Political History of Australia

By the early 1820s, colonial administrators in Sydney were determined to establish a settlement in what we now know as Queensland. The essential in choosing a spot were a decent harbour and river.

The Brisbane River was ideal but nature had hidden its mouth behind mangroves, sandbars and low islands. James Cook had sailed past it in 1770. Matthew Flinders had entered Moreton Bay in 1799, searched for a major river but left convinced none existed. Even John Oxley looked likely to miss it too until he had an extraordinary stroke of luck.

For several days Oxley sailed upstream in wonder, mapping what he called the largest freshwater river on the eastern coast, and named it the Brisbane after his governor. He rushed back to Sydney with the news.

The British settlement of Queensland was under way.

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What You Need to Know About the Bathurst War (1822-1824)
Relations between the settlers and the Aboriginals of the Bathurst region were remarkably good for a few years ... but then the arrival of 100,000 sheep and cattle changed that. Skirmishes began in 1822 and then escalated.
By mid 1824 the newspapers in Sydney were referring to the violence as a war. Governor Thomas Brisbane declared martial law and sent in the troops.
It became a conflict of vengeance but was its origin a dispute about land or food?
What is too often left out of the telling of the Bathurst War is the remarkable peace conference just a few months after martial law declared.

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(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode examines the nuance of Aboriginal life in Australian bush pre-1788. Life in the bush was often fun along with the usual ups and downs of life … but it was a warrior society driven largely by competition over scarce resources in the absence of individual property rights. Through the detailed first-hand testimony of William Buckley and others who lived for years among traditional groups, the episode describes the good times but also the cycles of revenge, disputes over women, and night-time massacres, while contrasting this with the rapid decline of such violence once colonial authority and property rights took hold.
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The Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council.
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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Wentworth returned to Australia in 1824. He was a man on a mission – to overthrow the ruling clique in the colony who were hostile to even modest democratic reforms.

Wentworth’s weapon of choice in this battle was a free press.

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The Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council.
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Produced by Sean Masters
(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Wentworth was described by Manning Clark as ‘Australia’s greatest native son.’

When Governor Macquarie departed Australia, his campaign to lift the social status of the emancipists was in tatters. All the institutions were lined up to defend the status quo.

William Wentworth was a member of one of Britain’s most distinguished families. He was not a convict … but his mother was and his father, while not an emancipists, too often behaved like one. When it dawned on Wentworth that the current order relegates him permanently to a lower caste he set out to overturn the current order.

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Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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The Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council.
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Produced by Sean Masters
(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.