Australian History For Dummies - Alex McDermott

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Extremely isolated exile wasn’t preferred from the start — the presumption being that after convicts had served their time, they should be able to catch a ship home.

      The proposed Botany Bay colony was outside any established shipping routes, and not a region with great existing trade, meaning that transportation costs would be very high. Although the influence of Banks can’t be denied, what other factors led the British Government to choose NSW? Here the plot thickens. This is an area that sustains a healthy amount of strong disagreement among historians, but some clear factors emerge:

       NSW was near vital raw materials for maintaining a global navy: Britain had found out the hard way in recent wars that if shut off from crucial supplies from Europe, their vaunted navy ran the risk of disintegration. Flax plants were needed to make sails, ropes and cords, while long straight timber, preferably pine, was needed to replace masts. Cook had reported spruce pines of ‘vast size’ on Norfolk Island, not far from the NSW coast: ‘Here … masts for the largest ships may be had’. Flax plants were also seen growing in abundance.

       Access to all the tea in China could be made less volatile: In the 1780s, trade with the Chinese port of Canton increased dramatically, with the importation of tea tripling in two years alone. But getting there was tricky. The French had established themselves in Indochina (modern-day Vietnam and surrounding areas), and the Dutch held the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). While the British had signed a treaty that gave them a right to sail through Dutch waters, they worried that in the event of war both regions would become highly dangerous to move through. So an alternative route, one that went from India southwards, below Australia and then up the east coast, sailing between the New South Wales coastline and Norfolk Island, could be a handy Plan B.

       The British East India Company’s monopoly was looking likely to end: For most of the 18th century, this company had enjoyed a monopoly over all trade that went back to Britain from India and the entire region that lay beyond, as they came to exercise an often regal-type power in that part of the world. For trading companies and shipping agencies not directly aligned with the company, this monopoly was a profound disincentive for moving operations into the Pacific. The monopoly was widely expected to be terminated in the early 1790s, however, allowing a rush of new trading shipping interest into the area.

       The French were still an enemy to be feared: The French and British had an animosity that went back centuries (Joan of Arc, anyone?) but in the second half of the 18th century, Britain and France were locked in an intense battle for global supremacy that often sparked wars. The British Ambassador in Paris in the summer of 1785 reported worrying rumours that the French scientific expedition about to set off under comte de La Pérouse was going to be instructed to establish a convict settlement in New Zealand to take advantage of the pines reputed to be there. Interest in the Pacific and New Holland as a strategic resource was on the rise in the other major player in world affairs.
So why not kill a multiple number of birds with one big convict stone? Convicts were intended as a stop-gap measure to help establish a key British strategic post in the Pacific. Plenty of other reasons could be put forward to establish settlement in NSW, but plenty of good reasons also to keep quiet about it. The British had no wish, after all, to needlessly provoke or alarm the Dutch and French, or to offend British East India Company sensitivities. (The company had been largely shut out of the decision-making for the new settlement, and was already viewing it suspiciously.) Much easier, then, to talk only of offloading unwanted convicts on a coastline that was declared to be land belonging to no-one (see the sidebar ‘Claiming the “terra nullius”’).

      In 1786, George III declared to the House of Commons that his government and prime minister would soon transport ‘a number of convicts’ to Botany Bay in order to relieve ‘the crowded state of the gaols’.

      SHAPING AUSTRALIA WITH TWO BIG DECISIONS

      In 1780s London, two decisions would have gob-smackingly enormous consequences for the sort of country Australia would become.

      The first big decision is fairly obvious — deciding to establish a colony for trading, and for strategic and convict transportation purposes on the Australian continent. When you consider levels of subsequent impact from particular decisions, that’s about as big as it gets, really.

      The second big decision, though, was also far-reaching, even if at first glance it seems more subtle. It was a decision made by the minister in charge of the arrangements for what sort of settlement this would be.

      The government minister was Thomas Townsend — ‘Tommy’ to his mates, but known to history as ‘Lord Sydney’. He raised eyebrows when he decided, quite late in the day as it happened, that the penal colony in NSW would be run according to ordinary civil law rather than as a military society. What this meant was that the law that would operate here would recognise all the usual rights and liberties outlined in English law at home. In comparison to most places in the world at the time, an Englishman’s rights and liberties were something to brag about (and they did). This decision meant that NSW would be established as a free society, even if most of the new population arriving were convicts! (Ah, the irony.)

      The first ever civil trial to take place after the arrival of the First Fleet, run according to the rules of an ordinary English court, was brought by a young convict couple, who sued one of the ship captains for losing their valuable luggage on the journey out. This couple was Henry and Susannah Kable.

      After the selecting of the site came the settling. Organising and equipping a party to settle a colony in a part of the world that had been seen once some 15 years previously meant a lot of planning and preparation had to be done. Aside from getting there, the British had the question of exactly who they would take as first settlers. One suggestion was to send American colonists who had stayed loyal to Britain in the American War of Independence. In the end, they went with convicted criminals (for reasons explained in the preceding section). Exactly what sort of people these convicted criminals were, however, is another matter.

      Getting there with the First Fleet

      The actual getting to NSW and the initial settling in was remarkably trouble-free, thanks in large part to the expedition’s leader, Captain Arthur Phillip, carefully overseeing preparations. The government responded seriously to his demands that this long voyage, bigger than any large-scale journey and relocation ever before attempted, should be fitted out properly. When the ships of what we now call the ‘First Fleet’ finally got underway in May 1787, no-one could say it was a slap-dash affair.

      The ships were of good quality and sturdy. Fresh provisions were laid in during the weeks prior to the fleet’s departure. No callous disregard for convicts’ welfare was shown, with one observer going so far as to complain that the weekly rations were superior to what ordinary sailors would generally receive. The convicts themselves were selected on the basis of good health (and possibly youth). As many mechanics and farm hands as could be found were strategically selected by the government.

      

Largely due to these meticulous preparations, out of the 1,403 people who left Portsmouth, only 69 died (or deserted) in the course of the long voyage. Given that ships on long voyages at this time could often lose up to a quarter or even half of their crew, this was no mean feat. In January 1788, some 1,023 settlers disembarked, including 751 convicts and their children and 252 marines and their families.

      Botany Bay, contrary to Banks’s suavely confident predictions (refer to the ‘Pushing

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