Lyla Lindsey
The Commonwealth of Australia was established on January 1, 1901, as a federation of former British colonies. The human history of Australia dates back to the arrival of the first ancestors of Aboriginal Australians from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago. The British colonial period in Australia began in 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, and the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales as part of the British Empire. The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by Thomas Townshend, the 1st Viscount Sydney, in response to the ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution, and the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Country that settled the new colony of Australia | Britain/United Kingdom |
| Date of settlement | 1788 |
| Reason for settlement | The ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution and the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion |
| Number of convicts transported to Australia | 29,500 between 1787 and 1820; 50,000 over 150 years |
| First colony | New South Wales |
| Governor of the first colony | Governor Phillip |
| Date of formal proclamation of the colony | 7 February 1788 |
| Location of the proclamation | Sydney Cove, Sydney |
| Role of British troops | Guarding the colony against external attack, maintaining civil order, suppressing resistance from Aboriginal population |
| Date of the end of convict transportation to New South Wales | 1840 |
| Date of federation | 1 January 1901 |
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What You'll Learn
The First Fleet of British ships arrived in 1788
The British government established a penal colony in New South Wales in 1787. The First Fleet of British ships, consisting of eleven vessels, arrived in 1788, marking the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. The Fleet included two Royal Navy vessels, three storeships, and six convict transport ships. It carried over 1400 convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials, and free settlers.
The First Fleet left Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787 and travelled over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles) in 250 days before arriving at Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Botany Bay was intended to be the site of the new colony, but Governor Arthur Phillip rejected it due to its lack of suitable anchorage and fresh water. Instead, he chose Port Jackson to the north, which offered deeper water close to the shore, shelter, and a small stream.
On 26 January 1788, the Fleet arrived at Port Jackson, establishing the first permanent European colony on the Australian continent. This date is now celebrated as Australia Day. The Cadigal people of the Botany Bay area witnessed the arrival of the Europeans, and several First Fleeters recorded their encounters with the Aboriginal people in their journals.
The settlement of New South Wales became the first British settlement in Australia and was followed by the arrival of more convicts and settlers in the subsequent decades. From 1788 to 1868, the British government transported approximately 165,000 convicts to Australia, providing an Anglo-Irish base for Australian society. The presence of the First Fleet and subsequent colonisation efforts had a significant impact on the indigenous people of Australia, leading to conflict and the suppression of their resistance to British settlement.
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Penal colony of New South Wales established
The Colony of New South Wales was a British colony from 1788 to 1901, when it became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. Led by Captain Arthur Phillip, the First Fleet set sail on 13 May 1787, and founded the first British settlement in Australian history as a penal colony.
The first ship of the First Fleet, HMS Supply, with Captain Phillip aboard, reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Botany Bay was found to be unsuitable, so Phillip led the exploration of Port Jackson, and the fleet sailed to Sydney Cove, arriving on 25 January 1788. The next day, the men went ashore and started clearing land for a camp. In the evening, they erected a flagpole, raised the Union Jack, and the officers ashore made toasts to the Royal Family and the success of the colony. On 6 February 1788, the female convicts came ashore, and on 7 February, the colony was formally proclaimed.
The colony faced extreme difficulty in its earliest years, including water scarcity. From 1788, marines guarded English settlements at Sydney Cove and Norfolk Island. They were relieved in 1790 by a unit specifically recruited for colonial service, and in 1810, the 73rd Regiment of Foot became the first line regiment to serve in Australia. From then until 1870, 25 British infantry regiments and several smaller artillery and engineer units were stationed in the colonies. The main job of the troops was to maintain civil order, particularly against the threat of convict uprisings, and to suppress the resistance of the Aboriginal population to British settlement.
In the mid-19th century, the history of NSW was substantially about gold and succession. The first Australian gold rush took place in NSW in 1850, causing migration from neighbouring states. By 1859, northern NSW had seceded into a new colony, Queensland. In the 1850s, Melbourne had a larger urban population than Sydney, although NSW maintained a healthy population of 300,000. New settlers arrived, including farmers, urban entrepreneurs, and miners.
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Conflict with Aboriginal people on traditional lands
The British government established a penal colony in New South Wales in 1787, with the first conflict between the British and Indigenous Australians occurring in 1788. This marked the beginning of the Australian frontier wars, which lasted until the early 20th century. The frontier wars were a series of violent conflicts between Indigenous Australians, including Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, and mostly British settlers.
Initially, the British settlements occupied small amounts of land, and there was little conflict between the colonisers and Indigenous peoples. However, as the settlements expanded, they disrupted traditional Indigenous food-gathering activities and led to competition over resources and occupation of lands. The Indigenous inhabitants' reactions to the British invasion varied, but they became hostile when their presence led to resource competition and land occupation. European diseases also decimated Indigenous populations, and the destruction of their lands and food resources sometimes led to starvation.
The first frontier war began in 1795 when British settlers established farms along the Hawkesbury River west of Sydney. Some of these settlements were established by soldiers to provide security to the region. The "Black War" in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania) began in the mid-1820s due to pastoral expansion and resulted in sustained frontier warfare. Over 50 British people were killed between 1828 and 1830, making it the "most successful Aboriginal resistance in Australia's history". Lieutenant-Governor Arthur attempted to end the "Black War" in 1830 through a massive offensive known as the "Black Line", mobilising ten per cent of the colony's male civilian population, police, and soldiers to clear Indigenous Australians from the area.
British soldiers became involved in suppressing the resistance of the Aboriginal population only rarely, notably during periods of martial law in Tasmania and New South Wales in the 1820s and 1830s. The main role of the troops stationed in Australia was to guard against external attack and maintain civil order, particularly against convict uprisings. The conflict between British settlers and Indigenous Australians was localised and sporadic, following the frontiers of European settlement across the continent and continuing in remote areas until the 1930s.
The Aboriginal population was designated as British citizens, but this led to further issues as they were given rights and responsibilities of which they had no knowledge, and their customary law was ignored. Additionally, Aboriginal people could not testify in court as they could not swear an oath on a Bible due to not being Christians. This caused a clash between the intentions of those establishing the new colony and the fears of both the Aboriginal people and the new settlers.
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The colony became a budding civil society
The colony of Australia was settled by Britain in 1787, when the British government established a penal colony in New South Wales. The colony was guarded by marines and troops, who were also tasked with maintaining civil order and suppressing the resistance of the Aboriginal population to British settlement.
The colony of New South Wales underwent significant social and economic development under the leadership of Macquarie, the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, who served from 1810 to 1821. Macquarie played a pivotal role in the colony's transition from a penal colony to a budding civil society. He established key institutions, including a bank, a currency, and a hospital. Additionally, he commissioned extensive public works, such as the construction of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings.
One of the defining aspects of Macquarie's governance was his stance on emancipists, formerly convicted individuals who had been released from their sentences. Macquarie believed that emancipists should be treated as social equals to free settlers in the colony. He put this belief into practice by appointing emancipists to prominent government positions. For example, Francis Greenway was appointed as the colonial architect, and William Redfern served as a magistrate. Macquarie's policy on emancipists, however, faced opposition from influential free settlers, officers, and officials, and even drew concern from London due to the significant cost of his public works projects.
During this period, the colony experienced economic growth driven by agriculture and the discovery of gold. The rich farmland and burgeoning agricultural economy attracted many new settlers who were dissatisfied with life in the British Isles. This influx of people led to the development of NSW, with Sydney and Melbourne vying to become the capital of the emerging country. The gold rush in neighbouring Victoria caused a migration of people, and by 1859, northern NSW had seceded and become the new colony of Queensland.
The development of civil society in Australia was also influenced by the establishment of scientific and educational institutions. The Tasmanian Society, founded in 1837, was the country's leading scientific society at the time. Additionally, the University of Sydney was established in 1850, offering chairs in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. These advancements contributed to the emergence of a more sophisticated civil society in Australia.
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Australia became a federation in 1901
The British government established a penal colony in New South Wales in 1787, marking the beginning of the colonial period in Australia. This period lasted until 1901, when Australia became a federation.
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia. The colonies of Fiji and New Zealand were originally part of this process, but they decided not to join the federation.
The movement towards federation gained momentum in 1889, when New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes gave a rousing address calling for "a great national government for all Australians". During the 1890s, several conventions were held to develop a constitution for the Commonwealth, with the support of premiers such as George Reid of NSW. The Australasian Federal Convention Elections took place in March 1897, and several weeks later, delegates gathered for the Convention's first session in Adelaide. Referendums on the revised constitution were held in all the colonies except for Western Australia in June 1899, with an overwhelming majority voting 'yes'.
The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK) was passed on 5 July 1900 and given royal assent by Queen Victoria on 9 July 1900. The Act declared that the Constitution of Australia would come into force on 1 January 1901, at which point the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia. Western Australia, which had resisted federation for some time, only voted on the issue on 31 July 1900, after the Act had received royal assent. The colony was induced to join the new nation with the promise of a railway link to the eastern states.
On 1 January 1901, Lord Hopetoun was sworn in as the first Governor-General of Australia at a ceremony in Centennial Park, Sydney, and Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, and federal ministers took the oath of office. The first federal election took place on 29–30 March 1901, with Barton continuing as Prime Minister.
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Frequently asked questions
The new colony of Australia was settled by Britain.
The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. This was due to two reasons: the ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution, and the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion.
The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Port Jackson on the lands of the Eora in 1788, marking the beginning of the British colonial period in Australia.
