MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD

FRANCIS GREENWAY - CONVICT ARCHITECT DESIGNED EARLY SYDNEY

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 01:44:19 GMT

Hyde Park Barracks, Macquarie Street, Sydney, Australia.

WHAT IS MICHAEL’S CURIOUS WORLD?

Australia’s history is the story of a fightback.

Britain’s elite decided the common people were too much trouble, with their annoying demands for freedom, a decent wage and food to eat - how dare they? So the elite exported their surplus people to the other side of the world to found a brutal penal colony where they were abused and flogged for daring to resist.

But something surprising happened - the little people did fight back and, bit by bit, they won. Australia still isn’t perfect, but it’s globally respected as one of the best true democracies on the planet, based on the ideal of ‘a fair go for all’.

How did that happen? Michael’s Curious World (MCW) is travelling the country and writing about it. Sure, there are some big people in this story, because they did important things, but MCW’s real focus in on the little people, the real Aussie battlers who got up every morning and made a difference.

To follow and support this fascinating story:

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This is the story of a convict forger who became the architect who designed many of Sydney’s most important early buildings.

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FRANCIS GREENWAY (November 20, 1777 – September 1837)

FRANCIS Greenway designed Sydney’s best colonial buildings, but was sentenced to death for forgery. What a crazy life!

Greenway was the convict forger who became the official architect of the colony of New South Wales and designed many of Sydney’s most historic early buildings, before dying in poverty.

Greenway’s legacy has been preserved in the precinct which includes St. James’ Church, the Law Courts and Hyde Park Barracks.

Born at Mangotsfield, Gloucester, to Francis Greenway and Ann Webb, young Francis became an architect at Bristol and Bath, where he designed the Clifton Club at Bristol, whose front façade survives.

However, he went bankrupt in 1809 and in 1812 pleaded guilty to forging a financial document, was sentenced to death, but that was reduced to transportation for 14 years.

Greenway was initially held at Newgate Prison at Bristol, where he painted scenes of prison life. He landed in Sydney on the General Hewitt in February, 1814, as did the surgeon Dr John Harris, who later gave Greenway his first private commission to extend his estate at Ultimo. Francis’ wife Mary and three children arrived several months after him.

Francis Howard Greenway, 1814-1837, unknown artist, pencil, State Library of New South Wales.

Admiral Arthur Phillip, the founding Governor of New south Wales, had recommended Greenway to Governor Lachlan Macquarie and they first met in July, 1814. Macquarie asked Greenway to copy a design of a town hall and courthouse, which Greenway agreed to do, but said the plan had no charm and he would prefer to produce a classical design.

Macquarie commissioned Greenway to design the Macquarie Lighthouse at South Head on the entrance to Port Jackson in 1816. Pleased with Greenway’s work, Macquarie emancipated him on December 16, 1817, at the lighthouse. Greenway was appointed Acting Civil Architect and Assistant Engineer under the Inspector of Public Works, Captain John Gill.

\Macquarie Lighthouse, showing original and current lighthouses, at South Head, Sydney. By Unknown author - http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?4481_a026_000564, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11893801

Cadman’s Cottage, The Rocks, Sydney, 1815

Frontal view of Cadman's Cottage at The Rocks. By Julioenrekei - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6669564

Cadman’s Cottage is a former water police station and sailor’s home at 110 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, originally used for ship-building with a long workshop and storehouse. It was known as the Coxswains Barracks and is now named after the Coxswain, John Cadman.

Built in 1815-16, it is the second-oldest surviving residential building in Sydney. The water used to rise close to the cottage at high tide. It was restored from 1972 and is now the Sydney Harbour National Parks Information Centre.

First Government House, Bridge Street, Sydney, 1810

Government House, Sydney, watercolour drawing, 9.6 x 16 cm. By John William Lewin (1770-1819) - Series 01: Australian paintings by J.W. Lewin, G.P. Harris, G.W. Evans and others, 1796-1809, held at the National Library of Australia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17959431

The first residence for Governors of New South Wales was built from 1788 on the site of the current Museum of Sydney and demolished in 1846. It was a canvas and timber structure brought from England for Governor Arthur Phillip, and became the first permanent residence in Sydney. Governor Grose added a verandah in 1794, while Governor King added a drawing room and extended the verandah in 1802.

In 1816, Francis Greenway was commissioned to build a substantial extension with five rooms and a stable block in Gothic Italianate style, labelled ‘a palace for horses’. The stables later became the façade of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Governor Macquarie wanted to build a large replacement for the original Government House, but the British Government did not approve it. The apparent extravagance was one of the reasons Governor Macquarie was recalled to Britain.

Cleveland House at Surry Hills, 1823

This is a heritage-listed former residence, hospital, convent and aged care centre in Chalmers Street, Surry Hills, attributed to Francis Greenway and built from 1823 for 4000 pounds for emancipist merchant Daniel Cooper on five hectares originally granted to Charles Smith by Macquarie.

Hyde Park Barracks

Convict Barracks, Sydney, Australia, c.1819. By George William Evans (attrib.) - State Library of New South Wales, PX*D 41/5, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151931240

Hyde Park Barracks, designed by Francis Greenway, was constructed as a brick compound to house convict men and boys.

Governor Macquarie became disturbed by the behaviour of convict men, who were allowed to find their own lodgings, in the streets after work and asked Greenway to design a barracks for 600 men. It was constructed by convicts from April 6, 1817, until June 4, 1819, and housed 589 convicts on opening.

There were four rooms on each floor hung with two rows of hammocks. The longer eastern rooms housed 70 and the shorter western rooms held 35.

The Governor said robberies and burglaries declined dramatically after the barracks were opened. However, there were many reports of thefts within the barracks, so convicts were searched at the gates.

The barracks became overcrowded and actually housed up to 1400 men at times. About 30,000 men and boys were housed there between 1819 and 1848. A system was introduced to reduce the overcrowding under which convicts who behaved well were rewarded by being allowed to live outside the barracks, so being confined to the barracks became punishment.

From 1830, convicts were brought to the barracks to appear before the Court of General Sessions and some were flogged, put on the treadmill or sent to chain gangs.

After transportation ended in 1840 the reduced number of convicts were moved to Cockatoo Island. The barracks then became the Female Immigration Depot to accommodate single female arrivals, particularly Irish women, until they found positions. An Orphan Institution was also based there until 1852. The top floor was occupied by the Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women between 1862 and 1886, housing up to 150 women with terminal illnesses.

Later, courts occupied much of the complex which became known as Chancery Square and then Queen’s Square Courts. After renovations, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences was based there and the site remains a museum.

It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, has been described as one of the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation, and underwent an $18 million restoration in 2019-2020.

Old Government House, Parramatta

Old Government House, Parramatta, Sydney. By Sardaka - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53585739

Founding Governor Arthur Phillip chose the site of a farm at Parramatta which became Old Government House. The farm grew barley, corn and oats from mid-1788 and initially fed much of the colony during crop failures and the erratic arrival of supply ships.

Governor Phillip laid out the farm as part of the Parramatta town plan in 1790, with huts lining High Street which were occupied by emancipated convicts and free settlers.

Governor King from 1800 established Australia’s first public botanic garden on the farm under George Caley, plant collector for Sir Joseph Banks.

The original 1799 building was enlarged in 1815 to a design by John Watts to form a two-storey block, while the central portico was designed by Francis Greenway under Governor Macquarie in 1818.

It was used by 10 Governors of NSW between 1800 and 1847 and still exists in Parramatta Park as Australia’s oldest public building.

Governor Brisbane built an observatory, since demolished, and bathhouse. A rail track crossed part of the site after 1850 and a Boer War Memorial was erected in 1904.

The grounds are relatively unchanged, including scars on trees caused by Aboriginal ‘firestick’ burning. Shells from Aboriginal middens were used to strengthen the mortar.

The original area of 99 hectares has been reduced to 85 hectares and includes buildings, relics, plantings and 41 archaeological sites, including former roads, convict huts, stables, dairy, gate houses, a lumber yard and bushland.

St. James’ Church, Queen’s Square, Phillip Street, Sydney, 1820

St James’ Church about 1890. By Henry King (1855-1923) - Uploaded from Flickr Commons, original at the Powerhouse Museum catalogue (object 85/1285-85)Uploaded by berichard, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8089399

St. James Church was designed by Francis Greenway in the style of a classical Georgian town church and built at 173 King Street, Sydney, being consecrated in February, 1824. It is regarded as one of Greenway’s finest works, designed by him to align with the nearby Hyde Park Barracks.

Governor Macquarie had originally intended to use the site for a courthouse, but changed that to a church at the recommendation of Commissioner John Bigge, who had been appointed by the British Government to conduct a royal commission into the cost of Macquarie’s large public works program.

The foundation stone was laid on October 7, 1819. A steeple was added to the original court house design to change it into a church seating 2000.

Concern about the general morality of the population spurred the building of churches and schools. The first Rector, Richard Hill, had progressive views on education and opened an infant’s school and Sunday school. Close to the law courts and Sydney Hospital, it has ministered to convicts, the poor and needy in a High Church worship style.

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St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Liverpool, 1818

St Luke’s Anglican Church, Liverpool, Sydney. By J Bar - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3269917

Greenway was also commissioned by Macquarie to design St. Luke’s Anglican Church in a Georgian brick style at Elizabeth Drive, Liverpool, as part of his town plan for Liverpool, built from 1818 on a site chosen by Macquarie.

The first service was held on October 18, 1819, making it the oldest existing Anglican church in Australia, but the interior was not completed until 1824. A rectory and school building, since demolished, were nearby.

Some alterations were made over the years and there was a major restoration between 1975 and 1978. The open grounds are largely unchanged.

St. Matthew’s Church, Windsor, 1817

Greenway designed St. Matthew’s Anglican Church at Moses Street in Windsor and it was built by convicts from 1817 on a site overlooking the town originally known as Wilcox Farm.

Initial work on the church was unsatisfactory and Governor Macquarie accepted Greenway’s recommendation the structure be demolished and rebuilt.

Greenway appointed John Jones to supervise the construction, with 200,000 sandstone bricks to be made on site, and Jones to receive a land grant of 202 hectares as payment. The church was consecrated on December 8, 1822, the same year Governor Macquarie resigned. A rectory and stables were also built. The cemetery is older than the church, with a tombstone dating to 1810.

Parts of the structure later became dilapidated and there have since been several successful restoration efforts.

Supreme Court of New South Wales, corner of King and Elizabeth Streets, Sydney, 1820

The two-storey rectangular Greenway Wing of the Supreme Court was designed by Greenway, Standish Lawrence Harris and James Barnett and built from 1820 to 1828.

Greenway made the original design, but was dismissed before the building was completed in sandstone brick in 1828. Barnet designed additions in the 1860s. The building remains in excellent condition.

Windsor Court House, Windsor, 1821

Windsor Court House was designed by Francis Greenway in 1821 as a small brick structure on a site, known as Wilcox Farm, which also hosts St. Matthew’s Church.

Built in 1821-22 by William Cox with convict labour for 1800 pounds, it was extended by James Barnet in the 1870s and has since been restored and is still in use as a court house.

Greenway dismissed by Governor Brisbane

However, this was the high point of Greenway’s life, and from here it was all downhill.

Macquarie had resigned as Governor while under pressure from Commissioner Bigge to cut costs, and his successor as Governor, Thomas Brisbane, dismissed Greenway in 1822. Greenway claimed he was owed 11,000 pounds in expenses by the government, but it was never paid.

Greenway continued in private practice as an architect and lived on an 800-acre land grant at East Maitland he had received from Macquarie. His wife Mary opened a school for girls to try to improve the financial situation of the family of five sons and two daughters.

By 1835, he was destitute and advertising for support, which must have been humiliating:

“Francis Howard Greenway, arising from circumstances of a singular nature, is induced again to solicit the patronage of his friends and the public.’ - Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, January 20, 1835.

However, he died of typhoid on his farm aged 59 and was buried in an unmarked grave at East Maitland on September 25, 1837.

Legacy

Greenway’s face was on the first Australian $10 note issued from 1966.

Greenway is the name of a federal electorate, a suburb of Canberra, a high school at Maitland, a road at Cherrybrook and a Correctional Centre at Windsor.

Discussion

How did the convicted forger Greenway become appointed as government architect?
What style of architecture did Greenway favour? How appropriate was his architecture for colonial New South Wales?
Why did Greenway’s life have a sad ending?

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SAMUEL TERRY - EX-CONVICT BECOMES 'THE ROTHSCHILD OF SYDNEY'

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 01:43:04 GMT

Samuel Terry. https://imagens.mdig.com.br/thbs/57967mn.jpg

WHAT IS MICHAEL’S CURIOUS WORLD?

Australia’s history is the story of a fightback.

To follow and support this fascinating story:

Click ‘Subscribe’, choose a free or paid option and enter your details to receive full access to regular posts and the growing archive of past posts. If you can help, it only costs a coffee a month to join the journey and put fuel in my tank.
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This is the story of Samuel Terry, a poor convict who became the richest man in Sydney.

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SAMUEL TERRY - ‘THE ROTHSCHILD OF SYDNEY’

SAMUEL Terry (January 1, 1776 – February 22, 1838) is a classic example of a poor ex-convict who made spectacularly good in New South Wales.

Terry (arrived at Port Jackson as a penniless and possibly illiterate convict labourer and prospered to become the richest man in the colony when he died aged 62.

He was known as a sharp operator whose critics said he got people drunk, urged them to sign mortgages on their properties and then collected their loan repayments or seized their properties. However, some of the critics may have just been outraged that an ex-convict should have become so successful and socially prominent.

By his death in 1838, Terry had a personal estate valued at 500,000 pounds, an annual income of 10,000 pounds from rentals and so many properties that researchers have struggled to identify them all.

Comparing values over centuries is notoriously difficult, but one estimate was that Terry’s estate at his death, including properties in and around Sydney whose values have risen spectacularly, would have a current value of about a staggering AU$24 billion (not $million, $billion).

But all that wealth didn’t help him when he had a paralytic seizure and became an invalid three years before he died.

A humble beginning

Nothing is known about Terry’s birth. He appears in the records of Lancaster Quarter Sessions on January 22, 1800, as a labourer in Manchester who was sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for seven years for stealing 400 pairs of stockings.

Terry was transferred to the prison hulk Fortunee at Langstone Harbour in June, 1800, and then to the transport Earl Cornwallis and arrived at Sydney on June 12, 1801.

Flogged at Parramatta

Parramatta Female Factory. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/phh/files/styles/article_leader_image_style/public/article-images/Parramatta-Female-Factory-Sleeping-Ward-about-1825-City-of-Parramatta-2015.jpg?itok=fPT3XUbF

In Sydney, he worked as a stone-cutter under the direction of Samuel Marsden at the Parramatta Female Factory and gaol and cut stones for the church. Terry was both flogged for neglect of duty and rewarded for good behaviour.

By the time his sentence expired in 1807, Samuel had been a private soldier, self-employed as a stonemason and had set up a shop at Parramatta.

Becoming a property owner

Terry was among proprietors of landed property who in 1808 asked Governor William Bligh for privileges of trade and trial by jury, was listed as a favoured recipient of government cattle and in 1809 had a farm, ‘Mt Pleasant’, on the Hawkesbury River.

He was among 20 applicants granted liquor licences in February, 1810, accumulated several properties and was a shareholder in the Bank of New South Wales.

Marrying Rosetta

Terry married Rosetta Pracey on March 27, 1810, at St. Phillips Church of England at Sydney. Rosetta was a free settler and widow who had come to the colony in 1799 on the disease-ridden Hillsborough, on which a third of the convicts died.

She had previously been married to deceased convicts Edward Madden and Henry Marsh and had three children. Rosetta and Samuel were to have three more children.

Ruthless in business

Rosetta owned an inn in Pitt Street, Sydney, which Samuel took over. His enemies accused him of extortion by getting landowners drunk at the inn to sign away their properties in exchange for payment of their debts. The accusations were never substantiated.

However, Terry certainly used the law to ruthlessly enforce his rights. By 1821, he had brought 28 legal actions in the NSW Supreme Court. Terry’s legal actions were within the law, but fostered public bitterness towards his relentless business dealings.

The inn and store prospered and Terry speculated in city and pastoral properties. He also became a trader and supplier of flour and meat to the colonial government. By 1815 he had the farm on the Nepean River and properties on the Illawarra, south of Sydney.

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Samuel becomes wealthy and influential.

Martin Place, Sydney, and the site of the General Post office was once owned by Samuel Terry.

He supported charities and schools, worked to help emancipists and became president of a Masonic Lodge.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1817 described Terry as a ‘wealthy trader’ and granted him city allotments.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

Terry partnered with Thomas White Melville Winder to mill grain into flour in August, 1820, on land Terry owned at Kensington. The business expanded and became the Lachlan and Waterloo Flour Mills.

By 1817, Terry alone held 20% of the total value of property mortgages registered in the colony, which was more than the Bank of New South Wales.

Commissioner John Thomas Bigge wrote a report into the State of the Colony of NSW for the House of Commons in 1822 which reported that Terry had 1450 cattle, 3800 sheep and 7689 hectares of land, which was half the total amount of land held by all former convicts in the colony.

Commissioner John Thomas Bigge.

Although he was one of the largest shareholders in the Bank of New South Wales, Terry was initially refused a seat on the board of the bank because of his convict background, which must have annoyed him. He was finally elected to the board of the Bank of New South Wales in 1828 by 308 votes to 83.

Business practices criticised

Terry’s business methods were defended by his descendant, Gwyneth Dow, who wrote his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. She said Terry initially acquired wealth by frugality and shrewdness, but his enemies accused him of extortion, including hostile evidence given by Samuel Marsden, which was amplified in ‘irresponsible journalism’.

‘Bigge alleged that officers and small settlers, after becoming intoxicated at Terry’s public house, signed away rights to their possessions as security for debts. By this means, according to Bigge, Terry accumulated considerable capital, and land second only to D’Arcy Wentworth’s. Edward Eager dismissed such charges as “mere naked assertions, unsupported by any fact or evidence”, Dow said.

Terry consolidates his wealth in the 1820s.

A bloodstock stud was established at Illawarra on land granted to him by Governor Macquarie. The large Terry’s Buildings were erected opposite his Pitt Street mansion.

A country seat called Box Hill was established and farms developed at Liverpool, on the Nepean and at Yass and Bathurst. The flour mills expanded and a brewery was opened.

Terry supported the Benevolent Society, the Auxiliary Bible Society, Sydney Public Grammar School, Sydney College and became a trustee of the Wesleyans in 1822. In 1826, Terry was made president of a Masonic Lodge.

He was treasurer of the emancipist committee formed in 1821, organised petitions for trial by jury and a house of assembly, and called for patriotic Australia Day celebrations. Terry was the first president of The Australian Society for the Promotion of Growth and Cultivation of Colonial Produce and Manufactures in 1831.

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Leaves a huge estate

Terry died on February 22, 1838, three years after suffering a paralytic seizure. He was buried with Masonic honours and the funeral procession was led by the band of the 50^th Regiment playing Handel’s Dead March during the grandest funeral ever seen in the colony of 25,000 residents.

The Sydney Times of February 26, 1838, said Terry had been described as ‘the Rothschild of Sydney’. He had been taken ill during a meeting of the committee of the Sydney College, and had ‘long sunk into a state of mental imbecility’, being cared for in his final years by Dr Bland, who took Terry driving around the Domain in his phaeton in the evenings.

It described the estate as, ‘consisting of lands distributed all over the Colony, and a rental of many thousands in Sydney, besides herds and flocks literally innumerable; and money securities to a vast amount, must be nearer one million than half a million sterling.’

The Times hoped Mr Terry’s ‘immense wealth’ would go to people ‘who will make use of it not only for their own, but for their country’s good’.

The newspaper also reported on February 27, 1838, that his will was brought from the Bank of New South Wales to his residence in Pitt Street and was read to the executors and family.

The total value of the estate was estimated at half a million pounds. Terry left the 10,000 pound annual income and the Pitt Street house to his wife Rosetta until her death, and then to their son Edward and his heirs.

The bulk of the landed property, estimated at about 150,000 pounds, was also left to Edward. The personal estate, valued at 250,000 pounds, was divided among their three children, Edward, Martha and John. Special amounts of money were also left to several other people. Terry’s will required his charitable subscriptions to be continued for 10 years.

Legacy

Terry did not succeed in founding a financial dynasty. His son and main heir, Edward, died childless shortly after Terry himself. The firm Hughes and Hosking also went bankrupt, destroying some of the family’s wealth.

Rosetta lived until September 5, 1858. The family sold to the government the land now occupied by Martin Place and the General Post Office, Sydney.

Daughter Martha married merchant John Hosking, step-daughter Esther married Terry’s nephew John Hughes and son John Terry married into the prominent Rouse family.

The Samuel Terry Public School at Cranebrook is named after Terry.

Whatever the truth about Terry’s business methods, there is no denying his achievements in rising from poverty to immense wealth. The penniless ex-convict labourer who was flogged at Parramatta went on to outdo his envious critics.

More information:

Samuel Terry (1776-1838) by Gwyneth Dow. Australian Dictionary of Biography. https://adb.anu.edu.au

Samuel Terry. trove.nla.gov.au

J.T. Bigge, Report … into the State of the Colony of NSW, Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons, Great Britain), 1822 (448)

Convict Samuel Terry – Convict Records. convictrecords.com.au

Discussion

What business methods did Samuel Terry use to become rich?
What range of opinions did people in colonial society have about ex-convicts?
Was Samuel Terry a person to be admired?

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BRITAIN'S MULTICULTURAL OUTCASTS FOUND MODERN AUSTRALIA

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 01:42:05 GMT

https://digitalclassroom.nma.gov.au/sites/default/files/styles/two_column_bottom_cards_image_style/public/2023-03/1800s_BI_1833_ConvictTransportationPeaks-1200w.jpg?itok=echLRA4H

WHAT IS MICHAEL’S CURIOUS WORLD?

Australia’s history is the story of a fightback.

To follow and support this fascinating story:

Click ‘Subscribe’, choose a free or paid option and enter your details to receive full access to regular posts and the growing archive of past posts. If you can help, it only costs a coffee a month to put fuel in my tank.
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Today we look at the big picture of convict transportation to Australia.

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‘We left our country for our country’s good.’ - George Barrington

BRITON’s outcasts, about 164,000 convicts, founded modern Australia after being transported from Britain on 806 ships between 1788 and 1868.

The convicts were very multicultural. While 70% of convicts were English or Welsh, about 24% were Irish, five percent Scottish, and there were also people from India, Canada, Maori from New Zealand, Chinese from Hong Kong and slaves from the Caribbean.

At least six black Africans were among the convicts who arrived at Botany Bay on the First Fleet on January 21, 1788, after 252 days at sea, including ‘John Caesar’ (real name unknown) from Mauritius, who became Australia’s first bushranger.

About 25,000 women formed about 15% of the convicts, mostly young single women who had been domestic servants or had a semi-skilled background, including Mary Bryant who escaped by boat and returned to England. Britain deliberately sent young women of marriageable age to the convict continent to provide wives for ex-convicts and free settlers.

A Convict Maid

‘But in my youthful heart betrayed,

And now I am a Convict Maid.

To wed my lover I did try,

To take my master’s property,

So all my guilt was soon displayed,

And I became a Convict Maid.

Then I was soon to prison sent,

To wait in fear my punishment,

When at the bar I stood dismayed,

Since doomed to be a Convict Maid.’ - The London Convict Maid, a cautionary tale of life in the colony, circa 1830, nla.obj-1117449.

Britain exports its surplus people

Some convicts were children as young as nine years. About 6000 convicts were Jewish. About 80% were transported for theft of food or clothing.

Many convicts were held on rotting prison hulks before being transferred to ships for the voyage to Australia. About 2000 convicts died during the long voyages over 80 years, sometimes in awful conditions of neglect on ships hired by the British Government which had previously carried slaves from Africa.

Britain had used transportation as a punishment since the early 1600s and passed The Transportation Act 1717, with penalties of seven or 14 years transportation.

Industrialising cities were growing fast with machines replacing workers, who struggled to find work and stole food and clothing to survive in poverty and child labour, as described in the novels of Charles Dickens.

British society imposed harsh punishments for trivial crimes, with 222 crimes carrying the death penalty by the 1770s, including absurdly harsh examples such as theft of goods worth over five shillings, cutting down a tree and theft of an animal. Ironically, prostitution was not a transportable offence.

There was a misguided belief that harsh penalties encouraged people to reform, when the real cause of their thieving was mostly poverty. Juries sometimes refused to convict if the penalty was death. Transportation became seen by magistrates and lawmakers as a more humane alternative to execution.

More than 60,000 people had been transported to America by 1775, but the American colonies won independence and ceased to accept convicts from 1783. By 1788, British prisons were increasingly overcrowded and prisoners were being kept in squalid hulks, so the British authorities needed a new outlet.

Phillip founds New South Wales

James Matra, an American who had been a junior officer on Captain James Cook’s 1768 Endeavour voyage to the Pacific and was a friend of botanist Joseph Banks, suggested in 1783 that Botany Bay was a good place for a new colony, with agricultural and strategic benefits. After also considering a site in Africa, the British Government adopted Botany Bay in 1786.

Commodore Arthur Phillip was put in charge of leading a fleet of ships to found a new colony for convicts at Botany Bay. Six transport vessels in the fleet of 11 ships (which also included two naval escorts and three storeships) carried 775 convicts, including 193 women, 252 crew and officials, and a combined total of 645 children of convicts, soldiers and officials.

They sailed from Portsmouth in May, 1787, and progressively arrived in Botany Bay in January, 1788, but Phillip decided the bay was too shallow, unprotected and lacked fresh water, and moved the colony north to Sydney Cove, which he described as ‘one of the finest harbours in the world’.

‘The laws of this country will of course be introduced in New South Wales, and there is one that I would wish to take place from the moment His Majesty’s forces take possession of the country: That there can be no slavery in a free land, and so consequently no slaves.’ - Governor Arthur Phillip.

A dangerous journey

The death rate was low on Governor Phillip’s First Fleet with surgeon John White’s official report documenting 48 deaths, including soldiers and crew, 28 births and 30 landing sick. The number of people in the First Fleet is disputed because the number of crew on some ships is unclear.

The last surviving convict from the First Fleet is believed to have been 89-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Thackery (1767 – August 7, 1856) from New Norfolk in Tasmania. She is believed to have been the first female convict to actually step ashore at The Rocks in Sydney in January, 1788, followed by other convict girls who were cheered by the males as they ran up the beach.

Betty had been sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing five handkerchiefs with a total value of one shilling. She later moved to Tasmania and in 1810 married Samuel King, a marine private who is believed to have been the last surviving male from the First Fleet.

However, the six ships in the Second Fleet in 1789 became notorious for poor conditions and mistreatment of convicts. Of the 1038 convicts embarked, 273 died during the voyage and 486 were sick on landing in 1789, with 124 of the sick dying shortly after coming ashore.

Half-naked convicts lay without bedding on the ships, covered in lice, and too ill to move. Rev. Samuel Johnson wrote, ‘They were wretched, naked, filthy, dirty, lousy and many of them utterly unable to stand, to creep, or even to stir hand or foot.’

Guard Commander Captain William Hill accused the ships’ masters of withholding food from ‘the unhappy wretches’ to sell in port and of pocketing the British Government’s allowances for the convicts. Particular blame was levelled on Donald Trail, master of The Neptune, but no master was prosecuted.

Conditions were better on the 11 ships of the third fleet in 1791, with only 182 deaths from 1885 convicts who arrived at Port Jackson.

Some convicts become successful

Governor Phillip introduced a system of convicts being employed based on their skills. While some convicts had terrible lives in grim penal colonies such as the infamous Port Arthur in Tasmania, there were also success stories.

Samuel Terry proved to be a sharp businessman and rose from being a penniless stonemason to be the richest man in Sydney. Francis Greenway, who had been sentenced to death for forgery in England, went on to design many of the most important historical buildings in Sydney, including Hyde Park Barracks. D’Arcy Wentworth escaped four charges of highway robbery and fled to Sydney.

Many former convicts joined the increasing number of free settlers to oppose transportation and support self-government to, as Australian-born bushranger Ned Kelly said, ‘throw off the yoke of British oppression’.

Particularly troublesome were the Irish convicts, including the leaders of the Irish rebellion, as well as the unionist Tolpuddle Martyrs, anti-industrial Luddites, Canadian rebels and reforming Chartists.

About 3600 convicts were political prisoners, mainly from Ireland and Scotland. They became the leaders of the Irish revolt in Sydney in 1804 and of ‘The Battle of Castle Hill’.

Life as a convict

Convicts went to New South Wales from 1788-1840, Norfolk Island from 1788-1808, Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) from 1803-1853, Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in Queensland from 1824-1839 and Western Australia from 1850-1868,

Many were assigned to work for free settlers who began arriving from 1793 or on government projects such as buildings, shipbuilding and roads. Some were pardoned for good behaviour while others completed their sentences and received tickets-of-leave, often becoming free settlers themselves.

They worked from sunrise to sunset, Monday to Saturday every week, lived under strict rules and punishments included whippings, being forced to wear leg-irons and solitary confinement. Repeat serious offenders could be sent to hard labour prisons.

Lieutenant-Governor Sir Richard Bourke (1831–1837) was appalled by brutal punishments imposed by magistrates and limited floggings to 50 lashes, restricted the number of convicts assigned to settlers to 70 and allowed ex-convicts to buy property and serve on juries. Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1810-1821) even appointed some ex-convicts to government positions. The reforms encouraged the push to end transportation.

Transportation peaked in 1833 when nearly 7000 convicts arrived. Only six percent of convicts were locked up, with most working. Some were given permission to earn their own living while still convicts. Once they received a Certificate of Freedom they could own land.

Transportation ends

https://factfile.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Australian-Convicts.jpg

Opposition to penal transportation increased in the east. Convicts were blamed for causing crime and vice, seen as unfair competition with free workers and regarded as a ‘hated stain’ on the population. The campaign eventually succeeded and transportation to NSW ceased on May 22, 1840 and to Tasmania in 1853.

Western Australia initially did not have directly transported convicts, although 23 were sent from New South Wales to work at the settlement founded at King George Sound (Albany) in 1826 until 1831.

In 1849, Western Australia became self-governing and applied to Britain for convicts to work on essential projects, including the road from Albany to Perth, the Fremantle bridge, Government House and the Fremantle Prison.

This system continued until the last 279 of 9668 convicts arrived at Fremantle on the Hougoumont on January 10, 1868.

Samuel Speed was believed to be the last surviving convict transported to Australia when he died at Perth in 1938. Born in Birmingham in 1841, the homeless Speed was convicted of setting fire to a haystack, which he did to be arrested and get fed in gaol. He was transported to Western Australia in 1866, gained his freedom five years later and worked on bridge construction until he retired.

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/australia-convicts-1804-granger.jpg

Convict legacy

Over four million Australians can trace their links back to convicts. While having a convict heritage was once seen by some as shameful, over time people have become increasingly proud of being descended from the founders of modern Australia.

UNESCO has placed 11 Australian convict sites on its World Heritage List: Norfolk Island; Old Government House, Parramatta; Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney; Brickendon and Woolmer Estates, Tasmania; Darlington Probation Station, Tasmania; Old Great North Road near Sydney; Cascades Female Factory, Tasmania; Port Arthur, Tasmania; Coal Mines Historic Site, Tasmania; Cockatoo Island, Sydney; Fremantle Prison, Western Australia.

Fiction about convicts includes the popular ballad, ‘Botany Bay’. Novels include, ‘For the Term Of His Natural Life’ by Marcus Clarke, ‘Moondyne’ by John Boyle O’Reilly, ‘The Broad Arrow’ by Caroline Woolmer Leakey, ‘Bring Larks and Heroes’ and ‘The Playmaker’ by Thomas Keneally, ‘A fringe of Leaves’ by Patrick White, ‘The Potato Factory’ by Bryce Courtenay, ‘Gould’s Book of Fish’ by Richard Flanagan and ‘The Secret River’ by Kate Grenville.

Convict George Barrington wrote a play which was performed at Port Jackson in 1789 and is now known as ‘Our Country’s Good’ which includes the ironic lines:

‘From distant climes, o’er wide-spread seas, we come,

Though not with much eclat or beat of drum,

True patriots all: for, be it understood;

We left our country for our country’s good.’

More information:

Searchable records of 155,000 convicts are at Convict Records: convictrecords.com.au

The National Library of Australia has a Convict Research Guide at library.gov.au with useful information for people tracing their ancestry.

Discussion

How accurate is it for people to say Australia has always been a monoculture?
Why did Britain use harsh laws to transport so many people from many cultures to Australia and other colonies?
Why was the voyage of the First Fleet under Governor Arthur Phillip regarded as a big success, compared with later voyages?
Why did former convicts who had been freed become supporters of the end of transportation and self-government?
How has the history of convict transportation shaped attitudes in modern Australia?

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NO GAOL CAN HOLD MOONDYNE JOE

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 01:41:02 GMT

This is the only known photograph of Joseph Bolitho Johns (1830-1900), better known as the Western Australian bushranger Moondyne Joe. It depicts Johns holding a tomahawk and wearing a kangaroo skin cape. The original photograph was taken by Alfred Chopin. It was first published in The Sunday Times on 27 May 1924, as an illustration accompanying an article on Moondyne Joe by Charles William Ferguson.

WHAT IS MICHAEL’S CURIOUS WORLD?

Australia’s history is the story of a fightback.

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Today we explore the little-known story of a bloke in Western Australia who was gaoled for being hungry and did his best to seek freedom, with mixed results.

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MOONDYNE JOE - ESCAPE ARTIST

‘There’s not a gaol in W.A. can keep in Moondyne Joe.’ – Ballad of Moondyne Joe.

Moondyne Joe is said to be the most successful bushranger escape artist in Australian history.

Western Australia was the last colony to receive convicts, between 1850 and 1868, and so bushranging persisted longer there than in other states.

The best-known WA bushranger was Moondyne Joe, whose real name was Joseph Bolitho Johns (February, 1826 – August 13, 1900), a Cornish-Welsh convict.

Born into difficult poverty in Cornwall as the third child of blacksmith Thomas Johns and Mary Bolitho, he was described as tall with black hair, hazel eyes and his face pockmarked by smallpox.

His father died in 1833 and Joe and his brother went to work in the copper mines, and later at the Clydach Iron Works in Wales.

Ten years in prison for stealing food

Johns and an associate, John Williams, were arrested near Chepstow on November 15, 1848, for stealing three loaves of bread, a piece of bacon, several cheeses and other goods from a house.

They pleaded not guilty and gave a spirited defence, breaking court procedures, but were sentenced anyway by magistrate William Erle to 10 years in prison.

They laboured on a government work party for seven months before being sent to Millbank Prison and then transferred to Pentonville Prison for six months of solitary confinement, then to Dartmoor Prison.

Johns was later sent to the prison hulk Justita at Woolwich, and eventually to the prison ship Pyrenees which landed him at Fremantle in WA on April 30, 1853.

A good beginning

Johns had behaved well in prison and, as a reward, he was issued with a ticket of leave and a conditional pardon. He moved to the Avon Valley (the Aboriginal name for the area was Moondyne) and survived by fencing and by catching escaped stock and horses to collect rewards for their capture.

But in August, 1861, Johns caught an unbranded horse and put his own brand on it, which was regarded as stealing. He was arrested and placed in the Toodyay lockup, but escaped during the night, taking the horse and the magistrate’s saddle and bridle.

He killed the horse and cut the brand out of its hide, destroying the stealing evidence, was caught, and was only gaoled for three years for jail-breaking, rather than 10 years for horse-stealing.

Protesting his innocence

Released early from prison in February, 1864, for good behaviour, Johns worked on the farm of Henry Martins at Kelmscott. But he was accused of killing a steer, found guilty on July 5 and sentenced to 10 years prison. Johns vehemently protested his innocence for the rest of his life.

Determined not to serve an unjust sentence, he and another prisoner ran away from a work party in November, and committed several robberies during a month on the run, becoming known locally as Moondyne Joe.

They were finally caught 37 kilometres east of York by a party which included the Aboriginal tracker Tommy Windich. Johns was sentenced to 12 months in irons and transferred to Fremantle Prison.

Johns sent a petition protesting his innocence to the Chief Justice in April, 1866, and his sentence was reduced by four years.

But he cut the lock out of his prison door, copping an extra six months on his sentence, and then cut off his irons, met three other escapees and they took to the bush around Perth, committing several robberies.

Fleeing the state

When one of the gang was captured, Johns decided they had to escape the colony overland to South Australia, a very difficult task through the harsh Outback.

Needing equipment, Johns and his gang carried out their biggest robbery, stealing supplies and equipment from the Toodyay store of his enemy, James Everett.

The gang then headed east along the route of explorer Charles Hurt, but their tracks were found by police 160 kilometres east of York on September 26, and thy were captured three days later at Boodalin Soak, about six kilometres from modern Westonia and about 300 kilometres north-east of Perth.

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Special measures to prevent escape

Johns was sentenced to an extra five years of hard labour on top of his remaining sentence.

Special measures were taken to prevent another escape. Johns was chained by the neck to the iron bar of a window at Fremantle Prison, while an ‘escape-proof’ airtight cell was made for him, with stone walls lined with jarrah timber and over a thousand nails.

He was put on a bread and water diet with only two hours of daily exercise. When his health deteriorated, he was allowed out of the cell to break stones brought into the prison yard, under constant supervision.

A promise to regret

Governor John Hampton was so confident Johns could not escape he told him, ‘If you get out again, I’ll forgive you.’ Hampton soon regretted his words.

The broken stones piled up, obscuring the view of the warders, and Johns was able to damage the wall of the prison with his sledge hammer, making a hole through which he again escaped on March 7, 1867.

He disappeared for two years, despite an extensive manhunt, avoided places he had formerly lived and did not commit any crimes. Other prisoners, inspired by his example, committed several escapes.

However, Johns was finally caught on February 25, 1869, when he tried to rob the Houghton Winery just as some police arrived. He was sentenced to an extra four years for breaking and entering and 12 months for escaping. Even then, Johns did not give up. He was caught making a key for his cell door.

Joe’s luck changes

But finally, his luck changed. Comptroller General Wakefield heard from Johns about Hampton’s promise to forgive him if he escaped again, confirmed that Hampton really had made the promise, and informed the current governor, Frederick Wells, who granted Johns a ticket of leave in May, 1871.

Did Johns change his ways? Yes, mostly. His remaining years were mostly well-behaved, with only minor offences and brief gaol terms.

He even married widow Louisa Hearn and they went prospecting near the gold-mining area of Southern Cross. He discovered Moondyne Cave near Karridale in 1881.

Becoming mentally ill

But Louisa died aged 40 in 1893 and Johns greatly mourned her and began acting strangely, eventually becoming mentally ill.

He died of senile dementia in the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum on August 13, 1900, and was buried in the Fremantle Cemetery, under a headstone with the Welsh word rhyddid, meaning ‘freedom’.

Famous after his death

Moondyne Joe remains a famous WA bushranger. The town of Toodyay holds the Moondyne Festival on the first Sunday in May with street theatre and markets in the main street. There is even a Moondyne Joe’s Bar and Bistro at Fremantle.

A fictional book called Moondyne: An Australian Tale, was written by Irish political prisoner John Boyle O’Reilly, who had been a convict at Bunbury, after he escaped on an American ship to America in 1869. The book was made into the movie Moondyne in 1913.

The Mucky Duck Bush Band wrote a musical about Moondyne Joe in 1982. Johns’ life also partly inspired Randolph Stowe’s children’s book Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy in 1967.

Fremantle Press published The Ballad of Moondyne Joe in 2012:

The Ballad of Moondyne Joe

In the Darling Ranges, many years ago,

There lived a daring outlaw, by the name of Moondyne Joe.

He stole the squatter’s horses, and a sheep or two or three,

He loved to roam the countryside, and swore he would be free.

The troopers said we’ll catch him, but we know it’s all in vain,

Every time we lock him up he breaks right out again.

‘Cause in he goes, and out he goes, and off again he’ll go,

There’s not a gaol in W.A. can keep in Moondyne Joe.

Mark Greenwood’s work of juvenile fiction The Legend of Moondyne Joe won the award for Children’s Books in the 2002 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards

Discussion:

Why did bushranging persist longer in Western Australia than in other states?
Joe was transported to Western Australia for stealing food to eat. What does that say about British attitudes towards the poor at the time?
Were Joe’s repeated protests of his innocence ignored or considered?
To what extent was Joe reformed by his prison experiences?

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MUSQUITO - INDIGENOUS BUSHRANGER

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 01:39:51 GMT

A retrospective portrait of Musquito, completed in the 1860s. By J. R. - SLNSW, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114786060

Michael’s Curious world is exploring the history of how the grim convict penal colony of New South Wales matured into Australia, one of the best true democracies on Earth, based on the ideal of ‘a fair go for all’. To follow this fascinating saga, please:

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MUSQUITO (1780 – February 25, 1825) was also known as Mosquito, Musquetta, Bush Muschetta and Murkito.

He was an indigenous resistance leader of the Gai-Mariagal or Gammaragal clan, convict hunter and outlaw in the Sydney region where he was born, on Norfolk Island and in Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania).

Indigenous resistance to the invasion, led by Pemulwuy, his son Tedbury, Branch Jack and Musquito, turned violent in 1805 with deadly raids on farms in the Parramatta, Hawkesbury and Georges River areas, with several settlers and Aboriginal people killed. Read more here:

Governor Phillip Gidley King mobilised soldiers in April, 1805, and banned Aboriginals from entering settlements. Tedbury was captured at Pennant Hills in May and forced to lead the troops to the Dharug hideout at North Rocks, which contained stolen corn.

They met Musquito, who told them in good English that he would continue his raids and then ran away. Orders were issued to arrest Musquito.

Musquito captured

Other Aboriginal captives were forced to betray Musquito, who was captured in July, 1805, and gaoled at Parramatta. Governor King then released Tedbury and cancelled the order banning Aboriginal people from settlements.

Musquito and another indigenous prisoner known as Bull Dog were sent to Norfolk Island. Musquito spent eight years on the island as a convict before being sent to Van Dieman’s Land in January, 1813.

He became a free man and worked as a tracker of bushrangers and runaway convicts, and then a servant of the wealthy settler Edward Lord, and may have helped to track down the bushranger Michael Howe.

Promise broken

Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell promised to return Musquito to his home land at Sydney in 1817, but broke his promise, so an angry Musquito escaped into the bush in 1819.

He joined an indigenous group of up to 60, mostly from the Oyster Bay area, known as ‘the tame mob’, who co-existed peacefully with the settlers, and became their leader.

Resistance turns violent

But violence broke out in 1823 as more Aboriginal people escaped attacks by the settlers, including a leader named Kikatapula. When stock rangers had sex with Aboriginal women camped at Grindstone Bay in November, 1823, and allegedly shot a woman, the Oyster Bay people retaliated, killed two stockmen and wounded a third.

Settler Silas Gatehouse of the Grindstone Bay property raided and dispersed the Oyster Bay group, but they burned a settler’s property at Mayfield Bay and killed a servant, raided other farms and retreated into the interior.

Musquito and others were named outlaws, but continued to raid properties, killed a stockman and a settler and a 200 Spanish dollar reward was offered for Musquito’s capture. Raids continued and 10 settlers were killed.

Musquito. https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/thumb/0/0e/Terry_s_Photos-136.png/600px-Terry_s_Photos-136.png

Musquito hanged

Musquito was finally wounded and captured in August, 1824, charged with murder and held at Old Hobart Gaol. Sixty-four Oyster Bay tribes people went to Hobart to seek his release, but Musquito remained in prison, although Governor Arthur had some huts built at Kangaroo Point for the group.

Musquito was sentenced to death on dubious evidence, as the prosecution failed to prove he had personally killed the victims in the charges, but he was hanged anyway at Old Hobart Gaol on February 25, 1825, along with another indigenous leader known as Black Jack.

The Oyster Bay tribe, now led by Kikatapula, was incensed and resumed hostilities, resulting in what became known as ‘The Black War’. Read more here:

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WILLIAM WESTWOOD (Jacky Jacky) - August 7, 1820- October 13, 1846

Death mask of bushranger William Westwood, also known as Jackey Jackey. By Unknown author - State Library of New South Wales, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69838659

William Westwood was born in Essex and gaoled for a year for highway robbery when aged 14 for stealing a bundle of clothes from a woman.

In 1837 William, aged 17, and an accomplice were convicted at Chelmsford of stealing and selling a greatcoat and transported for 14 years to the penal colony of New South Wales. This sentence was typical of the time, as most convicts were transported for stealing food or clothing.

Westwood, who had several tattoos on his arms and a scar on his face, arrived at Port Jackson on The Mangles on July 9, 1837.

Westwood mistreated

He was sent to Phillip Parker King’s station near Bungendore as a servant, but was mistreated by an overseer who denied him sufficient food and clothing,

Westwood tried to escape, stole wheat and was sentenced to six months on a roads chain gang, escaped again, received 50 lashes on February 4, 1839, and again escaped to become a bushranger, adopting the name ‘Jacky Jacky’.

With companion Paddy Curran, Westwood committed several robberies and then raided Phillip Parker King’s house and Curran raped King’s wife. Westwood was so angry about Curran’s actions he beat Curran, stole his horse, guns and ammunition and threatened to kill Curran if they met again.

A polite bushranger

Westwood is never recorded as hurting his victims, was polite to women, wore a suit to robberies and mainly stole racing horses for a quick getaway. When a reward was posted for his capture dead or alive, no-one informed on him because he was regarded as a gentleman.

He was captured by five civilians including a priest at an inn near Berrima in January, 1841, but escaped from the Bargo lockup, taking the firearms of a police officer.

Two days later he stole a valuable horse, rode to Gray’s Inn near Berrima, and was captured after being hit on the head with a hammer during a struggle with the innkeeper and several others. Mr Gray received the 30 pound reward while a convict who assisted in the capture was pardoned.

Gaoled for life

Westwood was convicted of stealing, putting in bodily fear, robbery with firearms and horse stealing and sentenced to life imprisonment. He escaped from Darlinghurst Gaol, but was recaptured in July and sent to Cockatoo Island.

Exiled to the notorious Port Arthur prison

There he led a failed mass escape and was transported for life to the notorious Port Arthur penal prison in Van Dieman’s Land. During the journey, Westwood tried to swim to shore and then to take over the ship.

At Port Arthur, Westwood escaped twice, but was recaptured after nearly starving for nine days and received 100 lashes for two attempted escapes. Then he successfully swam the channel to escape, while two companions were eaten by sharks. Recaptured in November, he was sentenced to 12 months hard labour and solitary confinement.

Rescuing two drowning prisoners

The following year, Westwood rescued two drowning men and was rewarded by being promoted to a boat crew and moved to Glenorchy on probation. But he again escaped, returned to bushranging, stole guns and ammunition, was recaptured near Hobart in September, 1845, and transported for life to Norfolk Island.

Harsh treatment on Norfolk Island

On Norfolk Island, Major Joseph Childs began a new harsh regime, in contrast with the previous commandant Captain Maconochie who had allowed prisoners to grow and cook sweet potatoes and other vegetables, and rewarded good behaviour with reduced working hours, which had made the men more contented.

However, Childs withdrew the privileges, abolished the gardens, confiscated the prisoners’ cooking utensils, banned individual cooking of food and increased work hours.

Watercolour drawing of the Cooking Pot Uprising. By Unknown author - Launceston Reference Library collection., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69710661

‘The Cooking Pot Uprising’

The prisoners were outraged, stormed the store and seized every cooking utensil.

Westwood apparently abandoned all restraint and became the leader of what became known as the ‘Cooking Pot Uprising’. He told the men he was going to be hanged anyway, so had nothing to lose, those who wanted to avoid death should stand aside and the rest should follow him.

His face contorted with rage, Westwood felled a constable and the group of about 1600 convicts killed him. Then they went to the cookhouse and killed the mess overseer Stephen Smith, despite his pleas to ‘remember my wife and children’.

A mass of convicts then began searching for the Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr Barrow, by running towards Government House.

During the search Westwood, wielding an axe, forced open a hut door and killed two policemen, one asleep in his bed.

A line of soldiers with muskets confronted the convicts on the road to Government House and they retreated to the lumber yard, where they were disarmed and returned to their cells.

Sentenced to hang

Westwood, 26, and 11 other convicts were sentenced to be hanged on October 13, 1846.

During his time in custody Westwood wrote an autobiography at the suggestion of religious instructor Thomas Rogers, which was published in The Australasian.

He also wrote a letter to a prison chaplain about the severe treatment of Norfolk Island prisoners by the authorities and the brutality of the convict system, which was published and fuelled the campaign to end penal transportation to Australia.

Westwood’s life was featured in an account written by Melbourne writer Thomas McCombie in 1844, in a play, Jacky Jacky the NSW Bushranger, first performed in 1852 and in other works.

Discussion:

How successful was Aboriginal resisgtance to the British invasion?
Most convicts were transported for stealing food or clothing. What does that say about British attitudes towards the poor at that time?
What does the ‘Cooking Pot Uprising’ reveal about the treatment of convicts on Norfolk Island?

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'GENTLEMAN' MATTHEW BRADY

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:36:57 GMT

Representation of Matthew Brady. https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.D

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MATTHEW BRADY (1799 – May 4, 1826), was known as ‘Gentleman Brady’, but his proper name was Bready.

Born in Manchester, he was a groom to a gentleman, but was accused of stealing a basket, some butter, sugar and rice, convicted on April 17, 1820, and sentenced to seven years transportation under Britain’s harsh laws, arriving in Sydney on the Juliana on December 29, 1820. The sentence was typical of the times when most convicts were transported for stealing clothing or food to eat.

He rebelled against the penal conditions, tried to escape several times, and received a total of 450 lashes between 1821 and 1826. In 1823 he was sent to the harsh new penal settlement at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania.

But Brady and 14 other convicts escaped from Sarah Island in a whaleboat on June 7, 1824, sailed around the south coast to the River Derwent and spent the next two years as bushrangers.

‘Gentleman Brady’

He was considered a bit of a gentleman who rarely robbed or insulted women, but the authorities regarded him as dangerous, particularly after he held up the town of Sorel, captured the local garrison and the Commander, Lieutenant William Gunn, was shot in the arm, which was amputated.

Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur on April 14, 1825, offered rewards totalling 100 guineas or 300 acres of land and a free pardon for convicts for the capture of Brady and his gang. Brady cheekily responded by offering a reward of 20 gallons of rum for any person who delivered Governor Arthur to him.

Brady also threatened to hang a man named John Priest for mistreating a woman named Mrs Blackwell at Newtown.

Brady’s gang was described in November, 1825, by a Mr R. Denne, who had spent six days in the custody of the gang. Denne said the gang had no fixed leader and quarrelled a lot, but Brady’s opinions were influential. He said Brady, known as ‘Matt’, was ‘stout, square-built’ and marked by smallpox.

Portrait of Matthew Brady (crop), Tasmania, c 1826, by Thomas Bock, pencil sketch, State Library of New South Wales, SAFE/DL PX 5

Brady and his gang attacked the homestead of a Mr Dry on the dark night of March 4, 1826. A servant escaped and ran for help, bringing a group of troopers, resulting in a gunfight in which no-one was killed, and the bushrangers escaped in the dark.

Three days later, Brady shot dead farmer Thomas Kenton as payback for setting a trap for Brady.

Bad weather prevents escape attempt

Brady and his gang captured a boat, intending to sail to the mainland, but bad weather forced them to turn back.

One of Brady’s gang, an ex-convict named Cowan, betrayed him for the reward and Lieutenant Williams of the 57^th Regiment, 14 soldiers and four armed prisoners confronted the Brady gang near Launceston.

Brady was wounded in the leg, his gang separated, and Brady and four others were spotted around a campfire on April 1.

Settler John Batman (later involved in founding Melbourne) and a group found Brady limping in pain near a creek and he surrendered and was taken to Launceston Gaol.

Brady and Patrick Bryant pleaded guilty on April 27, 1826, to the murder of Thomas Kenton and to stealing four horses. Brady also pleaded guilty to setting fire to a dwelling, but not guilty to robbery.

Female appeals for mercy ignored

Brady was sentenced to death. Several petitions were received asking for his execution to be halted, and his cell was filled with wine, fruit, cakes and flowers from women at Hobart.

However, the petitions were ignored and Brady was hanged on May 4, 1826, at the old Hobart Gaol, as were Patrick Bryant, John Perry, John Thompson and Thomas Jeffrey. Brady complained about being hanged alongside Jeffrey, who he said was an informer, cannibal and mass murderer.

The Herald reported: ‘There was a hush, broken only by stifled sobs, as the bushranger knelt to receive the last consolations of his faith. Then, standing erect, he bade adieu to the multitude and died more like a martyr than a convicted felon.’

One of Brady’s hideouts, with views over the Tamar River, is now known as Brady’s Lookout and a popular picnic spot. His story has been featured in several plays, including ‘Matt Brady, Fabulous Bushranger: The Adventures of a Gay Man.’

Display about Matthew Brady. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EddcA-HtH9I/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-CYAC0AWKAgwIABABGFYgXihlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDs9yLdoeIkCcd0omMOqpKny9G7Gw

Discussion:

Why was the sentence of transportation against Matthew Brady typical of British legal attitudes towards the poor at the time?
Why was Brady known as ‘Gentleman Brady’ Did he deserve that title?
What does the bloody record of the invasion of Van Dieman’s Land reveal about relations between the Aboriginal inhabitants and the British colonists?

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'JOHN CAESAR' - FIRST AUSSIE BUSHRANGER A BLACK AFRICAN SLAVE

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 01:35:55 GMT

This image is said to represent John ‘Black’ Caesar, Australia’s first bushranger.

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AGE OF BUSHRANGERS

The term ‘bushranger’ was originally applied to convicts who had escaped to go bush, but was later widened to cover those who committed robbery under arms.

The term first appeared in print in the February, 1805, issue of the Sydney Gazette, which reported a cart being stopped between Sydney and Hawkesbury by three men whose appearance ‘sanctioned the suspicion of their being bushrangers.’

Ironically, considering the later adoption by the colonists of the White Australia Policy, the first Australian bushranger was actually a black African slave from South Carolina known as ‘John Caesar’, although that was not his real name, who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788. We will follow his story below.

Some bushrangers were a bit geographically challenged and went bush hoping to walk to freedom in China, which didn’t end well, while others seized boats intending to sail there.

A group of convicts from Tasmania stole a boat and successfully sailed to Chile, while another group sailed to Japan. Their stories were covered in previous posts in this series.

‘Liberty or death’

About 2000 bushrangers are believed to have terrorised settlers across the continent, starting not long after the arrival of the First Fleet and extending through the gold rush into the late 1800s, when improved telegraphic communications and more police curbed their activities.

The early bushrangers, also known as ‘bolters’, preferred to take their chances in the bush than suffer under the harsh convict system, adopting the cry, ‘Liberty or death’. They were described as ‘desperate, hopeless, fearless’ by Colonel Godfrey Mundy, possibly made so by a harsh overseer or master.

Fighting for freedom

Bushrangers sometimes made nationalistic statements, such as Ned Kelly’s famous calls for the free-born settlers to throw off ‘the yoke of British oppression’ and build a free and independent Australia.

These sentiments were widely shared among struggling settlers, who often felt put down by the British colonial authorities. They fuelled the increasing push for self-government which ultimately resulted in the states becoming self-governing and then federating to form the new nation of Australia on January 1, 1901.

While some bushrangers were simply criminals, it can also be argued that some of the bushrangers were at least partly influential in Australia becoming an independent, self-governing nation, as we shall see.

THE FIRST BUSHRANGER

African John ‘Black’ Caesar (1763 - February 15, 1796) was the first Australian bushranger.

Born in Madagascar, Caesar was not his birth surname, which is unknown. It was common to refer to black slaves as ‘Caesar’.

He was captured and made a slave in Virginia and South Carolina in the USA before moving to the United Kingdom as a servant, possibly aged 14.

Sentenced to transportation

In 1786, he was twice convicted of stealing 12 pounds in separate incidents, sentenced to transportation for seven years to Sydney and imprisoned in the hulk Ceres.

Caesar, believed to have then been aged 23, was among 12 black convicts who arrived at Botany Bay on the Alexander in the First Fleet in 1788.

He was set to work on Garden Island, one of the harshest duties, where food was grown for the struggling colony. Being tall and strong, he was often hungry.

Caesar escapes

On April 29, 1789, Caesar was convicted of stealing food and his sentence was increased to transportation for life. Two weeks later, Caesar escaped into the bush, armed with a musket, ammunition, rations and an iron pot.

On May 26, he stole a brickmaking gang’s rations and escaped. On June 6, he stole food from a house, but was caught by another convict, William Saltmarsh. The colony’s Judge-Advocate and assistant to Governor Arthur Phillip, David Collins, described Caesar as ‘an incorrigibly stubborn black’.

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Caesar was sent back to Garden Island in chains, which were later removed for good behaviour. He again escaped on December 22, 1789, in a canoe with a week’s rations, an iron pot, a musket and ammunition.

He robbed colonists’ gardens and stole from Aboriginal people, but lost his musket and was speared by Aboriginals on January 30, 1790. He surrendered to the authorities, his wounds were treated and Governor Phillip sent him to Norfolk Island.

Caesar becomes a father

There he was given an acre of land and a hog and ordered to work three days a week. He fathered a daughter, Mary Anne, with English convict Anne Power, born on March 4, 1792.

Caesar was sent back to Port Jackson in 1793, again escaped and robbed residences, but was recaptured. When punished he reportedly said, ‘all that would not make him better.’

Caesar was in a work party which was attacked by the powerful resistance leader Pemulwuy in late 1795 and Caesar cracked Pemulwuy’s skull during a fight, but he lived.

The colonial authorities praised Caesar for attacking Pemulwuy, whose violent resistance was causing havoc in the struggling colony.

Final escape

Caesar made his fourth and final escape in December 1795, leading a group of six to eight convicts who raided houses. Collins said Caesar and his gang were blamed for every item that went missing at the time, even though others may have been responsible.

Governor John Hunter offered a reward of five gallons of spirits for Caesar’s capture. Former highwayman John Wimbow and farmer James Ruse tracked Caesar down hiding in brush at modern Strathfield in western Sydney.

Killed at Strathfield

They waited all night for him to emerge and Wimbow shot him on February 15, 1796, with Caesar dying several hours later in a local hut.

David Collins said: ‘Thus ended a man, who certainly, during his life, could never have been estimated at more than one remove above the brute, and who had given more trouble than any other convict in the settlement.’

Annie Power died on March 25, 1796 and their daughter Mary was adopted by a woman named Hannah Fisher.

Caesar’s importance overlooked

The fact that Australia’s first bushranger was black and the accounts of his actions were written by white colonial authorities meant his role was overlooked in the racism of the British society of the time. However, his life spanned four continents and is a remarkable story.

His character appeared in Thomas Kenneally’s 1987 novel, The Playmaker and in the SBS 2021 documentary, Our African Roots.

Discussion:

Why did convicts flee into the bush and become bushrangers?
Why did bushranging peak in the mid-1800s and then decline?
Was John Caesar more at home with the British authorities or the indigenous Aboriginal inhabitants?

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MAK SAI YING (JOHN SHYING) BUYS UP PARRAMATTA

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 29 May 2026 01:33:47 GMT

No picture has been found of John Shying. This is his grandson, Private John Joseph Shying. Source: Sydney Living Museum Photo – Charles Picking Courtesy Winsome Doyle. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/phh/files/styles/article_leader_image_style/public/article-images/John-Shying.jpg?itok=pM03rUH-

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MAK SAI YING BECOMES JOHN SHYING.

AUSTRALIA is home to 1.4 million people of Chinese ancestry, comprising 5.5% of the total population. How did Australia become so Chinese?

The first officially recognised Chinese settler in Port Jackson was Mak Sai Ying, who arrived in February, 1818, on The Laurel.

Born in 1796 at Canton, his death date is unknown. During his lifetime, he was also known as John Shying (Sai Ying became Shying), John Shyong, John Pung Shyong, John Shin, Mark O’Pong and possibly John Sheen. It was common in colonial times to refer to Chinese men as ‘John’.

Mak Sai Ying signed his name in Chinese characters. Maybe there were errors made in the translation of the spelling of his name into English. Whatever the reason, the many versions of his name have caused great confusion in tracing family history.

He worked as a carpenter on John Blaxland’s Newington Estate and then at Elizabeth Farm for pastoralist Elizabeth Macarthur. A linen press believed to have been made by him for Elizabeth Macarthur is at the Milton House museum.

Mak married Sarah Jane Thompson (1802 – 1836) in St. John’s Church of England at Parramatta on February 3, 1823 and they had four sons, John, George, James and Thomas, who all had the Shying surname.

Some of their children became furniture makers, and his descendants became cabinet-makers and undertakers in Sydney.

He returned to China between 1831 and 1836, coming back to Sydney on the death of his first wife Sarah.

Going into business at Parramatta

‘John Pung Shyung’ petitioned Sir Thomas Brisbane for a block of land in Parramatta. In his petition, he stated he had come to the colony six years previously, had worked as a ‘mechanic’ and had married a free woman and they had a son. A ‘mechanic’ was a tradesman such as a carpenter, mason, blacksmith, wheelwright etc.

He asked for an allotment of land in Church Street, Parramatta, near where he was living, ‘to enable him to carry on his business and thereby comfortably provide for his increasing family.’ His petition was approved.

The leases were for 21 years and could be converted to freehold by building a house worth 1000 pounds or paying 21 years of rent to quit rent. John Shying did build a house in Church Street in the Chinese style with a verandah.

J & G Shying & Co Undertakers. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/phh/files/wp-images/2017/01/John-Shying-Undertakers.jpg

He bought and sold several properties in the Parramatta area. On August 31, 1827, ‘John Pony Shying’ paid 200 pounds to buy a house and premises in Church Street from Timothy Power.

On October 26, 1827, ‘John Pong Shying’ paid 30 pounds to Timothy Power for another property on Windsor Road near Marsden Street and Fennel Street. ‘John Shyeing’ also paid 87 pounds for another parcel of land in Windsor Road at Parramatta from James Marshall on February 19, 1828.

The 1828 Census showed John Shying. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/phh/files/wp-images/2017/01/1828-NSW-Australian-Census-John-Shying.jpg

The 1828 census recorded John Shying, 32, was a shopkeeper at Parramatta. He and Sarah, 26, had three children, were of the Protestant faith and owned five horses and four cattle.

He employed William Brotherton as a clerk and they had two servants, William Clare, 44, and Bartley Drury, 26, both former convicts.

Other documents indicate he provided goods to the Female Orphan School at Parramatta.

John Shying continued buying land. On September 23, 1828, he paid 115 pounds to Thomas Clayton for a lot with a building in Pennant Street. Then he paid 30 pounds to Catherine Jennings for a house and land at the corner of Grose and Green Street, Parramatta, on January 15, 1829.

He auctioned a cottage in Pennant Street, Parramatta, on February 16, 1829, as well as a brood mare and foal and two geldings.

https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/phh/files/wp-images/2017/01/Mak_Sai_Ying_Signature.jpg

Becoming a publican

John Shying was granted a publican’s licence for the Golden Lion Inn (also known as The Lion) at Parramatta on March 10, 1829. He was also granted a publican’s licence for the Lamb Inn in Pennant Street on July 8, 1837.

In 1838, John Shying was informed his publican’s licence was not to be renewed for the following year. He appealed to Governor Gipps, stating his good record as a publican and need to support his family, and included references from explorer, winegrower and farmer John Blaxland (who described John as ‘respectable’), wealthy trader Richard Jones and Captain Living of the Orwell, but the licence was still refused.

Land promised, but not delivered

‘Mark O’Pong’ had been promised a lot of land among the 390 allotments released in Parramatta, but during his absence overseas it was allocated to the Parramatta Orphan School.

John Shying wrote to the Governor in 1837 about a promised grant of 30 acres at Brush Farm: ‘With regard to my name, in reference to the Office Book, you will find my name Mark O’Pong. This is my country way, but after my marriage my name is John Shying and my children are known as Shying.’

He married Bridget Gillorley, 35, on October 10, 1842, but she died on January 29, 1843. Shortly before the marriage, an allotment of land off Windsor Road was granted to John Shying on August 6, 1842.

John Shying – Bridget Gillorley Marriage Certificate 1842. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/phh/files/wp-images/2017/01/john-Shying-Bridget-Gillory-Marraige-Certificate-1842.jpg

‘John Pong Shyong’ also made a land grant to his four sons, also on Windsor Road, on February 25, 1843. ‘John Pong Shyong’ also leased a lot on the west side of Windsor Road at Parramatta on March 11, 1843.

Selling the Peacock Inn

Sale notice for The Peacock Inn at Parramatta, owned by John Shying. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sites/

He built the Peacock Inn at Parramatta, let it to a publican and then sold it at auction on March 13, 1844. The Peacock was described as ‘a well-known and respectable establishment’, let for an annual rent of 80 pounds.

‘The house is brick-built, in good condition, having an excellent China-fashioned verandah running the whole frontage, and contains a bar, tap-room, three sitting and three bedrooms, large yard, stables, coach-house, a never-failing well of good water, and cellars.’

The total proceeds of the auctions were 585 pounds, including stock in trade and household furniture. A weatherboard cottage nearby was also auctioned, but failed to sell. It was later sold by his children.

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John Shying the Elder and John Shying the Younger leased part of the property adjacent to the Peacock Inn to a John Stow on April 22, 1844. The contract stated the transaction was made ‘nominally on behalf of John Shying, who being an alien, a native of the Chinese Empire, was incapable of holding lands in the British Territories’.

His later life and death are a mystery

John Shying drew up his will on October 20, 1844, when aged 50, but a copy has not survived. His eldest son John James, 21, was acting as his trustee.

He disappeared from the records in NSW. Did he return to China to be buried? Did he change his name again? Was he living with his children?

A ‘John Shin’, 36, a native of China, India and Twofold Bay, was married to Margaret McGovern, 22, on April 30, 1846, at Scots Church, Sydney, by the Rev. John Dunmore Lang. Their children were recorded as Sheen. His death certificate contains information which could also fit John Shying.

‘John Shyong’ the Younger (John James Shying) sold 37 perches of land on Windsor Road to grocer Joseph Smith of Parramatta on August 8, 1851. The land had been granted to John Junior because his father was an alien. It is unknown if the father was already deceased.

On November 2, 1854, John Chantler, a shoemaker of Smithfield near Parramatta, paid 250 pounds for a property at Parramatta which had been conveyed to John Pong Shyong on August 5, 1842. The sale deed had the signatures of two John Shyings. Was John Shying senior still alive?

Was John Shying also John Sheen?

The father was thought to have died at Sydney on June 18, 1880, and been buried at Rookwood Cemetery under the name John Sheen, but recent DNA evidence indicates that may have been a different person.

Sheen had supposedly been born in China and been in the colony for 61 years, which would mean he had arrived about the same time as John Shying. Were John Shying and John Sheen the same person?

Whatever the truth, Mak Sai Ying certainly had an interesting life as a pioneer colonist in Australia.

More information:

An Alien in the Antipodes, rchive.md.

http://www.ahc.gov.au/publications/chineseheritage/trackingthedragon/background.html

https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/people/mak-sai-ying-aka-john-shying

Discussion:

What do the many spellings of Mak Sai Ying’s name reveal about attitudes towards Asians in Australia at the time?
Why did John Shying have to buy land in the name of his Australian-born son?
What do John Shying’s experiences in Australia reveal about about official attitudes towards aliens at the time?

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CHARLES DARWIN'S 'PLATYPUS MOMENT' IN AUSTRALIA

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Thu, 21 May 2026 22:48:08 GMT

Typical caricatures of Darwin with an ape body identified him in popular culture as the leading author of evolutionary theory. This 1871 cartoon followed publication of The Descent of Man. By Unknown author - Originally published in The Hornet magazine; this image is available on University College London Digital Collections (1886), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23436.

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‘I feel a great interest about Australia, and read every book I can get hold of…’ – Charles Darwin.

CHARLES Darwin (February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882) spent two months in Australia in 1836 as The Beagle neared the end of its five-year global voyage (1831-1836).

The voyage resulted in Darwin’s famous books including On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871).

Most attention has focussed on Darwin’s time in South America, particularly the Galapagos Islands, and barely mentioned his time in Australia. More recently, attempts to shift the focus to his time in Australia have sometimes exaggerated its importance.

While still a young man, Darwin joined the scientific elite; portrait by George Richmond. From Origins, Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22092879

‘The voyage of The Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life’

The young Darwin, who had just finished studying at Cambridge University, had intended to become a country vicar, give some sermons and collect bugs and beetles. Instead, he was accepted, although not the first choice, to join the voyage of The Beagle.

His father Robert Darwin was a wealthy doctor and Charles would never need to work. Robert Darwin paid his son’s costs for the voyage on The Beagle and later established an investment fund for him.

The Beagle, under Captain Robert FitzRoy, charted parts of South America and made meteorological observations around the globe.

South America occupied the bulk of the voyage and moulded Darwin’s ideas into theories, but that part of the voyage has been extensively documented, so we will focus on Darwin’s time in Australia.

The round-the-world voyage of the Beagle, 1831–1836. By © Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3003026.

Sydney was booming, but deadly

After so long at sea, Darwin and the crew were certainly homesick and tired when they reached Port Jackson on January 12, 1836.

Darwin rode on horseback to the Blue Mountains and Bathurst. He stayed near Penrith with Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, whose son Phillip Gidley King Jr. had sailed on The Beagle, and met leading citizens.

Initially excited by Sydney, Darwin seems to have later become disappointed and concerned about its future, seeing it as a place of both much life, but also much death.

He was impressed by a group of ‘good-natured’ Aboriginal warriors carrying spears, but feared they would be destroyed by European diseases and alcohol and not participate in the march of British civilisation.

‘Wherever the European has trod, death seems to pursue the Aboriginal,’ Darwin wrote.

Darwin also feared the invasion of the colonists was causing a rapid decline of the wild animals, particularly the emu and kangaroo, which could result in their doom (he got that wrong). He liked that convicts could earn their freedom, but saw the colony as a harsh place.

Sydney was experiencing a property boom in the mid-1830s and Darwin noted there was ‘much jealousy between the rich emancipists and their children and the free settlers’. The overheated economy was to crash in the 1840s.

The artist on The Beagle, Conrad Martens, settled for life in Sydney and created many watercolours and sketches of life there. Darwin’s servant, Syms Covington, kept a journal of the voyage and sketched. He later migrated to Australia and became postmaster at Pambula.

Sydney from (Sandy) Rose Bay, 1840, by Conrad Martens - State Library of New South Wales DL 28, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94256776

Hobart Town was small and ‘cruel’

They went on to the much smaller Hobart Town in Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) on February 5, where Darwin travelled as far as New Norfolk.

He called the forced removal of the remaining about 100 Tasmanian Aboriginals to Flinders Island in Bass Strait ‘a cruel step’, described the past conflicts between Aboriginals and colonists which resulted in the ‘Black Wars’, and reported the common view the Aboriginals would soon become extinct.

King George Sound was boring

After 10 days at Hobart Town, they sailed west to spend eight days at King George Sound, the enormous protected waterway at Albany where a small outpost had only been established in 1826 because of fears that France would found a colony in Western Australia.

Darwin enjoyed a corroboree by ‘The White Cockatoo Men’, describing it as ‘a most rude and barbarous scene’, and captured the Australian bush rat, not previously described, but he was bored for much of the time there.

As they left, Darwin wrote in his journal: ‘Farewell Australia! You are a rising infant and doubtless some day will reign a great princess in the south; but you are too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for respect. I leave your shores without sorrow or regret.’

The Beagle departs Australia, by Owen Stanley. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Beagle-in-Sydney-Harbour-3.jpg

Fascinated with the platypus

What, if anything, did Darwin see in Australia which might have influenced his later theories about the origin of the species and natural selection?

Attention has focussed on when Darwin first saw the platypus while walking along the Cox’s River at Wallerawang on the western slopes of the Blue Mountains.

Several platypus were cavorting, just like a European water rat, and his guide shot one. Like the water rat, the platypus had adapted to its environment by burrowing upward into the bank, but they were obviously a different species.

It was a similar situation to other Australian animals, including the potoroo which was very much like a rabbit and the ant-lion. Darwin collected numerous insects, plants and rocks and made extensive notes on geology and natural history.

He reflected on ‘… the strange character of the animals of this country as compared with the rest pf the world’.

And he wondered why God would create different species to behave similarly in similar environments so far apart. Were two different Creators at work? Darwin instead believed ‘one Hand has surely worked throughout the universe’.

This was part of Darwin’s mental journey to the important conclusion that species were not necessarily created all at the same time, but those with traits that give them a survival advantage such as beak shape, colour etc, adapted to their environments and were more likely to survive and become new species. Darwin wrote:

‘With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one at the last moment.’

Disagreement about how important Australia was in Darwin’s thinking

Frank and Jan Nicholas in their important 1998 study, Charles Darwin in Australia, argued Darwin’s diary revealed it was in Australia that he began to seriously consider transmutation in his developing evolutionary views.

Charles knew farmers practiced natural selection to improve their herds, but the big question was, how did natural selection work in Nature?

Darwin combined his own observations with those of others, including the books of English explorer and pirate William Dampier, who had twice visited northern Australia in the 1690s and had made sharp-eyed comparisons of the similarities he observed in creatures and plants on several continents while circumnavigating the globe three times.

For 20 years after Darwin returned to England, he reflected on the ‘dangerous’ subject of the origin of the species. Some researchers, including Nicholas, believe it may have first become prominent in his thinking during his time in Australia, but he chose to hide it for decades while his thinking developed.

In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his "B" notebook on Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first evolutionary tree. By Charles Darwin - Page 36 of Notebook B [Transmutation of Species (1837-1838)], “commenced. . . July 1837”; from Darwin Online, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36638808

The traditional view was that not much happened in Australia that was important for his later thinking. However, some later writers considered it strange that Darwin, the most eminent naturalist of the time, should have apparently failed to appreciate the true value of some of the things he saw in Australia, particularly the plants, animals and geology.

Possibly, Darwin’s thinking was still at an early stage and the significance of some of his observations did not become fully clear to him until later, after he was able to consult with other experts to determine which of the many specimens he had collected were new species.

Under that view, rather than Darwin having had ‘a platypus moment’ in Australia, the lightbulb did not spark up until years later.

Darwin’s experiences in Australia may have reinforced conclusions he had already reached earlier in the voyage, but was yet to write about, as his thinking matured over decades. For example, Darwin did not apply his evolutionary ideas to humans until 1871, 35 years after The Beagle returned to England, in The Descent of Man.

In ‘The Descent of Man’ Darwin argued for human evolution and civilisational, physical and aesthetic differences between races. He assumed the British represented a higher development than some other humans including Australian Aboriginals, who he described as ‘very ugly’ and likely to die out. He also assumed men were further developed than women.

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Darwin’s later life

Charles Darwin and his cousin Emma Westwood married on January 29, 1839, and had 10 children by 1856, including two who died in infancy and another who probably had Downs Syndrome and died of scarlet fever. Charles developed heart problems, which restricted his travel in later life.

Darwin's wife Emma Wedgwood. By George Richmond, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=222272.

Darwin’s life in England after the voyage is mostly outside our focus of interest here, but his ideas were to completely change the understanding of how species adapt to their surroundings in a process called natural selection.

However, his ideas were often distorted and unfairly criticised. For example, the controversy which became known as ‘Darwinism’ and ‘Social Darwinism’ after his death often diverged from what Darwin had actually written.

In his earlier life he had considered the Bible to be truth, but later questioned the historical accuracy of some sections. He was troubled by the problem of evil and condemned slavery, particularly as he had seen it in South America.

Darwin considered God to be the ultimate lawgiver. He denied being an atheist, but thought he might fairly be called an agnostic. He rejected the idea of the universe resulting from blind chance or necessity. ‘I deserve to be called a Theist,’ he wrote.

Darwin’s many writings also included ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’, geological works about coral atolls, biological works about barnacles, ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’, ‘The Power of Movement in Plants’, and the undoubtedly riveting ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Actions of Worms’.

Gradually, Darwin’s ideas became increasingly accepted. After his death, evolution and natural selection became the orthodox beliefs of most people in science and society.

Darwin was called ‘the pre-eminent evolutionary scientist of all time’ by paleoanthropologist Trenton Holliday.

Further reading:

Ion Hesketh, Narratives of Charles Darwin Down Under – ScienceDirect, sciencedirect.com

https://theconversation.com/charles-darwins-evolutionary-revelation-in-australia-52282

https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/charles-darwin-series/transcripts/darwins-experiences-in-australia

Frank Nicholas, Jan Nicholas, Charles Darwin in Australia, Cambridge Press, 2008.

State Library of NSW, Through Darwin’s Eyes, https://sl.nsw.gov.au

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PORT ARTHUR: 'HELL ON EARTH'

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:45:19 GMT

Port Arthur convict prison ruins.

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How could Port Arthur in Tasmania, one of the most beautiful places on the planet, become known as ‘hell on Earth’?

It is famous for a dire past history, which the locals either celebrate or find embarrassing.

Personally, I find it fascinating and am very curious to discover more, as it provides lessons from the past which modern people are unwise to ignore.

Called Van Dieman’s Land until 1856, Tasmania had some of Australia’s largest and most notorious penal settlements, with more than 70,000 convicts forcibly transported from Great Britain to work for the state and private landowners from 1804 until 1853, which was almost half of the total of 163,000 convicts transported to all of Australia.

The first prison was started at Risdon Cove in 1803, making it the second white settlement in Australia after Sydney in 1788, before the prisoners were moved across the harbour to Sullivan’s Cove, which later became Hobart, the following year.

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Port Arthur, on the east coast about 100 kilometres from Hobart, is the most famous, or infamous, historic site in Tasmania, is World Heritage-listed and attracts about 250,000 visitors annually.

It is named after Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur who initially established it as a convict prison from 1833 until 1877 after the closure of the Sarah Island Penal Settlement.

Opened as a small timber station in 1830, there are now more than 30 buildings remaining, including the ship-building yards.

Vicious guard dogs and soldiers patrolled the 30-metre-wide Eaglehawk Isthmus, the only land route leading to Port Arthur.

Boys as young as nine were sent to Port Arthur and used in hard labour such as cutting stone and timber and construction, including building the church, where Sunday attendance was compulsory.

Workshops on the waterfront housed shoemakers, blacksmiths, turners, tailors and wheelwrights. The first tramway in Australia was built in 1836 and was propelled by convicts.

Discipline was harsh and floggings were brutal. The cat-o-nine-tails whip tore strips of flesh from men’s backs, often causing them to collapse unconscious, hanging from their bindings as the blood coursed down their backs to stain the ground.

It is claimed some prisoners even begged others to kill them to be put out of their misery and so the killers themselves would also be executed and end their own suffering in suicide pacts.

Psychological punishment

While the physical discipline was harsh, I was even more horrified by the Separate Prison, based on the ideas of English Utilitarian and prison reformer Jeremy Bentham for a Panopticon with a single gaoler able to secretly observe all the prisoners in their cells, built in 1855.

Bentham believed isolation would motivate prisoners to choose to reform and argued the harsh ways convicts were treated in Australia was unlawful and resulted in more harm than good.

Food was increased to reward good behaviour and reduced to punish badness. Under a “Silent System’, prisoners were hooded and made to silently reflect upon their lives.

Driven crazy

However, far from Bentham’s Panopticon being a progressive reform, what often happened was they simply went mad because of the lack of human contact and were transferred to the adjacent asylum.

Walk into a cell, shut the door, and it only takes seconds to realise why madness was so common. It is a chilling place. The psychological punishment may have been harder to bear than the brutal floggings.

Some prisoners did escape, but there was nowhere to go except into the wilderness, so they usually died. There are 1646 graves on a nearby island called The Isle of the Dead.

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Modern mass murder

A modern reason for Port Arthur to be infamous was the mass shooting on April 28, 1996, 30 years ago this week, in which a man named Martin Bryant, 28, killed 35 people and wounded 28 others, the deadliest massacre in modern Australian history. A garden memorial to the dead has been created at Port Arthur, and it is a sobering experience.

Bryant was captured the next day, tried and gaoled for 35 life sentences without parole (Australia does not have a death penalty), and remains in the Risdon Prison in Hobart, reportedly gone completely loony.

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The government of the day, led by former Prime Minister John Howard and supported by the opposition and state governments, established a national firearms agreement, with a $500 million gun buyback program which collected 635,000 weapons, and heavy restrictions on gun ownership, which continue to this day, with strong public support.

This is the reason visitors to Australia are unlikely to ever see anyone except police and the military with guns. I think it was the best thing John Howard ever did as Prime Minister. It certainly saved Australia from copying the American gun madness.

Hobart Penitentiary Chapel

The chapel was built in the 1830s and features a working gallows. Going to church could be a deadly one-way experience, literally. Below the chapel are 36 solitary confinement cells built so prisoners could still hear the services.

Cascades Female Factory

Cascades Female Factory at Hobart.

A female prison at South Hobart for 28 years from 1828, it housed about 7000 women and 2000 babies. It held up to 1000 people at a time, despite only being designed for just 100.

On a wall are the first names of all the women incarcerated there, while another lists the births and deaths of their babies.

The prison included sunless yards, claustrophobic cells, a nursery, hospital and laundries.

Displays include the story of Aboriginal women who were dispossessed by the factory, including Truganini from Bruny Island, who was buried in the yard after her death in 1876. Her ashes were later scattered in D’Entrecastaux Channel, south of Hobart.

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Ross Female Factory

Ross, named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1821, became a stopover between Hobart and Launceston and had a military garrison.

About 12,000 female convicts passed through the Ross Female Factory between 1848 and 1854. The Assistant Superintendent’s house has survived and contains fascinating historical displays.

Just to prove life wasn’t all bad, one of the displays is about a female convict who married a local farmer, had several children and they became leaders of the town and farming community, retiring well-respected.

It is a lovely little town, with a stone bridge built in 1836, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Uniting churches, an 1831 hotel and well-preserved military and local government buildings along a lovely street with huge shade trees. The Tasmanian Wool Centre is a must-visit.

The Ross Village Bakery inspired the 1989 anime film Kiki’s Delivery Service and attracts global anime fans.

There is a caravan park in the main street, but we went to a farmstay on the edge of town. Ross is a great stopover on the Midlands Highway.

Other Tasmanian convict sites:

Darlington Probation Station on Maria Island is a former convict probation station and the only surviving example of a large-scale convict transportation station.

Coal Mines Historic Site on the Tasman Peninsula is a former coal mine that used convicts as labourers and was notorious for its harsh conditions.

Brickendon-Woolmers Estates near Longford, is two large private farms that used assigned convicts as workers and demonstrate the social and economic impact of convict transportation.

So, do you agree that convict Tasmania was ‘hell on Earth’ or is that description exaggerated? Love to hear from you.

Further information:

https://heritage.tas.gov.au/exploring-heritage/world-heritage-convict-sites

https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/experiences/stories/convict-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham

Discussion:

Why did Port Arthur become known as ‘hell on Earth’?
Was that a fair description?
How successful was isolation as a method for encouraging prisoners to reform?
Why did Port Arthur again became famous in a deadly way in modern times?

Buy Me A Coffee

GOLFING THE NULLARBOR

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:08:57 GMT

Bunda Cliffs on the southern edge of the Great Australian Bight. Photo: Michael Secomb.

Imagine playing the longest golf course in the world.

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TWO blokes, Alf Canute and Bob Bongiorno, got together over a bottle of red wine at the Balladonia Roadhouse and, unlike many such drinking sessions, came up with a great idea.

They decided to create the world’s longest golf course, 1365 kilometres to link Kalgoorlie, Norseman and Ceduna. The 18-hole, par 72, course was to break up the long drive across the featureless Nullarbor Plain, reduce driver fatigue and boost the roadhouses. Public play began on October 22, 2009 and more than 20,000 people have played the course.

The course includes seven existing holes and another 11 new holes at roadhouses, with artificial turf tees and greens with natural fairways. Average distance between holes is 66 kilometres while the largest gap is 200 kilometres.

While all golf courses have hazards, the Nullarbor has some which are unusual. Crows steal the balls, there are dingoes, emus, kangaroos, three deadly venomous snakes, wedge-tail eagles, camels and wombat holes. Temperatures can reach 50 degrees C. We came from Esperance to Norseman and so did not play the first four holes:

Kalgoorlie: CY O’Connor, par 4, 356m; Kalgoorlie: Golden Mile, par 5, 502m; Kambalde: Silver Lake, par 4, 392m; Widgiemooltha, par 3, 110m

I started at the Norseman Information Centre by buying a ticket for $78 and hiring a bag of clubs for $50. The centre’s staff also stamped the first two holes. We drove out to the Norseman Golf Club, which was closed, and found the first hole.

Norseman: Ngadju, par 5, 481. My score: 10. Population 555 at the 2021 Census.

The tee is a patch of carpet, the fairway is mostly dirt and the green is another patch of carpet. I line it up, trying to remember tips from my father, a keen golfer, and swing – and actually hit it down the middle of the fairway for a respectable distance. Amazing. The next few shots puncture my confidence, as they are a succession of duffed balls, and I managed to get the ball in the hole for 10.

Horse finds gold

Laurie Sinclair with his horse Hardy Norseman, who found gold in 1894.

Norseman may be the only town in history which was founded because a horse discovered gold. In 1894, prospector Laurie Sinclair was in an area known as Dundas about 10 kilometres from modern Norseman when he noticed his horse was limping, pulled a stone from one of its shoes and realised the stone was actually a gold nugget.

By 1905 the population had boomed to 3000. The area was named after Laurie’s horse, ‘Hardy Norseman’ and became the centre of the second-richest goldfield in Western Australia. More than 100 tonnes of gold has been extracted.

Norseman: Golden Horse, par 4, 349m. My score: 6.

‘Stupid game’, I mutter, as I line it up. How hard can this be? The first shot is reasonable, the second shot is excellent, and third is sliced away into a tree, but once it’s on the green, my putting is actually quite good. I feel better for recording 6 on a par 4.

And we’re off!

We hit the road, heading about 200 kilometres for Balladonia Roadhouse. It is a long and boring drive. We decide to free camp a bit further on, after checking out the relic of Skylab, which crashed here on July 11, July, 1979.

Skylab relic at Balladonia. Photo: Michael Secomb

Debris from Skylab were scattered across the Nullarbor Plain, with the largest pieces landing near the Balladonia Roadhouse and some near Esperance. As a joke, the Shire of Dundas sent the United States a $400 fine for littering, which remains unpaid.

Balladonia: Skylab, par 3, 175m. My score: 5. Resident population 0 at 2021 Census.

Approaching the tee, a large sign reads, ‘Beware of Snakes’. The fairway appears so narrow I can’t see to the end, so naturally I hook the first shot into the bushes, then duff the second shot, but the fairway is so short I still get on the green for three and two-putt for 5. Not so bad.

Edward Eyre and Wyllie survive the Nullarbor

Little was known about the land which connected South Australia and Western Australia, except for maps of the coastline made by maritime explorers.

Edward John Eyre decided in 1840 to explore from Fowler’s Bay across the Nullarbor to Albany, accompanied by former convict John Baxter, an Aboriginal named Wyllie and two other Aboriginal men, known as Yarry and Joey.

But on April 29, 1841, when the party was near Caiguna, the other two Aboriginal men shot Baxter, stole the party’s food and weapons and disappeared.

Eyre and Wyllie staggered westwards for five months, living off the sparse landscape, and were only saved when they met a French whaling ship Mississippi near Esperance and were given supplies to reach Albany in July, 1841. Eyre named Rossiter Bay after the captain of the ship, Thomas Rossiter.

In the 1920s the Western Australian Historical Society located Baxter’s remains about three kilometres from the coastal cliffs and a plaque was erected in 1930 about 35 kilometres by 4WD from the Caiguna roadhouse.

Nullarbor caves yield ancient fossils

The Nullarbor Plain is riddled with caves. More than 30 have yielded mammal remains, including bone fragments of the Diprotodon, one of the largest known mammals, found near Balladonia. Fossil records indicate they were up to two metres high at the shoulder, 2.5 metres long and weighed up to 1.5 tonnes.

The region became increasingly arid during the late Pleistocene when Aboriginal people began arriving in Australia and using fire burning practices which affected the vegetation, and large marsupials became extinct.

Caiguna: 90 Mile Straight, par 4, 263m. Population 4 at the 2021 Census.

Another ‘Watch for snakes’ sign at the tee. My first shot disappears into the bushes and takes some time to find. My second and third shots are duffed miss-hits. The fourth, fifth and sixth get me to the green, erratically. Then I three-putt for 9. This goes close to maintaining my average of double the par. Another golfer hits an 11, so I feel better.

90 Mile Straight

We are on the 90 Mile Straight, part of the 1664-kilometre Eyre Highway. Between Balladonia and Caiguna is said to be the longest section of road without a bend in Australia and one of the longest in the world. It is 146.6 kilometres or 91.1 miles.

Before 1942, travellers used rough tracks formed by bullock and camel teams from the 1870s. The Eyre highway opened in 1942 as a rough track to send military equipment to the west, and was fully-sealed between 1960 and 1976.

Rail links WA to the rest of the continent

When the Australian states federated on January 1, 1901, one of the promises to persuade Western Australia to join was of a federally-funded railway line linking the isolated west with the rest of the continent.

The route was surveyed in 1909 and the Trans-Australian Railway was constructed between 1912 and 1917. Crews worked from both ends in extreme heat of 45C+ and met at Ooldea on October 17, 1917, having laid 2.5 million sleepers for 1711 kilometres of track with a central 1435mm gauge, even though the state rail lines at each end were narrow gauge. In 1937 the eastern end was extended 90 kilometres to Port Pirie.

The line was rebuilt in 1969 to standardise the rail gauge, includes the world’s longest section of straight track at 478 kilometres between Oldea in South Australia and Loongana in Western Australia.

Cocklebiddy: Eagles Nest, par 4, 368m. Population 15 at the 2021 Census.,

This is also a par 4, so I hope to maintain my average of doubling the par, but it is not to be. I hit an 11, of which only two shots are worth boasting about, the rest being a succession of mis-hits, tops, slices and hooks. Honestly, I could have used a putter rather than a five-iron.

The sad tale of Samantha and Bruce

Cocklebiddy is called ‘Eagles Nest’ because of Bruce and Samantha, a pair of wedge-tail eagles which were rescued after being hit by trucks and injured. They were sent off to Adelaide to recover, but their injuries prevented them from being returned to the wild, so the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse built them a long enclosure.

Sadly, Bruce succumbed to his injuries and died last year, leaving Samantha alone in the enclosure. Eagles mate for life, so Samantha seems likely to remain a widow.

Madura: Brumby’s Run, par 3, 125m. Population nil residents at the 2021 Census.

It started with a very large unexpected obstacle, a semi-trailer parked on the fairway. I briefly considered whacking the ball past him, but my skills with a five-iron are still developing, do I was afraid of slicing the ball into his windscreen and smashing it. Probably not a good idea.

So, I walked around the back of the truck, chose a wedge instead, and hit for the green, not that far away. Unfortunately, I topped it, but it still ran close to the green. Deciding to play safe, I took the putter and banged it along the ground, still short of the green. Third shot went on the green and then I two-putted for a five.

Disaster!

It was somewhere around this time that I did something really stupid – I lost my wallet. I had it when I paid for fuel at Madura in the morning, but it disappeared somewhere along the journey to Eucla. So that meant cancelling and replacing everything in the wallet. And it all happened because of a hole in a pocket of my shorts, which have been binned.

Mundrabilla: Watering Hole, par 3, 145m. Resident population 11 at the 2021 Census.

This one almost went better than the previous hole, also a par 3. I got to the green in two, first put was about a metre from the hole, but then I foolishly relaxed and ruined my score with two more putts. Oh well …

Surviving in the remote desert

Mundrabilla roadhouse, 66 kilometres west of Eucla, was built in 1972 by Roger and Pat Warren-Langford, who initially managed Mundrabilla Station, established in 1872 by brothers Thomas and William Kennedy and William McGill.

After enduring a challenging 1200-kilometre trek from Albany with 1500 sheep, the settlers faced unforgiving conditions, water shortages and rugged terrain. Thomas Kennedy died in 1872 and McGill’s first wife Annie Harkness died in childbirth on 1879, but the station survived. It holds the record for the sixth-hottest temperature in Australia of 49.8 degrees C on January 3, 1979.

John Muir took up Moopina Station in 1873, bringing a year’s provisions and 650 sheep on the brig Emily Smith to Port Eucla. Other stations were established at Balladonia, Fraser Range, Noondoonia and Madura.

Eucla: Nullarbor Nymph, par 4, 315m. Population 37 at the 2021 Census.

I hit a 7 here on a par 4., so better than my average of double the par score for the hole. Nothing special, just a series of average shots.

Nullarbor telegraph line

Western Australia was isolated from the eastern states by the unknown interior landscape until the West Australian Government sent surveyor John Forrest to mount an expedition in 1870 to trace Edward Eyre’s route for a telegraph line.

The Nullarbor telegraph line was completed between 1874 and 1877 and became redundant in 1927 when it was replaced by lines along the Trans-Australian Railway.

Ruins of the Eucla telegraph station. Photo: Michael Secomb.

Remnants of the stone Eucla station are now partly-buried in sand dunes where the original town of Eucla stood, before it was moved further inland.

Nullarbor Nymph

The story goes that some enterprising locals decided to get publicity for their area, so they cooked up a story of a near-naked nymph running with the dingoes. This got headlines, probably because some bored journo needed to drum up something to fill a space. Actually, it was a hoax, but it got the desired publicity.

What’s the time?

Eucla is the centre of its own little time zone, different to both WA and SA, with three distinct time zones in only a 340 kilometre stretch of highway.

There is the unofficial ‘Central Western Time’ (CWT), used between Caiguna, Madura, Mundrabilla, Eucla and Border Village. This ‘Eucla Time’ is 45 minutes ahead of Western Standard Time, used throughout WA up to Caiguna, and 45 minutes behind Central Standard Time, the official time in South Australia and one hour 30 minutes ahead of WA time. Plus, South Australia uses daylight saving, making it an hour 45 minutes ahead of Central Western Time.,

I couldn’t figure it out. I sat there looking at a display of four clocks in the Mundrabilla Roadhouse, each showing a different time, and was thoroughly confused.

Border Village: Border Kangaroo, par 3, 126m. Population unknown, as it’s just a roadhouse and border stop.

This hole should have been a breeze, but the problem was the very narrow fairway has thick bushes both sides. So, I lined up the first shot, and sliced it into the trees. Fortunately, our dog was on the job and found my ball.

Then I hooked the second one off to the left. The third one was topped and went about three metres. After that, it got even worse. I actually managed to four-put when it should have only been 2. Awful!

On the border

Border Village is on the border between Western Australia and South Australia. West-bound motorists have to be inspected for prohibited items here. Eastbound motorists continue on to Ceduna before being inspected for produce carrying fruit fly.

Bunda Cliffs

The most famous photo opportunity on the Nullarbor is the Bunda Cliffs, formed about 65 million years ago and stretching up to 200 kilometres east from Border Village.

The cliffs drop up to 120 metres into the Great Australian Bight. Three marked viewing spots offer seasonal whale-watching opportunities. The cliffs are unstable and windy, so viewing is restricted to fenced areas, and camping is banned.

Nullarbor: Dingo’s Den, par 5, 538m. Population 71 at the 2021 Census.

A young dingo greeted us, slouching around in the car park. Then we saw an adult dingo running around behind the roadhouse. The backpacker staff assured us they were friendly, but we weren’t convinced.

It’s a long par 5 and we were running late to camp, so I decided to cheat by teeing off on the fairway and penalising myself a shot, but I duffed three shots and was up to seven just before the green. Then I got over-enthusiastic with my putting and whacked it over the green, resulting in a four pat 11. Terrible.

‘No trees’ on the plain

In 1867, surveyor E.A. Delisser travelled out into the treeless plain he named Nullarbor from the Latin ‘Nullus’ and ‘Arbor’ meaning ‘no trees’, which was literally true. The Aboriginal name is ‘Oondini’ meaning ‘the waterless’, also true.

The plain covers about 77,000 square miles, almost as large as the state of Victoria. It was created about 25 million years ago when it emerged from the sea.

The skeletons and shells of sea creatures caused the limestone sediments which are up to 70 metres deep.

Nundroo: Wombat Holes, par 5, 520m. Population unknown.

This is a long hole. It’s up the road from the roadhouse, off on a bush track, and then a decent walk. I lined it up and whacked. The first two shots were rippers, rolling only slightly to the side of the fairway. At least they didn’t disappear into a bush.

Then the course started curving to the left, and my skills went down. Topping it, hitting the ground etc - you get the picture. I was over the green to the back in 6, hit the putt too hard and went past it too far, and finished with a nine. Hey, at least I beat my average of doubling par.

Whales slaughtered

We camped in the free camping area at the entrance to the southern right whale sanctuary centre. Between 1820 and 1850, over 26,000 southern right whales were killed in the waters of Australia and New Zealand.

Southern Right Whales leave the sub-Antarctic in the summer after feeding on plankton, consuming up to a tonne daily. As the waters become colder towards winter they move north to the Bight, travelling in pods including pregnant whales and calves.

About 300 whaling vessels operated in the south-west in the 1840s, hunting whales, sea lions and seals for oil and furs. It was a dangerous, bloody and totally unregulated trade, before over-exploitation decimated stocks and alternatives to whale oil were found. Whaling was banned in 1978 and the numbers are recovering.

Penong: Windmills, par 4, 205m. Population 280 at the 2021 Census.

Penong is an actual town. The hole is between the roadhouse and the caravan park, in a park filled with windmills. I lined it up and hit a beautiful five-iron fair up the middle of the fairway between two low trees. And then repeated it with a lovely second shot. The green was in sight, which is when things went downhill.

The third shot was topped, the fourth was a grounded dribble and the fifth sailed right over the green to the back. And from there I was I n the hole in 7. So, again within my average of doubling par.

What about the windmills?

Windmills at Penong. Photo: Michael Secomb.

Penong town was proclaimed on April 28, 1892. There was a port at Cape Thevenard, but the rail line from Port Lincoln did not reach the town until 1924 and was withdrawn in 1997.

In 2000, locals were having a liquid discussion about how to get the travellers to stop in Penong, which had been called ‘the town of windmills’ and decided to make an attraction of them. Australia’s biggest windmill, the 35-foot Comet, was found near Kingoonya and donated to become the centrepiece of 16 windmills when the park opened in 2016.

Ceduna: Oyster Beds, par 5, 485m. Population 2290 at 2021 Census.

Bit of a problem here – the first home fairway was flooded. Recent rain at Ceduna resulted in local flooding and damaged the rail track, which was why freight had moved to trucks and there were more than usual on the Eyre Highway heading west. The Ceduna Information Centre woman said not to worry about being unable to play the hole, she would stamp my scorecard anyway.

Ceduna: Denial Bay, par 4, 370m

Off to the 18^th hole, also muddy, but playable. My first shot was a ripper, screaming down the fairway and only swerving slightly right. No problem. From there, it went downhill in the mud. I’m going to blame the mud for what followed, because I can. Let’s just say it should not have taken five shots to get to the edge of the green. And my clubs were looking very muddy by the time I had hacked my way there. Then I three putted.

And that was the end of my experience on the world’s longest golf course. Although I had not played the first four holes from Kalgoorlie, the nice lady issued my certificate anyway, so I can wave that about.

Water, not fuel, is the real worry

People worry about running out of fuel crossing the Nullarbor, but actually it is water which is in short supply. There are 12 roadhouses between Kalgoorlie and Ceduna, with the longest distance between them being about 200 kilometres. There are even EV charging points at the roadhouses.

The Nullarbor crossing is a rite of passage, good for appreciating the hardships of the early explorers and settlers.

Discussion:

Why was the western end of the Nullarbor plain explored and settled?
What is the connection between the American space program and the Nullarbor Plain?
Why did the 1840 exploration of the Nullarbor by a party led by Edward John Eyre become such a feat of endurance and survival?
What is unusual about a section of the endless highway between Balladonia and Caiguna?
Why was it so difficult to establish the Mundrabilla Station in 1872?
Why was the name ‘Nullarbor’ adopted for the region?
Why were governments keen to explore the Nullarbor?
Why did the whaling industry flourish and then die out along the southern coastline facing Bass Strait?
What are the main hazards travellers have to overcome to cross the Nullarbor?

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BILLY SING: 'THE ASSASSIN OF GALLIPOLI'

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:55:27 GMT

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It only costs a coffee a month to join the journey and put fuel in my tank.

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ON ANZAC Day in Australia, we recall the story of the Chinese-Australian sniper who became the most-feared Australian Infantry Force soldier at Gallipoli in World WAR I.

This is part of a series about the enormous influence of the Chinese in Australia. China and Australia were allies in both world wars and the ties between the two countries go way back in history.

Billy Sing, by Gale's Studios Ltd c 1918. The original uploader was L42A1 at English Wikipedia. - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain.

BILLY SING - ‘THE ASSASSIN’

‘He is the crack shot of the ANZACS’ – Ion Idriess.

THIS is the story of the Chinese-Australian William Edward Sing (March 3, 1886 – May 19, 1943) who was so effective as a sniper at Gallipoli in World War I that he became known as ‘The Assassin’ and was feared by the Turks.

Billy Sing had at least 150 confirmed kills as a sniper at Gallipoli and over 300 in total during World War I.

Born at Clermont in Queensland, the son of Chinese father John Sing and English mother Mary, Billy later briefly married a Scottish woman, worked as a sheep farmer and gold miner, and died in poverty in Brisbane.

As a young man, he was known for his marksmanship as a kangaroo shooter and won competitions at the Proserpine Rifle Club.

Enlisting to fight for Australia

Sing enlisted in the Australian 5^th Light Horse Regiment of the Australian Imperial Force on October 24, 1914, after a recruitment officer ignored him being part-Chinese.

There was a rule that only Europeans were supposed to enter the Australian military, but it was widely ignored by the recruiters, who accepted Aboriginal, Chinese, Indian and other applicants.

He was sent to Gallipoli as a sniper and partnered with spotters including Ion ‘Jack’ Idriess, who later became a famous author.

He described Sing as: ‘a little chap, very dark, with a jet-black moustache and goatee beard. A picturesque looking mankiller. He is the crack shot of the Anzacs.’

Australian troops landing at Gallipoli. Photo: National Museum of Australia.

The Turks fear ‘The Assassin’

Using a Lee-Enfield 303 rifle, Billy took lethal control of the Chatham’s Post position. Although a deadly shot feared by Turkish troops, he is said never to have fired at a stretcher-bearer or soldiers trying to rescue wounded Turks.

Sing had 150 confirmed kills and 201 unconfirmed kills by September 2015, while another report said his unconfirmed total went over 300. He was nicknamed ‘The Assassin’ and ‘The Murderer’ by other soldiers.

Determined to stop Sing’s carnage, the Turks sent one of their crack snipers, nicknamed ‘Abdul the Terrible’, against him.

One day, Sing took aim at a position, only to find Abdul aiming back at him. Sing fired first and killed Abdul. The Turks reacted by firing artillery at Sing’s position and he barely escaped alive.

Birdwood is impressed

General William Birdwood, Commander of ANZAC forces, joined Billy Sing as his spotter one day to see his marksmanship. Birdwood told Lord Kitchener, ‘if his troops could match the capacity of the Queensland sniper the allied forces would soon be in Constantinople.’

Chatham’s Post, where Billy Sing became the sniper most feared by Turkish soldiers.

Sing was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal ‘for courage and skill’. The citation added, ‘.. he was responsible for a very large number of casualties among the enemy, no risk being too great for him to take.’

Sing’s luck began to run out when he was hit in the shoulder in August, 1915, by a bullet which also severely wounded his spotter, Tom Sheehan, who was shipped back to Australia.

He suffered myalgia in November, 1915, and was sent on a hospital ship to Malta and Egypt, rejoined his unit in March, 1916, and was then sent to England for training and to the Western Front in France with the 31st Infantry Battalion in January 1917.

There he was wounded several times, hospitalised in England and recovered in Scotland, where he met waitress Elizabeth Stewart, and they married on June 29, 1917, in Edinburgh.

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Sent to France

After a honeymoon month, Billy was sent back to the trenches in France, but he was in poor health because of his wounds and gas poisoning.

1729 Australian soldiers died and 3723 were injured in the Battle of Polygon Wood, where Billy Sing led an Australian unit. https://australiafirstparty.net//Polygon-Wood-Legacy-of-Australian-Sacrifice-

He led a unit counter-sniper operation in the Battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917, was awarded a Belgian medal and recommended for the Military Medal, but never received it.

Billy was back in hospital in November with leg wounds and again in February, 1918, with a gunshot wound to the back, but it was lung disease from gas exposure which ended his military career.

Back in Australia

Sent back to Australia, he was put on submarine guard duty, but complained of coughing upon exertion, and was discharged as permanently unfit for service.

Billy Sing's medals on display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. By Abraham, B.S. - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38684287

He worked in farming and gold mining, but his marriage broke up after Elizabeth chose to stay in Edinburgh, where she had two children by a Queenslander living there.

Billy Sing’s later life was marred by chest, back and heart pain. He moved to Brisbane and worked as a labourer in relative poverty. He died alone in a room in a boarding house at West End on May 19, 1943, aged 57, of a ruptured aorta.

There was no sign of his medals, which were later recovered, he only had five shillings on him and his employers owed him six pounds in wages.

Billy Sing’s legacy

He was buried at Lutwyche War Cemetery at Kedron, where his grave remains, with a plaque which includes these words:

‘A man of all trades, Pte. Sing was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous gallantry, the Belgian Croux (sic) De Guerre and mentioned often in despatches. Serving at Gallipoli and in France from 1915-1918, he became known as Australia’s most effective marksman/sniper accounting for more than 150 of the opposing forces. His incredible accuracy contributed greatly to the preservation of the lives of those with whom he served during a war always remembered for countless acts of valour and tragic carnage.’

Monument to Billy Sing. https://sejarahmiliter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/sing-g-768x1024.jpg

Billy Sing’s legacy includes a bronze plaque where he died at 304 Montague Road, South Brisbane, a monument to ‘The Gallipoli Sniper’ at Lutwyche Cemetery, a statue at his home town of Clermont, and accounts in several books, including ‘Gallipoli Sniper: the life of Billy Sing’, 2008, and a TV series based on his life.

The North Arm Rifle Range on the Sunshine Coast holds an annual event named after Billy Sing with Lee Enfield military service rifles.

On May 19, 2009, the Chinese Consul-General, Ren Gongping, laid a wreath at Billy Sing’s grave and said,

‘Billy Sing is a symbol of the long history of Chinese in Australia, and the great role they have played in your nation’s past… it also reminds us that China and Australia were allies through both world wars, and that we have a long and proud shared past.’

Discussion:

Why did recruitment officers have to break the rules to enrol Billy Sing in the Army?
Why did Billy Sing become feared by the Turks at Gallipoli?
What ended Billy Sing’s military career?
Did Billy Sing’s legacy truly reflect his achievements?

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EUREKA REBELLION - 'FINEST THING IN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY'

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 06:22:40 GMT

Watercolour painting of the Eureka Stockade Riot, Ballarat, 1854. By John Black Henderson (1827-1918) - State Library of New South Wales, SSV2B/Ball/7, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27221126

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THE Eureka Rebellion was messy, bloody, but ultimately determined who controlled power in a colonial society.

The rebels were defeated on the battlefield, but soon won almost all their demands, as Victoria changed from a struggling British imperial colony to a democratic, self-governing state of Australia.

Just three years after winning separation from the founding colony of New South Wales, ordinary workers in Victoria forced the Governors, who behaved like mini-kings, to cede power. The grievances included:

· Miners rejected the high cost of mining permits imposed by the Victorian Governor.

· Resented the officious and heavy-handed way the permit system was enforced against them.

· Wanted Victoria to adopt Chartist democratic principles from Ireland and the USA.

Mining licence imposed

Tensions began in 1851 when Victoria introduced a licence system for gold miners to finance the new colony, which was nearly broke.

There were peaceful demonstrations, but Governors La Trobe and Hotham repeatedly refused to negotiate, so many miners refused to pay, a gold miner was murdered, a hotel was burned and police attacked.

Open rebellion broke out on November 29, 1854, as a crowd of 10,000 swore allegiance to the Eureka flag, led by miner Peter Lalor.

‘Gold fever’ hits Victoria

The gold rush in Victoria from 1851 caused ‘gold fever’ with the population exploding from 77,000 in 1851 to 198,496 in 1853 as fortune-hunters flooded in from around the world. Public servants, factory workers and farm labourers abandoned their jobs.

The Governor and his officials feared losing control and lacked the resources to provide the infrastructure to support such a massive population increase, so they were keen to collect tax revenue.

Legally, the gold belonged to the Crown and most was exported to Britain, so the government could have simply imposed a flat export tax, but instead decided to tax miners for permits to explore. Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe on August 16, 1851, issued two proclamations which:

· Reserved to the Crown all rights to the goldfields

· Introduced a mining licence tax of 30 shillings a month, from September 1.

That meant forcing miners, many who had not found any gold, to pay a tax to seek it, widely regarded as grossly unfair.

A gold mining licence issued to Raffaello Carboni. By Raffaello Carboni - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Eureka_Stockade.djvu/120, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72665296

Mass public meetings were staged over three years, the first by 50 miners at Hiscock’s Gully in Buninyong on August 26, 1851. Delegations of miners sought relief from this onerous tax, which made most miners unprofitable.

The miners were divided between those who wanted lawful, peaceful and democratic ‘moral force’ agitation and those who wanted ‘physical force’, such as armed rebellion.

La Trobe sent the first Gold Commissioner, D.C. Doveton, to Ballarat in September, 1851. Trouble broke out in December when the licence fee was raised to three pounds a month, causing some miners to begin stockpiling guns and demonstrations in Melbourne and Geelong.

A mass meeting at Mount Alexander, known as the Forest Creek Monster Meeting, attracted 20,000 miners on December 15, 1851, when an early version of what became the Eureka flag was displayed.

Two days later, La Trobe rescinded the increase in the licence tax. However, police aggressively hunted diggers, demanding to see their licences. The government also banned liquor at the goldfields settlements, only allowing alcohol to be sold in hotels.

The trouble continued during 1852. The people of Bendigo petitioned La Trobe for a better road from Melbourne and there were many complaints about a lack of police protection for citizens, particularly after a fight over land rights involving 150 men at Bendigo on August 14, 1852.

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Miners argued the police were wasting their time harassing them for licences, instead of fighting crime. A group of miners at Lever Flat formed a ‘Mutual Protection Association’ in October, 1852, pledging to withhold the licence fee, build detention centres and begin nightly armed patrols to dispense summary justice to criminals. A police patrol at Bendigo was attacked by a mob of miners on November 25, 1852, over a licence dispute.

More protest meetings were held. A police officer accidentally killed miner William Guest at Reid’s Creek on February 3, 1853, and a thousand angry miners overran the police camp and seized or destroyed police weapons. A public meeting called for the death of Guest to be investigated.

An Anti-Gold Licence Association was formed at Bendigo in June and collected 23,000 signatures on a petition. Rocks were thrown at police who had arrested a drunken miner near Bendigo on July 2, 1853. A meeting of 6000 at Bendigo opposed the mining licence and complained about a lack of electoral rights.

The pressure was having an effect. The High Commissioner for the Goldfields, William Wright, recommended La Trobe replace the mining licence with an export duty on gold, but La Trobe refused to suspend the mining tax or to give the miners the right to vote.

The following day, La Trobe’s refusal to budge was reported to a large public meeting at Protestant Hall in Melbourne, which reacted with ‘loud disapprobation and showers of hisses’.

The Bendigo ‘Digger’s Flag’ was unveiled at a rally on August 12, where the miners paraded under several flags, including the Irish tricolour, the saltire of Scotland, the Union Jack, revolutionary French and German flags and the Stars and Stripes.

‘Gully after gully hoisted its own flag, around which the various sections rallied, and as they proceeded towards the starting point, formed quite an animated spectacle … But the flag which attracted the greatest attention was the Diggers Banner, the work of one of the committee, Mr Dexter, an artist of considerable talent, and certainly no company ever possessed a more appropriate coat of arms, or a motto more in character with themselves.’ - Geelong Advertiser.

Recreation of the original Monster Meeting flag raised in 1851 at Forest Creek. By Isaac Sutcliffe - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131140934

The Diggers Flag has four quarters featuring a pick, shovel and cradle, a bunch of sticks tied together for unity, the scales of justice and a kangaroo and emu.

As up to 600 miners assembled outside the government camp on August 20, the police released some mining tax evaders.

Rallies at Beechworth and 20,000 at Bendigo called for the mining tax to be reduced to 10 shillings a month. Two thousand miners marched past the police camp at View Point with bands, shouting and firing 50 pistol rounds.

The Legislative Council in Melbourne on September 6 reduced the licence fee to 40 shillings every three months, but increased fines for repeat offenders to up to 15 pounds. In November, the licence fee was changed to a pound per month, two pounds for three months, three pounds for six months and five pounds for 12 months. La Trobe then changed the six-month licence to four pounds and eight pounds for 12 months and proposed giving voting rights to miners who bought 12-month licences.

Miners responded with a meeting at View Point on December 31 which elected a ‘Diggers Congress’. They complained that some police were ex-convicts from Tasmania who got a 50% commission from fines imposed on unlicensed miners and sly grog sellers. Some police demanded blackmail payments from miners to avoid fines and hard labour. Miners were fined for not carrying their licences on their person, because they feared they could be damaged in the wet and dirty mines. Police chained some miners to trees overnight.

Sir Charles Hotham replaced La Trobe as Lieutenant-Governor on June 22, 1854 and took a hard line, instructing police to strictly enforce weekly licence hunts. More than half of miners still did not have licences, so in September, Hotham imposed twice-weekly licence inspections. The miners responded with threats of armed rebellion.

Conflict turns violent

Tensions soared in October, 1854, when James Scobie was murdered outside the Bentley Hotel on Bakery Hill. The police prosecuted Johannes Gregorius, a physically disabled servant of Father Smyth of St Alpius Chapel, who had previously been attacked by police and falsely accused of licence evasion. Catholic and other miners protested the treatment of Gregorius.

Magistrate D’Ewes, who heard the charges against Gregorius, found no liability by the owners of the Bentley Hotel for the death of James Scobie. Miners accused the magistrate of being a friend of the hotel owners. A rally of 10,000 saw the Bentley hotel set alight as the miners stood around outside. The police were unable to prevent the burning of the hotel.

Charles Doudiet's sketch of the burning of Bentley's Hotel, entitled Eureka Riot 17th October (1854) - Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77046895

Andrew McIntyre and Thomas Fletcher were arrested on October 10 for the arson attack on the hotel and John Westerby was also indicted. Miners paid bail for the accused. As a large mob approached the police camp, the two men were released.

Police offered a 500-pound reward for information leading to an arrest in the Scobie murder case and a 1600-pound reward for information about a Bank of Victoria robbery by masked thieves at Ballarat.

Gold Commissioner Robert Rebe promised the police who had arrested Gregorius would be dismissed. Miners petitioned for a retrial in the Gregorius case and for assistant commissioner Johnston to be transferred away from Ballarat.

Preparing for rebellion

Men had fired musket balls at the government post, so Captain John Wellesley Thomas planned for its defence. Hotham appointed a board of inquiry, including a magistrate from Melbourne, to look into the Scobie murder. The inquiry’s report blamed the government camp for the tense situation and recommended dismissals of a magistrate and police Sergeant, which was done.

Ballarat Reform League formed

However, the miners were not satisfied. A crowd of 10,000 met at Bakery Hill, opposite the government camp, on November 11, 1854, and formed the Ballarat Reform League chaired by John Humffray, one of several Chartist leaders, to negotiate on their behalf. Miners hoisted the Union Jack inscribed with Chartist slogans and the American ensign as signals of protest.

The Ballarat charter contained most of the same demands as the 1839 Chartist National Convention in London: Full and fair representation; manhood suffrage; no property qualification for election to parliament; payment of members of parliament. However, it did not seek secret ballots.

The Ballarat meeting resolved to secede from the United Kingdom if the situation did not improve: ‘It is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called upon to obey, that taxation without representation is tyranny.’

Under pressure, Hotham announced an inquiry into grievances on the goldfields, but again rejected the idea of replacing the mining tax with an export levy.

Commissioner Rede refused to hear the grievances of the miners, sent more police to the goldfields and accused miners of seeking ‘a democratic revolution’ and said government forces were ready ‘to crush them and the democratic agitation at one blow’.

James Bentley, Thomas Farrell and William Hance were on November 18, 1854, convicted of murdering James Scobie and sentenced to three years hard labour on a road crew. Catherine Bentley was acquitted.

The miners Westerby, Fletcher and McIntyre were convicted of burning the hotel and gaoled for six, four and three months respectively. The jury recommended mercy and said it held the local authorities at Ballarat responsible for the loss of property, but Hotham refused to release the hotel arsonists.

Father Smyth told Commissioner Rebe he feared the miners were about to march on the government outpost. Soldiers from the 40^th (2^nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot and the 12^th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot were sent to Ballarat, met by a mob who tried to loot their wagons. The government camp had a total of 276 mounted and foot soldiers and police by December.

‘Are you ready to die?’

About 10,000 miners met at Bakery Hill under the Eureka Flag on November 29 and heard of Hotham’s refusal to release Westerby, Fletcher and McIntyre. Timothy Hayes incited the crowd by shouting, ‘Are you ready to die?’

Rede ordered the police to conduct a licence search on November 30, but there was mass refusal to co-operate and objects were thrown at police and soldiers. Eight licence defaulters were arrested, but soldiers had to be sent in to rescue the arresting officers from the angry mob.

The crowd went to Bakery Hill where militant leader Peter Lalor mounted a stump armed with a rifle, shouted, ‘Liberty!’ and called forward volunteers to be sworn into companies under rebel captains. Lalor knelt, pointed to the Eureka Flag, and led the crowd in swearing:

‘We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.’

Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross by Charles Doudiet, 1854. By Charles Doudiet - Photograph of 2004 Commemorative poster published by Eureka’s Children and Eureka Stockade Memorial Association., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4983773

Hotham reported to England that the miners, ‘held a meeting whereas the Australian flag of independence was solemnly consecrated and vows offered for its defence.’

No going back

After the meeting, the miners marched behind the Eureka Flag in double file from Bakery Hill to the Eureka mine site and spent three days building a stockade of diagonal wooden spikes four to seven feet high, which could have stopped horses from jumping it, enclosing about an acre of land, or an area 30 x 61 metres. Holes in the enclosed area were turned into rifle pits, manned by up to 30 Californian Rangers who had guarded the site.

Hotham feared the network of mines could prevent soldiers from marching in formation and they could be picked off by snipers. The authorities decided on a surprise attack. The stockade was badly-positioned for defence as it was on a slope which exposed the defenders to fire from nearby high ground.

At 4am on December 1, the rebels began massing on Bakery Hill, but the Riot Act was read and mounted police broke up the meeting. Miner representatives presented a peace proposal to Rebe, but he rejected it.

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The number of miners involved is disputed, but more certainly arrived, including 400 from Creswick Creek, taking the total to about 1700, scouts and picket lines were established and messages sent for more reinforcements as the stockade was fortified.

However, discipline was poor, the government forces were not expected to attack on a Sunday, and many miners left to drink on the Saturday night, so the rebel garrison shrank to about 150-200 men, despite Lalor threatening to shoot deserters.

Lalor also chose the divisive password ‘Vinegar Hill’, which caused some miners to leave as they did not support the Irish rebellion of 1798, although there were a large number of Irish miners. James McGill also took most of the 200 Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept expected British reinforcements from Melbourne.

Lalor later said only about 70 of the defenders had guns, 30 had pikes and 30 had pistols, but not much ammunition. Rebe had spies inside the stockade. Father Smyth appealed to Catholic miners to put down their weapons and attend Sunday Mass.

The stockade attacked at dawn

Rebe sent 276 men under Captain Thomas off in silence at 3.30am for a dawn attack. The 40^th regiment gave covering fire from one end, mounted police covered the flanks and foot soldiers and police moved forwards, making contact at about 150 metres. There is a dispute about who fired the first shot.

Accounts suggest the rebels fired strongly for about 10 minutes, causing the 40^th regiment to waver, but then the rebels began to run short of ammunition, and the police led the way over the top. Lalor’s arm was shattered by a musket ball and was later amputated. Constable John King captured the Eureka Flag.

The Eureka Flag fragments donated by the King family to the Art Gallery of Ballarat. By Steakknife at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3620264

Estimates of the number of casualties vary. There were 27 names entered in the Victorian death register. Lalor said there were 34 casualties, of whom 22 died. Captain Thomas said one soldier was killed, two died of wounds and 14 others were wounded.

Consequences of the rebellion

Hotham declared martial law with no lights after 8pm and sent in 1000 soldiers under Major-General Sir Robert Nickle. Reports say shots from the government camp killed a woman, a child and several men were wounded or killed. Nickle wisely tried to calm the situation and walked unguarded among the miners hearing their grievances.

In Melbourne, the government’s ‘victory’ rapidly turned into a public relations disaster. Large public meetings, including 6000 people at Saint Paul’s Cathedral on December 6, 1854, passed motions calling for government officials to resign, and some did, including Hotham’s secretary Foster. A royal commission of inquiry was appointed the following day.

When 13 rebel prisoners were indicted for treason, newspapers called it a brutal overuse of force and blamed the government for causing the unrest. However Hotham, undeterred by public rejection of his policies, swore in 1500 special constables and vowed that ‘rioting and sedition would be speedily put down’.

Commissioner Rebe was recalled from Ballarat, served in several other roles, and was later sheriff at the trial of bushranger Ned Kelly. Hotham’s title was changed from Lieutenant-Governor to Governor in 1855, and he died later in the year.

An 1855 engraving in The Age of some of the rebels on trial. By Samuel Calvert - The Age: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/18210111, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57704822

Of the 120 people arrested after the battle, 13 were tried for high treason – Timothy Hayes, Raffaello Carboni, John Manning, John Joseph, Jan Vennick, James Beattie, Henry Reid, Michael Tuohy, James Macfie Campbell, William Molloy, Jacob Sorenson, Thomas Dignum and John Phelan.

Juries were sympathetic to the rebels and it was difficult for the prosecution to prove the rebels had treasonous intent in their minds. The African American John Joseph was the first to be declared not guilty, to great celebration by a crowd of 10,000 outside the court. The other indicted rebels were also acquitted, but Henry Seekamp of the Ballarat Times newspaper was convicted of seditious libel and gaoled for six months (reduced to three months).

Colonial Secretary Lord John Russell in London rebuked Hotham for prosecuting the captured rebels for high treason, which was so difficult to prove.

The goldfields commission of inquiry recommended the mining tax be scrapped and a general amnesty issued for the rebels. Its final report was scathing of the administration of the goldfields.

Within a year, all but one of the demands of the Ballarat Reform League were granted. Mining licences were replaced with an export duty. Miners could buy an annual one-pound miner’s right which granted voting rights. A land deed was introduced. Mining wardens replaced gold commissioners. Police numbers were reduced. The Legislative Council was changed to represent the major goldfields settlements. A poll tax was introduced to restrict the number of Chinese immigrants to the goldfields. A later parliament approved the secret ballot.

Rebel leader Peter Lalor, elected to the Victorian parliament for most of the period from 1856 until he died in 1889, said he regretted two things:

‘The first is, that we shouldn’t have been forced to take up arms at all; and the second is, that when we were compelled to take the field in our own defence, we were unable (through want of arms, ammunition and a little organisation) to inflict on the real authors of the outbreak the punishment they so richly deserved.’

The exact site of the Eureka stockade was soon cleared of timber and later altered by mining, but a Eureka Stockade Memorial has been created at Ballarat and anniversary celebrations held.

The Eureka Rebellion has been called a revolt of free men against imperial tyranny, of free enterprise against taxation, of labour against privilege, a determination of Australians to be masters of their own political destiny and an expression of republicanism. Some want the Australian flag replaced by the Eureka flag.

American author Mark Twain, who went to Ballarat, said in his 1897 book Following the Equator:

‘I think it may be called the finest thing in Australian history. It was a revolution – small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression … it is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle.’

Discussion:

What were the causes of the Eureka Rebellion?
To what extent were the colonial authorities responsible for causing the rebellion?
Why did public opinion turn against the colonial authorities after the rebellion was crushed?
Was the rebellion ultimately successful?
Did the rebellion deserve Mark Twain’s description as ‘the finest thing in Australian history?’

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GOLD RUSH CREATES 'MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE' BOOM TOWN.

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 05:54:10 GMT

Australian gold diggings, by Edwin Stocqueler, c. 1855 - http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=170523, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18007764.

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VICTORIAN GOLD RUSH - ‘Marvellous Melbourne’

GOLD transformed Victoria from a struggling new colony which had only just separated from New South Wales in 1851 to the richest colony in the British Empire in a decade.

Several small pieces of gold in quartz were found in March, 1850, by William Campbell on the Clunes, Victoria, station of his brother-in-law, Donald Cameron, but Campbell did not disclose it until January 10, 1851.

James Esmond, a veteran of the California gold rushes living at Buninyong, was told about Campbell’s find by Dr George Bruhn of Clunes, a doctor and geologist, who had seen gold himself at Clunes, and set off for Clunes.

Esmond, exploring with James Pugh, later said he first found gold in Creswick’s Creek at Clunes in 1850, and continued to work the site, but the discovery was not officially announced until July 5, 1851. News of the find broke in the Melbourne and Geelong newspapers in late July.

Esmond produced 14 ounces of gold – the first saleable gold produced in Victoria – which was later sold in Melbourne.

Irish-Australian gold prospector James Esmond. By Alexander Sutherland (book author) - This file is from the Mechanical Curator collection, a set of over 1 million images scanned from out-of-copyright books and released to Flickr Commons by the British Library. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org.

The colony of New South Wales had announced strict mining regulations including licence fees on May 22, 1851, but Victoria was to become a separate colony from July 1, 1851.

It appears Esmond delayed the date he announced the gold find until July 1 so it would come under Victoria and be free from the NSW mining regulations.

Gold was also found at Anderson Creek near Warrandyte in June, 1851, by a party who included Louis John Michel, William Haberlin, James Furnival, James Melville, James Headon and B. Groenig.

Thomas Hiscock also found a gold deposit on his Buninyong property on August 8, 1851, and wrote to the Geelong Advertiser on August 10 to announce his find.

Thomas Peters, a hut-keeper on the Mount Alexander station of William Barker, found specks of gold on July 20, 1851.

The Victorian Gold Discovery Committee offered a reward of 1000 pounds for gold finds within 200 miles (320 kilometres) of Melbourne.

It awarded 1000 pounds to Michel and his party, 1000 pounds to Hiscock, 1000 pounds to Campbell, 1000 pounds to Esmond and 500 pounds to Dr. Bruhn.

More gold was found at Buninyong, Ballarat and Castlemaine in August and later in the year at Bendigo. Within a year, the ‘golden triangle’ of Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine had become the world’s richest gold field. At Castlemaine, the first miners to arrive picked up nuggets lying on the ground.

Victoria’s gold rush boom from 1851 turned the struggling colony into the largest and most prosperous in Australia. Melbourne’s population exploded from 10,000 in 1840 to 123,000, excluding Aboriginals, in 1854 (Sydney had about 54,000 un 1854), while Victoria’s total population of 75,000 in 1851 hit 500,000 by 1861 (NSW had about 360,000 people in 1861).

Gold diggings, Ararat, c.1858, by Edward Roper, oil painting, presented by Sir William Dixson, 1929, State Library of New South Wales DG 15. By Edward Roper - [State Library of New South Wales DG 15], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15100396.

Indigenous Australians had long found gold nuggets in creeks. The first recorded European discovery of gold in Australia was on 15 February, 1823, by assistant surveyor James McBrien, at Fish River between Rydal and Bathurst in NSW.

Being a penal colony, the gold find was not pursued by the colonial authorities, who feared they could lose control of the convicts in the social disruption of a gold rush.

There were other reports of people finding gold in various locations. They included John Lhotsky in the Monaro district on NSW in 1834, shepherd Thomas Chapman in the Pyrenees Ranges of Victoria in 1848, explorer James Walcott in Western Australia in 1848, John Gardener at Beaconsfield in Tasmania in 1847 and Johannes Menge at Castambul, South Australia, in 1846, but nothing came of the finds.

Mining was initially illegal in the penal colony of New South Wales and the gold belonged to the Crown. But numerous discoveries meant the authorities were unable to suppress the news forever, particularly after Victoria became a separate colony and Victorian authorities encouraged prospecting because of the riches it brought the state’s coffers.

After the initial Victorian discoveries, gold was also found at Mount Alexander, Ararat, Stawell, Walhalla and Beechworth. By December, 1851, 20,000 diggers were finding 23,000 ounces of gold a week.

At Bendigo, two adjacent claims at Peg Leg Gully in April, 1852, yielded 324 ounces of gold. Nearby Eagle Hawk Gully attracted 6000 new diggers a week, with the population of Bendigo hitting 40,000 by June.

More finds were made in Victoria at Daylesford, Creswick, Maryborough and Maldon, and then to the west at St. Arnaud, Ararat, Stawell, Dunolly, Rutherglen, Chiltern, Jamieson and Blackwood.

In 1856 alone, 3,053,744 troy ounces (94,982kg) of gold was extracted from the Victorian diggings, over one-third of the total gold production on the planet that year.

Victoria transformed

The gold rush was to cause enormous change in Victoria. In 1854, the Victorian Gold Discovery Committee wrote:

‘The discovery of the Victorian Goldfields has converted a remote dependency into a country of worldwide fame; it has attracted a population, extraordinary in number, with unprecedented rapidity; it has enhanced the value of property to an enormous extent; it has made this the richest country in the world; and in less than three years, it has done for this colony the work of an age, and made its impulses felt in the most distant regions of the earth.’

Britain benefited from the gold rush as the gold exported to Britain in the 1850s paid off Britain’s foreign debts and helped her expand her empire later in the century.

In the 1860s, other finds were made at Russel’s Creek, Gaffney’s Creek, Crooked River, Woods Point, Donnellys Creek, Fulton’s Creek and Stringer Creek at Walhalla.

Prospector's Hut, Upper Dargo, Victoria (Gippsland), 1870. By Thomas J. Washbourne - State Library Victoria (https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE410488), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13723143

Mining was tough work

Mining began as individual hard labour and backbreaking toil, with most miners previously being manual labourers who sought to escape to a better life, moving between diggings to follow rumours of riches.

Mining claims were small at 8 x 8 feet or 12 x 12 feet and diggers often moved between multiple claims, using cheap and portable equipment.

Inexperienced miners watched veterans, particularly from California, to learn panning, ground sluicing, cradling, puddling and digging shafts. These techniques relied on water and hard labour to free gold from clay and soil, since gold particles were heavier.

A diggers toolkit included a wide tin pan, pick axes, shovels, a wheelbarrow, axes, trowels, iron wedges, crowbars, metal buckets and a cradle, usually bought from stores or other miners.

A sketch-map by shepherd William Sandbach, depicting the birth of the Bendigo goldfield, detailing who was there and where their claims and camp sites were. Sandbach believed that fellow worker William Johnson had been the first to find gold at Bendigo in October 1851 - http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/mapping-great-change/13768/william-sandbach-%E2%80%9Cthe-infancy-of-bendigo-golden-square-in-1851%E2%80%9D/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26057678.

Miners often worked in groups of there to six, pooled equipment and profits and shared tasks such as cooking while living in tents pitched on or near their claims, which they guarded.

Problems develop in the mining camps

Crowded settlements of thousands, with tents close together, resulted in disease spreading quickly, as well as fleas, bed bugs, dysentery and some typhoid. Clean drinking water was hard to find.

Most miners were men, but there were some women working claims, either individually or with male partners. Other women worked in stores, hotels or as prostitutes.

Alluvial mining was destructive as it stripped topsoil, left the ground pock-marked with mullock heaps, destroyed river beds and banks and clear-felled timber.

Chinese miners began arriving on the gold fields at Bendigo, Beechworth and Bright from 1854, but the other miners responded with riots, entry taxes, killings and segregation, forming the beginnings of what later became the White Australia Policy.

Mining becomes big business

Over time, mining became more large-scale and underground with more dangerous reef mining introduced at Ballarat, Bendigo, Clunes and Walhalla.

Underground mining at Walhalla, Victoria in 1910. By W Lee - photo from Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6877078

Production increased and, by the 1860s, the state was to produce over 2400 tonnes of gold, a third of the total ever found in Australia. About 11 kilograms of gold has been found for every square kilometre of land in Victoria.

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A record nugget

The largest alluvial gold nugget ever discovered, known as ‘The Welcome Stranger’, weighing 66 kilograms, was found near Moliagul in central Victoria on February 5, 1869, by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates.

While searching under the roots of a tree they discovered the huge nugget three centimetres below the surface, worth at least about $4 million today, depending on the current gold price.

A large gold specimen from the Ballarat mines, weighing over 150 grams, size 7.4×4.4×2.3 cm. By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10170896.

Victorian society changes

The gold rush brought immense change to Victoria. Fortune-seekers flooded in from Britain, Europe, America and China, increasing crime, alcohol abuse and discrimination against Chinese miners.

Positives were the gold generated huge wealth and funded roads, railways, telegraphs and water systems, turning a port city into the boomtown ‘Marvellous Melbourne’.

Politically, some colonial authorities felt challenged by the mining boom and struggled to control it.

The gold rush was to lead to ‘the Eureka Stockade’ rebellion of 1854 (to be examined next week) as miners resisted harsh government attempts to impose expensive mining licences and built a stockade at the Eureka diggings.

The revolt was to result in important political changes, including the secret ballot and expanded voting rights in Victoria. Demands for land reform grew from 1857.

The Victorian Mines Department reported that, from 1851 to 1896, a total of 61,034,682 ounces (1,898,391kg) of gold was mined in Victoria.

A view of the Mount Alexander goldfields in 1852, painted by Samuel Thomas Gill. By ST Gill - http://nla.gov.au/nla. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Gold finds continued. In 1906, the Poseidon Nuggets were found with the largest weighing 27 kilograms. But a falling gold price meant the gold fields later became dormant until the 1980s when higher prices and the introduction of electronic detectors saw prospecting and mining resume at Stawell and Woods Point.

Total annual production topped 1000kg in 1986 and commercial mining expanded in the 1990s, with 17 operating gold mines, including the construction of an ore processing plant at Costerfield near Heathcote.

Mining continues

Even today, the results of the mining boom support tourism at living museums such as Sovereign Hill at Ballarat. The Fosterville Gold Mine began in 2005 and continues to operate.

Underground gold mining and processing restarted at Ballarat in 2011. Stawell gold mine resumed production in 2018. Estimates are about 75 million ounces of gold may still lie undiscovered under ancient volcanic basalt.

Hopeful people are still prospecting for gold. A 10-year mining permit only costs $28.60 and must be carried on the miner at all times.

Recreational prospectors and fossickers seek gems or minerals as a hobby, but can only use hand tools such as picks, shovels, hammers, sieves, shakers and electronic tools.

They are not allowed to use machinery or explosives or enter prohibited areas, such as some rivers, national, state, historic, heritage, Aboriginal, conservation, wilderness and marine parks and Crown land. On private land, permission must be obtained from the owner before prospecting.

Victoria’s gold rush, which changed Australia forever, has never really ended.

Discussion:

Why were colonial authorities nervous about the effects of the discovery of gold?
How did the discovery of gold transform Victoria?
Why did Melbourne become described as ‘marvellous’?
How has the mining boom shaped modern Victoria?

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BRISBANE: 'A PLACE OF EXILE AND PUNISHMENT'

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:57:38 GMT

Brisbane, from Bowen Terrace looking across to Kangaroo Point, in 1851. Photo is of a painting by Thomas Martens. Photo credit: State Library of Queensland.

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"Captain Logan, he had us mangled, on his triangles at Moreton Bay".

THE Moreton Bay Penal Settlement of 1824-1842 (now Brisbane or Meaanjin) was established as a place of exile and punishment for convicts who had committed serious crimes in Australia.

It became such a hell-hole that the convicts celebrated all night when tyrant Commandant Captain Patrick Logan was killed in 1830.

Brisbane has grown into the centre of a region of 4 million people, preparing to host the 2032 Olympics. But it all began rather badly when the first convicts and soldiers couldn’t find clean water and almost starved.

Surveyor John Oxley had recommended Redcliffe, north of present Brisbane, for the settlement, saying it would be "…easy of access, difficult to escape from, and hard to attack; furthermore, it should be near fresh water and contain three hundred acres for cultivation".

However, Oxley’s recommendation didn’t work out well. After less than a year, the poor water supply caused Commandment Captain Henry Miller to relocate to the current site of Brisbane in May, 1825.

Meaanjin and other names

The sea rose about 6000 years ago and inundated the floodplains of the Brisbane River. The name Morton's Bay was applied by Captain James Cook when he sailed past the area on 15 May 1770, honouring Lord Morton, president of the Royal Society. Brisbane is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of NSW from 1821-1825, who ordered the founding of the penal settlement at Moreton Bay.

Indigenous names for the area include Meanjin, Meaanjin, Maganjin or Magandjin, derived from the Turrbal/Yagara word for the land of Brisbane. Moreton Bay and its islands were inhabited by the Quandamooka people. Aboriginal people lived in the region for over 22,000 years and about 4000 lived there when the whites came.

The indigenous economy had productive yields of edible natural resources, particularly massive oyster beds, the annual mullet catch and bunya nut harvesting.

Early settlement

Stephanie Ryan, Research Librarian, Library and Client Services at the State Library of Queensland, described the early settlement:

‘In September 1824 a group of convicts and soldiers led by Captain Henry Miller, the first commandant, established the first European settlement in what later became the colony of Queensland. They settled at what we now call Redcliffe.

The specific area of that settlement was named Humpybong (empty shelters) by the original inhabitants when the strangers decamped to a more suitable place on the north bank of the Brisbane River, now the heart of Brisbane.

The settlement was meant to be a harsh punishment for those who committed another crime, a secondary or colonial offence after having been transported for what was already seen as a serious illegal act. This prison community was intended to be self-supporting.

In 1828-1829 the viability of the Moreton Bay settlement was tested when a multiplicity of factors combined to create what one convict referred to as ‘the horrors of Moreton Bay.’

A drought, poor and inadequate water, an inflated convict population, a diet lacking basic nutrients, and a severe punishment schedule, saw the convicts decimated, i.e., a tenth of them died. The Commandant, Patrick Logan, was killed in 1830. Action was taken to remedy the dire situation of the convicts: a sentence to Moreton Bay was not intended to be a death sentence.’ 1

https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/moreton-bay-convict-settlement-origins-queensland

The new settlement was located near water holes on the north bank of the Brisbane River, now known as North Quay, close to building materials at Kangaroo Point cliffs.

By 1929 the number of prisoners had risen from 200 to 1000, but the food situation was dire and Commandment Logan even considered moving to North Stradbroke Island, but instead established outstations at Eagle Farm, where a women’s prison was later built, and Oxley Creek to grow wheat and corn.

A tyrant takes charge

Captain John Logan. By Unknown author - https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/pirates-moreton-bay, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153587622

Captain Logan (November 15, 1791 – October 17, 1830) was a Scottish army officer and commandant at Morton Bay from 1826 until killed in 1830.

Logan oversaw significant building activity and the farming of maize, explored the region south to the current Gold Coast, naming the Logan River after himself, and west to the upper reaches of the Brisbane River near Ipswich, climbing Mount Barney.

However, Logan was also cruel, forced the convicts to work from sunrise to e sunset and ordered punishments of up to 150 lashes. Records show in the period between February and October 1828 alone over 11,000 lashes were inflicted on 200 convicts, including 128 sentences of 50 or more lashes, while tied to the triangle near the entrance to the prisoner’s barracks. The first public execution was held there in 1830.

michaeljmurphyauthor.com

On October 9, 1830, Logan became separated from a party on the headwaters of the Brisbane River, after threatening to shoot a group of Aborigines. A week later his body was found in a shallow grave near the body of his horse.

An inquest found his wounds suggested he had been killed with native weapons. There were rumours escaped convicts had attacked him, but there is no evidence of that.

The Moreton Bay convicts celebrated Logan’s death all night despite being punished. The ballad ‘Moreton Bay’, by the convict Francis McNamara, presents Logan as a bloody tyrant:

‘One Sunday morning as I went walking, by the Brisbane's waters I chanced to stray,
I heard a convict his fate bewailing, as on the sunny river bank he lay;
I am a native of Erin's island but banished now to the fatal shore,
They tore me from my aged parents and from the maiden I do adore.

I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie, Norfolk Island and Emu Plains,
At Castle Hill and cursed Toongabbie, at all those settlements I've worked in chains;
But of all those places of condemnation, in each penal station of New South Wales,
To Moreton Bay I've found no equal: excessive tyranny there each day prevails.

For three long years I was beastly treated, heavy irons on my legs I wore,
My back from flogging it was lacerated, and often painted with crimson gore,
And many a lad from downright starvation lies mouldering humbly beneath the clay,
Where Captain Logan he had us mangled on his triangles at Moreton Bay.

Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews, we were oppressed under Logan's yoke,
Till a native black who lay in ambush did give our tyrant his mortal stroke.
Fellow prisoners, be exhilarated, that all such monsters such a death may find!
And when from bondage we are liberated, our former sufferings shall fade from mind.’

The lyrics were quoted by Ned Kelly in his 1879 The Jerilderie Letter and used in several movies including The Man From Snowy River and Ned Kelly. The first line was also sung by the father Pat in the ‘Asparagus’ episode of the children’s TV series Bluey.

In the poem ‘A Convict's Tour to Hell’, written in 1839 by McNamara, the convict sees Captain Logan suffering in hell.

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Logan, whose name continues in the City of Logan and the Logan Motorway south of Brisbane, was responsible for the building of Brisbane’s only surviving convict-constructed buildings, the Commissariat Store and the Old Windmill.

Commissariat Store, Queen’s Wharf Road, Brisbane, from 1829. By Chris Olszewski - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27288961

The Old Windmill, Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, built in the 1820s, is the oldest surviving building in Queensland. It had sails and a treadmill for punishing convicts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Windmill,_Brisbane

The settlement expands

The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement consisted of barracks for convicts and troops, officers' quarters, dwellings for the Commandant, chaplain, Commissariat officer, surgeon, Commandant's clerk and engineer, a military and convict hospital, the Commissariat Store and various stores, barns and sheds, a wharf, wells, a flagstaff, gardens and a lumber yard.

A new military barracks housing 100 soldiers was constructed in 1831 on the site of what is now the Treasury Casino.

The wharf on the Brisbane River, initially known as the King's Wharf, was constructed by 1827 with a boat crew's hut and boat builder's shed. A crane on the end of the wharf transferred goods from ships to shore. The wharf was on the bank opposite the Commissariat Store on Queen's Wharf Road on the main route up the steep river bank.

A hospital was completed in 1827 on the block now bounded by North Quay, Adelaide, George and Ann Streets, extending into Adelaide Street. The multi-storey Prisoners' Barracks were constructed between 1827 and 1830 for up to 1000 convicts along Queen Street, were used from 1860 to 1868 as the court house and for Queensland's first parliament until demolished in 1880.

The government gardens, established in 1828 at the present City Botanic Gardens, were managed by the Superintendent of Agriculture and produced cabbage, cauliflower, peas, beans, potatoes and pumpkins, fruit trees and plants such as banana, pineapple, citrus, and apple.

The gardener's house, octagonal in shape and consisting of three rooms surrounded by verandas, was in the gardens.

Convict days of Brisbane: a list of convicts at Moreton Bay 1828 by Bryan Thomas. Credit: State Library of Queensland. Captain Patrick Logan is shown at top left.

The settlement shrinks

Convict numbers fell 75 percent between 1831 and 1838 and the area under cultivation shrank from 200 hectares (490 acres) to only 29 hectares (72 acres). Squatters and settlers had been forbidden from coming within about 50 kilometres of the penal settlement. However, after it was decided to permit free settlement, a new town plan was prepared in 1839 by Robert Dixon.

Transportation ends

Transportation to Moreton Bay officially ceased in 1840 and Governor George Gipps declared the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement closed on February 10, 1842, and the district open for free settlement.

However, squatters still wanted cheap convict labour, but the free settlers who arrived after 1842 saw convicts as a threat to their livelihood.

The British Government responded in 1849-50 by sending ‘exiles’ as convicts given a ticket-of- leave if they agreed to work for the squatters. Most had already served two years in prison in England. They were released to work, but strictly supervised.

The convicts came from overcrowded floating prison hulks in England. They included convict John Martin who was born in Beckington, Somerset, and had been convicted of a few offences and imprisoned in Pentonville, then transferred to the hulk York, before transportation on the Bangalore.

They came on the ships Mt Stuart Elphinstone in 1849 (230 prisoners) and the Bangalore in 1850 (297 prisoners). During 1849 about 130 other exiles came in small groups from other vessels, the Adelaide, Randolph, Havering and Hashemy. The free settlers, including the influential Rev. Dunmore Lang of the Congregational Church in Brisbane, forced a halt to the sending of exiles in 1850.

Brisbane has continued to grow and a major infrastructure upgrade program is underway ahead of the 2032 Olympics. How many of the spectators to the Olympics will pause to consider the dark early days of the Morton Bay Penal Settlement?

Discussion:

Why did indigenous Aboriginals favour the area which is now Brisbane?
Why did the Moreton Bay penal settlement have such a difficult beginning?
Why did the convicts celebrate all night when Captain Patrick Logan was killed?
What landmarks survive from the time of the penal settlement?
Why did squatters want transportation to continue, but the free settlers want it to end?

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MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF LUDWIG LEICHARDT

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 07:18:25 GMT

Portrait of Ludwig Leichardt, from the Sydney Times, October, 1858. Reprinted in the Corkwood Press facsimile edition of Leichardt’s 1847 journal, 1996, introduction.

How did the grim convict penal colony of New South Wales become Australia, one of the world’s best true democracies, based on the ideal of ‘a fair go for all’?

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LUDWIG LEICHARDT

Ludwig Leichardt (October 23, 1813 – 1848?) was a German explorer and naturalist who caused one of the greatest mysteries in Australian exploration by disappearing into the Outback on April 3, 1848, never to be found.

Were Leichardt and his party killed by Aboriginal warriors, did they die of starvation or disease or what? No-one knows, and there are some wild theories out there.

After his disappearance, some critics questioned Leichardt’s competence – was he just a bumbling Prussian? The criticism was often unfair and failed to understand the difficulty of the task he had attempted. Exploring the inland was dangerous, as other explorers discovered, and some also barely survived their ordeals.

Leichardt’s first expedition succeeded in possibly the most difficult journey attempted to that time, and stands among the greatest exploration journeys by anyone.

In this report, I quote extensively from Leichardt’s own journal, to give a first-person impression of his thinking.

Early years

Leichardt was born at Sabrodt near Trebatsch in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, now part of Germany, as the fourth son of Christian Hieronymus Matthias Leichardt, farmer and royal inspector, and Charlotte Sophie.

He studied philosophy, language and natural sciences at the universities of Gottingen and Berlin between 1831 and 1836, but never graduated. He is not known to have ever described himself as Doctor, but allowed others to call him by that title.

Then he moved to England in 1837 and continued studies at the British Museum and in Paris and did field work in France, Italy and Switzerland.

Leichardt was supposed to present himself for compulsory military service, but managed to have it deferred several times. Having eventually run out of options, he decided not to attend his final call-up, meaning if he had returned to Prussia, he would have been arrested.

Instead, Leichardt decided to sail for the new colony of New South Wales, with the trip funded by an English friend named Nicholson, who also gave him 200 pounds to spend.

He arrived in Sydney on February 14, 1842, aiming to explore the inland, hopefully with a government appointment. Initially, Leichardt went to the Hunter River north of Sydney to study the geology, flora and fauna. Then he set off to collect specimens from Newcastle to Morton Bay in Queensland, also visiting Ash Island.

First Expedition (1844-1846)

Leichardt had hoped to join a government-sponsored expedition from Morton Bay to Port Essington, a military outpost 300 kilometres from Darwin, but NSW Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell was jealous of rivals, or maybe sceptical about an inexperienced German in a British colony.

The Legislative Council had allocated 1000 pounds for Mitchell to mount the expedition to Port Essington, but the project was delayed by the need to have the funding approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London, which would have taken many months.

Les Hiddins, best known for his Bush Tucker Man series, said in his preface to the facsimile edition of Leichardt’s journal (Corkwood Press, 1996):

‘I think it is fair to say that at this time Mitchell regarded the exploration of the continent as something that was the sole domain of his department. If Mitchell didn’t do the exploring himself, he very much liked being in charge of appointing and anointing those who did. For example, Edmund Kennedy and Charles Sturt were both favoured by Mitchell. Entering this scene, we have a young German traveller arriving in Sydney with a hankering to explore and examine the nature of this new colony’.

So, rather than wait and hope to be allowed to join Mitchell’s expedition, Leichardt decided to mount the expedition himself, with private sponsors. Leichardt wrote, in the introduction to his journal, that:

“From the experience which I had gained during my two years’ journeyings, both in surmounting the difficulties of travelling through a broken mountainous country, and in enduring privations of every sort, I was inspired with the desire of attempting it, provided I could be assisted in the expense that would necessarily be incurred for the outfit, and could find a few companions who would be contented with animal food, and willing and patiently submit to the privation of flour, tea, and sugar, and resign themselves to my guidance.’

Despite being shunned by Mitchell, Leichardt was to make this the expedition so successful that it transformed his reputation from enthusiastic amateur to experienced and successful explorer.

Leichardt’s diary of the journey, which was published in 1847 as ‘The Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, from Morton Bay to Port Essington, a Distance of Upwards of 3000 miles, During the Years 1844 and 1845’, is extremely detailed. It is available online from the State Library of NSW at the link below, but I will also quote from the Corkwood Press facsimile edition of 1996.

The journal, translated into English, gives a taste of what Leichardt was really like during the expedition. I have retained Leichardt’s spellings, including errors, and language to give a better flavour of his account.

Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, 1847. By Ludwig Leichhardt (1813–1848) - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5005/5005-h/5005-h.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26876423

The expedition was probably the most ambitious yet mounted at that time to explore the inland. It involved traversing almost the entire length of Queensland, crossing the Gulf country and then heading north to the very top of the Northern Territory.

It was all unknown country, but Leichardt had won the confidence of squatters from the Hunter Valley, Moreton Bay and Darling Downs districts, who backed him because they were anxious to discover if the inland contained good grazing land which could support their herds.

Leichardt’s enthusiastic party included the young men John Roper, 20, James Calvert, 19, and John Murphy who was only 15. Also in the party were Charley Fisher (an Aboriginal tracker from Bathurst), Pemberton Hodgson from Brisbane, Harry Brown (an Aboriginal from Newcastle), William Phillips (who Leichardt described as ‘a prisoner of the Crown’), Caleb (who Leichardt described as ‘an American negro’, but omitted his first name) and John Gilbert (an ornithologist who had worked for zoologist John Gould).

Caleb and Hodgson returned to civilisation part-way through the journey. Gilbert was to be speared near the modern Rutland Plains Homestead on June 29, 1845.

Leichardt and six of his party left Sydney in August 1844, for Morton Bay, where four more joined, and they departed on October 1 from Jimbour Homestead (which Leichardt repeatedly mis-spelled as Kimbour) on the Darling Downs.

After 4800 kilometres, and being given up for dead, the party would finally arrive at Port Essington on December 17, 1845, and return to Sydney by ship in March 25, 1845, to a hero’s welcome.

Sketch of Charley (left) and Harry Brown, from Leichardt’s journal, p.15 in the Corkwood Press facsimile edition, 1996.

Leichardt’s journal reveals his keen interest in both the landscape and the lives of the Aboriginals, describing aspects of village life. It also shows Leichardt had a good knowledge of botanical names and of geological terminology. Here is an example from page 40:

I changed my course to the Northward after having found a path through the hills and this course brought me, after having past a small sandy creek, to a fine broad Saltwater River, as broad as any we have seen. – High hills accompanied it at its left bank and the right bank became more broken, the vegetation more powerful as we followed it up about 160oWest. After about 2 miles travelling on a very conspicuous footpath of the natives, we came on their fishing place, where they appear to have a standing camp – huts erected with poles and covered over with grass and leaves of Pandanus, big fire places heaps of stones and abundance of fishbones. Heaps of cockle we had past before all along the footpath. The fishery itself is shallow and forms a good crossing place, but as the tide was high and just running and as freshwater was in the neighbouring creek, we went to that creek into camp and shall cross tomorrow morning. – Along this river the Hibiscus is in full blossom and the bippumate drooping tree and the articulate acacia.

Leichardt revealed a keen eye for observing how the natives collected and prepared food. Unlike some other explorers who relied on the food supplies they carried, Leichardt and his party extended their food supplies by killing and cooking ducks, geese, wallabies and other animals and birds, and tried various plants and cooking methods, as he showed on p. 46:

The blackfellows live probably for several months on the fruit of the Pandanus and of Zarnia; but both fruits require much preparation to take their poisonous qualities out of them; for as that of the Pandanus appears to have a strong opening quality, when eaten raw, the fruit of the Zarnia is a strong [indecipherable], which every one felt, after he who had eaten of it. – I think believe to know the preparation management of these fruits from what I saw in the blackfellows camp, we visited yesterday. We found half a cone of the Pandanus covered up in hot ashes, 2/ we found large Koolimans filled with water, in which roasted seed vessels of the Pandanus were immersed 3/ we found these seed vessels burning openly on the coals and 4/ we found those burnt ones smashed on hard stones and the seeds taken out. This shows that the ripe fruit is first baked in hot ashes and washed then its seed vessels washed out in water and afterwards put on the coals again to render it brittle and broken in order to obtain the seeds. The nuts seeds of the Zarnia are cut in thin slices and spread out on the ground to dry. Same were almost brittle and meaty but still very bitter; others were just put out. Very probably another process is required after their being dry, as Brown told me, that the blackfellows of the coast put the baked seeds for 5 days in the water, before they become eatable

Leichardt’s party had numerous contacts with natives, observing their hunting methods, but with few positives results, as he explains on page 47:

The first the blackfellows have improved into a fishery building a rough stone wall across the River. The 2nd is not even covered by the common tide and would naturally form the head of even boat navigation. The water above is very bitter, though not brine. Here we found the forequarters and the head of an crocodile alligator. The skull of another was found at our camp at Zarnia creek. – Having past the River at the 2nd bar, we went down to the first in order to find some fresh water at the left side, to cross at once with our bullocks. After some roundabouts, we came on a small Melaleuca creek with 2 pools of water, at which natives were encamped. The 2 were only at the camp and very old men. They commenced to call out their incantations or their threats, but as we were too anxious to examine the water and had to approach, they went off to the River, crossed the bar and gave notice to their companions occupied in collecting Pandanus and Zarnia that we had were following them, for after having examined the water and their camp, we had to cross the same bar and returned to the waterholes of the other side to have a pot of tea. – In this camp sliced Zarnia seeds were drying and Pandanus soaking. In the ashes we found the bones of an Emu and Emu feathers and fans of Emu feathers. In a little beaten packet red ocker, to colour their body, an immense Iron Tomihawk and in bigger beaten packets the Zarnia seed rolled up after having been soaked in water in order to undergo fermentation. The fermented seeds tasted exactly like the common german cheese and had very nearly its musty peculiar smell. – In returning we chased and got our Emus. The 19th Septbr. We went to these waterholes with our bullocks. On the way we met blackfellows, who immediately went off with great screamings. If these blakfellows have met the white man or the Malay before, they certainly have never seen horses or bullocks, which are and were the constant cause of great fright, wherever we met blackfellows. I visited their camp again and found that they had been there and had taken their meat, but left their Zarnia seed, Pandanus, Ocker, fans, Tomihawks.

Ludwig Leichhardt (1813–1848), by Friedrich August Schmalfuß, as copied by Elisabeth Wolf. By Friedrich August Schmalfuß (1791–1876), (Leichhardt-Museum, Trebatsch) - http://www.nvn-cottbus.de/themen/t_leichhardt.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1513269

The party’s contacts with the natives were examples of two very different societies and worldviews trying to connect:

When we were passing the stringy bark forest about 4 – 5 miles from the camp of the 20th the calls of blackfellows were heard and I stopped our train to see what they wished. They came running after us, and as they were near enough I rode towards them, dismounted and advanced slowly to have a parley and to see, wether I could gather any intelligence about the water before us. One old man behind whom 3 – 4 young fellows crowded, advanced and as I was holding up presents – bullockrings and buckles, he approached me, taking the some ornaments and putting them into my hands as I gave him the iron rings. – So we exchanged Bommerings and several ornaments, the young men most willingly [indecipherable] their billybeads and holding up their Bommerings to give them to me. They were well made, well looking and one young man all red was tall and handsome though looking cold and frightened. Charley told me afterwards, that at my approach some kept their Bommerings ready to throw – but I do not think that it was more than a simple attitude of defence in case I should prove the offender. – They seemed all circumcised, their gland was very small and entirely bare. – On my question about the water they pointed into my direction and it seemed as if they wished to say it is far but large. Balo Balo! Balo! Umara! they frequently said emphatically. John told me afterwards that another old man had made signs of a big water, but not fit to drink and that he was very anxious we should change our course. The latter Roper said he had understood. But there is generally much understanding, when we know the things. As long as we know nothing about what is before us the blackfellows pantomimes and words allow us very vague and hopeless guesses. They must have met white men or Malays beforehand for they know the use of the knive and one promised Charley a gin for his – a gin to be carried away with us. The firearms appeared equally not entirely unknown to them. This tribe was not that of Zarnia creek or of the Robinson, but entirely new, probably belonging to the Macarthur, which name I shall give to the big Saltwater River at which we are encamped and which has not yet any name, as it probably joins the sea at the coast indistinctly seen between the 18th and 15th of latitude.

One of Leichardt’s party, John Gilbert, ornithologist, was speared by the Aborigines on June 29, 1845. Leichardt described the events, which began while they were resting around a waterhole:

… I stretched myself upon the ground as usual, and fell into a doze, from which I was suddenly roused by a loud noise, and a call for help from Calvert Roper. Natives had suddenly attacked us. They had doubtless watched our movements during the afternoon, and marked the position of the different tents; and, as soon as it was dark, sneaked upon us, and threw a shower of spears at the tents of Calvert, Roper, and Gilbert, and a few at that of Phillips, and also one or two towards the fire. Charley and Brown called for caps, which I hastened to find, and, as soon as they were provided, they discharged their guns into the crowd of the natives, who instantly fled, leaving Roper and Calvert pierced with several spears, and severely beaten by their waddies. Several of these spears were barbed, and could not be extracted without difficulty. I had to force one through the arm of Roper, to break off the barb; and to cut another out of the groin of Mr Calvert. John Murphy had succeeded in getting out of the tent, and concealing himself behind a tree, whence he fired at the natives, and severely wounded one of them, before Brown had discharged his gun. Not seeing Mr Gilbert, I asked for him, when Charley told me that our unfortunate companion was no more! He had come out of the tent with his gun, shot, and powder, and handed them to him, when he instantly dropped down dead. Upon receiving this afflicting intelligence, I hastened to the spot, and found Charley’s account too true. He was lying on the ground at a little distance from our fire, and, upon examining him, I soon found, to my sorrow, that every sign of life had disappeared. The body was, however, still warm, and I opened the veins of both arms, as well as the temporal artery, but in vain; the stream of life had stopped, and he was numbered with the dead. 1

Leichardt’s party passed an anxious night on guard against another attack. Roper had received one spear through his left arm, another into his cheek, two scalp wounds, another wound in his loins and a heavy blow to a shoulder. Calvert had received several blows from a waddy, including one which crushed his nose, a barbed spear had entered his groin and another a knee.

Gilbert died because a spear entered his chest between the clavicle and neck. The party heard wailing from the Aborigines, as if one of their party had died, but they disappeared, leaving bloody tracks. Leichardt buried Gilbert’s body and held a brief funeral service for him. Then they lit a fire over the grave to discourage interference with the body.

Calvert and Roper recovered surprisingly well from their wounds and Leichardt was able to move the party on three days later, seeking safety.

Hiddins explained the effect on Leichardt’s plans of this sudden and deadly attack:

“During this period, events were moving fast. Initially there was an urgency to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the hostile aborigines of the Gulf of Carpentaria. At the time they had some severely wounded men in the group, and the rations were critically low. The expedition was by then long overdue, to the stage that they had been given up for lost by some. This is desperate stuff indeed and they had absolutely no option other than to press on in the hope of reaching their final destination. This they did on 17^th December 1845, after 3000 miles and 14 months of travelling.’ 2

Leichardt’s squatter backers were to be pleased that the expedition, one of the longest ever, revealed much pastoral country.

Second Leichardt Expedition (1846)

With his reputation established by the first expedition, Leichardt gained government support plus private backing for his second expedition in December, 1846, which was intended to go from the Darling Downs to the west coast and the Swan River at Perth.

However, the party was forced to turn back after only covering 800 kilometres because of heavy rain, malarial fever and famine. Some members considered mutinying after learning Leichardt had failed to bring a medical kit. Leichardt, who had malaria, may have suffered a nervous breakdown and Aboriginal guide Harry Brown led the party back to the Darling Downs.

Leichardt blamed the failure on his men’s weakness, but his second-in-charge, John Mann, later published a book refuting Leichardt’s claim.

Leichardt in 1847 explored the Condamine River and other country near the route of Thomas Mitchell in 1846.

Leichardt received awards from the Paris Geographical Society and the Royal Geographical Society in 1847, never actually seeing the medals, but being aware of them. The medal from the Royal Geographical Society was bought by the National Museum of Australia in 2012.

Leichardt disappears

Leichardt again set out for the Swan River in 1848, with four Europeans (Adolph Classen, Arthur Hentig, Donald Stuart and Thomas Hands), two Aboriginal guides (Wommai and Billy Bombat), seven horses, 20 mules and 50 bullocks.

The party was last seen on April 3, 1848, at Allan Macpherson’s Coogan run on Mount Abundance Station west of Roma in Queensland, heading inland.

Leichardt had expected the journey to take two to three years, and when they failed to appear, they were given up for dead. They may have died in the Great Sandy Desert.

The disappearance of Leichardt’s party has caused much speculation and sparked many theories.

Four years later, the Government of NSW sent out a search expedition led by Hovenden Hely, who found a campsite with a tree marked ‘L’ and ‘XVA’, but no other trace. In 1858, Augustus Gregory led another expedition which found a tree near Blackall marked ‘L’.

In 1864, Duncan McIntyre discovered two trees marked ‘L’ on the Flinders River near the Gulf of Carpentaria. McIntyre led another expedition, but found no trace of Leichardt.

In 1869 the Government of Western Australia heard of horses and men being killed by indigenous warriors and sent John Forrest to investigate, but he found nothing. The story may have been about the bones of horses left for dead at Poison Rock during an expedition by Robert Austin in 1854.

In 1896, David Carnegie met some Aborigines in the Gibson and Great Sandy deserts who had an iron tent peg, the lid of a tin matchbox and some ironwork from a saddle. A small brass plate with ‘LUDWIG LEICHARDT 1848’ was found in 1900 near Sturt Creek, between the Tanami and Great Sandy deserts, attached to a partly-burnt shotgun in a boab tree engraved with an ‘L’. It is now in the National Museum of Australia.

The finding of this plate suggests Leichardt’s party had travelled two-thirds of the way across the continent, in an arc from Morton Bay towards the Swan River, following rivers and avoiding the desert.

In 1975, ranger Zac Mathias exhibited photographs in Darwin showing white men with an animal. A Wallumbilla tribal story describes the death of a white man leading a party of mules and bullocks along the Maranoa River, when a party of warriors encircled and murdered everyone. Items from the party were traded over long distances.

After Leichardt’s death, he was criticised, possibly unfairly, which damaged his reputation, but the success of the expedition to Port Essington was a major achievement.

Leichardt’s name appears on a Sydney suburb, a highway and river in Queensland and a federal electoral division, and on some plants. A tree blazed by Leichardt at Taroom has become a monument to him.

Several books have been written about Leichardt, including Patrick White’s 1957 novel Voss. Leichardt’s story remains a fascinating and unsolved mystery in Australian history.

A transcript of Leichardt’s diary is available from the State Library of NSW at:

1. https://archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2017/D28968/c01013.html?_gl=1*1osga49*_ga*MTg5MDI1NTQ1NS4xNzQ4MDczNDg4*_ga_CYHFMM592Q*czE3NjQwNTc2MjUkbzEkZzEkdDE3NjQwNTc2MjgkajU3JGwwJGgxNzg3NjQ3MzQ0

2. Hiddin’s preface to the Corkwood edition of Leichardt’s Journal, 1996, p. iv.

Discussion:

Why was inland exploration dangerous?
Why was Leichardt unable to return to his home country?
What did Leichardt learn about Aboriginal society during his first expedition?
What are the possible causes of Leichardt’s disappearance?

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BURKE, WILLS AND KING - 7 DIE IN DESPERATE FIASCO

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:15:43 GMT

Burke and Wills on the way to Mount Hopeless, watercolour, 1907. By George Washington Lambert - http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Lambert/Detail.cfm?IRN=162223, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14707256

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BURKE, WILLS AND KING

SEVEN died in the disastrous Burke, Wills and King expedition, which has become a classic tragedy of Australian inland exploration.

Robert O’Hara Burke, William John Wills and a party left Melbourne in 1860 aiming to become the first to cross Australia from south to north.

Accompanied by John King and Charles Gray, they achieved that feat, crossing 3250 kilometres to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria in February, 1861.

However, all but King died on the return journey, while four of the support party, were also lost during the expedition.

‘The death of Burke, Wills and Charles Gray during their return led the expedition to be mythologised in Australian culture as a heroic failure. It ultimately prompted the discovery of vast grazing lands, enabling further European settlement of the interior.’ - National Museum of Australia.

Robert O’Hara Burke by William Strutt. By uploaded by Thomasburrows at en.wikipedia - http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an3874535-vTransferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16922822

Burke wrote in his diary shortly before his death at Cooper Creek on June 26, 1881:

‘I hope we shall be done justice by. We fulfilled our task but we were … not followed up as I expected and the Depot party abandoned their post … King has behaved nobly and I hope he will be properly cared for.’

Into the unknown

Most of the Australian continent remained unknown to Europeans in 1860, with some still speculating about a great inland sea. Efforts by Edward Eyre and others to explore north from Adelaide had initially been blocked by a chain of desolate salt lakes, but John McDouall Stuart had discovered productive grazing country from Adelaide to north of Lake Eyre by the late 1850s.

The discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 resulted in a gold rush which caused the population of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ to explode from 29,000 in 1851 to 139,916 in 1861 (Sydney had 93,686), making it the second-largest city in the British Empire.

There was a plan to construct the Australian Overland Telegraph Line to connect Australia to Java, but a route had to be found through the inland to the north. The colonies were competing, with routes considered including from Albany in Western Australia, Adelaide in South Australia and Melbourne in Victoria. The South Australian Government offered a reward of 2000 pounds for a route, while Victoria organised the Burke and Wills expedition.

The Victorian Government and the Royal Society of Victoria, keen to prove Victoria was the leading colony, funded the Victorian Exploring Expedition to an extreme level, providing many supplies, including some that were useless, such as 50 gallons of rum, an oak table with chairs and a Chinese gong.

The exploration committee was composed of leading Melbourne citizens with little overlanding experience and became mired in in-fighting.

That resulted in Robert O’Hara Burke, an Irish police officer with an abrasive personality and no exploration experience or bush skills, inexplicably being chosen to lead the party. The choice was to provide fateful in the deaths of himself and most of his party.

Wills was the surveyor and John King, a British Army veteran, was in charge of camels.

The exploration committee gave Burke written instructions:

‘The object of the Committee in directing you to Cooper’s Creek is that you should explore the country intervening between it and Ludwig Leichardt’s track south of the Gulf of Carpentaria avoiding as far as practicable Sturt’s route on the west and Gregory’s down the Victoria on the east … should you determine the impracticability of this route you are desired to turn westward into the country recently discovered by Stuart and connect his furthest point north with Gregory’s furthest southern exploration in 1856 …’

Map of the Burke and Wills expedition. By Rocketfrog at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Burke, who was having an affair with an actress in Melbourne, delayed the party’s departure. It was not until 4pm on August 20, 1860, that a huge crowd of 15,000 turned out to farewell Burke, Wills and the rest of the expedition, including 19 men (four Indian camel drivers), 27 camels, 23 horses and six supply wagons loaded with 20 tonnes of supplies including dried meat as they departed Royal Park, Melbourne. One of the wagons broke down before it even left the park.

Their overloaded progress was so slow they only reached the edge of Melbourne by dark and they didn’t reach Menindee near Broken Hill until September 23, 1860. It was only 750 kilometres from Melbourne to Menindee and the mail coach routinely did the journey in a week.

By this time Burke had dismissed 13 of the men, two of the officers had resigned and eight new men had been hired. Wills was promoted to second-in-command.

William John Wills. By Thomas Hill originally uploaded by users Diceman, Rocketfrog on en.wikipedia - State Library of New South Wales, MIN 50 (archive), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org.

Burke dumped most of the surplus supplies, including the rum, and on October 19 he led an advance party of the seven fittest (Wills, Brahe, Patton, McDonough, King, Gray and Dost Mahomet) to Cooper Creek in western Queensland to establish a depot.

They were guided by Aboriginal guide Dick Barkinji. The party was to rely on Aboriginal guides, messengers and hospitality to assist them through their tribal country.

The manager of the Kinchega sheep station at Menindee, William Wright, was left in charge of the surplus supplies, with orders to bring them to Cooper Creek ‘soon’, but it was to be three months before Wright left Menindee. Wright and Dick Barkinji had travelled the same route to Cooper Creek three months previously.

Burke’s party went by waterholes at Bilpa, Langawirra, Mutawintiji and Wannaminta to the swamp at Torowotto, where Burke sent Wright, Barkinji and another Aboriginal guide back to Menindee. Aboriginal people at Torowotto warned Burke they would face opposition further north.

Burke’s party, guided by two more Aboriginals, met 120 natives at the Bulloo River, and reached Cooper Creek on November 11, 1860. It was the furthest extent of previous inland expedition. Charles Sturt had been there in 1845 and Augustus Charles Gregory in 1858.

Burke conducted a disastrous reconnaissance to the north, losing three camels and having to walk back to the depot.

Rather than wait out the summer heat of 50 degrees C at Cooper Creek for cooler weather in March, Burke was afraid Stuart would beat him to the Gulf, so on December 16 he divided the party again, setting off with Wills, King and Gray, six camels, one extra horse and enough food for three months for the Gulf of Carpentaria.

William Brahe, William Patton and Thomas McDonald were left with the supplies with orders to wait three months for their return. Burke had under-estimated how long it would take to cross the arid interior to the Gulf and return to Cooper Creek, which was to prove fatal. Wills secretly advised Brahe to wait four months.

Into the centre

The journey north was initially aided by recent rains making water easy to find and the Aboriginal people were surprisingly peaceful. However, it was still not until February 9, more than two months later, that Burke and the others actually reached the Bynoe River, an arm of the Flinders River, near the Gulf.

Edward Jukes Greig, Arrival of Burke & Wills at Flinders River, oil on canvas, 1862, State Library of New South Wales. By Edward Jukes Greig - Arrival of Burke & Wills at Flinders River, 1861 / J. Greig at the State Library of New South Wales, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14723008

Burke and Wills left the camels behind and tried to walk the final leg through boggy, dense mangrove swamps, and a group of Aboriginal men gave them directions, but they failed to reach the ocean.

They had food left for 27 days, but had already travelled 59 days from Cooper Creek, so they were desperately short of supplies for the return journey. They started their return journey to Cooper Creek on February 13, with Burke’s three-month deadline given to Brahe almost expired.

Desperate return

The consequences were tragic. On the return journey the wet season broke and monsoon rains and flooding in the tropics and the dry heat of the desert made the journey treacherous. One camel was abandoned when it could not continue, and three other camels and a horse were shot and eaten, while equipment was abandoned as the number of pack animals reduced. The Burke and Wills Historical Society found the bones of one of the camels in 2005.

Burke’s party ate flowering plants and caught a python to cook. Gray was ill, but Burke thought he was pretending. Gray was caught stealing porridge on March 25 and Burke beat him. By April 8 Gray could not walk and he died on April 17 of dysentery and exhaustion, possibly at Lake Massacre in South Australia. The three weak survivors buried Gray on a rest day and staggered on, reaching Cooper Creek on the evening of April 21, finding it abandoned.

Meanwhile, Wright’s supply party had finally left Menindee for Cooper Creek on January 26, 1861, after being delayed by a lack of pack animals and money, but the journey proved fatal. Extreme summer heat and illness forced them to rest at a lagoon of the Bullo River, where the Aboriginal people tried to attack the camp, with Wright’s group firing at them.

Charles Stone, William Purcell and Dr Ludwig Becker died of malnutrition and dysentery between April 22 and 29. Wright was unable to move because the men were sick.

Crossing the Terrick-Terrick Plains by Ludwig Becker, who died on the journey. By Ludwig Becker - State Library Victoria (Australia) Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Brahe’s party were running out of supplies and suffering from scurvy at Cooper Creek. Patton injured his leg when thrown from a horse, and died on June 5. Brahe, who had already extended their wait to 18 weeks, feared Burke’s party were lost in the desert and decided to return south to Menindee on April 21, 1861.

He buried food and a note at the foot of a coolabah tree, and engraved the initials ‘DIG 3FT NW APR 21 1861’ into the trunk, now known as ‘the Dig Tree’, and the initial ‘B’ over ‘LXV’ (Roman numerals for camp 65) on a second tree. The marks on the second tree have grown over and only the marks on the Dig Tree can be seen.

The Dig Tree on Cooper Creek. By Peter down under - Own work, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Unbelievably, it was only nine hours after Brahe left Cooper Creek when Burke, Wills and King arrived, to find the camp deserted, and dug up the supplies and note.

Choosing disaster

At this point, Burke made another disastrous decision. Burke and Wills discussed following the support party back to Menindee, but felt they were too exhausted and should wait at Cooper Creek. But then Wills and King had a discussion and decided they wanted to follow the support party after all.

Instead, Burke decided on April 22 to head south-west along Cooper Creek to try to reach the cattle station at Mount Hopeless, 240 kilometres away in the Strzelecki Desert, named by Edward Eyre, who believed it was impossible to penetrate inland.

They buried a message of their own under the Dig Tree and carefully left no trace that they had been there, because Burke feared the local tribe would steal their supplies.

When Brahe, who had met Wright’s supply party on April 29, returned with Wright to Cooper Creek on May 8 for a quick check, they saw no sign that Burke’s party had returned and believed the cache of supplies remained undisturbed.

Burke’s party was already 56 kilometres away stumbling towards Mt Hopeless. Brahe also left no sign of his visit, so when Wills came back for a check on May 27, he also saw no sign anyone else had been there.

After leaving the Dig Tree, Burke’s party was unable to travel more than about eight kilometres a day, following Aboriginal paths along the creek. The Yandruwandha people gave them fish, beans, native rats and a damper made from the nardoo plant. A camel was shot after becoming bogged in a waterhole and the other died on May 7. Without pack animals, Burke, Wills and King could not leave Cooper Creek.

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The end was near.

At the end of May, Burke ordered Wills to return to the Dig Tree to deposit some items, and Wills lived with the Aboriginal people for a week, sharing a gunya with a man named Poko Tinnamira and learning some language. They fed him until he left on June 5 to reunite with Burke and King.

Burke had been cared for by another Aboriginal group, but Burke thought he was being robbed and fired a revolver over a man’s head, ordered King to fire at a group with nets and stole their fish. They ran away and Burke, while cooking the fish, set fire to the gunya and destroyed most of their remaining belongings except for Burke’s pistol and another gun.

Wills re-joined Burke on June 6 and they tried to find another Aboriginal camp, but the people had left the area after the incident with Burke.

Over the next three weeks the men survived on leftover camel meat and nardoo. The weather became rainy and cold. Wills recorded that King could eat the nardoo, but Burke and he were cold and hungry.

Artur Loureiro, Death of Burke, oil on canvas, 1892. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=658572

Burke and Wills die

Burke and Wills died within days of each other at the end of June, 1861. Wills died alone at Breerily waterhole, now a memorial site, after urging Burke and King to leave him and search for the Yandruwandha people.

Wills wrote in his journal: ‘My pulse is 48 and very weak and my legs and arms are nearly skin and bone. I can only look out like Mr Micawber for something to turn up, but starvation on nardoo is by no means unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move oneself, for as the appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction.’

Wills made his last journal entry on June 29, after Burke and King had left him for the last time, and probably died within a day. Burke and King went upstream for two days until Burke became too weak to continue and died the following morning at Yaenimemgi, his pistol in his hand. King stayed with Burke’s body for two days and then returned to Breerily waterhole to find Wills also dead.

The exact dates of their deaths are disputed, and various dates appear on memorials. The exploration committee fixed on June 28, 1851, as the day both men died, but they probably actually died between June 29 and July 1.

After Burke died, King was accepted by the local indigenous people who saved his life. At a later inquiry into the tragedy, King said: ‘They appeared to feel great compassion for me when they understood that I was alone on the creek and gave me plenty to eat.’

Ironically, as Burke and Wills died of malnutrition, it was a bumper food crop season for the Yandruwandha, with plentiful fish in the river and traditional foods nearby. Investigations found Burke and Wills died of malnutrition, accelerated by beri-beri, a deficiency of thiamine, vitamin B1.

The explorers had seen the Aboriginals eating nardoo, a clover-like plant which contains the enzyme thiaminase that breaks down thiamine, but first they carefully prepared it by cooking and soaking it to eliminate the enzyme and make it into a paste. However, Burke and Wills ate it raw.

King survives

A relief party led by Alfred Howitt and Edwin Welch found King living with the Yandruwandha on September 15, rewarded the tribe for caring for King, and returned him to a heroes welcome in Melbourne. King lived for 11 years until he died aged 33, never having fully recovered his health.

The bodies of Burke and Wills were found and buried, but were reburied in Melbourne during Victoria’s first state funeral on January 21, 1863, attended by about 80% of Melbourne’s population.

The expedition did result in large areas of grazing land being discovered, so it was successful in that way. But it was Stuart who was to find an all-weather route from Adelaide to the Arafura Sea in 1861.

Five sites make up the National Heritage place along the Cooper Creek from Queensland to South Australia: The Dig Tree-Fort Wills Site; Burke’s Tree and Will’s Site where they died; King’s Site marked by a tree trunk with the inscription ‘King’; Howitt’s Site where the relief party found King.

The sites mark the story of Australia’s most tragic exploration expedition.

Discussion:

Why was Robert Burke a questionable choice to lead the expedition?
What mistakes did Burke make?
Given that Burke did succeed in reaching close to the Gulf, has his leadership been unfairly criticised?
Why did the expedition party starve at Cooper Creek while the indigenous residents were having a bumper season?
What were the problems in the relationship between the expedition party and the indigenous residents?

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'AUSTRALIA'S GREATEST EXPLORER' - JOHN MCDOUALL STUART

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:30:48 GMT

By Unknown author - http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org

How did the convict penal colony of Australia become one of the world’s best true democracies, based on the idea of a ‘fair go for all’?

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JOHN McDOUALL STUART

John Stuart (September 7, 1815 – June 5, 1866) is widely regarded as Australia’s greatest explorer, but also as a flawed man whose reputation was tarnished by a serious alcohol problem.

Stuart led the first expedition to successfully cross the continent from south to north, and did it without losing a single man in his party, although Stuart himself became very ill from scurvy.

While previous explorers had mounted ponderous expedition driving herds of cattle or sheep and bullocks dragging heavy wagons loaded with supplies, Stuart took the opposite approach and travelled light, with riders leading packhorses.

Stuart had been second in command of Charles Sturt’s 1845 expedition, which became trapped at a permanent waterhole, unable to move forwards because there was no water for the many animals and men.

Sturt, being a military man, had drawn a line on a map to a desired destination and then set off determined to overcome all obstacles to reach his desired destination.

Stuart rejected that approach and instead concentrated on following waterholes and seeing where the water led him, frequently changing direction. Stuart also insisted his men treat the Aboriginals well, which resulted in them giving him valuable information about where to find water.

Hard times in Scotland

Stuart’s childhood home in Dysart, Scotland.

It all began for John Stuart in Dysart, Fife, in Scotland, where he was the youngest of nine children (three died) to retired Army officer William Stuart and his wife Mary, who both died when John was a teenager.

John was placed in the care of a former family servant and it was an unhappy time. After leaving, he never returned to Dysart.

Small and shy, John enrolled in the Scottish Naval and Military Academy in Edinburgh and qualified as a surveyor. Rather than go to India as expected, he instead sailed for Adelaide in September 1838 on the Indus, one of 34 ships to go there in that year, carrying hopeful settlers.

Stuart was suffering stomach ulcers, which were to cause him many problems during his exploring years.

A middle-class utopia

Adelaide was founded in 1836 on the plans of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to create a middle-class Utopia without any convicts in virgin lands far from Britain’s social classes.

Wakefield’s plan was to sell land at a sufficient price (one pound an acre, later halved) so only well-heeled immigrants could afford to buy land, meaning there would be plenty of poorer labourers to work the land for them.

The funds from land sales were to be used to import the working younger poor. Only the hardest-workers would be able to earn enough money to buy land of their own. The scheme became very popular with many hopefuls signing up to emigrate seeking a better life.

Ironically, although Stuart became Australia’s greatest explorer, he never accumulated enough money to buy his own land.

When Stuart arrived in 1839 aged 23, the colony of Adelaide on the Murray River mouth was just two years old and was a canvas town impatiently waiting to grow.

The main obstacle to growth was that land had to be surveyed before it could be sold, and the surveying was way behind the demand, so Stuart was employed immediately in the government’s survey department and sent to a camp 40 kilometres from Adelaide, where he earned two shillings and two pence a day standing in kangaroo grass peering at a theodolite.

John Stuart. Cropped from http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+3724., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92400619

At home in the bush

He worked for the survey department for the next three years, travelling with several companions, leading packhorses loaded with provisions for weeks at a time.

Stuart loved the lifestyle, so different to Scotland. He thrived, rapidly becoming an expert bushman, at peace in the bush, riding across the plains, steering a course by mentally noting the distance travelled on a compass bearing and the direction of the sun, observing the changing landscape, finding water to camp near, sitting around the campfire at night with his companions, drinking rum under the stars.

Although he was small, Stuart found he could outlast larger men on a ride. He was awkward in large gatherings, but careful with his words in the bush, where he learnt the value of mateship.

Unfortunately, he also learned to love the rum too much. In time it would be said that Stuart was at home in the bush, but became a chronic alcoholic as soon as he returned to the settled areas, drinking his money away anywhere which served alcohol. To see the best of Stuart, he had first to be gotten out of town into the bush, where he could become sober.

Stuart could have gone on with this lifestyle, but an economic recession undermined the government’s finances and he and others were dismissed in 1841. Now he was in a precarious position. For several years, he took whatever work he could get, including labouring and hut-keeping, drinking away his wages.

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Stuart joins Sturt’s expedition

Then he got a lucky break in 1844 by being accepted to join Captain Charles Sturt’s expedition from Adelaide to seek the fabled inland sea which so many speculated lay somewhere out there in the Outback. Although Stuart was not Sturt’s first choice, he was eventually accepted for the expedition.

Sturt had proven between 1827 and 1830 that the rivers all drained towards the inland, but where did they go – did they form a great inland sea?

The story of Sturt’s expedition, which left Adelaide on August 15, 1844, but failed to penetrate the inland and find the elusive inland sea, is told in the previous post in this series.

Suffice to say that John Stuart proved himself as a bushman on this expedition and Sturt promoted him to second in command after the death of James Poole. The expedition almost ended in disaster, Sturt’s health never recovered from scurvy and he lost most of his eyesight, while Stuart was also ill from scurvy for a year afterwards.

Stuart later moved to Port Lincoln, worked as a surveyor and became acquainted with three men who were to finance his six future expeditions, William Finke, James Chambers and John Chambers.

First expedition

On May 14, 1858, Stuart began his first expedition, which was financed by William Finke, after whom the Finke River is named.

His aims were to find minerals and to search for a fabled land of plenty which Aboriginal people called Wingillpinin, hopefully good grazing land in the north-west of South Australia. The colony was bursting to expand, but was blocked by the salt lakes which had so frustrated Edmund Eyre (see previous story).

Stuart travelled light from the station of John Chambers at Oratunga, with a white man named Forster and an unnamed Aboriginal guide, six horses and rations for six weeks, a pocket compass and a watch.

They went west from the Flinders Ranges, south of Lake Torrens and then turned north, where they found a chain of semi-permanent water holes he named Chambers Creek (now called Stuart Creek), which was to become an important staging point for future expeditions in the dry centre.

They reached what is now Coober Pedy (not realising it was rich in opals) before a lack of food and feed for the horses forced them to turn south for the sea 500 kilometres away. The journey was difficult along the edge of the Great Victoria Desert to Miller’s Water (near present Ceduna) and back to civilisation after four months and 2400 kilometres.

Second expedition

Stuart, assisted by John Chambers, applied for a pastoral lease over the Chambers Creek area and set off to survey it himself in April, 1859, with three men and 15 horses.

After completing the survey, Stuart’s party turned north again, aiming for the border between South Australia and what is now the Northern Territory, but was then still part of New South Wales, but had to turn back when still 100 kilometres short of the target because they had run out of horse shoes, essential on the stony ground.

But Stuart had found another reliable water supply, a spring fed by the Great Artesian Basin, which he named ‘The Spring of Hope’.

“To me it is of the utmost importance and keeps my retreat open. I can go from here to Adelaide any time of the year and in any sort of season,’ Stuart wrote. On his return, Stuart talked of ‘wonderful country’, which was an exaggeration for country which could barely support some cattle.

South Australia wanted to connect a telegraph line from Adelaide to the north and meet a proposed cable from Java, but the centre of the map was an embarrassing blank on the map.

Victoria was preparing to send out the hugely expensive Burke and Wills expedition, so South Australia offered a reward of 2000 pounds to anyone able to cross the continent through the centre and find a route for the telegraph.

Stuart’s sponsors James and John Chambers and William Finke asked the South Australian Government to put up 1000 pounds to equip an expedition for Stuart. However, the government supported another expedition by Alexander Tolmer, which failed miserably.

John Stuart. Item is held by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12344898

Third expedition

Other people had claimed the Chambers Creek land sought by Stuart, and he was asked to re-survey his claim, so he left Adelaide with a party in August, 1859. After surveying the area again, Stuart explored area west of Lake Eyre, finding more artesian springs.

But the summer glare caused Stuart eye trouble and rations were short. When some of the men refused to go further, Stuart sent them home, keeping William Kekwick, a reliable man who was to remain with Stuart on future expeditions. Kekwick went south for provisions and returned with 13 horses and a young man, Benjamin Head.

Fourth expedition

The three men left Chambers Creek on March 2, 1860, travelling light with pack horses and aiming to travel fast for the centre, but rain near present Oodnadatta ruined many of their stores and they went on half rations, which was a problem for the large Head, who weighed twice as much as Stuart. Water was scarce and they began to experience scurvy. Stuart’s right eye was failing.

But they found a major watercourse in April, which Stuart named the Finke River and followed it over the MacDonnell Ranges, named after Governor of South Australia Sir Richard MacDonnell.

Stuart calculated they reached the centre of the continent on April 22, 1860, and he named Mount Sturt after his mentor, Captain Charles Sturt. It was later renamed Central Mount Stuart, and later found not to be the actual centre of Australia.

Lack of water stalled them and Stuart’s scurvy worsened, while Head was half his original weight, but rain on May 22 helped their progress and by mid-June they reached the present Tennant Creek, only 800 kilometres from the northern coast.

But water was scarce to the north and the Warramunga Aboriginal people defended their land, raiding the explorers camp, threw boomerangs at the horses and set fire to the grass.

Stuart mostly got on well with Aboriginals, but was unable to negotiate in this case and feared continuing north, so they reluctantly turned south, with 2400 kilometres to go to Adelaide and all three men sick with scurvy. They reached Chambers Creek in August and Adelaide in October.

By reaching the centre, Stuart had solved the mystery of the blank map which had defeated Sturt 15 years earlier and received several honours.

John Stuart. https://www.friendsofmoundsprings.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/John-McDouall-Stuart-B11201-sq.jpg

Fifth expedition

James Chambers wanted Stuart and Kekwick to go north again with a government armed guard to get past the opposition at Attack Creek and the South Australian government eventually agreed to provide 10 men and 2500 pounds, with Stuart in charge.

They left on January 1, 1861, with 12 men, 49 horses and rations for 30 weeks, but it was high summer and the worst possible time fir travelling in the arid regions. Stuart had to send two men and the five weakest horses back.

Fodder and water was hard to find until they reached the MacDonnell Ranges and rain came, so they pressed on to Attack Creek by April 24, without being opposed. They did not know that the Burke and Wills expedition had ended in death at Cooper Creek.

Stuart continued on into the Victoria River area, mapped by Augustus Charles Gregory in 1858, where he left the main party to rest, found water 80 kilometres north, and moved the main party up. Several more attempts to find a route further north failed until they went due north and found ‘splendid’ water 150 metres wide and seven kilometres long, which he named Newcastle Waters.

They were stuck there for five weeks while Stuart tried to find a route to Victoria River. The local Aboriginals lit fires around the camp and spooked the horses, so Kekwick had to post guards. Provisions were running short and men and horses were in poor condition.

Finally, on July 1, 1861, Stuart gave up and ordered a return, six months after setting out, which was aided by the cooler southern winter.

Sixth expedition

Stuart had led five expeditions into the arid centre without losing a man, and the South Australian government reluctantly agreed to back a further expedition with 2000 pounds, if Stuart took a scientist with him. James and John Chambers and William Finke remained the main backers of this expedition.

This sixth expedition began on October 23, 1861, with a mishap as Stuart was struck on the temple by a horses’ hoof, making him unconscious and trampling his right hand. Stuart dismissed one expedition member for insubordination, and continued on with 10 men and 71 horses,

They reached Newcastle Waters in good time on April 5, despite some indigenous opposition, and rested for a week before Stuart led a scouting party north, initially finding more good water before having to follow small waterholes 150 kilometres north at Daly Waters.

Stuart continued on to the Mary River, assuming it was the Adelaide River, and on July 24, 1862, they reached a muddy beach 100 kilometres east of today’s Darwin, marked a tree ‘JMDS’ and named it Thring Creek.

Marked tree. By State Government Photographer - The History Trust of South Australian, South Australian Government Photo [1]Object record [2], CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86985427

Stuart and his companions had finally crossed the continent from south to north. He marked another tree with a ‘S’, raised the Union Jack presented to him by Elizabeth Chambers and named the beach Chambers Bay in her honour.

The other members of Stuart’s party were: John William Billiatt, Stephen King, James Frew, William Patrick Auld, John McGorrery, Heath Nash, Francis William Thring, William Darton Kekwick and Frederick George Waterhouse, the naturalist.

A sad anti-climax

Having achieved his great goal of crossing the continent, Stuart appeared to then lose some motivation. During the return journey he spent about 900 kilometres being carried on a litter between horses and never fully recovered his health.

The remainder of his life became a sad anti-climax. He was not naturally gregarious, became increasingly reclusive and did not have much continuing contact with his expedition companions. The effects of hard conditions, malnutrition, scurvy, trachoma and other illnesses had left him almost blind and in pain.

He prepared his diaries for publication, never married or is known to have had a romantic relationship, never owned a house and had a series of short periods of work as a surveyor or stockman.

Although Stuart’s achievements led to him being called ‘Australia’s greatest explorer”, his heavy drinking tarnished his public reputation and his shyness before crowds meant he was never able to arouse much public enthusiasm.

He sailed to England on the Indus on April 23, 1864 and initially lived with his sister in obscurity until dying two years later. After a small funeral service he was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Stuart has been recognised in a number of ways. Central Mount Stuart was believed to mark the centre of Australia. The Stuart Highway runs up the centre linking Adelaide and Darwin. There are also various Stuart streets, parks, monuments and other locations and even a lizard named after Stuart. The name of the town of Stuart was changed to Alice Springs in 1933. His grave in London was refurbished in 2011.

It could be said Stuart has been celebrated more after his death than during his life, which is rather sad, considering his remarkable achievements.

Discussion:

How did John Stuart’s approach to planning his expeditions differ from that of his mentor, Charles Sturt?
Why is Stuart widely regarded as Australia’s greatest explorer?
Why was Stuart more at home in the bush than in town?
Why was inland exploration dangerous?
How successful was Stuart at relating to Aboriginal inhabitants?

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CHARLES STURT - THE DESPERATE SEARCH FOR THE GREAT INLAND SEA

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 04:37:49 GMT

Charles Sturt, by John Michael Crossland (died 1858), given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1946. See source website for additional information.

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CHARLES NAPIER STURT (April 23, 1795- June 1, 1869)

‘I had done all that man could have done to break through this terrible desert.’ Charles Sturt. 1

CHARLES Sturt was in a desperate situation in late 1845, his starving party trapped at the one reliable waterhole they could find near Milparinka, surrounded by dry creeks, stony desert and undrinkable salt lakes.

Sturt had led five sorties to the north trying to find enough water so the thirsty party of 15 men, horses, bullocks dragging drays and a flock of sheep could move on, but the little muddy slush they could find was so salty it was undrinkable.

What’s more, they couldn’t retreat either as the waterholes which had sustained their progress had dried up, cutting off their retreat to the Darling River, the last reliable water source.

No rain had fallen and every day they scanned the skies desperately hoping for clouds to appear, but none did. Meanwhile, the water levels in the waterholes which were life or death to them were steadily falling, day by day. It was a race against time. Would the waters last until the rains finally came?

Trapped in the desert

They were trapped indefinitely, increasingly becoming sick with scurvy caused by a lack of fresh vegetables.

Sturt, a religious man, feared he was being punished by God for his sins by being abandoned to die in the desert, and fought to reconcile his faith in God with his apparently hopeless situation.

Finally forced to admit defeat and turn back in 1844 Sturt, thinking his expedition a failure, wrote:

‘I had done all that man could have done to break through this terrible desert. I had now been exposed for 12 weeks to every change of temperature I had been subsisting on 5 pounds (2kg) of flour a week if I excerpt a few birds as we occasionally shot. I had ridden more 1600 miles and worn out all the men who formerly attended me and had been obliged to take others in their place. I could do no more, yet I turned from that dreary region with regret. My strength and my sight I felt were fast going. Under such circumstances, I determined on returning to the Depot, satisfied that no exertion of mine would enable me to cross the heartless desert in which I was.’ 1

How did this situation come to be?

Charles Sturt led three important expeditions into central Australia, proved the eastern rivers flowed into the Murray, brought cattle from Sydney to Adelaide and served as an Army Captain and colonial official.

His biggest disappointment was that his final expedition was unable to reach the centre of the continent, but he did demonstrate that Cooper Creek provided enough waterholes even in droughts to allow graziers to move their herds into the inland.

Stuart was unable to find the elusive ‘great inland sea’ which he and others believed must be fed by rivers flowing westwards from the coastal ranges. He watched the birds flying north and speculated they must be flying to water and food, but where was it?

Actually, there had once been the Eromanga Sea covering much of Central Australia, which had dried up by about 50 million years before. The water was still there under Stuart’s feet as the enormous Great Artesian Basin under central Australia, but Sturt couldn’t have known that.

Sturt was regarded with great affection and loyalty by his men, who followed him almost to their deaths. He unfailingly treated the Aborigines well, following the example of explorer and protector Edward Eyre, and had friendly relations with the tribes, unlike some others, including Sir Thomas Mitchell.

Sturt repeatedly suffered severe scurvy from a lack of vegetables containing Vitamin C during his expeditions, which ruined his eyesight and almost killed him.

Not being from a wealthy family, Sturt was disadvantaged in political affairs and should have received greater credit for his achievements from the authorities in London.

Sturt left a rich legacy of journals of his expeditions and letters to his wife Charlotte and there are also other accounts by members of his exploring parties.

Several books have been written about him. I particularly recommend: Ivan Rudolph, ‘Sturt’s Desert Drama’, 2013, Boolarong Press, Salisbury, Brisbane, Australia, for its intricately-detailed drawing upon the original sources to bring to life the reality of the desperate struggle for survival in the harsh desert during Sturt’s final expedition. It is a gripping story.

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Sturt’s life journey began in Bengal, India, where his father was a judge. He was educated in England, but his father could not afford to send him to Cambridge University, so he was placed in the Army, the 39^th Dorsetshire Regiment. He saw action with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and against the Americans in Canada, returned to Europe and was gazetted lieutenant in 1823 and captain in 1825.

With a detachment from his regiment, Sturt escorted convicts aboard the Mariner, arriving in Sydney on May 23, 1827. Sturt liked life in the colony and the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Ralph Darling, promoted him. He became friendly with explorers including John Oxley, Alan Cunningham and Hamilton Hume.

Governor Darling approved Sturt’s plan to explore the Macquarie River in western New South Wales and he left on November 10, 1828, with his servant Joseph Harris, three soldiers and eight convicts, later joined by the experienced Hamilton Hume as first assistant.

There was a severe drought in 1828-29 which made it difficult to find sufficient water, particularly for the horses and animals pulling drays loaded with supplies. They followed the Macquarie, Bogan and Castlereagh rivers, and visited the Darling River, which was to become very important later, before returning to the Wellington Valley on April 21, 1829. The mystery of the ‘great inland sea’ remained unsolved.

By Public domain map from Project Gutenberg Australia, [1] - follow the 'map' link for the explorer., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2118313

Governor Darling approved another expedition in 1829 to try to solve this mystery by travelling down the Murrumbidgee River, sighted by the previous Hume and Hovell expedition. A whaleboat was built in sections, carried to the river and assembled, and they began their voyage down the Murrumbidgee on January 7, 1830.

Later that month they reached the meeting of the Murrumbidgee and a larger river, which Sturt named the Murray, not realising it was the same river Hume and Hovell had named the Hume.

Aboriginals were hostile, but Sturt was able to make peace with them.

They continued down the Murray, reaching its meeting with the Darling. Sturt had proved all the western-flowing rivers flowed into the Murray. In February, they reached the large Lake Alexandrina, and then the sea, finding the mouth of the Murray was a maze of lagoons and sandbars and impassible to shipping.

Then they had to row all the way back up the Murray and Murrumbidgee, against the summer heat, reaching modern Narrandera in April, where their supplied ran out and they had to halt, sending two men overland for help, which only just arrived in time to save them from starvation. Sturt went blind for several months and never fully recovered.

They had travelled nearly 2900 kilometres of the river system when they finally returned to Sydney.

Sturt had a break from exploring, briefly served as Commander on Norfolk Island, preventing a convict mutiny, went to England in 1832 on sick leave and published ‘Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831.’

This book established his public reputation in England, but the government was slow to promote him. The book did interest Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who was to choose South Australia for a new settlement of free colonials, without any convicts.

Sturt eventually received a land grant of 2000 hectares, in exchange for giving up his pension rights, married Charlotte Christiana Greene, and returned to Australia to farm the property, which he named ‘Belconnen’, now a suburb of Canberra.

Droving cattle to South Australia

In 1838, Sturt led a team who herded cattle overland from Sydney to Adelaide, proving the Hume and Murray were the same river. Then he led an expedition to the mouth of Murray, settling the argument about where to found Adelaide.

Sturt returned to NSW to organise his affairs and then returned to settle at what is now Grange in South Australia in early 1839 where he was briefly Surveyor-General of South Australia and a member of the South Australian Legislative Council.

In September, 1839, Sturt and Charlotte accompanied the Governor of South Australia George Gawler, his daughter Julia, Henry Bryan and Henry Inman on a Murray River expedition, but Bryan became lost in a dust storm and his body was never recovered, although his horse did eventually return alone to Adelaide.

Sturt sets off. Drawing by S.T. Gill (died 1880 - so public domain) - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=392169

Where is the sea?

Sturt’s third and final expedition in search on the ‘great inland sea’ began in August 1844 with a party of 15 men, 200 sheep, six drays loaded with supplies and a boat.

They left Adelaide amid great hopes they would find great inland pastures for the colony to expand into, rather than being blocked by the expanse of salt lakes previously found by Edward Eyre.

One of his party was John McDouall Stuart, who was in time to go much further than Sturt, all the way to the top of Australia, but that’s another story.

They moved slowly along the Murray and Darling Rivers, were guided past the current Broken Hill by Aboriginal guide Topar, and were stranded by lack of water in extreme summer heat at Depot Glen near Milparinka, before the rain came and they could move to a site Sturt named ‘Fort Grey’, which is now in the Sturt National Park.

Sturt, Stuart and a small group kept going through what is now called ‘Sturt’s Stony Desert’ into the Simpson Desert, but were forced to turn back to the depot. The ordeal is described in gripping detail in Rudolph’s “Sturt’s Desert Drama’.

Trapped for six months

During the six months they were trapped Sturt had an underground room dug in which they placed the ailing James Poole, whose legs had turned black from scurvy, leaving him unable to walk, and stored provisions in the coolness.

Sturt repeatedly scouted seeking waterholes, but found none.

“Nothing can exceed the dreadful nature of the country we traversed today, worse in truth than any we have entered,’ Sturt wrote in his journal.

Despair on a sandhill

Eventually, Sturt sat on a sandhill with a bleak view and admitted defeat.

‘After this, I believe I sat on the hill for more than half an hour with my telescope in my hand, but found nothing to encourage me onwards. I would willingly have laid my head on the desert, never to raise it again,’ Sturt wrote. 2

Sturt and doctor John Browne decided Poole would die unless he got better food, but they also feared he was so sick he could die if he was moved without adequate food and water. Either choice was likely to end in death.

A desperate retreat

Eventually rain did fall after six months and Sturt moved immediately to send Poole south on a dray, but he died anyway within a day, after the scurvy had caused him to lapse into deep depression and then a violent tirade against everyone around him. They returned his body to the depot for burial.

Sturt himself had his legs turn black and was unable to walk. Some waterholes held so little water the animals drank them dry overnight, forcing the party to keep moving despite their exhaustion.

Some of the horses died. The men killed a bullock, turned it inside out, discarding the entrails, sewed up the tail and filled the carcass with water, sewing the neck shut to make a giant water container carried on a dray.

Stuart and Browne took over leadership for a time from Sturt, who was so ill from scurvy that he could not walk and had to be carried on a wagon.

Stopping frequently to rest, they reached the reliable waters of the Darling River and finally straggled back into the settled areas in mid-January, 1846, after 17 months away, having travelled 4800 kilometres of the most arduous journey imaginable.

Sturt was taken home in a carriage by friends, arriving at midnight to open the door, supported by two others, to have his wife Charlotte faint from shock at his gaunt appearance,

The other haggard men staggered slowly back into Adelaide on January 28, 1846, with spectators starting to cheer, but then falling into shocked silence as they saw how emaciated were the survivors.

Sturt never fully recovered his eyesight

He went to England in 1847, receiving several honours, and prepared his ‘Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia’, published in 1849.

He returned to Adelaide and was appointed Colonial Secretary, overseeing major work as the colony grew, but his poor eyesight resulted in him resigning in 1851, receiving a pension of 600 pounds a year, and he settled on 200 hectares at The Grange near Adelaide.

By JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD - Own work, , https://commons.wikimedia.org

In 1853 the family sailed for England and lived at Cheltenham. Sturt applied unsuccessfully for the positions of Governor of Victoria and Governor of Queensland. His three sons all served in the military.

He was recommended for a knighthood, but died before it could be approved, on June 16, 1869. Charlotte was granted a pension of 80 pounds a year and the title Lady Sturt.

Sturt’s legacy

Sturt was brave, careful, kind, treated the Aborigines well, had a genuine religious faith and was liked and respected by his men. He was probably not ruthless enough to be a great success in politics, but his other achievements were significant.

His legacy includes Sturt National Park, the City of Charles Sturt in Adelaide’s suburbs, Charles Sturt University, the Sturt River and the Sturt Highway from Wagga Wagga to Adelaide.

After reflection Sturt, a modest man, concluded that God, far from abandoning him to die in the desert, had actually intervened at key moments to save him and his party from certain disaster. He wrote:

‘It is to Providence, rather than my prudence, that we owe our final safety.’ 3

More information:

Sturt’s journal, quoted in Ivan Rudolph, ‘Sturt’s Desert Drama’, 2013, Boolarong Press, Salisbury, Brisbane, Australia, p. 266.
John Bailey, Mr Stuart’s Track, 2007, Pan Macmillan Australia, p. 31.
Rudolph, op. cit., p. 306.

Discussion:

How did Charles Sturts’ military background affect the way he planned his expeditions?
Why did Sturt’s expedition become trapped in the desert?
What were Sturt’s main achievements?
Why was the search for the ‘Great Inland Sea’ a failure?
What was Sturt’s legacy?

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THOMAS MITCHELL HUNTED ACROSS THE PLAINS

MICHAEL'S CURIOUS WORLD — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 22:43:34 GMT

Portrait of Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, c.1835. By unsigned - State Library of New South Wales, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org

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THOMAS LIVINGSTONE MITCHELL (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855)

THOMAS Mitchell was a worried man, maybe even frightened, although his pugnacious nature wouldn’t have let him admit fear to his companions.

Mitchell and his exploration party were being hunted across the endless plains of Western New South Wales.

Bands of tall, powerfully-built Aborigines armed with deadly spears and clubs were tracking them, only appearing occasionally in the distance, but there all the time, in unknown numbers, but certainly far outnumbering Mitchell’s party.

Although the British had superior weapons in their rifles and pistols, the natives had the advantages of numbers and intimate knowledge of the terrain, whereas Mitchell’s party had never been there before.

Silent danger stalks the invaders

The natives were following the standard pattern of resistance to the invaders – hit and run tactics – which were to prolong the Frontier wars for more than 150 years across the continent.

Mitchell had made previous explorations and knew very well that indigenous attacks could be deadly. The landscape was so flat that there were few hills or defensible positions, so when they came upon a significant hill rising 300 metres above the plains, Mitchell decided this was the place to make a stand.

Mitchell and his party chopped down trees into lengths and erected a crude but workmanlike stockade in which to shelter and recover, close to the modern town of Bourke.

Mitchell’s stockade was lost over the following decades, but a replica was built in 1988 for visitors to appreciate.

Mitchell was a Scottish surveyor and explorer of south-eastern Australia who served in the British Army during the Peninsular War, preparing maps of various battlefields.

Surveying nthe dangerous inland

In 1827 Mitchell took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor-General of New South Wales, became surveyor-general the following year, succeeding John Oxley, and remained in that position until his death, being knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.

One of the first roads surveyed under his leadership was the Great North Road, built by convict labour between 1826 and 1836 linking Sydney to the Hunter Valley, followed by the Great South Road (now replaced by the Hume Highway), also convict-built, which linked Sydney and Goulburn.

In 1834 he was commissioned to survey a map of the Nineteen Counties and the map he produced was done with such skill and accuracy that he was awarded a knighthood.

Mitchell led four extensive and historically significant surveying expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia.

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First expedition

In 1831, a runaway convict named George ‘The Barber’ Clarke, who had lived with the Kamilaroi people in the area for several years) claimed a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool Ranges in New South Wales to the sea.

Explorer Charles Sturt also believed that the Murray-Darling system formed the main river system of New South Wales. Mitchell wanted to prove Sturt wrong, so he formed a 17-member expedition and set out on November 24, 1831, to investigate.

They travelled north-west, meeting an Aboriginal tribe suffering from smallpox, and passed Quirindi to reach Wallamoul Station near Tamworth on December 11, the northern extent of white settlement at the time.

Mitchell continued his northward push into un-colonised territory, guided by a local Gamilaraay man named "Mr. Brown". In mid-December, near to where Boggabri now stands, they located the remains of a stockyard and huts built by George Clarke and his Aboriginal colleagues.

By early January, 1832, Mitchell's group was travelling along the Namoi River and Mr Brown had left them. Mitchell's party then headed north unguided, reaching the Gwydir River in mid-January where they found a small Aboriginal village of conical-roofed huts.

They followed the Gwydir west to the Barwon River by the end of the month. Mitchell correctly concluded the Barwon flowed into the Darling River and decided not to proceed any further.

Hunter Valley assistant surveyor Heneagh Finch then caught up with the main group with the news the provisions he had obtained had been ransacked by Aboriginal people at Gurley and two men he had left to guard the supplies had been killed.

The party retraced their path having tense, but peaceful, interactions with large groups of Gamilaraay people along the way. Mitchell buried the bodies of the two killed men on February 18 and salvaged some equipment.

Aboriginal people approached the group laying down their spears and offering females to Mitchell's men in an apparent attempt at appeasement for the killings. Mitchell refused the offer but accepted their guidance on an easy way back to the Namoi River.

Mitchell later revealed the killed men had had sexual relations with Aboriginal women. He also concluded Clarke’s claims about the Kindur River were wrong.

Second expedition

Mitchell's next expedition was in 1835 to explore the course of the Darling River from where Sturt had turned back in 1829, to where it joined the Murray River. There were 24 men in the party including Mitchell, James Larmer (assistant surveyor) as second in command, Richard Cunningham (colonial botanist) and 21 other men.

The main party under Larmer left Parramatta on March 9 and rendezvoused with Mitchell at Boree near Orange, being then guided through the Goobang Ranges by local Wiradjuri people toward the Bogan River.

Richard Cunningham wandered away from the party on April 17, 1835, while looking for botanical specimens and went missing. The party, assisted by local Aboriginal people, searched for him until May 5, following Cunningham's tracks around the headwaters of the Bogan until they disappeared. Cunningham's dead horse, saddle, glove and fragments of his coat and map were all they found.

Months later, a search party of military mounted police commanded by Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the first division discovered Cunningham had been killed by four Wiradjuri men and his bones were found and buried at Currindine.

The party continued, with a local guide Tackijally who led Mitchell downstream along the waterholes adjacent to the Bogan River to Nyngan, where Tackijally left them. The group startled an Aboriginal man at a waterhole, the man was shot in the hand, had his wounds dressed by the group and left.

They proceeded down the Bogan, encountering several gatherings of people to which Mitchell gave tomahawks and pieces of an old sword, reaching the junction with the Darling River on May 25.

Mitchell decided to build a fort on a high point of land which bore many Aboriginal grave sites, as he realised that they ‘had not asked permission to come there’ and he needed a stockade for ‘stout resistance against any number of natives’, naming it Fort Bourke after the Governor, Richard Bourke.

Aboriginal tomb site near Menindee Lakes. By Thomas Mitchell - Journal of three expeditions to the interior of eastern Australia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org

They tried navigating the Darling on two whale boats which had been carried on drays, but did not get very far before reaching shallow water and had to revert to overland travel.

Mixed encounters with Aboriginals

They encountered many tribes as they headed south, with Mitchell documenting the agricultural practices of some, such as the harvesting of Panicum decompositum and the large permanent dwellings of others.

One clan appeared more hostile than others, kicking up dust and spitting at party members. Mitchell acknowledged that his group were "rather unceremonious invaders of their country," but inflamed tensions by firing a pistol at a tree.

Mitchell wrote that "the more they saw of our superior weapons...the more they shewed their hatred and tokens of defiance."

The party continued downriver, meeting with friendlier locals, passing through villages and noting the construction of their tomb-sites.

Indigenous burial ground at Milmeridien near Nyngan. By Thomas Mitchell - Journal of three expeditions to the Interior of Eastern Australia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Too dangerous to continue

Just north of the Menindee Lakes the expedition came across a large congregation of several tribes and Mitchell decided that continuing the exploration would be too dangerous.

On July 11, just as Mitchell had resolved to return to Sydney, shots were heard from a forage party up the river. Mitchell sent a further three armed men to the scene of the shooting and the firing continued.

After more than an hour, some members of the group returned reporting that a skirmish had occurred over the possession of a kettle and at least three Aboriginal people had been shot dead, including a woman and her child. One of Mitchell's men had been knocked unconscious.

The party then began their return via the outbound route with Mitchell deciding to avoid contact with the various tribes as much as possible. The "spitting tribe" attempted to burn down their camp on this return journey which resulted in Mitchell ordering shots to be fired over their heads.

They arrived at Fort Bourke on August 10 and continued back along the Bogan River. Near Nyngan they met again with members of Tackijally's tribe who allowed Mitchell to walk through their cemetery at Milmeridien.

Mitchell soon tired of the clan asking for food and ordered some of his men to march at them with bayonets. On September 9 they came to the upper reaches of the Bogan where they found a cattle station had already been formed along their route by William Lee. The expedition arrived back at their starting point of Boree on September 14.

The places where this and other Mitchell expeditions were most assailed by Aboriginal Australians, including the location of Cunningham's killing, are marked on an 1836 map produced by Mitchell.

Third expedition

The goal of Mitchell's third expedition was to explore and survey the lower part of the Darling River by heading up the Murray River and then returning to the settled areas around Yass.

Second in command was assistant surveyor Granville Stapylton. A Wiradjuri man named John Piper and 23 convicts and ticket of leave men made up the rest of the party.

The group set out from near Mount Canobolas on March 17, 1836, and made their way to Boree and the Bogan River as on previous journeys, then veered south to the Kalare or Lachlan River to approach the Darling from its southern end where it joined the Murray.

The party was guided by various Aboriginal people such as "Barney" along the Lachlan, passing Lake Cargelligo as John Oxley had in 1817. They met a large clan and several people joined the expedition and gave vital information about waterholes, as the Lachlan was drying out. Piper also obtained a "good, strong woman" from this tribe.

On May 2 they arrived at Combedyega where an Aboriginal widow named Turandurey with her four-year-old daughter Ballandella also joined the expedition as a guide. She remembered Oxley from nineteen years earlier and Sturt as well, and knew the lower Lachlan.

The Murrumbidgee River was reached on May 12 downstream from the junction with the Lachlan.

Turandurey and Ballandella. By Thomas Mitchell - Journal of three expeditions to the interior of eastern Australia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Mount Dispersion massacre

They continued down the Murrumbidgee until May 21 when they were close to the junction with the Murray River and established a depot. Mitchell left Staplyton with eight men to guard the stock, while he continued downstream.

According to the account given to a later enquiry by William Muirhead (bullock-driver and sergeant), Alexander Burnett (overseer) and Jemmy Piper (Aboriginal man accompanying the party), on May 24 Mitchell noticed Barkindji tribesmen from the Darling River were gathering in large numbers.

By May 27 the hostile intentions of these men became known when local Murray River people told Piper the Barkindji were planning to kill Mitchell and his men.

Mitchell had to decide whether to wait for an attack, or plan a pre-emptive manoeuvre. His numbers were reduced, as Staplyton and eight men were still at the depot. He split his party again, leaving half the men to hide in the scrub in ambush, while he continued ahead with the carts.

When the armed Barkindji warriors approached, the convict Charles King, who was involved in the earlier killings, fired first without waiting for orders. The tribesmen fled into the river and Mitchell's two groups reunited on the shore and continued to shoot at the people for up to 15 minutes.

About 75 shots were firedwith Piper later being told that seven Barkindji were killed and four wounded.

In his journal, Mitchell described the Barkindji as "treacherous savages", and detailed how his men had chased them away, ‘pursuing and shooting as many as they could.’ This section was withheld from Mitchell's report when it was released to the public in Sydney.

Mitchell named the hill near to where the mass-shooting occurred Mount Dispersion and in May 2020 it was heritage-listed as the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site Aboriginal Place.

The expedition continued down the Murray River, seeing a major Aboriginal grave-site at Red Cliffs, and arrived close to the junction of the Murray on May 31 with a "green and stagnant" waterway.

Local people advised Piper that this was the Darling River, but Mitchell did not believe it until he travelled upstream, finding the same type of burial mounds that he had seen in 1835, accepting "this hopeless river" was the Darling.

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He turned back and headed upstream on the Murray to rejoin Stapylton at the depot, and they travelled south-east following the Murray past Swan Hill on June 21.

The natives at Lake Boga were angry at Piper for "bringing whitefellows" to their country and threw spears at him, so Piper shot one of them dead.

Mitchell noted the local people's practice of making large nets that spanned above the river to catch waterfowl and also came across unusual animals such as the now extinct southern big-footed bandicoot.

Mitchell left the Murray to investigate better lands to the south-west, which he named Australia Felix. They crossed the Loddon River in early July heading south-west to the Grampians and the Wimmera River, where an Indigenous man was shot in the arm.

They were guided by a local Aboriginal woman along part of the Nangeela (Glenelg River). Mitchell constructed a fortified base on its banks which he named Fort O’Hare.

Mitchell led part of the group in boats down the Glenelg to where it discharged into the ocean at a bay which Mitchell named Discovery Bay, returned to Fort O'Hare and altered direction east towards Portland Bay, where they were surprised to find an established farm and whaling station operated by the Henty brothers.

The expedition continued north-east with Mitchell spending a night in a "snug old hut of the natives" at Narrawong. Mitchell split the party in two, taking 14 men with him and leaving the remainder with Stapylton to follow with the bullocks and drays. The young girl Ballandella went with Mitchell, while her mother Turandurey remained behind.

They met a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murrnong tubers with specialised tools on the Hopkins River, but Mitchell was wary and when forty of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them.

After climbing Mt Macedon, one of the men drowned in the Broken River. They reached the Murrumbidgee River on October 24.

Mitchell was officially rebuked by a Legislative Council inquiry for the massacre on the Murray. Ballandella was raised in Mitchell’s family and later married and lived near Sackville.

Fourth expedition

Mitchell’s fourth expedition was into the northern region now Queensland in 1845-46, trying to find if a river flowed north into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Mitchell started from Boree near Orange on December 15, 1845, with 32 people including explorer Edmund Kennedy as second in command (later speared to death at Escape River near Cape York), the Wiradjuri man Piper from his previous expedition, Yuranigh (also Wiradjuri) and a ten year old boy from the lower Bogan River nicknamed "Dicky" as guides.

The party travelled north along the Bogan into a war between the British and the Indigenous inhabitants, with the British pushed back, abandoning their farmhouses which were burnt down by the local people.

‘All I could learn about the rest of the tribe was, that the men were almost all dead, and that their wives were chiefly servants at stock stations along the Macquarie,’ Mitchell wrote.

When they reached the Macquarie River Piper announced he was leaving and Mitchell ordered him to return to Bathurst.

They saw Aboriginal people harvesting millet to make bread and were guided to waterholes on the Barwon and Narran Rivers. They reached the current site of the town of St. George on April 12, 1846, where Kennedy was instructed to take charge of the main body and slowly follow Mitchell and a small group northwards.

They found good pasture near Roma, named Mount Abundance, and waited for Kennedy, who had trouble with natives trying to burn his camp, but arrived on June 1, 1846.

Mitchell travels west

Leaving Kennedy again, Mitchell set out on a four-month loop, following the Maranoa and Warrego Rivers, and a tributary of the Burdekin Rivers, which had already been explored by Ludwig Leichardt on his way to Port Essington in 1845.

Mitchell named the Victoria River, before returning south, reaching Sydney in January, 1847.

Goes to England

Mitchell sought 18 months leave from his position and in March he left Sydney for London. During his leave, he published an account of his explorations called Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia: with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales.

Mitchell sought additional leave, returned to Sydney, but left again on another leave until mid-1848, publishing his Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

He was instructed to survey the goldfields in 1851, selecting the site for the town of Ophir near Bathurst. In later years he designed a more efficient screw propeller for ships.

Carthona, Mitchell's home in Darling Point. By Sardaka - Own work, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Mitchell and his wife Mary had 12 children and built a large home at Darling Point in Sydney. He died on October 5, 1855. His name lives on in many place names. Mitchell grass is also named after him.

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Discussion:

Why did the colonists want to survey the routes of inland rivers?
Why did Mitchell build Fort Bourke?
How successful was Mitchell in his relations with the Aboriginal inhabitants?
How much blame should be placed on Mitchell for the Mount Dispersion massacre?
Was Mitchell a good observer of tribal practices?

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