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.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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.)

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.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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/johnruddickmlchttps://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.)

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.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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.)

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.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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 time the emancipists were on the back foot but then two hammer blows hit with Governor Macquarie’s departure.The new governor of NSW, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was a tough Major-General who had seen a lot of war. Governor Brisbane immediately sent an unmistakable message that he was a friend of the Exclusives.A few months later the findings of the Bigge Report hit Australia. Governor Brisbane was tasked with fundamentally reshaping Australia away from Macquarie’s egalitarian direction. But Bigge opened the door to an Australian legislature and now the genie was out of the bottle. Australia’s first parliament was anti-democratic but the Emancipists now had something to focus their campaign on - democratic reform.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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 this episode we say farewell to Governor Lachlan Macquarie after twelve years in Sydney. He championed the name Australia, made 26 January an official public anniversary, and was the first leading figure to address the colony as a people — “Fellow Citizens of Australia.” From first arrival to last days he backed emancipist rights, and that stance cost him the exclusives, the church, the courts and London. His last years were hard. In his farewell in Hyde Park he still said, “I anticipate the applause of posterity.” Classic Macquarie — arrogant, but accurate.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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.)

Governor Lachlan Macquarie was on a sincere mission to lift up the former convicts known as emancipists. For years that project had gone his way — until the colonial establishment struck back and set out to put these “uppity” emancipists in their place. In this episode the church, the courts and then London itself flip from supporting the Governor to becoming his trenchant critics. Macquarie never wavers from his pro-emancipist stance, but under pressure he begins to act foolishly act in anger. London’s answer is decisive: Commissioner John Bigge is sent with wide-ranging powers to audit the entire Australian experiment. Macquarie knows his time is up.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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 early New South Wales, more than four-fifths of the non-Aboriginal population were convicts, former convicts, or their children. Once free, these people — the emancipists — discovered that money and talent could not wash away the ex-convict stain. Wealthy exclusives still treated them as second-class subjects. This episode asks ‘what mobilised a scattered group of successful ex-prisoners into a political force?’ Governor Macquarie brought the best of them into the open. Architect Francis Greenway, merchant Mary Reibey, the “Botany Bay Rothschild” Samuel Terry, and Dr William Redfern all flourished under his protection. Then, in 1815, the new Supreme Court exploded over a simple question: could three emancipist solicitors appear before it? Judge Jeffrey Bent said no. Macquarie’s magistrates said yes. The court froze for two years, letters flew to London, and the colony split into two camps. Status, not class, was the issue.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------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.)