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Ok it is history Tuesday and today I am going to touch a little on the history of the state I call home New South Wales.
New
South Wales (NSW) was first established in 1788 with the arrival of
the first fleet which consisted of 11 ships under the command of
Captain Arthur Phillip, there was over a thousand settlers including
778 convicts with 192 of them being women and 586 being men.
The
fleet arrived at Botany Bay but soon moved to a more suitable area
known as Port Jackson where a settlement was established at Sydney
Cove on the 26 January 1788, this date would later become our
national day i.e. Australia Day.
The
colony was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on the 7 February
1788 at Sydney, Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe
harbour which Governor Phillip described as being “with out
exception the finest harbour in the world”
Governor
Phillip had complete authority over the inhabitants of the colony, he
was enlightened for his age with a personal intent of establishing
harmonious relations with the local Aboriginal people, he also tried
to reform as well as discipline the convicts.
Governor Phillip
Between
1788 and 1792 around 3546 male and 766 female convicts landed at
Sydney with many of those sick and unfit for work and the conditions
of the healthy convicts deteriorated with the hard labour and lack of
food in the settlement.
Between
1788 and 1792 the majority of the population was made up of convicts
and their gaolers, but after this there was a population of
emancipated convicts who could be granted land and it was these
people who pioneered a non-government private sector economy, later
they would be joined by solider whose military service had ended,
finally free settlers began to arrive from Britian
Governor
Phillip left Australia for England on 11 December 1792, with the new
settlement having survived near starvation and immense isolation for
four years. The following year on the 16 February the first free
settlers arrived they were Thomas Rose his wife and four children,
Edward Powell, Thomas Webb, Joseph Webb and Frederick Meredith.
Prior
to the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1770, New South Wales was
inhabited by Aborigines for at least 40,000 years, although how on
earth anyone knows that I don't get. For many Aborigines the 26
January is not a day of celebration but one of mourning and protest,
for these Australians the founding of the modern Australian nation
led to the disruption of their traditional way of life.
However,
by 1820 Australia was beginning to look prosperous and sentiments of
Australian patriotism were being expressed at gatherings of
ex-convicts. The sense of belonging to a new nation must have been
encouraged from 1817 when Governor Macquarie recommended the adoption
of the name of “Australia” for the entire continent instead of
New Holland.
By
1847 the convict population of Sydney accounted for only 3.2% of the
total population.
I
could write more but I won't I will leave that for another post,
don't want to bore you all too much.
I'll be waiting to hear the next part... oh, I guess I mean read, not hear.
ReplyDeleteYeah I say hear when I mean read but its all good as long as you liked the post
DeleteVery cool stuff. I know some of Australia's history. I love what you share this is no exception. The cool part is it's part of home area too. Keep it coming my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you I knew some of this but not all
DeleteDearest Jo-Anne,
ReplyDeleteIt is always important to know the history of the land we live in!
Hugs,
Mariette
I think so too
DeleteAll fascinating stuff - thank you! And many of the convicts were not serious criminals, but were banished for what we would consider trivial crimes today - or not crimes at all. Before American Independence, we exported many of our criminals there...
ReplyDeleteYes indeed the crimes the convict committed were usually very trivial
Delete