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Summary The birth of British Australia, revision notes

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In-depth and A* quality notes on everything you need to know about Australia for the empire section of the A-Level History course. Perfectly summarised with important facts to include in high level essays

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A Level Revision Notes

The Birth of British Australia

Key Question 1: How did the first British penal colony in Australia develop as a settlement?

Why did the British choose Botany Bay?

 Decision taken without considerable consideration by British government.
 Cook’s expedition returned to London 1771. Vast land ready to be taken, fertile and ‘empty’. Lieutenant James
Cook, who had distinguished himself as a chart-maker, navigator, and astronomer. Enthusiastic to join the
expedition, and willing to pay all his own expenses, was a Mr. Joseph Banks, son of a wealthy country squire, and
devoted to the study of natural history.
 Members of the expedition, James Matra and Banks (botanist and expert witness for Parliamentary Committee)
spoke favourably of the possibility of growing flax there. Reports Norfolk Island, 877 miles east of Sydney in the
Pacific Ocean, had pine trees and flax – crucial for ship building. (The flax industry of Norfolk Island never
materialised because the flax was deemed to be of the wrong type.)
 American War of Independence = by 1777 about 40,000 people had been transported to the American colonies,
supplementing the supply of indentured labour. However, with the American colonies now lost, a new
alternative was needed for transportation of felons. Crisis in British prison system by late 1780s. Increased crime
owing to urbanisation and slum poverty. Transportation more merciful than execution and cheaper than
reforming justice system. Seven years’ forced labour was not an uncommon sentence for stealing a couple of
hens.
 When the revolt of the American Colonies brought this traffic to an end, a proposal was made for a convict
colony at Sierra Leone. A trial shipment, however, showed that this “white man’s grave” devoured both guards
and convicts with equal voracity. Hulks anchored on the Thames were next adopted as a temporary measure, the
idea being that the convicts would find profitable employment clearing the river of gravel and mud. This failed,
the amount of gravel lifted being insignificant: while the hulks soon became overcrowded. At this juncture a Mr.
Matra wrote a proposal to Lord Sydney, Secretary of State for the Colonies. As a midshipman on
the Endeavour bark, Mr. Matra had been impressed by the fine climate and the fertility of Botany Bay. There
these outcasts from Britain would find a new world and means to redeem themselves.
 Idea of settling American loyalists there dismissed without thought.
 Prevent any French claim to the territory.

The First Fleet

 Commanded by Governor Phillip.
 Cost £84,000 to prepare the fleet of 11 ships.
 During the six months occupied in fitting out the expedition, Captain Phillip was the despair of the bribe-seeking
civil servant and the jobbing contractor. He insisted on inspecting everything personally, making such a fuss
about poor quality or deficiency that, as one cynic remarked: “Anyone might think his charges were really
human.”
 Supporting Phillip in his demand for proper equipment stood Joseph Banks, now President of the Royal Society
and an intimate of the King, who liked to think himself a patron of science.
 On May 12th, 1787, the fleet left Portsmouth. There were eleven ships, led by H.M.S. Sirius, on which Phillip
hoisted his flag, his second in command being Captain John Hunter.
 Spread through the fleet as deck cargo were sheep, pigs, goats, puppies, cats, turkeys, ducks, chickens and
pigeons. The only other Government-owned vessel in the fleet was H.M.S. Supply, of 100 tons, to serve as her
name indicates. There were three privately owned storeships, of 378 tons; 375 tons, and 275 tons. The convict
transports were Alexander, 452 tons; Lady Penrhyn, 333 tons; Charlotte, 335 tons; Scarborough, 430
tons; Friendship, 274 tons, and Prince of Wales, 350 tons.
 Stopped at Rio de Janeiro and fresh meat, fruit and vegetables poured into the ships. It was largely because of
this generosity that the voyage was completed without any serious outbreak of scurvy. Cape Town was the next
stop and further livestock was bought; seven cows, with a bull-calf; one stallion; three mares; three colts; forty-
four sheep; twenty-eight pigs; four goats. Tons of produce were also laid in, potatoes for the crew and convicts;
feed such as chaff and grain for the stock; plants of various kinds, and seeds acclimatized to the Southern
hemisphere.

,  Arrived in Botany Bay on 18th January 1788 after a 5000 mile journey lasting 252 days.
 No ships lost. 69 deaths, discharges or desertions out of over 1400 people. Much of the good health attending
the voyage was due to Phillip who, on the second day after sailing, had the men’s irons taken off.
 Discovered that Botany Bay lacked water and fertile soil. Set sail to Port Jackson on 26 th January 1788, landing at
Sydney Cove. Phillip - “One of the finest harbours in the world; capable of affording anchorage to the whole of
the world’s fleets.”
 Cook’s survey of Botany Bay had been made during the first week in May, the beginning of winter, when
bountiful rains had fallen and the landscape was clothed with verdure. Joseph Banks, too, had carried memories
of glorious days of plant-collecting: but now, eighteen years later, viewed after three months of a nearly rainless
summer, the landscape looked dry and uninviting.
 Gov. Philip read aloud the Act of Parliament founding the colony and his commission on 7 th Feb 1788.

Who were the first settlers?

 Approximately 1420 boarded in Portsmouth: 775 convicts and 14 children born to convict mothers.
 732 convicts landed: 543 men, 189 women, 22 convicts’ children.
 Youngest: John Hudson, 9 years old, 7 years transportation for stealing.
 Oldest: Dorothy Handland, 82 years old, housebreaking (hanged herself a year later).
 2/3 transported for minor theft (though many women probably also prostitutes); average age <30; English, Scots,
Americans, Germans, Norwegians and Jews. Between ½ and 2/3 had previous convictions. Only a tiny minority
transported for political activity. The majority were transported for crimes against property, but there were
some political prisoners including Luddites, food rioters, radical weavers and Chartists
 Remaining 600 passengers: marines and families, seamen and families, civil officers.
 Marines commanded by Major R. Ross. Disinclined to do anything other than military duties.
 Philip had to rely on the seamen and convicts to act as overseers and police.
 Penal colony did help reform many convicts, freeing them from slum poverty and giving them a new start.
Others tried to escape and died at sea of in attempts to walk to China.
 Besides being incorruptible, Phillip was a man of great human sympathy. He pitied the outcasts whom he was to
convey to the end of the earth and there, with them, establish a new dominion. The women, especially, stirred his
feelings. He had a wife, an invalid, whom he must leave behind, with little expectation of seeing her again.
 Meanwhile, the female convicts caused him grave concern. There were one hundred and eighty of them; many
had been night walkers of the streets of London. Confined to Newgate and the Bridewell, they had been
compelled to sell most of their tawdry finery to buy food. Many were almost naked. Most, too, were in a state of
filth. But until they were on board the transports and under his charge, Phillip could do nothing for them.

Governor Phillip: 1788-92

 Governors exercised absolute power and military discipline over the penal colony.
 Distance and communication delays = completely reliant on own judgements.
 Responsible for the success of the First Fleet and the establishment and survival of the colony.
 Thorough, pragmatic, tough but fair. Even-handedness prevented mutiny.
 Deeply interested in the Aboriginal people and took a non-confrontational approach.
 Used powers granted to him to buy extra supplies at government’s expense in 1788.

Initial settlement

 Sydney a challenging environment. Within 6 months the livestock brought by the First Fleet had been eaten or
disappeared. The herd of five cows and two bulls, through the negligence of the convict herdsman, was allowed
to go astray and became lost. Six years later, they were found on lush pastures forty miles southwest of Sydney,
the herd having increased to sixty head.
 No plough or animal suitable to pull one. Thin soil yielded little.
 Phillips initially lodged under a canvas structure. Survived on existing supplies, fish and birds they killed. Traded
with Aboriginals to obtain kangaroo meat, but consumption largely of dried meat.

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