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The spearing of Governor Phillip on a Sydney Harbour beach in 1790 is a significant incident in Australian history. Was it a spur-of-the-moment act, a premeditated ‘payback’, or is there another explanation? Though the incident is factually well known, why it happened has ample scope for further consideration. This paper questions the ritualistic explanations of Governor Phillip’s spearing characteristic of most historical interpretations of the incident since 2001. It concludes that Phillip’s assailant acted defensively of his own volition in the heat of the moment.
This article traces the life and career of an identity of early Wagga Wagga, John Clark (1824–76). Held in high esteem throughout the town and district, Clark was a publican, alderman and entrepreneur. Yet, unbeknownst to everyone, including his own family, he was also a fugitive from justice.
The Australian Government established the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1961 and made it permanent through an Act of Parliament in 1964. It was to record and collect the remaining cultural knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living a traditional lifestyle in all its aspects: ‘before it was too late’. AIAS had a veneer of academic independence, and so long as it dealt with bona fide researchers and their research projects, their political orientation was not considered. Nevertheless, when confronted with funding a research application by Frederick G. G. Rose, it was the applicant rather than the research project that was problematic. This paper examines Rose’s dealings with the AIAS, the difficulties it faced in supporting academic and political freedom, and pressure from government to deny Rose funding.
In 1788 the King of Spain, Carlos III, authorised an enlightenment voyage by two Captains of the Spanish Royal Navy, Alejandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra. This political-scientific expedition took four years. This paper explores the Malaspina-Bustamante expedition, the first official foreign delegation to visit Port Jackson following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.
With anticipation of war against Britain, in mid-1796 Bustamante wrote a plan for the defence of Spanish America and Spain’s interests in the Pacific. One part of his plan was the destruction of the Sydney colony with gunboats from Peru, Chile and Montevideo. The inhabitants of Sydney and Norfolk Island would become prisoners of war and be transported to South America. It was hoped that some of these colonial prisoners might populate the Spanish Americas. Bustamante was tasked by senior Spanish ministers to develop his plan.
In parallel with Bustamante’s work was the rapidly expanding British southern whale fishery that had commenced its operations in the Pacific Ocean from 1789. While first a peaceful activity, once war between Britain and Spain commenced then these whalers were also privateers – operating against Spanish colonial ports and shipping.
For Spain the elimination of the colony at Sydney was important for the preservation of Spanish control in the Pacific and the suppression of whaling privateers. This essay describes the Bustamante plan and its aftermath as British interests in the Pacific Ocean transformed what had been a silent backwater before 1788. Additional information on Spanish language sources for a view of Australian history is also explored. This paper should add to the understanding of one European power’s strategic response to the new British colony in the southwest Pacific.
Lucy Frost, Convict orphans: The heartbreaking stories of the colony’s forgotten children, and those who succeeded against all odds, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, NSW, 2023, 296 pages; ISBN 9781761067686.
Lucas Jordan, The Chipilly Six: Unsung heroes of the Great War, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, NSW, 2023, xi + 307 pages; ISBN 9781742238098.
Hannah Forsyth, Virtue Capitalists: The rise and fall of the professional class in the Anglophone world, 1870–2008, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2023, xii + 299 pages; ISBN 9781009206488.
David Dufty, Charles Todd’s Magnificent Obsession: The epic race to connect Australia to the world, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2024, vii + 354 pages; ISBN 9781761471353.
John Kennedy McLaughlin, The Immigration of Irish Lawyers to Australia in the Nineteenth Century: Causes and Consequences, Alexandria, NSW, The Federation Press, 2024, xxv + 292 pages; ISBN: 9781760024536.
Anne Coote, Knowledge for a Nation: Origins of The Royal Society of New South Wales, Royal Society of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2024, xiii + 304 pages; ISBN 9780645859409.
Robert Cox, Breakout! The Tasmanians who terrorised Victoria, Wakefield Press, Mile End, SA, 2024, xv + 278 pages; ISBN 9781923042728.
Bob Crawshaw, Battle of the Banks: How ad men, barristers and bankers ended Ben Chifley’s boldest plan, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, xi + 223 pages; ISBN 9781923267275.
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In March 1878, two riots occurred in Hyde Park in protest against the anti-Catholic preaching of Pastor Daniel Allen, a Baptist minister who on Sundays held open-air services in the park. In the wake of the riots, mounting public opinion led the government to ban public meetings there. As a result, soap-box orators and open-air preachers relocated to the Domain, where they have continued to operate ever since. This article examines the Hyde Park riots in the context of the need to balance the right of free speech and the right of people not to be subjected to ‘hate speech’.
In August 1914, Australia stood half a world away from the rumblings of war in Europe. In an era before the internet, satellites, television and where telephone and radio were short-range communication devices, how did Australians discover that their nation was at war? This article examines the role that the telegraph played in disseminating the news that the conflict in Europe had started. It will also study the limitations of telegraph technology and the difficulties, such as censorship, print deadlines, ministerial errors and British Foreign Office mistakes that contributed to the delay of the Australian public getting the full and correct story.
Australian military law was comparatively sophisticated but a complicated dictum boiler-plated during Federation from the British laws. It had evolved throughout the modern history of war with an emphasis on discipline to ensure adherence to orders necessary to accomplish the Army’s given task. The physical environment in World War I and the stresses of the work caused many soldiers to break the rules. It was essential to have a system of laws enabling the offenders to be punished and set an example to others that orders were to be obeyed.
Martial law was declared seven times in pre-Federation Australia, playing a part in some significant historical events. Yet very little has been written on the topic, and no comparative study has so far been made. This paper gathers, for the first time, brief accounts of all of the martial law events in the early colonies into one document and draws some initial comparisons. It will be seen that martial law was an adaptable doctrine. In the years between 1790 and 1853, it was used to fend off starvation, quash two rebellions, overthrow a government, and wage two wars against First Nations peoples.
This Interpreting an Image analyses the earliest image of the first Christ Church at Newcastle in 1817. I argue that the Governor, Commandant, Commissioner, Minister for the Colonies, surveyors and a convict forger colluded in circulating exaggerated images of Christ Church’s superstructure to attract investment and immigrants to the newly free settlement of Newcastle. The Macquarie and Dixson Collector’s Chests misrepresented the church’s grandeur. The tower, steeple and spire of the church were largely dismantled due to structural failures.
Anne Sarzin, The Angel of Kings Cross: The life and times of Dr Fanny Reading, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, viii + 357 pages; ISBN 9781922952509.
Hugh Tranter, Southern Signals: Stories of innovation, challenge and triumph in Australia’s communication history, National Library of Australia Publishing, Canberra, ACT, 2023, vii + 280 pages; ISBN 9781922507563.
Rose Ellis, Bee Miles, Australia’s famous bohemian rebel, and the untold story behind the legend, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 284 pages; ISBN 9781761069130.
John Cary, Frontier Magistrate: The enigmatic Foster Fyans, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, ix + 283 pages; ISBN 9781922952639.
Toby Raeburn, The Remarkable Mr and Mrs Johnson: Founders of modern Australia’s first church, schools and charity, and friends of Aboriginal people, 1788–1800, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, xv + 311 pages; ISBN 9781922952790.
Cassandra Pybus, A Very Secret Trade: The dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2024, xviii + 318 pages; ISBN 9781761066344.
Anna Johnston, The Antipodean Laboratory: Making colonial knowledge, 1770–1870, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2023, xii + 313 pages; ISBN 9781009186902.
Bronwyn Hughes, Lights Everlasting: Australia’s Commemorative Stained Glass from the Boer War to Vietnam, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2023, viii + 235 pages; 197 illustrations; ISBN 9781922669827.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie expressed the opinion that Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys was totally unfit for command of the armed Colonial Brig Kangaroo. Earlier scholarly work has not challenged that opinion. This article examines previously unpublished records, mainly from the British Transport Commission, and some aspects of the voyage to New South Wales to determine whether Macquarie’s harsh opinion was justified.
Riotous drinking and hard physical labour have been synonymous with the labouring workforce who provided the raw muscle for constructing public infrastructure during the nineteenth century. As a highly mobile workforce, navvies were difficult to control and the subject of widespread angst by middle-class observers. During the 1880s, in New South Wales, problems arising from heavy alcohol consumption by railway navvies inspired changes to Crown Lands legislation. Generally focused on managing the leasing and alienation of land, Crown Land administration was not aimed at policing public morality. Yet, the need to control access to alcohol for railway navvies initiated changes in Crown Land policy and administration with that objective.
The inspiration for this paper was a rare book, Mer – Four Gospels, a translation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John into the Meriam language of the island of Mer in the Torres Strait. The book was published in 1902, after the introduction of Christianity to the Torres Strait in 1871. However, while researching the provenance of Four Gospels, a different book – Drums of Mer by Ion Idriess – became prominent. Drums of Mer purports to describe the pre-Christian Meriam culture of war, violence and head-hunting. Both books are discussed within the context of the island of Mer.
Many people are aware of the canvas and tin shacks that were erected by desperate people on the sandhills of La Perouse and Sans Souci during the throes of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Shanty towns such as these have a long history in Australia, particularly in pioneer and gold-mining towns in Victoria and New South Wales during the Gold Rush. These makeshift settlements often housed men in country areas where both jobs and housing were in short supply and times were tough. However, few will have heard of a NSW State Government scheme to house families in a purpose-built tent town during World War I. Canvas Town, sometimes referred to as Calico Town or Tin Town, and later known as Stannumville, was built 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Sydney, about a mile south of Daceyville. It was constructed just off the western side of Bunnerong Road, between Gardiners Road and Maroubra Bay Road. Oddly enough, it does not appear on maps of the period, which were either printed before its construction or after its demolition. This made its precise location subject to speculation until the discovery of a hand-drawn addition to an existing Parish Map of Botany. This article examines why the government initiated the project, the living conditions in the town, and the reasons for its demise.
A crude ink-sketch of Merriman, a Waywurru man, shackled around the neck, handcuffed and being dragged forward over uneven ground by an armed mounted policeman, is a graphic representation of the shortcomings of frontier justice in the early 1840s. This ‘Interpreting an Image’ untangles two stories of frontier justice with which the picture is intertwined in the journals of George Augustus Robinson, the Chief Protector of the Aborigines of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales. In doing so, it explains that the road between Yass and Port Phillip was a key part of a new ‘in-between’ frontier opened with the inland pastoral invasion.
Bruce Short, Fever: the mysterious medicine from a mystical art to the scourge of the 18th century, North Bank Institute, Bellingen, NSW, 2023, 355 pages; ISBN 9780645773101.
Mark Hearn, The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia, 1890–1914, Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2022, 237 pages; ISBN 9781350291393.
Shauna Bostock, Reaching Through Time: finding my family’s stories, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, NSW, 2023, 334 pages; ISBN9781761067983.
Craig Wilcox, Australia’s Tasman Wars – Colonial Australia and Conflict in New Zealand, 1800–1850, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2022, xi + 286 pages; ISBN 9781922669452.
Dr J.M. Bennett AO and Dr John K. McLaughlin AM (eds), Cases for Opinion: A Bicentennial Miscellany, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2023, viii + 118 pages; ISBN 9781922952998.
Alecia Simmonds, Courting: an intimate history of love and the law, La Trobe University Press, Collingwood, Vic, 2023, 440 pages; ISBN 9781760642143.
David Marr, Killing for Country, Black Inc, Collingwood, 2023; xi + 468 pages; 38 illustrations; ISBN 978760642730.
Phillip Deery, Spies and Sparrows: ASIO and the Cold War, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 2022, x + 270 pages; IBSN 9780522878301.
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