Political History of Australia

After the John Baughan Affair political tension returned to the small but now flourishing colony of New South Wales. It was 1796. In this increasingly tense atmosphere some regular troops at 3am stole a couple of turnips from the Governor’s garden. It was hardly a hanging offence but escalation begat escalation and soon it was a proxy war between Governor John Hunter and Captain John Macarthur as to who was the real boss.

In an extraordinary twist, the dispute ended up on the desk of the Home Secretary in London … and to Governor Hunter’s dismay, London politely sided with Macarthur.

Historians have been baffled ever since as to why a top cabinet member in London would side with a lowly captain over the King’s Governor. There was nothing sinister or manipulative about it – John Macarthur and the government of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger were ideological allies. London simply agreed with Macarthur’s brilliantly presented case as to what the colony’s problems were and how they could be corrected. The downfall of Governor Hunter had begun.

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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
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Governor John Hunter arrived in Sydney in 1795 with instructions directly from King George III to clean up the perceived mess in New South Wales. Hunter had first come to Sydney with the First Fleet in 1788 but he hadn’t been in Sydney for four years and so was surprised and delighted to find that, rather than being a mess, New South Wales was thriving. Hunter wrote back to London in praise of the colony and the leadership of Francis Grose.

At first John Macarthur and Governor Hunter were friendly. It appeared Hunter would go along with the easy-going policies of Francis Grose … but then some soldiers smashed up the home of John Baughan in The Rocks. Governor Hunter was utterly appalled by the behaviour of British troops and so he put his foot down and demanded the NSW Corps get into line. Macarthur appeared to be withdrawing from public life … but it was merely a strategic retreat.

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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 as AI generated bar the narrator.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Macarthur is the biggest personality of early New South Wales. He arrived with the army aboard the Second Fleet in 1790 … at what was known as the Starving Time.

But Macarthur seems to have relished getting in on the ground floor of a struggling colony that was audaciously claiming two thirds of an undeveloped continent.

Many officers built prosperous farms and enterprises under the three years of laissez-faire under Acting Governors Francis Grose and William Paterson … but none gained more power and wealth than Macarthur. By mid-1795, after less than half a decade in the colony, Macarthur had lifted himself into the lifestyle of a colonial gentlemen … but he was still young and just getting going.

September 1795 was a turning point. A new governor arrived in town, another naval officer, Captain John Hunter. This episode introduces Macarthur and Hunter and outlines why conflict was inevitable between the official boss and the actual boss of early colonial New South Wales.

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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 as AI generated bar the narrator.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Governor Arthur Phillip departed NSW after almost five years in late 1792. For the next three years NSW had no official governor and so the military boss Major Francis Grose stepped up to the role as Acting Governor during this Military Interregnum.

Phillip had been a micro-manager but Grose dismantled the old order in favour of a laissez-faire approach. Fear of hunger was soon replaced by ‘fear of missing out’ as a prosperous middle class quickly emerged.

This period is dismissed by most historians as one of greed and corruption but they overlook the reality on the ground – bumper harvests, a reduction in crime, a surge in general health and a building boom. Francis Grose’ reforms put to rest any suggestion NSW was not going to be a successful colony.

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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 as AI generated bar the narrator.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s widely assumed Captain Arthur Phillip is not only the hero of the First Fleet but he was also the hero as governor for the first five years of New South Wales. The reality is more nuanced.

As a lifelong servant of the Royal Navy, Phillip only knew obedience and hierarchy. Phillip believed New South Wales’s best hope was with him as an autocrat … but the embryonic colony required spontaneity to get off the ground.

Phillip’s ‘second in command’ of the colony was the boss of the NSW Marine Corps … Major Robert Ross. Ross is barely remembered today but he did offer an alternate vision for early NSW.

Ross quarrelled with Phillip and so in 1790 Ross was dispatched to be boss of Norfolk Island … where Ross put his vision into practice. He wasn’t there for too long but did achieve impressive results.

Phillip won Australia’s first power struggle … but it was Ross’ more liberal vision that went on to dominate the early colonial period. Ross laid the foundations for the prosperity soon to come.

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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 as AI generated bar the narrator.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.