Colonisation

Establishment of British colonies

Arthur Phillip, first Governor of New South Wales.

A General Chart of New Holland including New South Wales & Botany Bay with The
Adjacent Countries and New Discovered Lands, published in An Historical Narrative of the
Discovery of New Holland and New South Wales, London, Fielding and Stockdale, November
1786.

Convict remains at Norfolk Island.

Port Arthur, Tasmania a notorious prison outpost.

The Foundation of Perth 1829 by George Pitt Morison.

Adelaide in 1839. South Australia was founded as free-colony, without convicts.

Melbourne Landing, 1840; watercolor by W. Liardet (1840)

Brisbane (Moreton Bay Settlement), 1835; watercolor by H. Bowerman

Sir George Bowen, first Governor of Queensland.

The territory claimed by Britain included all of Australia eastward of the meridian of 135
East and all the islands in the Pacific Ocean between the latitudes of Cape York and the
southern tip of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). The western limit of 135 East was set at the
meridian dividing New Holland from Terra Australis shown on Emanuel Bowen's Complete
Map of the Southern Continent,[122] published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris'
Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (17441748, and 1764).
[123]
It was a vast claim which elicited excitement at the time: the Dutch translator of First
Fleet officer and author Watkin Tench's A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay wrote:
"a single province which, beyond all doubt, is the largest on the whole surface of the earth.

From their definition it covers, in its greatest extent from East to West, virtually a fourth of
the whole circumference of the Globe".[124] Spanish naval commander Alessandro Malaspina,
who visited Sydney in MarchApril 1793 reported to his government that: "The
transportation of the convicts constituted the means and not the object of the enterprise. The
extension of dominion, mercantile speculations and the discovery of mines were the real
object".[125] Frenchman Franois Pron, of the Baudin expedition visited Sydney in 1802 and
reported to the French Government: "How can it be conceived that such a monstrous invasion
was accomplished, with no complaint in Europe to protest against it? How can it be
conceived that Spain, who had previously raised so many objections opposing the occupation
of the Malouines (Falkland Islands), meekly allowed a formidable empire to arise to facing
her richest possessions, an empire which must either invade or liberate them?"[126]
The colony included the current islands of New Zealand. In 1817, the British government
withdrew the extensive territorial claim over the South Pacific. In practice, the governors'
writ had been shown not to run in the islands of the South Pacific.[127] The Church Missionary
Society had concerns over atrocities committed against the natives of the South Sea Islands,
and the ineffectiveness of the New South Wales government to deal with the lawlessness. As
a result, on 27 June 1817, Parliament passed an Act for the more effectual Punishment of
Murders and Manslaughters committed in Places not within His Majesty's Dominions, which
described Tahiti, New Zealand and other islands of the South Pacific as being not within His
Majesty's dominions.[128]