Page 79 - All About History - Issue 11-14

“ Regardless of crime, age, ethnicity or
gender, nearly all were malnourished,

lice-infested and wearing rags”
Three notable convicts
in suggested otherwise. Regardless of crime, age, the paradise that explorer Captain James Cook, who
ethnicity or gender, nearly all were malnourished, charted the region on his 1772-1775 voyage, had who were transported
lice-infested and wearing barely enough in the painted. Cook arrived during the month of May and
way of moth-eaten rags to hide their modesty. It had named the natural harbour for the diversity Crime: Stealing sugar
enraged Philip that not only was the government of its vegetation, also noting its abundance of fish. Jamaican-born Billy Blue was sentenced
denying him the skilled labour he would need But at the height of the Australian summer when to seven years’ transportation in 1796
to effectively establish a colony, but the rag-tag the First Fleet arrived, the land was withered and that saw him leave for Botany Bay in 1800. He
finished his sentence and became a ferryman across
dregs of Britain’s gaols had been half-broken before the stingrays Cook had talked about were nowhere Sydney Harbour, married in 1805 and had six children.
they had even left the shore. Nevertheless, he was to be seen. The shallow bay also prevented the
neither going to be delayed nor disheartened, and ships from dropping anchor close to the shoreline,
so Philip saw the First Fleet through what would so conditions for a fledgling colony on shore were Crime: Receiving stolen goods
have been a distinctly unpleasant eight-month far from ideal. The water was mostly brackish, Former soldier William Buckley managed
journey to a harbour 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) the bay’s topography would make it difficult to to escape incarceration when he arrived
south of modern-day Sydney, stopping off at South defend and the soil was poor with slim potential in Australia. Buckley was ‘adopted’ by a friendly tribe
America and South Africa along the way. for growing crops from the grain they had brought of aboriginals, the Wathaurung, who believed he was
the returned spirit of a recently deceased tribesman,
The last of the fleet landed at its final destination with them. At least there were plenty of strong and became a respected member of their community.
in Botany Bay relatively intact, on 20 January 1788. trees and the natives, an aboriginal clan called
None of the ships had been lost on the journey Cadigal, weren’t hostile. But the fear of attack
and only 48 of the would-be colonists had from aboriginals or foreign powers looking to Crime: Stealing a frock
died, a remarkably low statistic for the time. usurp his claim to the land led Arthur Phillip to Mary Ann Wade was the youngest
However, the new colony was nowhere near search elsewhere. He took a small party of three convict sent aboard the second fleet at
boats north the next day to discover a much more 11 years old, after her death sentence was commuted
suitable, sheltered site for a colony with fertile soil to transportation. On arrival she was taken to
and fresh water. Cook had called it Port Jackson Norfolk Island where she later had two children. Her
descendants today number in the tens of thousands.
but hadn’t entered the harbour, so Phillip took the
liberty of renaming it Sydney.
It wasn’t just the dregs of the prisons that had
been upended into the First Fleet. One particular
thorn in Phillip’s side was the prickly Major Robert
Ross. The Scottish marine had a reputation for
having a hair-trigger temper, but it wasn’t until
Phillip was trying to set up the colony that he
discovered just how insubordinate he could be.
He refused to allow marines under his command
to supervise convicts or to sit in court on convict
trials, he was lazy, quarrelled with his officers and
commanders alike and generally made Phillip’s job
of governing the colony more difficult. Phillip had
already instructed his lieutenant, David Collins,
to take a small party of seven free men and 15
convicts to Norfolk Island, a small island 1,412
kilometres (877 miles) directly east of Australia.
They arrived a month after the settlement of
Sydney and over the course of a year, more
convicts were sent to help with what appeared to
be a promising industry.
Perhaps to avoid outright conflict as much as
the need for a military presence on the island,
Phillip decided to send the surly major over to
Norfolk with a retinue of marines in 1790. It was
not a successful relocation. Ross continued to
argue with Lieutenant Governor Collins and his
own men. He declared martial law for four months
after the 540-ton HMS Sirius attempting to bring
over a company of marines escorting convicts was
wrecked on a coral reef. No lives were lost but the
Captain Cook taking formal ship and all its provisions perished, which only HMS Endeavour, the British Navy research
possession of New South Wales vessel commanded by Captain Cook
piled the pressure on the islanders. In the space of
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