending in as governor a famously tough guy (and loyal ally) to reassert authority – Captain William Bligh.

Bligh of course was Captain of the HMS Bounty when it suffered the most famou...

Governor Philip Gidley King had had two big wins – he had secured Bass Strait and Van Diemen’s Land for Britain and he had ruthlessly and quickly crushed the Castle Hill Rebellion. But Governor King was a micro-manager and he heavily regulated not only economic activity but also the social lives of the colonists. All his central-planning resulted in the return of food rationing and general disquiet.

An exasperated Governor King wrote to London with his troubles and London oddly interpreted it as an offer of resignation and they promptly accepted that supposed resignation. Governor King had...

The 1804 Castle Hill Rebellion was the most dramatic convict uprising in Australian history. The rebels were Irish political prisoners who had arrived en masse between 1800 and 1802. They were a powder keg. Almost immediately on arrival they plotted a grand mutiny. The purpose was not just freedom … but freedom to return to fight for Irish independence.

The Castle Hill Rebellion was over and out in less than a day after being brutally crushed by Major George Johnston and the NSW Corps. Post the rebellion, Major George Johnston and his troops were now seen as the indispensable saviours...

In 1788 Governor Arthur Phillip had proclaimed that the British Empire was now in charge of two-thirds of a continent. It was an audacious claim for a little speck of 1,500 souls. They did quickly build a second settlement on Norfolk Island because London had said it was a priority … but for the next 14 years there would be no more settlements. The process of continental expansion began with a burst in 1802 and it was driven by fear of France staking a claim on this continent.

By 1829, the British flag and only the British flag was flying coast to coa...

In 1802 the political focus of New South Wales was not domestic but geopolitical. The British and the French had been at war for nine years already and had well over a decade ahead of conflict ahead … but in 1802 Britian and France were officially at peace. It was during this interval that two French ships sailed into Sydney Harbour and stayed five months. It was the Baudin Expedition personally commissioned by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte.

The colonials rolled out the red carpet of welcome but among the French was a humble assistant zoologist who undercover was vacuum...

In September 1801, Captain John Macarthur of the NSW Corps was challenged to a duel by his commanding officer. Macarthur declined the challenge but his opponent was insistent and so the duel proceeded. Macarthur shot and badly wounded his commanding officer. Governor King soon arrived on the scene and Macarthur was arrested. Governor King had already been in a vicious spat with Macarthur and so King relished this opportunity to banish Macarthur by sending him to England for court martial.

Macarthur may have been facing a gaol term … but on his way to England, John Macarthur had a s...

In the late 1790s, John Macarthur took a step back from politics as he was pre-occupied with establishing the Australian wool industry. In mid-1800, the new governor Philip Gidley King was sworn in and it was clear he was a man on a mission to restore the prestige of the state … so Macarthur offered to sell everything and return to England. That sale didn’t eventuate but before long Macarthur would be challenged to, not one duel, but two. He had the brains to get out of the first one but suffered the ignominy of being a coward … so soon afte...

In the first year of the 19th century Captain Philip Gidley King was sworn in as the third Governor of New South Wales. The second governor (John Hunter) had come to the job expecting to be a ‘gentlemen governor’ and New South Wales a comfy reward for his decades of distinguished service to the British Empire. But Hunter was driven half-mad by the colony and ended up sacked by London.

Governor King was younger and more energetic – he arrived in Sydney as a man on a mission. He was determined to restore the power and prestige of...

Governor John Hunter served as the second governor of New South Wales during the second half of the 1790s. As Hunter’s governorship progressed, his misery and paranoia grew as he was increasingly ignored by London and his colonial peers.  Hunter was given a warning in 1798, when London advised him a replacement governor had been selected for whenever Hunter may leave the role … but Hunter continued to frustrate London and 18 months later was officially recalled to England. Governor Hunter suffered the first Dismissal in Australian political history.

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After the John Baughan Affair political tension returned to the small but now flourishing colony of New South Wales. It was 1796. In this increasingly tense atmosphere some regular troops at 3am stole a couple of turnips from the Governor’s garden. It was hardly a hanging offence but escalation begat escalation and soon it was a proxy war between Governor John Hunter and Captain John Macarthur as to who was the real boss.

In an extraordinary twist, the dispute ended up on the desk of the Home Secretary in London … and to Governor Hunter’s dismay, Lond...

Governor John Hunter arrived in Sydney in 1795 with instructions directly from King George III to clean up the perceived mess in New South Wales. Hunter had first come to Sydney with the First Fleet in 1788 but he hadn’t been in Sydney for four years and so was surprised and delighted to find that, rather than being a mess, New South Wales was thriving. Hunter wrote back to London in praise of the colony and the leadership of Francis Grose.

At first John Macarthur and Governor Hunter were friendly. It appeared Hunter would go along with the...

John Macarthur is the biggest personality of early New South Wales.  He arrived with the army aboard the Second Fleet in 1790 … at what was known as the Starving Time.

But Macarthur seems to have relished getting in on the ground floor of a struggling colony that was audaciously claiming two thirds of an undeveloped continent.

Many officers built prosperous farms and enterprises under the three years of laissez-faire under Acting Governors Francis Grose and William Paterson … but none gained more power and wealth than Macarthur.  By mid-1795, after less than half a decade...

Governor Arthur Phillip departed NSW after almost five years in late 1792. For the next three years NSW had no official governor and so the military boss Major Francis Grose stepped up to the role as Acting Governor during this Military Interregnum.

Phillip had been a micro-manager but Grose dismantled the old order in favour of a laissez-faire approach. Fear of hunger was soon replaced by ‘fear of missing out’ as a prosperous middle class quickly emerged.

This period is dismissed by most historians as one of greed and corruption but they overloo...

It’s widely assumed Captain Arthur Phillip is not only the hero of the First Fleet but he was also the hero as governor for the first five years of New South Wales. The reality is more nuanced.

As a lifelong servant of the Royal Navy, Phillip only knew obedience and hierarchy. Phillip believed New South Wales’s best hope was with him as an autocrat … but the embryonic colony required spontaneity to get off the ground.

Phillip’s ‘second in command’ of the colony was the boss of the NSW Marine Corps … Major Robert Ros...

The British flag had been raised, the law had been laid down, the French had sailed off and infant Sydney Cove was starting to resemble a settlement. Governor Arthur Phillip had done a sterling job so far but it was about to dawn on him that he didn’t think to bring out those with agricultural know-how. Two years later around 10% of the colony had died of hunger and things were looking awfully dire. Phillip assumed government run farms would deliver the food required but they failed. Sydney Cove was on the verge of collapse when a convict stepped forwar...

It’s forgotten today but Proclamation Day on 7 February 1788 was more significant than 26 January 1788. Proclamation was the day that all were assembled and Captain Arthur Phillip morphed into Governor Arthur Phillip and the law of New South Wales was declared to all. It was an ingenious blend of a military dictatorship and English law. We also see Captain Laperouse of the Royal French Navy pay a State Visit to Sydney Cove … before we say a sad farewell to the French hero who played a colourful cameo in the birth of modern Australia.

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The British have arrived in Botany Bay but Arthur Phillip quickly decides to relocate to Sydney Harbour.  Just as he is leaving Botany Bay however two large mysterious ships turn up.  Phillip is alarmed that these ships may try and claim the world’s greatest natural harbour … but it is the British who secure Sydney Cove on the first Australia Day – 26 January 1788.

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The First Fleet departs England and eight months later all 11 ships arrive safely in Botany Bay. Mid way through the First Fleet’s voyage, Captain Laperouse of France is ordered by Paris to sail directly for Botany Bay and to try and beat the British.

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