Remembering the Past Australia

IN 1801 Garden Isle was turned to very important account by being made the "garden" of the Lady Nelson, a ship in the employ of his Majesty, so that the captain and officers might have fresh fruit and vegetables galore. Garden Isle was a very pretty place then, with well wooded hills, and a farm nestling down in the valley near the water.

It strikes a modern man as odd to have the 18th of January kept as a Queen's Birthday — but that was only "a Queen," not "the Queen," only a wife of a King, yet it was kept up bravely. Early in this year it was determined to begin the new year well, so it was decided that the Governor, who was always being harassed by everyone who had a grievance, should "not be applied to in the street, when talking to an officer, or on Sundays;" but he could be seen "between 9 and 10 every morning!" This gave his Excellency a free time, for it practically meant that only one hour a day was given to applicants. It was common, to implore his help on every pretext, and, like all "begging," it got to be a continual torment, till the order was proclaimed, and it was "Speak — if you dare" now.

Communication with the islands was a very important affair in these days, and often meant a good dinner for our folks. Our Governor sent the following letter as a sort of sop to Cerberus: "Governor King to Pomare of Oiaheite. May it please your Majesty — I am very sorry I did not know of your subject Ta pe hi going from here some time ago, otherwise I should have written to you, and I am now very sorry that it is not in my power to send you any presents except, what Captain Brunker brings you, as a small token of my future intentions. I hope our worthy countrymen and your subject Ta pe hi going from here some time profit by their teachings and examples."

An attempt was being made to evaporate salt to send to Otaheite, or Society Isles, to cure pork and bring it back, when, a sealer came in with a load of salt for curing seals, saying that their intention was altered; so Governor King, ready-witted as ever, bought the salt, and sent the Porpoise off to Otaheite for pork immediately. Chief Pomare had sent a nice friendly letter, sending presents, and desired firearms to protect his subjects from other hostile natives. The Governor, wishing to please him, so as to get pork, sent him half a dozen guns, etc., and anxiously awaited results. Meanwhile he wrote telling the missionaries that if they thought best, they could make the guns useless before presenting. Among official records is a list of things for the natives of Australia, to please them, and set them to let us settle quietly down in their land, till we were ready to shove them out. Think of it, selling their birthright for blue and red beads, red garters, blue caps, red handkerchiefs, glass balls, knives, looking-glasses, a few nails, fishhooks, gaudy bits of rag! It is possible Pomare shared these, in the hopes of getting him to send his "por"' to us, for King was getting desperate for meat, and sent to every out landish place about for "pork." 

It reads oddly for a representative of his Majesty, and an officer of the navy, to have to beg savages for "bread," as it were, and write them diplomatic letters, and send presents, all for the same end — "animal food" for the settlement. Then, people get up discussions now, saying that Australians never have, and do not eat, enough meat!

The defences of the city were meagre, at a time when Colonel Paterson asks for more soldiers, in case of need. The guns were so placed as to "annoy any vessels coming up the harbour." A report says: "The Sydney Cove Battery is fallen into decay; Dawes' Point, ten guns, fourteen embrasures, stone and earth miserably put together, parapet and breast work fall to pieces when guns are fired; Bennelong's Point, four guns, six embrasures formed of wattle, casks, and earth in total state of decay; Garden Island, two guns, carriages buried in sand, all want painting and repairing." So the wants increased weekly, and fortunately no one had time to be dreaming of "Auld Lang Syne."

Governor Hunter, in 1800, early in the year, speaks sorrowfully of the people having no bedding, and being obliged to sleep in their day clothes, already rather ragged; he asks the home authorities for more clothing, very pathetically adding, "I have been at the expense of buying one thousand bad rugs off a Spanish prize ship for them," and expressing a hope that he will be forgiven so bad an investment of King's money.

There is an interesting record of Robert Campbell's, re asses and cows from India, about this year, when he undertakes to bring out one hundred and fifty cows and six asses, and sell at £28 a head and £8 8s a head respectively — each calf born on the voyage alive to be paid £8 8s for by the Governor. King, now Governor, writes home a frantic appeal for hops, none of the plants that were sent arriving alive, and months being lost that the plants might have been growing and fitting themselves for good ale and beer. He saw an exasperating report in an English paper giving an account of the excellent plantations of hops in New South Wales all over the colony, and that one clergyman had so fine a crop as to be noteworthy, also that they were made into good porter! This is not so amazing as some of the accounts that get into English papers about us now, or a letter, addressed as it was recently, "To X., Sydney, Parramatta, Adelaide.'

Well, the hops came at last, and flourished exceedingly for many years; considering their success we hear but little of them now. In May, 1801, the ominous news was proclaimed that there was only sixteen weeks' previsions left, and this meant a shortened ration for everyone, for nobody knew when the next ship would be in, though daily expected.

May 29, 1801, was a very great day, the King's (George III.) birthday, called in the records a "holy day." In honour 1 lb. fresh beef was served to everyone extra, and probably "rum," though this is not officially recorded. Guns were fired, amid "general rejoicing," and the Governor held a levee at 1.15. A long list was sent to England of things most wanted — cloth, flannel, duck, tools, glass, crockery, cotton, silk, hose, pins, needles, shoes — and the Governor asks again and again that they may be sent as soon as possible; even suggests a ship, but as was, as is, as ever shall be, "red tape" had to be tied round every single packet, and carefully tied in an inextricable knot.

There were in Sydney in 1800 and 1801: 

Basket and broom makers, 3; 

Flax dressers, wool carders, and weavers, 4; 

Millers, 4; 

Schoolmasters, sextons and bellmen, 3; 

Musical instrument makers and markers of billiards, 2; 

Writers or clerks, 5; 

Coopers, farriers, and wire-drawers, 3; 

Granary, provision stores, and clerks, 14; 

Executioners, gaolers, and chimney sweepers, 3; 

Saddlers, watchmakers, and fishermen, 4; 

Natural history painters and botanists, 2 (at Parramatta); 

Tanners, tool-helvers, and thatchers, 3; 

Blind, insane, and invalids, 3; 

Pilots, 2; 

Boats' crews, 15; 

Government gardens and Government House at Parramatta, 57; 

Francis (schooner) and Norfolk (sloop), 14; 

Sent to the Martha, and miners searching for coals, 3; 

Town gang, 12; 

Gaol gang, 19; 

Constables and watchmen, 36; 

Carrying water for guards, 3; 

Attending hospital, 21; 

Sick and convalescents, 25; 

Tailors, shoemakers, and barbers, 20; 

Servants, to 51 commissioned officers, civil, and military (including superintendents, and 4 officers at Norfolk Island), 122; 

To non-commissioned officers of N.S.W. Corps, 22; 

To overseers, constables, and free men doing Government work:— 

As artificers 28; 

To settlers 7; 

Convicts, etc., who do no Government labour (their servants) 16; 

Total overseers, stock keepers, and employed in agriculture, 28; -

Artificers and employed in buildings, 193; 

Shipwrights and boat builders, 35; 

Various employments, 236; 

Servants to officers, etc., 195. 

Women: 

At different works on account of Government, i.e., flax, picking oakum, spinning, and picking weeds, 57; 

Nurses, 22; 

Sick, 9; 

Midwives, 2; 

In gaol, 2; 

Who do no labour, 157; 

Total numbers in the colony as appeared at the muster, viz., civil and military, 476 men, 76 women, 20 children; settlers, etc., holding lands, 388 men, 14 women; free people and convicts, 2171 men, 941 women, 916 children. 

Five men in the settlement were always collecting and making shells into lime, both for mortar and for whitewashing the "huttes" of the town. For years this was carried on, and the old folks can still show places where the burning used to be done. 

The only two cutlers were employed cleansing, making, and repairing the principal surgeon's implements; the three barbers shaved and cut the hair of the servants of the Government; the one bellman gave out public notices, after calling the attention of the public, bond and free, probably crying,"Oyez, Oyez, Oyez," when his bell had ceased sending out its clang, cling, clang through the town, with its prim streets, and along the straggling roads into the country beyond Brickfield Hill and Cockle Bay, while he cried some stern set rule or civil proclamation, generally "pro bono publico" — though nobody ever thought so in this benighted land then. The bellman was a welcome breaker of the oftentimes desolate silence, broken only by the grating and jangling of chains as a gang of prisoners marched by, or the bustle of military guards changing or manoeuvring, or the quick passing of the "gentry" on horseback or driving through the town on pleasure bent, or the daily stir caused by the overseer, to whom there was "always mischief brewing." 

There was one sexton, whose business it was to toll the bell and dig graves — this man's bell was also always welcome, for did not his appearance on the daily scene mean that the body of some lucky man was dead, at rest, never to feel again sorrow, pain, the lash, indignities, heat, or cold, or regret? Many a man envied the soul the sexton's bell tolled for. The one sexton must have had a sad, weird life — burying everyone, of low and high degree, guilty and innocent, bond and free, old and young, oppressor and oppressed — for all his bell tolled, year in, year out, the doleful notes ringing away over the water to the ships, over the town, over the hills, into the valleys, amid the gangs of working prisoners, amid the gay parties in their gardens on the slopes of the hills, amid the prisoners in grim gaol walls, amid the women working like slaves, amid the happy settlers and their wives and children, to the bright blue, radiant heavens above, and saying, "Despised and rejected of men, this soul may yet be worthy of heaven, and forgiveness — judge not, but pray for the repose of this soul."

The three, weavers were employed in weaving linen, cloth, etc., and teaching the women how to work too. This work was a good one, and gained freedom for the pioneers. One bricklayer and mates repaired, plastered, and whitewashed Government huts, houses of officers, stores, granaries, etc. One miller and assistant were kept at work grinding wheat. The blacksmith and mates made in a year 305 axes, 109 hoes, 14 spades, 9 shovels, 114 grub-hoes, 14 tomahawks, 112 sickles, 4 broad axes; there being one forge and four men always at work sharpening tools for stone-cutters and quarrymen. To these latter workmen we owe some of the foundations of our buildings and streets even now. 

The tailors over and above clothes made 300 bags for lime; 12 men made 6000 bricks per week; it took 2 bakers to make bread for the servants of the Government, 1 man attended at the bell that called folks out to work, from daybreak to 8 a.m., from 9 to nearly 3 p.m., then rest; and 8 men are helpless, to take care of the "huts;" 6 sawyers cut wood for public buildings, 1 man cut six dozen brooms per week.

On the north point of Sydney Cove stood a signal battery, built on solid rock, with six big guns, that crossed fire with a fortified point opposite, and thus protected the entrance. Miller's Point stood out green and rugged, and along the ridge and side of the hill, right up to Brickfield Hill, stood the greater half of Sydney, with its quaint little solitary cottages, treeless wastes of sand and rock, and here and there a two-storey building, with rows of small windows, bare strong walls, and neat low roofs, where stores were kept for the prisoners. 

In a little private house originated the first coffee house in Sydney, where military and civil officers enjoyed many free hours playing billiards and other games, "free of expense," and refreshments at moderate charges. 

The tall tower by the windmill (an ingenious convict contrived a water-mill just now, and through this contrivance flour was served out as rations in place of grain) was an observatory, where French, Spanish, and English astronomers took observations of considerable interest to the scientific world. It was meant for the tower of a church, on the foundations of which it stood; St. Phillip's now stands almost upon this site. 

The two-storey buildings near the water, and towards the point, were hospitals, capable of holding 300 sick. The prison speaks for itself — a desolate cluster, of buildings within a wall, which were capable of holding 200 prisoners in drear dungeons. The barracks stand near the tower before mentioned, and the soldiers marched to their excellent band. All civil Sydney came to enjoy the sight, it was one of the breaks to the monotony in life here 100 years ago. 

Church was held in a corner of the Government corn warehouse, and the Governor was obliged to go as a model for those who required it more. Fashion was everything even then, and if Government House went to church in a corn store, it was the correct thing for the elite to do, although they very much disliked doing it. 

Bass had made before this his wonderful trip in a whale sloop round the Straits which bear his name, and the boat was carefully preserved in the harbour as a relic, bits of her being broken up and carved into mementos. Flinders was also famous at this era, and made many discoveries about the navigation of our coast on which are based modern charts. 

In 1803 the first newspaper was begun by the plucky Howe, amid great difficulties. To begin with, the type was defective; the printer, reporter, publisher, editor, collector, chief compositor, and owner were one and the same man. News was very scarce, and the Government kept a strict surveillance over every item. Before this time news and proclamations had been stuck on trees and posts round Sydney Cove for those who cared to read, and no one cared to read Government proclamations for pleasure. 

A year earlier than the date I have been writing about, we find Sydney was decidedly waking up to the fact that she was destined to be a city some day. Wool-growing was seen to be a profitable and suitable industry, and valuable stock was imported. In one year 306 yards of blanketing were made; and in five months 472 yards of linen were made. Although coal had been found almost immediately, it had not been systematically worked. Now professional guides were paid 3s a day, and coal fetched 10s a ton, paid for in wheat or live stock. Speaking of coal, I might mention that 45 tons of coal were exchanged with the master of a sailing ship for a small portion of nails and iron.

Among Flinders' interesting pages I find the following: — He says In 1803 of Sydney: "There are manufactories of woollen, linen and cordage, and leather; also a brewery and potteries. The seal fisheries in Bass Straits are carried on with ardour." In 1802 he writes: "On the 4th of June the ship was dressed with colours, a Royal salute fired, and a splendid dinner given in honour of the King's Birthday. The number of ladies and civil and military officers was not less than 40." Fresh meat was very scarce, but the French ship Le Geographe arriving in dire distress, a few oxen were killed to succour them, and by giving a piece of almost equally valuable salt beef, Captain Flinders received in exchange a quarter of fresh beef. Thirty-three shillings was paid for 100 pounds of biscuit, 1483 gallons of rum for six and sixpence per gallon, to last for 12 months." 

Captain Flinders gives these returns for 1803: "Lands employed, 125,476 acres; cleared, 16,624 acres; sown with wheat, 7118 acres; sown with barley, maize, etc., 5279 acres; all giving 18 bushels to the acre. Horned cattle 2447, sheep 11,232, hogs 7890, horses 352, and about 3000 wild cattle: There were 7134 Europeans, of which Government fed 3026." 

Among interesting items we find that within these two years' space vine planting and rice growing were both attempted, with but indifferent results. In a letter to England very early in the century the Governor refers to two French men who came specially from Nantes to make wine in N.S.W. but after a trial of three years it was found so bad, although made from the best grapes, that no one had the audacity to send a sample to the Home Office.

After 1802 shipbuilding in all its branches began to flourish, for on the very shores of our harbour grew trees fitted for this work. Vessels up to 300 tons had already been built, and docks existed where the largest vessels that sailed the southern seas could be taken in and repaired, the dock being a natural basin built in. At this time the colonial fleet consisted of the "schooner Cumberland 26 tons, Integrity 59 tons, Resource 26 tons," all well found if not very big. The timber trade flourished, and in spite of every thousand feet being taxed at £3, a good deal of profit was made. The "orphans" of the city were support ed by taxes and fines, and the above tax is a fair specimen of many other like ones. 

It was in these early years of the century, that the great possibilities of the Australian wool trade were realised, and immense grants given for the purpose of pasturing sheep. This may be called the preface to "squatterdom." In 1804 the wool yield was reckoned at 6200lb, worth £3 a fleece. 

There are many interesting facts about the early years of 1800 that wonderfully compare with 1900, but surely enough is chronicled here to make us proud to have grown into our fair and stately Sydney. Only 100 years ago Terra Australis Incognita, and now — Australia is one of the world's brightest jewels.

Sources:

1. Sydney in 1801-2-3. (1899, December 23). Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), p. 4 (EVENING NEWS SUPPLEMENT).
2. View of Sydney from the west side of the Cove, ca. 1806 by John Eyre; Courtesy: Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales
3. A view of part of Port Jackson from Dawes's Point Sydney Cove, [1809?]; Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
4. The Costume of the Australasians c 1817-1840 by Edward Charles Close; Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
5. Sydney - Capital New South Wales, ca.1800; Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
6. Sydney Church and Regimental Mile from the Main Guard c 1817-1840 by Edward Charles Close; Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
7. West view of Sydney in New South Wales, ca 1809 / drawn by John Eyre; Courtesy: State Library of New South Wales