Human resources slide 1

Year 9 History

3.1 The First Fleet

Human resources
Learning Intentionsslide 2
To explore the early settlement of Australia by investigating historical
evidence
 
To evaluate different explanations for the British settlement of the
Australian continent
 Study this source for a
moment.

Write down three

questions you would ask
someone to help them
understand the source.

Share these questions

with the person next to
you. You should try to
answer their three
questions.

Source A The Founding of Australia, 26 January 1788, by Captain Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney
Cove (1937). Oil painting by Algernon Talmage.
 Questions we should try
to answer now as a class:

> What event does this

painting portray?

> Where is this taking

place?

> Who are the people

conducting this
ceremony? How can we
know?

> What do you think the

planting of the flag
represents?

Source A The Founding of Australia, 26 January 1788, by Captain Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney
Cove (1937). Oil painting by Algernon Talmage.
 More advanced
questions to now
consider:

> How might the date

this painting was
produced help us
understand this source?

> Do you think this is an

accurate depiction?

> What other historical

sources might help
corroborate this event?

> Why do you think this

painting was produced?

Source A The Founding of Australia, 26 January 1788, by Captain Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney
Cove (1937). Oil painting by Algernon Talmage.
 Read the source and
answer the questions
below.

> Which letter is different

from our present-day
spelling?

> What reasons are given

for “a SETTLEMENT made
on the COAST of NEW
SOUTH WALES”? Jot
these down as dot-
points.

> What is meant by “very

extenfive Commerce?”

> What makes the New

Zealand Flax Plant so
“very remarkable?”

Source B Sir George Young’s proposal, made in 1785, for a settlement in Eastern Australia.
 Read this excerpt of
“From the natural increase of corn and other vegetable food … after the instructions given to
ground has been cultivated, it cannot be expedient that all the convicts which Arthur Phillip.
accompany you should be employed in attending only to the object of
> What steps are given in
provisions. And as it has been humbly represented to us that advantages may the source for the officers
be derived from the flax-plant which is found in the islands no far distant from and convicts of the First
the intended settlement, not only as a means of acquiring clothing for the Fleet in the establishment
convicts and other persons who may become settlers, but from its superior of their new colony?
excellence for a variety of maritime purposes, and as it may ultimately be an
article of export, it is, therefore, our will and pleasure, that you do particularly > Define the coloured
attend to its cultivation, and that you do send home by every opportunity that words.
may offer samples of this article, in order that a judgement may be formed
> Do you think the
whether it may not be necessary to instruct you further upon this subject”
primary purpose of the
colony was to produce
flax? Why / why not?

Source C Written instructions for Admiral Arthur Phillip, 25 April 1787.

 "They may appear to be some of
the most wretched people on earth,
but in reality they are far happier
than we Europeans…
[The] earth and sea … furnish
them with all the things necessary
for Life… [They] live in a fine
Climate and enjoy a very
wholesome Air, so that they have
little need of clothing. They set no
Value upon anything we gave them
… this in my opinion argues that
they think themselves provided
with all the necessarys of Life"
Source D Captain James Cook, journal of his first expedition, 1770.
Discuss with the person
next to you:
> Who was Captain
James Cook?
> What did he say about
the life of Aboriginal
people?
> What attitudes did
Cook have of Aboriginal
Australians?
> What would the British
have known of Aboriginal
Australians, prior to the
First Fleet, based on
Cook’s account?
 Read the speech by
“My Lords, The several goals and places for the confinement of Viscount Sydney.
felons in this kingdom being so crowded a state that the greatest
Match the underlined
danger is to be apprehended, not only from their escape, but from
words with their
infectious distempers, which may hourly be expected to break out definition.
amongst them, his Majesty, desirous of preventing by every
possible means the ill consequences which might happen from > What is the problem?
either of these causes, has been pleased to signify to me his royal
commands that measures should immediately be pursued for
sending out of this kingdom such of the convicts as are under
sentence or order of transportation.

A contagious disease
A person who has committed a crime
Punishment of exile from the home
country Prevented or stopped

A prison

Viscount Sydney, Secretary for Home Affairs, addressing the Lords

Source E Commissioners of the Treasury, 18th August 1786, announcing the sending
of convicts to Botany Bay.
 Analyse this source.

> What is a prison hulk?

> What sort of “infectious

mistempers” might be expected to
break out on these ships?

Corroborate the information so far.

> How do each of these three sources

help us to understand what was
occurring in Great Britain at the time?

> Which two of these three pieces of

information are the most valuable?

Additional Information
On 24 March 1786 eight convicts were killed and
many injured after a riot aboard a hulk at Plymouth

Source F Relief guard arriving at prison hulk, Deptford.

Watercolour by E. Tucker. (1821)
Key Question
Why did the British Crown send the First Fleet to Botany Bay? Write a one-sentence
answer.
Which source would you use to prove this? Why?
 Consider this summary “The Botany Bay project was in fact part of a much larger and
of the New South Wales ambitious plan, developed by the British prime minister
colony. William Pitt and his advisers, to expand British trade and
strategic bases in the Pacific and Indian oceans. They
> How does this source
differ from the others so
envisaged Botany Bay as a naval base and port to service
far? ships; as a pre-emptive claim on newly discovered lands,
shutting out their enemies, the French, Dutch and Spanish; as
> Do you agree / a source of desperately needed naval resources such as flax
disagree with this and timber; and finally as a colony that could produce other
historical claim? valuable commodities such as cotton, sugar and spices”

> Has Grace Karskens

missed anything? Are
there any other reasons
for the founding of the
colony?

Source G Historian Grace Karskens, Review of Botany Bay: The Real Story. (2011)