° Hunter Islands ° Melbourne ° Perth ° Port Arthur
° New South Wales ° Norfolk Island ° Sydney
° Van Dieman's Land
The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aboriginal people whose history, though unrecorded, is now believed to date back to before the Ice Age. Evidence from Tasmania indicates some Aborigines survived the Ice Age by living in caves. Aboriginal history began in a time they call the Dreaming, when the Ancestor Spirits emerged from the earth and gave form to the landscape. Anthropologists believe that Aboriginal peoples reached Sydney Harbour at least 40,000 years ago. Tribes lived in the area now known as Sydney until the English arrived and caused violent disruption to their lives.
In 1606, the small Dutch ship Duyfken (owned by the Dutch East India Company) sailed from the Indonesian island of Banda in search of gold and trade opportunities on the fabled island of Nova Guinea. Under the command of Willem Janszoon, Duyfken and her crew sailed south-east, beyond Os Papuas (Papua New Guinea) and charted part of the coast of Nova Guinea. They did not find gold, but they did find the northern coast of a huge continent: Australia. Captain Janszoon was the first European to map and record in Australia.
Colonies and India, February 4, 1887
London, United Kingdom
Under the name of the "Australian Wine Importers (Limited)," a company has been formed for the purpose of introducing improvements in the cultivation and management of Australian wines, and placing them upon the English market. The capital is 150,000£. in 51£ shares, of which 10,000 will be first issued.
Colonies and India, September 3, 1890
London, United Kingdom
Many of the shareholders in the Commercial Bank of South Australia, which failed some time ago, have been reduced to conditions of the greatest distress, and, when the last mail left Adelaide, an appeal was being made to the public to form a fund with a view to affording relief to to the most necessitous cases. An influential committee was formed in Adelaide for the purpose, and it was proposed to disburse relief to the unfortunate shareholders after they are discharged from further liability by the liquidators of the broken Bank.
ADELAIDE AND PORT ADELAIDE
British Banner, September 12, 1849London, United Kingdom
. . . In reference to one of these Colonies,—that is, South Australia,—I have lately received much information, which, in a condensed form, may be interesting to your readers. Adelaide and Port Adelaide, which are the chief towns of the province, now contain, together, about 12,000 inhabitants. The harbour at Port Adelaide is land-locked, perfectly safe, with warehouses, wharfs, powerful cranes for landing the heaviest goods, and other suitable powerful steam-tug, sent, from England expressly for the purpose of towing vessels up and down the river, has just arrived; besides which, there are suitable lighthouses, buoys, and pilots, that render the navigation as safe as that of any of our British ports.
Adelaide, containing at least 10,000 inhabitants, is situated about seven miles inland, on ground on the banks of the Torrens, which river intersects it. Adelaide is the seat of Government and is a bustling, flourishing city. It contains fourteen churches and chapels belonging to various Christian denominations, several good schools, a mechanics' institute and a public library, and many benefit-clubs and institutions. The chief feature observable in Adelaide, by a stranger, is the vast number of buildings in progress, chiefly of stone and brick, displaying a superior and more substantial architecture than those of an date.
The total population of the Colony is about 40,000 souls of Euroepan birth or extraction, besides few hundred natives, the latter of whom are remarkably quiet and inoffensive. These are provided for by the Government, and ther childrne are supported and educated in the native schools. The whole arrangements are under the Protector of the Aborigines, who is a Government Officer . . .
SYDNEY
Distance between San Francisco and Sydney, New South Wales via Honolulu: 6,700 Nautical Miles.In 1768, Captain James Cook began a search for the "great south land". Travelling in the wake of other European explorers, he was the first to set foot on the east coast of the land the Dutch had named New Holland. He landed at Botany Bay in 1770, naming the coast New South Wales.
When the American Revolution dispossessed Great Britain of its American colonies, another remote settlement had to be found where surplus convicts could be sent. This "social experiment" was a feat unprecedented in history.
A fleet of 11 ships -- with Arthur Phillip, the first governor of the settlement, in charge of 160 marines and 729 convicts -- weighed anchor in Portsmouth, England, on May 13, 1787. They reached Botany Bay the following January. Finding it too barren, sandy, and shallow for permanent settlement, Phillip investigated the next inlet to the north. There, spreading its fingers of deep water into sheltered sandstone promontories, he found "one of the finest harbors in the world, in which a thousand sail on the line might ride in the most perfect security." The harbor, which had been named by Cook 18 years earlier earlier, was Port Jackson--now better known as Sydney Harbour.
The sight that beheld the First Fleet members is well expressed by the Surgeon on board the Sirius, John White RN. "Port Jackson, I believe to be, without exception, the finest and most extensive harbour in the Universe, and at the same time the most secure, being safe from all the winds that blow."
Almost 1000 Jewish convicts arrived in NSW between 1788 and 1852. Very few were violent criminals. Most were in fact, skilled workers including tailors, watchmakers, shoemakers and ostrich-feather manufacturers.
AUSTRALIA'S GOLD RUSH
His visions did not manifest, but Australia's gold fever began. Hammond's discovery was being reported as "one vast gold field." and by May 24, a thousand diggers were tunneling, cursing and exulting on the banks of Summerhill Creek and the road over the Blue Mountain was choked with a winding column of men: clerks and grooms, grocers' assistants and sailors, lawyers and army deserters, oyster-sellers and magistrates, government officials and ex-convict shepherds.
Echoing San Francisco papers of 1849 and 1850, Australia's press reported that "A complete mental madness appears to have seized almost every member of the community."
An aboriginal stockman found a mass of quartz that yielded 1,272 ounces of gold in an outcrop fifty miles from Bathurst, and in September 1851, a septuagenarian digger named John Dunlop discovered the richest field of all, at Ballarat, 75 miles west of the Melbourne Post Office. The word was out that gold was everywhere.
By November 1851, more than 6,500 licenses were granted to gold seekers. By the middle of 1852, 50,000 people were estimated to be on the diggings and the average weekly shipment on the gold-escorts from Ballarat and Bendigo was more than 20,000 ounces - half a ton a week. In the month of August 1852, alone, despite nearly continuous winter rain and bitterly difficult working conditions for the diggers, 246,000 ounces of gold has been uncovered.
More echoes of San Francisco: By then Melbourne was both a ghost-port and a continuous saturnalia. Port Phillip Bay had become a Sargasso Sea of dead ships, rocking empty at anchor, their masts a bare forest. When a vessel arrived with her gold-hungry passengers and her hold crammed with mining tools and cheap furniture, the crews (and often the captains) would desert as soon as she was unloaded, to join the stream of miners. The lieutenant-governor of Victoria reported:
" . . . houses to let, business is at a stand-still, and even schools are closed. In some of the suburbs, not a man is left, and the women are known for self-protection to forget neighbors' jars (quarrels) and to group together to keep house . . . Fortunate the family, whatever its position, which retains its servants at any sacrifice, and can further secure supplies for their households from the few tradesmen that remain . . . all buildings and contract works, public and private, almost without exception, are at a standstill. No contract can be insisted upon under the circumstances."
In a strange twist of fate, the discovery of gold in Australia put an end to the lack of appeal to Britain's South Sea Colonies. The discovery of the yellow mineral eliminated Australia's position as a penal colony. With a quarter of Britain's subjects clamoring for tickets to the Southern Australian goldfields, being vanquished to Australia no longer held terror in the mind of men. It was reputed that convicts were pardoned as soon as they stepped ashore at Hobart, thus free passage to the gold fields became a boon, not punishment.
Excerpted from The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding,
Robert Hughes, Knopf, New York, 1987
Daily Alta California, July 17, 1852
The ship Europe, which left this port about the 1st instant for Australia, had on board a large number of passengers, among whom we are informed, were fifty or sixty native-born Americans, who were going to try their fortunes in the diggings of the British South Sea Colonies.
We received, about the period of her departure, a somewhat curious document, dated on board and handed to the pilot for delivery. It was written for publication, and is intended as a remonstrance against the treatment to which foreigners are subjected in our mines. The author, who subscribes himself Australiensis, is evidently an Englishman who has lived some time among us, and who confesses a predilection for American laws, faithfully administered, and feels a warm interest and sympathy for the affairs of California. And it is not in behalf of the rights of his own countrymen on her soil, nor those of any distinct and separate body of foreign miners that he makes his appeal, but to protect all classes of aliens among us from the jealous rivalry and prejudicial spirit which exists among a large body of American miners against the laborers from other shores, and, moreover, to prevent, as far as possible, the consequences of this intolerant and unlegalized action from being re-visited upon the heads of our countrymen, who are even now departing in considerable numbers, from various parts of the United States, for the shores of South Australia.
The views of the writer are exceedingly fair, and it is not necessary that we should publish his communication entire to illustrate the friendly and courteous spirit in which it was conceived. His opinions on the subject of international rights, and the relations which are doubtless not long hence to exist between this country and the flourishing British Colonies of the South sea, are not dissimilar to those which have been freely expressed in the editorial columns of this paper from time to time. Respecting the treatment of foreigners in the mines, we also would probably not be found widely at variance with the views of Australiensis, but the propriety and force of the argument which he advances out of consideration for the safety and success of a class, of emigrating Americans on foreign shores, may be questioned.
In the first place, it is not at all likely that the gold mines of South Australia offer sufficient inducement to our countrymen to forsake the mineral fields and the thousand other fruitful resources of California, and perform a pilgrimage to that far-off country in quest of riches which are quite as abundantly supplied at home. And though Australiensis may have properly stated that some fifty or sixty Americans accompany him in this trip to the Colonies, adventurers from their own shores, we do not infer that there is to be a decided movement of any class of our people in that direction. It is, moreover, the opinion of this gentleman that over two thousand Americans are, to use his own words, "engaged in mining pursuits in that country at this moment, whose treatment in no respect differs from the English or native born citizens being all equally taxed and protected," which opinion is also unstrengthened by facts that have recently come to light respecting the state of the British Colonies. The best-accredited reports from that region represent the feeling against Americans, and particularly Californians, among all the laboring classes, to be one of decided bitterness and animosity. There are not, we can state with some degree of confidence, over five hundred native born Americans scattered throughout the Australian colonies, irrespective of the crews of American vessels. And as for the prospect of an emigration of adventurers from the Atlantic States to the colonies, we attach no importance whatever to the conjecture. It is true a few vessels were laid on for their ports at the date of last advices from New York, but all accounts represented the indications of passenger loads being found, to be extremely feeble. Regarding, therefore, the well-meant apprehensions of our correspondent for the prospects of Americans in Australia, we might exclaim with Roderick Dhu,
"Is nought but retribution dueWe have no fears of serious disturbances between British and American miners in the gold fields of South Australia. Nevertheless we are fully as sensitive to the wrongs inflicted upon strangers on our own shores by a reckless and disorderly class of our countrymen, as though we had interests to harmonize and protect on foreign shores. Americans can well afford to be thus disinterested and unselfish in their foreign relations.
Seek other cause."
Daily Alta California, July 9, 1853
The Empire denounced in severe terms the deceptions practiced in England to induce emigration to the colonies. With regard to the misrepresentations of the value of the stock of the Australian Company, it says:
It is stated that the Australian Agricultural Company's purchase of 300,000 acres is an immense gold field, and that the leasing of this land to diggers is even better than digging. On the faith of this representation it appears that the shares of the Company have suddenly taken a most extraordinary leap. These shares rose in two or three days from a nominal 65 pounds to a real 250 pounds, sine which it has been said they have reached 300 pounds. A short time ago they were in effect worthless. Now it is not the legitimate purpose of the Company's establishment -- if it ever had legitimate purposes -- which have caused this immense rise, but a notion which will not bear the test of Australian scrutiny. How many persons may be ruined by these absurdities we can scarcely conjecture, but we protest against the true character of the colony bearing the penalty of fictions of this sort.
In view of these and similar misrepresentations, the Empire calls upon government to interpose in behalf of deluded emigrants as well as of the Colonies.
An escort arrived at Sydney from the "Owens" on the 29th of March, bringing down 8,564 ounces of gold dust and 7,564 pounds in cash.
The papers are filled in a measure with accounts of assaults, thefts, robberies, and other crimes.
During the week ending on the 1st of April 12, 770 ounces of gold dust arrived at Sydney, supposed to be about the amount of the products of the month.
Eighteen Mormon missionaries had arrived in Australia.
An official estimate gives the following as the mining population of Australia: 15,000 at Mount Alexander, 15,000 at Bendigo, 1,500 at Korong, 1,500 at Daisy Hill, 1,000 at Ballarat, and 3,000 at the Ovens, making 46,000 in the aggregate.MELBOURNE
Distance from Melbourne, Australia via Honolulu: 7,160 Nautical Miles
December 12, 1884, Anglo American Times
London, United Kingdom
The American Exporter notices that "the Stephenson Company's cars are found almost the world over. China is one of the countries which have withstood this nineteenth century innovation. In England and Europe generally top seat cars are in high favor. In England they remind John Bull of his old coaching days. The west side of London has been almost entirely supplied with cars by the Stephenson Company. In September a hundred cars were shipped from the works to Melbourne, Australia. Adelaide has also been supplied by the company, which is now filling an order for Brisbane, Australia, another for Buenos Ayres, and still another for Santiago. All these are "top seat" cars, though the Santiago cars are closed in front. Not long ago the company made some cars for Calcutta. The inscription on these cars was in Hindustanee. Stephenson cars are also to be found in Lima, Valparaiso and other cities in South America; and in Berlin, Brussels and nearly all the capitals in Europe. Russia has not yet been supplied, as its application called for iron bottom frames. Omnibuses are also sent to many parts of the world by the company, which is engaged on orders for grip cars for Kansas City, Chicago and Milwaukee. John Stephenson, the head of the company, a white haired, bright eyed old man, has been in the business since 1831. The company makes about 6OO cars annually. They range in price from $950 to $1,200 each." The tram-cars made by this Company as can be seen in London are singularly adapted for the work, requiring no effort to keep them clean and well ventilated.
December 17, 1892, Evening Times
Monroe, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
CUP DAY IN VICTORIA
The Grand Event in the Calendar of the City of Melbourne
No one who has not visited Australia can have any conception of the interest which attaches to such a race as the Melbourne cup, which, with its sweepstakes from the one hundred and fortynine entries that were made in 1890, its trophy of £150 value, and its added money of £10,000, amounting altogether to $13,080, is the most important money contest in the world, says Sidney Dickinson in Scribner's Magazine. On the day of its occurrence all business is suspended by mutual consent throughout Victoria, the banks and government offices are all closed, and by twelve o'clock the streets of Melbourne are as silent and deserted as if the city were stricken with a plague. For a week before the event, the railway trains from Sidney, to the number of seven or eight in a day, and all the inter-colonial and mail steamers from that city and Adelaide, are taxed to their utmost capacity, and the accommodations of Melbourne, as well as all the neighboring towns, are taken up by the immense concourse of visitors. The facilities for reaching Flemington are so good, however, and the course itself so spacious that even at the great race of the centennial year, when more than 140,000 persons were upon the grounds, one saw the event with perfect comfort, and was transported to and from the course without five minutes, waiting at either end of the line. The admirable temper and sobriety of the great assembly are largely responsible for such a result. During the four days' meeting of 1888 only five arrests were made on the grounds, and none of these was for serious offenses. The crowd at an Australian race meeting is often rough in appearance, but in orderliness and good nature can hardly be excelled.
An Archaeology of Australia Since 1788
This overview of Australian post-contact history uses material objects such as artefacts, buildings, and landscapes. The book offers broad geographic and temporal coverage, and social themes such as gender, status, ethnicity and identity inform every chapter.
Shipwrecks: Australia's Greatest Maritime Disasters
Evan McHugh
From the first wreck in 1622 off Western Australia to the tragedy of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Evan McHugh captures all the drama of Australia's maritime history. There are swashbuckling mutineers violent storms uncharted reefs enemy warships as well as ripping yarns about Dutchmen and lascars Aborigines and escaped convicts. McHugh has made extensive use of first-hand accounts and contemporary records. With characteristic flair he also delves into the mysteries and controversies that still surround so many of the wrecks. Shipwrecks is a white-knuckle voyage through chaos and tragedy which proclaims the courage and strength of the human spirit. It is a powerful reminder that even in the twenty-first century the sea remains a great unconquered frontier.
