How Australia was born

4 min read

3 years ago Nathan

Back in the the 1770s and 1780s, living conditions in the United Kingdom were literally catastrophic.
The Industrial Revolution meant that many workers had been replaced by machines, and small farmers had been forced off their land as the rich and powerful used the Enclosure Acts to expand their agricultural holdings.
Of course, there was no welfare state, so huge numbers of people just lived in poverty and squalor and, as a result, without work or food for their families, many turned to crime.
Thus that prisons across the country were overcrowded at the seams and the authorities started to use specially renovated ships, known as hulks, to house prisoners, that were moored outside ports and major coastal cities.
However, it didn’t solve the problem and transportation, and the enforced deportation of criminals to another country was seen as a possible answer. The American War of Independence had closed off the country for such uses so new destinations had to be found.

In 1770, explorer James Cook on board the sailing ship HMS Endeavour arrived off the east coast of Australia and came ashore at a spot that he named Botany Bay, now part of the city of Sydney.
He named the area New South Wales and claimed the land for Britain, totally ignoring the fact that it was already occupied by native inhabitants, the Aborigines.
Sailing with James Cook aboard the Endeavour was scientist, botanist and explorer Joseph Banks and it was he, in 1784, who suggested to the British Government that Botany Bay would make an ideal spot as a penal colony.
And so on 13 May 1787 a fleet of eleven ships sailed from Portsmouth with about 750 convicts on board, to set up the first British colony in Australia.
The small fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, sailed from Portsmouth to Tenerife, then to Rio de Janeiro and from there across the Atlantic through the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town and on to Australia.
The 24,000 km (about 15,000 miles) journey took eight months and during that time there were said to be about 100 deaths and 20 births on board the ships.
However, after they arrived at Botany Bay, Captain Phillip soon realised it wasn’t a suitable place for settlement: the soil was of poor quality, the supply of fresh water was inadequate, the bay was too exposed and the strong winds denying safe harbour for the ships.
But he found what he wanted: an excellent natural harbour and a stream with a reliable water supply, just 12km to the north.
He named it Sydney Cove in honour of Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, the British Home Secretary of the day, and on 26 January 1788 he raised the British flag there, taking possession of the area in the name of the British government.

The convicts on the First Fleet had been found guilty of a variety of crimes and most of them were thieves, pickpockets, forgers, petty criminals and ordinary people just struggling to survive and driven to steal food. Among them there were no murderers and no-one convicted of a violent crime.
But along with the ships’ officers and soldiers sent to guard them, they found the climate very different to that in England, with days unbearably hot and nights also hot and sticky. Summer storms would whip through without warning, dumping rain and hail upon the convicts who had never experienced such weather. Many of them simply downed tools and refused to work in those conditions.
But the work had to be done. Soon they were tilling the tough Australian soil and planting the first crops, and there were also set construction projects, as there were no roads, bridges or buildings.
Eventually, it all came good and the city of Sydney began to grow and flourish. Later, the day that Captain Phillip raised his flag – 26 January – came to be celebrated as Australia Day.