1854 September The first public steam railway in Australia was opened, running between Melbourne and Port Melbourne.
1854 October The Van Diemen’s Land Constitution Act became the first colonial constitution act to be passed. It provided for a bicameral legislature.
1854 December Police and troops raided the Eureka stockade, constructed by gold miners at Ballarat to resist government attempts to enforce a licensing system.
1855–61 During 1855, Sir William Thomas Denison, Governor-General, Her Majesty’s colonies of New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. He continued as Captain-General, Governor-in-Chief and Vice-Admiral, New South Wales and its dependencies from 1855–61.
1855 June Riots on the goldfields prompted the Victorian Parliament to introduce an act to limit Chinese immigration. South Australia passed similar legislation in 1857, as did New South Wales in 1858.
1856 January The name ‘Tasmania’, in honour of the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, was officially adopted to replace Van Diemen’s Land.
1856 March The Victorian Electoral Act introduced the secret or ‘Australian’ ballot.
1856 May In Victoria, many unions achieved an eight-hour working day.
1856 August The first inter-colonial conference was held. It dealt with the maintenance of lighthouses across the colonies.
1856 The first parliaments of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, consisting of a legislative council and a legislative assembly, were opened. South Australia followed in 1857.
1858 June The ‘Welcome’ nugget was found in Ballarat and drew the world’s attention.
1858 July–August Rules were drawn up for the game later known as Victorian or Australian Rules and formal competition commenced.
1859 April John McDouall Stuart opened a permanent 800 km route north from South Australia. He had earlier explored as far north-west as the present-day Coober Pedy. 1859 December The colony of Queensland was proclaimed.
1860 August Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills left Melbourne to find a route to the northern coast. They reached the Gulf of Carpentaria in February 1861. Burke and Wills died on the return journey.
1860–61 Anti-Chinese riots broke out at Lambing Flat goldfi elds, New South Wales.
Key Sources
Macquarie Book of Events
Edited by Bryce Fraser
Macquarie Library, Sydney, 1983
Australians
Volume 8: Events and Places
Fairfax, Syme and Weldon, Sydney, 1987
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS TO NOTES
ADB Australian Dictionary of Biography
BPP British Parliamentary Papers
HRA Historical Records of Australia
HRNSW Historical Records of New South Wales
HO Home Office
JACH Journal of Australian Constitutional History
JRAHS Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society
ML Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
NLA National Library of Australia
NSWSA New South Wales State Archives
PRO Public Record Office
EXPLANATION OF NOTES
1. When a book or document relates exactly to the subject matter of the section title, no subject tag is given. For example, in the section entitled ‘The young gentleman’, sources which relate to the young gentleman Joseph Banks are given without any introductory tag. But when a source covers only part of the section title, the source is introduced. Thus:
Social and penal history of Georgian England: JM Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1600-1800 (Princeton 1986).
2. In the case of journal articles, apart from the author, title and name of the journal, the volume number, issue number and year are given. So, in the case of Charles S Blackton, ‘The dawn of Australian national feeling’, Pacific Historical Review, 24 (2), 1955, 24 stands for Volume 24; (2) stands for the second issue of that year.
3. Similarly, HRA, Series I (II) stands for Historical Records of Australia, Series I, Volume II. ADB, 1, means Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1.
CHAPTER 1
Dinner at Cuddie Springs
Emigration of people across the land bridge from Asia to Australia, Cuddie Springs, Lake Mungo and Lake Nitchie: John Mulvaney & Johan Kaminga, The Prehistory of Australia (Sydney 1999).
Aboriginal pre-European world view: AP Elkin, Aboriginal Men of High Degree (Brisbane 1977); RL Kirk & AG Thorne (eds), The Origins of the Australians (Canberra 1976); AA Abbie, The Original Australians (Sydney n.d.); Geoffrey Blainey, Triumph of the Nomads (Melbourne 1975); Norman B Tindale & HA Lindsay, Aboriginal Australians (Brisbane 1963); David Unaipon, Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, eds Stephen Muecke & Adam Shoemaker (Melbourne 2000, originally published 1927); Patrick Corbally Stourton, Song Lines and Dreamings (1996 London); John Ramsland, Custodians of the Soil (Taree 2001).
CHAPTER 2
The Makassar welcome
Makassan visitors: Henry Reynolds, North of Capricorn: The untold story of the people of Australia’s north (Sydney 2003); RM & CH Berndt, Arnhem Land: Its history and people (Melbourne 1964); CM McKnight, The Voyage to Marege: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia (Melbourne 1976).
The Coy Coasts
Account of exploration: Evan McHew, 1606 (Sydney 2006); journals of early discovery of Australia, available on the Project Gutenberg Australia website
Pirating words
William Dampier, A Voyage to New Holland, etc, in the Year 1699, and Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland and A New Voyage Around the World, both available on Project Gutenberg Australia; Diana & Michael Preston, A Pirate of Exquisite Mind (London 2004).
The grand intrusion
JC Beaglehole (ed), The Life of Captain James Cook (London 1974), and The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery, 5 vols (Sydney 1999); Nicholas Thomas, Discoveries: The voyages of Captain Cook (London 2003); Andrew Kippis, Life of Captain James Cook (London 1788); John Robson, Captain Cook’s World: Maps of the life and voyages of James Cook R.N. (Sydney 2000).
The young gentleman
John Gascoigne, Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment (Cambridge 1994); WH Wharton (ed), The Endeavour Log of Sir Joseph Banks, available on Project Gutenberg Australia.
Venus
As well as the journals listed above, Beaglehole, Cook; Thomas, Discoveries; Gascoigne, Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment; Dr Tony Phillips, James Cook and the Transit of Venus, 1769 at
The transit of Mercury, Turaga landfall and To Gangurru regions
See notes previous two sections.
CHAPTER 3
The England Cook returned to
Social and penal history of Georgian England: JM Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1600-1800 (Princeton 1986); Douglas Hay et al., Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and society in eighteenth-century England (London 1975).
Society in general: Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (London 1982); Peter Ackroyd, London: The biography (London 2001); Tom Griffiths (ed), The Newgate Calendar (London 1997); William Blake, The Poetical Works of William Blake (London 1949).
Boswell: Frank Brady, James Boswell: The later years, 1769-1795 (New York 1984).
Daniel Defoe’s descri
ption of Newgate: Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (New York 1961, originally published 1772).
Campbell’s hulks
Hulks: AGL Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies: A study of penal transportation from Great Britain and Ireland and other parts of the British Empire (London 1966); Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England; Hay et al., Albion’s Fatal Tree; Dan Byrnes, The Blackheath Connection, cyberbook at
Get rid of them—but where?
Banks before the Commons Committee: CMH Clark (ed), Sources in Australian History (Melbourne 1957).
General reaction to the Commons Committee: Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies.
Magra’s proposal: HO 7/1 microfilm at the Mitchell Library (ML) and other Australian libraries.
Final selection of New South Wales: ‘Lord Sydney to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury’ in Clark, Sources in Australian History; Glynys Ridley, Losing America and Finding Australia: Continental shift in an enlightenment paradigm, The College of William and Mary website 2002
Lord Sydney: Douglas Pike (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography (hereafter ADB), 2, (Melbourne 1967) [The ADB is also available online, greatly enlarged and improved.];
Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia, 1 (Melbourne 1997).
The period and the decisions: CMH Clark, A History of Australia Volume 1: From the earliest times to the age of Macquarie (Melbourne 1962).
A discreet officer and The mysteries of Phillip
For Phillip’s career: Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip, 1738-1814: His voyaging (Melbourne 1987); M Barnard Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia: An account of the settlement at Sydney Cove, 1788-92 (Sydney 1938); George Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip: Founder of New South Wales, 1738-1814 (Sydney 1937).
Phillip’s service in the Portuguese navy: Kenneth Gordon McIntyre, The Rebello Transcripts: Governor Phillip’s Portuguese prelude (Adelaide 1984).
The Heads of a Plan: Clark, Sources in Australian History; Historical Records of New South Wales (hereafter HRNSW), I, Part II.
Choice of Phillip: Michael E Scorgie & Peter Hudgson, ‘Arthur Phillip’s familial and political networks’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society (hereafter JRAHS), 82 (1), 1996.
Phillip’s instructions: Historical Records of Australia (hereafter HRA), Series I (I).
Who were the convicts?
Enclosure Acts: Hay et al., Albion’s Fatal Tree; Beattie’s Crime and the Courts in England.
Individual convict trials at the Old Bailey: The Old Bailey Papers, ML and the National Library of Australia (NLA); John Cobley (ed), The Crimes of the First Fleet Convicts (Sydney 1972).
The background of convicts: LL Robson, The Convict Settlers of Australia: An enquiry into the origin and character of the convicts transported to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, 1787-1852 (Melbourne 1965); Wilfrid Oldham, Britain’s Convicts to the Colonies (Sydney 1990).
Flash talk
Living conditions of the criminal classes: Robson, The Convict Settlers of Australia; Oldham, Britain’s Convicts to the Colonies; Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies.
Flash or Cant language: Captain Watkin Tench of the Marines, Sydney’s First Four Years, ed. LF Fitzhardinge (Sydney 1961); Captain Grose, 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (London 1981); Amanda Lougesen, Convict Words: Language in early colonial Australia (Melbourne 2002).
Phillip taking pains
Preparations for the departure to New South Wales: Charles Bateson, The Convict Ships 1787-1868 (Sydney 1983).
Phillip’s preparations and expeditionary philosophy: HRNSW, I, Part II; Frost, Arthur Phillip; Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia; Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip.
William Richards and other contractors: Bateson, The Convict Ships; Byrnes, The Blackheath Connection.
Individual convicts: Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A biographical dictionary of the First Fleet (Sydney 1989).
The nature of provisions: Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years; David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1, ed. Brian H Fletcher (Sydney 1975).
Individual ships: Bateson, The Convict Ships.
Preparation of ships: Paul G Fidlon & RJ Ryan (eds), The Journal of Phillip Gidley King, Lieutenant R.N. 1787-1790 (Sydney 1980).
Loading of ships and Phillip’s concern for condition of clothing, etc: Frost, Arthur Phillip; Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia; Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip; HRNSW, I, Part II.
At Station, Plymouth and Portsmouth
John White, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, ed. Alec Chisholm (Sydney 1962); Paul G Fidlon & RJ Ryan (eds), The Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth: Surgeon, Lady Penrhyn 1787-1798 (Sydney 1979); The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787-1792 (Sydney 1981); James H Thomas, Portsmouth and the First Fleet (Portsmouth c. 1987); Frost, Arthur Phillip; Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia; Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip.
Condition of convicts: HRA, Series I (I).
Size, tonnage, and other aspects of ships: Bateson, The Convict Ships.
Sarah Bellamy’s trial: Public Record Office (PRO) Assizes 2/25, ML and other state libraries; Madge Gibson, Belbroughton to Botany Bay, (Belbroughton, booklet).
The rest of the preparations for the fleet’s departure from the Thames: Frost, Arthur Phillip; Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia; Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip; Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies; Oldham, Britain’s Convicts to the Colonies; HRNSW, I, Part II.
CHAPTER 4
The Passage
Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1; White, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales; John Hunter, An Historical Journal of Events at Sydney and at Sea, 1787-1792 (Sydney 1968); Arthur Phillip, The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay (London 1789); Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years; Sergeant James Scott, Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay, 1787-1792 (Sydney 1963); John Easty, Memorandum of the Transactions of a Voyage from England to Botany Bay, 1787-1792 (Sydney 1965); Thomas Keneally, The Commonwealth of Thieves (Sydney 2005); CMH Clark, A History of Australia, 1.
Meeting Eora
Early contact and early days: all First Fleet journals, especially King, Collins and Tench; John Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788 (London 1962); Keith Vincent Smith, Bennelong: The Coming in of the Eora (Sydney 2001).
Aboriginal sexual prohibitions: Tindale & Lindsay, Aboriginal Australians.
Aboriginal response to European arrival: Inga Clendinnen, Dancing With Strangers (Melbourne 2003).
Shift in meaning of ‘Botany Bay’: Paul Carter, The Road to Botany Bay: An exploration of landscape and history (New York 1988).
European popular attitudes: Geoffrey C Ingleton, True Patriots All: Or, news from early Australia (Sydney 1952).
Botany Bay Blues
Limits of Botany Bay and move to Port Jackson: All the First Fleet journals; Charles C Dann (ed), The Nagle Journal: A diary of the life of Jacob Nagle, sailor, from the year 1775-1841 (New York 1988).
La Pérouse: ADB, 1; Colin Foster, France and Botany Bay: The lure of a penal colony (Melbourne 1966).
Warrane-bound
The First Fleet journals, and Dann, The Nagle Journal.
Phillip’s reaction to Port Jackson: Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788; Phillip’s dispatches to Lord Sydney, HRA, Series I (I).
CHAPTER 5
Enquiries Ashore
The First Fleet journals.
Daniel Southwell and Dennis Considen: Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788; White, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales; ADB, 1 and 2.
Canvas house: Hunter, An Historical Journal of Events at Sydney and at Sea; HRA, Series I (II).
Major Ross: ADB, 2; Clark, A History of Australia, 1; Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia, 1.
Adam Delves
First agriculture: the First Fleet journals and Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788.
Ruse, and other convicts named: Gillen, The Founders of Australia; Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1; Tench, Sydney’s F
irst Four Years.
Aboriginal language: Smith, Bennelong.
Honouring Bacchus and George
The debauch: Fidlon & Ryan, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark; The Journal of Arthur Bowes-Smyth; Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1; Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years; Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788.
Individual convict women: Gillen, The Founders of Australia.
Reading Phillip’s Commission and subsequent speech and celebration: Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1.
Contraceptive practice: Siân Rees, The Floating Brothel (Sydney 2001).
The prospects of convict women: Portia Robinson, The Women of Botany Bay (Melbourne 1988); Miriam Dixson, The Real Matilda (Melbourne 1976); Kaye Daniels & Mary Murnane, Uphill All the Way: A documentary history of women in Australia (Brisbane 1980); Monica Perrott, A Tolerable Good Success: Economic opportunities for women in New South Wales 1788-1838 (Sydney 1983).
Reverend Johnson’s reaction: J Bonwick, Australia’s First Preacher (London 1897).
Island of innocence
Plans for Norfolk Island: Fidlon & Ryan, The Journal of Phillip Gidley King; Phillip’s dispatch to Lord Sydney, HRA, Series I (I).
Jamison and Colley: ADB, 1.
Individual convicts: Gillen, The Founders of Australia.
The food question
Phillip on food shortage: Phillip’s dispatch to Lord Sydney, HRA, Series I (I).
Rations and Barrett’s execution: Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1; Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years; Phillip, The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay; Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788; Frost, Arthur Phillip; Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia; Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip.
A soldier’s trial, and marriages
Private Bramwell, etc: Fidlon & Ryan, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark.
Individual convicts: Gillen, The Founders of Australia.
Convict women’s affairs with sailors: Fidlon & Ryan, The Journal of Arthur Bowes-Smyth; Robinson, The Women of Botany Bay.
Reverend Johnson’s background: Bonwick, Australia’s First Preacher.
Assizes trials of Will Bryant and Mary Bryant: Cobley, The Crimes of the First Fleet Convicts.
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