Importance of the Year 1851. The year 1851 was in many ways an eventful one to Australia. In that year the colonies received from the Imperial Parliament the amended Constitutions...
Govenor Fitzroy. When Governor Hobson died, his place was taken by his friend Lieutenant Shortland until a new Governor could be sent out. The English people were at this time very...
Botany Bay. The reports brought home by Captain Cook completely changed the beliefs current in those days with regard to Australia. From the time of Dampier it had been supposed th...
Progress of Exploration. The coasts of Australia had all been examined before the year 1815. From that date those who wished to make fresh discoveries were obliged to penetrate int...
Discovery of Port Phillip. The discovery of Bass Strait in 1798 had rendered it possible for the captains of ships bound for Sydney to shorten somewhat their voyage thither; and as...
Temporary Decline. In 1851 the prosperity of South Australia was somewhat dimmed by the discovery of gold in Victoria; for, before the middle of the following year, the colony was...
Otago. Meantime the New Zealand Company had not been idle, and E. G. Wakefield's busy brain was filled with fresh schemes. In 1849 an association had been formed at Glasgow in conn...
Gipps. In 1838, when Governor Bourke left Australia to spend the remainder of his life in the retirement of his native county in Ireland, he was succeeded in the government of New...
The Maoris. So far as we know, the original inhabitants of New Zealand were a dark-skinned race called Maoris, a people lithe and handsome of body, though generally plain of featur...
First Settlement. After the departure of Baudin from Sydney it was discovered that there was an inclination on the part of the French to settle in some part of Australia. It was kn...
Responsible Government. In 1855, when each of the colonies was engaged in framing for itself its own form of government, Victoria, like all the others, chose the English system of...
Governor Franklin. Sir John Franklin, the great Arctic explorer, arrived in 1837 to assume the Governorship of Tasmania. He had been a midshipman, under Flinders, during the survey...
Oxley. After the passage over the Blue Mountains had been discovered--in 1813--and the beautiful pasture land round Bathurst had been opened up to the enterprise of the squatters,...
Kororarika. All this fighting of the Maori tribes made them more dependent on the trade they had with white men. They could neither make guns nor powder for themselves, and the tri...
Governor King. Governor Hunter, who left Sydney in the year 1800, was succeeded by Captain King, the young officer who has been already mentioned as the founder of the settlement a...
Edward Gibbon Wakefield. In 1829 a small book was published in London which attracted a great deal of attention, not only by reason of its charming style and the liveliness of its...
The Land Act. Sir John Young became Governor of New South Wales in 1861. He was a man of great talent; but, at this stage of the colony's history, the ability of the Governor made...
Effects of Gold Excitement. For the first few months after the discovery of gold in Victoria, many shrewd persons believed that the colony would be ruined by its seeming good fortu...
King George's Sound. In 1825, when Sir Ralph Darling was appointed Governor of New South Wales, his commission was supposed to extend over all that part of Australia which lies bet...
Effects of Gold Discovery. For some years after 1851 the colony of New South Wales passed through a severe ordeal. The separation of Port Phillip had reduced her population by one-...
Governor Macquarie. In 1808 the English Government held an inquiry as to the circumstances which had caused the expulsion of Governor Bligh; and though they cashiered Major Johnsto...
#1.# To the people who lived four centuries ago in Europe only a very small portion of the earth's surface was known. Their geography was confined to the regions lying immediately...
#1.# No community has ever been more completely isolated than the first inhabitants of Sydney. They were three thousand miles away from the nearest white men; before them lay a gre...
Burke and Wills. In the year 1860 a merchant of Melbourne offered L1,000 for the furtherance of discovery in Australia; the Royal Society of Victoria undertook to organise an exped...
Governor Grey. The colonists of South Australia had, in 1841, received a sharp but salutary lesson, and we have seen that they profited by it. They had discovered that the land was...
Moreton Bay. When Captain Cook, in 1770, sailed into the wide opening of Moreton Bay, several of his friends on board observed the sea to be paler than usual, and formed the opinio...