Political History of Australia

Episode 38 follows John Macarthur after he slipped out of New South Wales just before Lachlan Macquarie arrived to restore order. Having masterminded the Rum Rebellion, Macarthur exploited a legal loophole in Lord Castlereagh’s arrest orders and spent more than eight years in England. After the Rum Rebellion trial, Macarthur was stuck in England because if he returned to NSW he faced immediate arrest. So Macarthur waged a stubborn, years-long campaign against the Colonial Office to return home without having to admit to any “impropriety.”  When he finally sails back in 1817, the colony he left has changed: wealthy emancipists like Samuel Terry now rival the exclusives and a bitter struggle is underway over land, labour, and what kind of society New South Wales will become. Macarthur has won every political fight so far. This time the numbers and the spirit of the age are against him.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

In September 1803 Lieutenant John Bowen raised the Union Jack at Risdon Cove on the Derwent, founding the first European settlement in Van Diemen’s Land. The next year, Governor King in Sydney, under orders from London, sent Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson to command the proposed second settlement on the island at Port Dalrymple along the north coast. By late 1804 the island was formally divided at the 42nd parallel: the southern County of Buckinghamshire under Collins and the northern County of Cornwall under Paterson. Two settlements, two very different commanders, and two rival experiments in colonial survival. This episode traces the contrasting fortunes of those early settlements. We follow Paterson’s relatively liberal land grants that encouraged private farming. We contrast that with Collins’s more regimented approach, chronic supply shortages, reliance on hunting and fishing, and the slow, painful growth of Hobart Town until the influx of experienced colonial farmers from Norfolk Island transformed it. The story closes with Governor Macquarie’s first visit in 1811, his inspection of both settlements and his descriptions of a young colony that was rapidly getting on its feet.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

In 1803, Governor Philip Gidley King in Sydney sent two ships to near modern day Hobart. There had been multiple earlier European visits to Van Diemen’s Land but these ships were going to stay and build a permanent British settlement. Governor King’s response was both reactive and decisive. By planting a permanent British presence on the Derwent — first through the small, improvised party under John Bowen and then through the far more substantial expedition led by David Collins — Britain converted a theoretical claim into effective occupation. The rapid establishment of settlements in both the south and the north of the island marked the moment Van Diemen’s Land ceased to be an unclaimed frontier and became the second major British colony in Australia. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

Last week 'The Women's Pioneer Society of Australasia' invited me to speak about the Political History of Australia podcast.---------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

The people of what we now call Tasmania had lived in complete isolation since rising seas carved out Bass Strait around 10,000 BC, transforming their homeland from a southern peninsula of the Australian continent into the world’s most isolated island. European contact began in 1642 when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman claimed the land for the Netherlands. It was not until the 1770s, however, that a rapid succession of French and British visitors began to recognise its strategic value. When Bass and Flinders confirmed Van Diemen’s Land was a separate island in the late 1790s, the news soon reached Europe and sharpened French interest. The Baudin Expedition’s extended presence in Australian waters only heightened British suspicions in Sydney. In a decisive pre-emptive move, the British bumped the French out, raised the Union Jack, and established the first permanent settlement at Risdon Cove in 1803. The scene was set for the colonial era.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

This episode we pause the story of Governor Lachlan Macquarie to take a panoramic tour of Australia’s near-abroad and Australia’s infant settlements in the early 1820s.  With the Napoleonic Wars finally over and Britannia ruling the waves, London was able to focus more attention to its continental claim in the south. We survey the remarkably benign geopolitical setting in this corner of the globe and see how that freed up the colonists to focus on building a civilisation. We’ll travel clockwise around the map. First, the promising inland township of Bathurst, already hinting at the wool boom to come. Then the initially grim secondary-punishment outposts at Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay — soon to grow into Brisbane. We’ll also check in on Norfolk Island, abandoned only a few years earlier but already earmarked to reopen as one of the empire’s harshest penal stations. Finally, we cross the Tasman to New Zealand — still officially part of New South Wales — on the eve of sustained European contact. We’ll relive the shock of the Boyd Massacre and the remarkable partnership between the Reverend Samuel Marsden and the Māori chief Ruatara — a friendship that led to the first permanent British presence in New Zealand on Christmas Day 1814. What did this wider colonial world actually look like, and how did it shape the challenges Macquarie faced? That’s what we’re exploring in this episode.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

After the upheaval of the Rum Rebellion, London finally responds. In late December 1809, Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie arrives in Sydney Harbour. He moves quickly to be sworn in as governor on New Year’s Day 1810. Unlike his predecessors, Macquarie does not ease into power. He seizes it. From his first days in office Governor Macquarie moves with startling speed and authority. He orders the discredited New South Wales Corps home (though hundreds of soldiers choose to stay and become settlers), replaces them with his own professional regiment, and issues a sweeping Nullification Proclamation that wipes away almost every appointment, pardon, and land grant made by the rebel administration. Most dramatically, he begins appointing emancipists (former convicts) to positions of real authority, including as magistrates. This single act sends shockwaves through colonial society and marks the beginning of Macquarie’s long battle with the “Exclusives.” Over the next decade Macquarie will reshape the colony more profoundly than any governor before or after him. He imposes order on Sydney’s chaotic streets, commissions grand public buildings, introduces Australia’s first official currency (the famous Holey Dollar), and champions the idea that once a convict has served their time they should be treated as a full citizen. Governor Macquarie resets the colony of New South Wales — resolving the great political conflicts of the Early Colonial Period while laying the foundations for the new divisions of the era to come.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

The men who led the march on Government House to depose Governor William Bligh in 1808 knew there would be consequences. Yet the Rebel Administration played a weak hand with skill and restraint. Beyond removing Bligh at gunpoint, they worked hard to appear measured and proper at every step. In this episode we examine London’s firm response to the Rum Rebellion: dispatching 800 battle-hardened troops from the 73rd Regiment, ordering a court martial, and recalling the New South Wales Corps. Lachlan Macquarie arrives in Sydney at the end of 1809 and is sworn in as governor on New Year’s Day 1810, marking the start of the Middle Colonial Period. The dramatic 1811 court martial of Major George Johnston in London hears explosive testimony from both sides. Johnston is found guilty of mutiny yet receives only the lightest possible sentence - sacked from the army - because the court acknowledged the “novel and extraordinary circumstances” created by Bligh’s tyrannical rule. Johnston returns quietly to farming life, Bligh never commands men again, and John Macarthur remains in England until 1817. The episode closes the Early Colonial era and sets the stage for the new political divide that would dominate the Macquarie years and beyond: Exclusives and Emancipists.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)