20240323_Hagerty-324 Bligh Madison. Detroit Tigers v New York Yankees. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 23, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240323_Hagerty-342 Bligh Madison. Detroit Tigers v New York Yankees. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 23, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240323_Hagerty-344 Bligh Madris. Detroit Tigers v New York Yankees. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 23, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
Norman Bligh - River Boat Girl (1957, Star Novels #765, cover art by Rudolph Belarski) 53595991890_f102511532_b
May & Jim, Bligh House, 1958 53586902913_4f70beb15e_b
20240302_Hagerty-1049 Bligh Madris. Detroit Tigers v Pittsburgh Pirates. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 2, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240302_Hagerty-1289 Bligh Madris. Detroit Tigers v Pittsburgh Pirates. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 2, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240302_Hagerty-1285 Bligh Madris. Detroit Tigers v Pittsburgh Pirates. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 2, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240301_Hagerty-1814 Bligh Madris, Aramis Garcia. Detroit Tigers v Philadelphia Phillies. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 1, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240301_Hagerty-1406 Bligh Madris. Detroit Tigers v Philadelphia Phillies. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 1, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
20240301_Hagerty-1408 Bligh Madris. Detroit Tigers v Philadelphia Phillies. Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Lakeland, Florida. March 1, 2024. (© Tom Hagerty)
Bligh Way, ROCHESTER, Kent 53557184572_df0be16a3b_c
Flying fish in Bligh Water, Fiji A group of flying fish seen from a ferry between Vanua Levu and Viti Levu , Fiji, on Jan 29th 2024. Image 4I4A9888.
William Bligh memorial 53543154245_8600577ab5_b
Hobart. The Art Deco T & G Mutual Insurance building. Early Exploration.
Abel Jansz Tasman of the Dutch East India Company discovered Tasmania in 1642 and named the island after Antony Diemen, Governor of the Dutch East India Company. Van Diemen’s Land was next sighted by the French Captain, du Fresne in 1772 just two years after Cook had sighted the east coast of Australia. Just 16 years later the British settled at Botany Bay and to deter further French exploration and possible settlement on Van Diemen’s Land they established an outpost of NSW on the island in the 1803. Prior to this, explorers like Captain Bligh in 1792 had sighted and named Mt Wellington and George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the island in 1798. David Collins began the first island settlement in 1803 at Risdon, but moved it to Sullivan’s Cove in 1804(the wharf area of Hobart). Also in 1804, a northern settlement began at what is now George Town under the control of Colonel Paterson. Paterson moved this settlement to Launceston in 1806. In was not until 1812 that Governor Macquarie acted to bring all Van Diemen Land settlements under the control of the Hobart Town. The settlements all became independent of NSW in 1825 when Van Diemen’s Land with allowed its own judiciary and Governor.
What happened to the Aborigines of Tasmania?
During the last Ice Age, New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania were joined as one land mass as levels were lower. During this cold period (about 35,000 years ago) Aborigines settled lowland parts of Tasmania. As the world warmed, sea levels dropped and about 12,000 years ago Aboriginal groups were left isolated on Tasmania. When whites began settlement of Tasmania there were 9 tribes on the island compromising between 4,000 and 10,000 Aboriginal people. Conflict between British settlers and military and the Aborigines began almost straight away with the first significant conflict at Risdon in May 1804 just before Collins moved the settlement to Sullivan’s Cove. Once the Van Diemen’s Land Company was formed and began operations in the North West near Stanley in 1826, conflict with Aboriginal people escalated.
The biggest known massacre was at Cape Grim near Stanley on lands of the Van Diemen’s Land Company in February 1828. Four shepherds are believed to have located a group of Aboriginal people. They shot 30 of them and threw their bodies off a 60 metre high cliff into the ocean. The massacre was retaliation for the killing of 118 sheep by the aboriginal people. This in turn had been retaliation for the abduction of aboriginal women by the shepherds (although some of this was undoubtedly undertaken by visiting whalers and sealers to the area). Trouble had begun as soon as the Company established grazing properties at Cape Grim in 1826. The magistrate of the area, Mr Edward Curr, a manager of the Van Diemen’s Land Company decided not to investigate the massacre and no charges were laid against the white shepherds. It was two years before another government official visited the area, investigated the reports and concluded that 30 people had been massacred. By the time of the 1830 round up or “Black Line,” only 60 of the estimated 500 Aboriginal people living in the North West area in 1826 were still alive. 1826 was the year when the Van Diemen’s Land Company established itself there! But this terrible massacre is forgotten history, or is it? (Remember we visit Highfield House the headquarters of the 250,000 acre Van Diemen’s Land Company estate near Stanley.)
In 1828 martial law against Aboriginal people in settled areas was proclaimed by Governor Arthur. The next step was the famous “Black Line” of 1830 whereby authorities tried to round up all aboriginal people, not already in missions, by forming an impenetrable line. The idea was to round up all Aborigines that might threaten settlers in the central districts and drive them on to the Tasman Peninsula where Port Arthur is now located. Some 5,000 men were involved in the 1830 march at the astronomical cost of £30,000. It was a dismal failure. Only two Aborigines were captured. It was Arthur’s greatest failure as Governor of VDL. But this amazing act was followed by the rounding up of all Aboriginal people known and moving them off Van Diemen’s Land to Wybalenna on Flinders Island. The authorities were determined to have no interference from aboriginal Tasmanians. In 1847 the last remaining Aborigines (47 in all) at Wybalenna were transferred to a new mission at Oyster Cove near Hobart. This was the final act in the subjugation of Tasmanian aboriginals, following the loss of their hunting lands, the capture and enslavement of their women, and the conflict and massacres. So within 50 years of settlement the Aboriginal population had dropped from between 4,000 and 10,000 to just 47. Apart from gun shots and violence, dislocation to Flinders Island, disease, and cultural destruction had almost destroyed an entire peoples. The last full blood Aboriginal to die was Trugannini of bronchitis in 1876.
In 2002 the massacre story re-emerged. Keith Windschuttle in his book: “The Fabrication of Aboriginal History” claimed there was very little violence against Aborigines in Tasmania. Only 118 known Aboriginal deaths were ever recorded but around 200 whites were killed by Aboriginals between 1824 and 1831(hence the Black Line episode). Windschuttle believes most Aborigines died of disease. He argued that muskets were slow to reload so it is implausible that four shepherds at Cape Grim could shoot 30 fast running Aboriginal people. Several academics including Ian MacFarlane in his PhD and Josephine Flood in her book: “The Original Australians” have disputed Windschuttle’s claims. The controversy continues.
Lithograph from the Allport Library Collection, Hobart.
French lithograph of VDL natives (from the Allport Library Collection, Hobart.)
Convict Settlement to Colony: 1803-1825.
Following Nicholas Baudin’s voyages and charting around SA and Van Diemen’s Land in 1802 Governor King got nervous about the intentions of France. So he despatched naval officer John Bowen to establish a convict settlement on the Derwent in 1803. He arrived there in September 1803. Meantime the British government had sent Captain Collins with a fleet and settlers to establish a new settlement on Port Phillip (where Sorrento is now located.) He arrived there in 1803. He decided the site was unsuitable and moved himself and his settlers on to the Derwent in January 1804. Governor King sent orders that Bowen was to hand over control of the settlement to Collins but Bowen tarried and did not do this until May 1804. Bowen left and returned to England at the end for that year and Collins became Lieutenant Governor. Hobart became the third settlement after Port Jackson, (1788), Norfolk Island (1790) and then Risdon Cove (1803). Governor King was still worried about French intentions of colonising so he also sent Captain William Paterson to form a settlement on the Tamar at Port Dalrymple in November 1804. Thus began the settlement of Launceston in 1806 when he moved to the better location of the junction of the South Esk and Tamar Rivers. Governor Macquarie interfered and had the settlement moved to George Town on Bass Strait. He relented in 1824 as he was about to leave NSW and Launceston was again founded!
The Van Diemen Land settlements began as convict outposts of NSW with the first direct shipment of convicts from England only arriving in Hobart in 1812. But the British Colonial Office wanted to make money from these penal settlements so from 1813 the colony was open to international trade and commerce. Most convicts in DVL, as in NSW, were assigned to landowners to work for them or to government building teams. But in 1821 a major convict camp was opened in Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast for the most serious offenders. Conditions here were harsh, bleak because of the incessant rain and cold, and brutal. It was also a costly exercise to provision a penal settlement so far from a major port and agricultural areas. Few convicts could escape as there was no other settlement on the west coast to escape too. Mainly because of its cost Macquarie Harbour penal settlement was closed in 1833 and these worst offenders moved to another isolated penal site surrounded by water on three sides- Port Arthur. The other early penal settlement on Maria Island which had opened in 1821 was closed at the same time in 1832 and its convicts also moved to Port Arthur. The new largest penal community had begun in1830 at Port Arthur.
The 1820s saw some fairly rapid growth in Hobart and elsewhere. In 1821 Governor Macquarie of NSW visited VDL and personally named and selected sites for free townships at Perth, Campbell Town, Ross, Oatlands, and Brighton thus opening up the central region between Hobart and Launceston.
Van Diemen’s Land and the Norfolk Island Connection.
A ship was sent out from the fledgling Botany Bay settlement in 1788 to settle Norfolk Island. A mere seven officials and 15 convicts were sent in 1790. More followed in the early 1790s.It was a strategic but financially burdensome settlement and so the British Colonial Office made the decision to abandon Norfolk Island in 1805. The convicts, guards and free settlers were ordered to move to Van Diemen’s Land. The first Norfolk Islanders arrived in VDL in 1805 and by 1808 a total of 713 settlers and convicts had arrived. The last 200 occupants of Norfolk Island were sent to VDL in 1813. The convicts were accommodated in VDL prisons, and the free settlers moved up the Derwent River to New Norfolk (1808) and in the north near Launceston to Norfolk Plains (1813). This latter settlement had its named changed to Longford in 1833.
When the Norfolk Islanders arrived in VDL they increased the Hobart population overnight from 483 people to 1,060 people. Little food was available and accommodation was short so arrivals had to share lodgings with convicts. Any remaining convicts were pardoned and all received land grants. Most of the free Norfolk Islanders had been convicts at some stage. Around 50% were given land grants, usually 10 acres or less around Sandy Bay and Glenorchy, and 30% were moved up the Derwent to New Norfolk. The Islanders mainly had farming skills. However, Lieutenant Governor Collins, head of the VDL settlement found a new mistress among the Norfolk Islanders- a 16 year old called Margaret Eddington. Her parents were convicts but she had been born as a free women. Collins was 53 years old in 1808 when Margaret arrived. Collins had two children with Margaret, one in 1808, the other in 1809. He died suddenly in 1810 and was buried on site that was to become St David’s Cathedral. He had also had two children with a mistress in Sydney in the 1790s.
But the saga of the connection with Norfolk Island did not end there. In 1824 Norfolk was re-opened as a convict prison for the worst of the worst prisoners. It gained a reputation for brutally, inhumanity and the harshest of discipline. When transportation to NSW ended in 1840 the British government still kept sending convicts to Norfolk Island. Around 2,000 were there at any one time. In 1842 the control of Norfolk was transferred from NSW to VDL because VDL still had convict transportation. Just before self government was granted to NSW in 1856 the British government transferred control of Norfolk Island back to NSW and the convicts on Norfolk at that time were evacuated to Port Arthur in 1855. This occurred even though convict transportation to the soon to be self governing Tasmania had ceased in 1852. One final point: after closing down Norfolk Island for a second time in 1855 the British government then re-opened it in 1856 by settling 194 Pitcairn Islanders, mainly descendants of the Mutiny of the Bounty sailors, to Norfolk Island. Some Tahitians moved with the Pitcairn islanders.
Penal Colony to Self Government in Tasmania: 1825-1856.
This period began in 1825 with VDL being separated from NSW and becoming a colony in its own right. In that same year the Richmond Bridge, Australia’s oldest, which was begin in 1823 was finally opened to traffic. In 1826 the Van Diemans Land Company began its operations on the North West coast near Stanley. The period of the 1830s and 1840s saw VDL grow in population and settlement spread across the northern plains near Launceston, through the centre of the island, and around the Hobart area. It was a period when grand houses, fine churches and small villages were settled usually with much of their wealth coming from wool. Perhaps one sign of the maturing colony was the arrival of the first Anglican Bishop in 1843, the Rev. Francis Nixon who lived in Bishopsbourne, now called Runnymede in North Hobart which we will visit. By then the Aborigines had been subdued but Bishop Nixon found plenty of missionary work necessary to improve living conditions for the Aborigines. This was also the period when libraries, hospitals, newspapers, sailing clubs and sport teams were established.
In 1836 (the year when SA was founded) when Governor Arthur, the first VDL Governor, left the colony to be the Governor of Upper Canada the population had reached 43,000 of which 24,000 were “free” settlers. But most of these free settlers had been convicts at some stage and had been pardoned.
In 1849 the first anti-transportation (of convicts) meeting was held in Launceston. Shortly after this the British Colonial office announced that transportation to NSW, Queensland and Van Diemen’s Land (but not WA) would cease in 1853. The last convict ship from England arrived in Hobart in May 1853 (but convicts arrived from Norfolk Island in 1855). Partial self government was introduced in 1850 by the British Colonial Office. Full independence was not granted until 1856 when the colony’s name was change from Van Diemen’s Land to Tasmania. Later the name of the capital, Hobart Town, was changed to Hobart in 1881.
But the convict heritage of Tasmania was not simply wiped away with the cessation of transportation in 1853. Convicts at Port Arthur were not released and the British did not withdraw its last militia forces from Port Arthur and Tasmania until 1870. Port Arthur finally closed as a prison in 1878 just a couple of years before the beautiful church at Port Arthur church was destroyed by fire. There were almost 900 prisoners at Port Arthur in 1863 including 100 who were serving life sentences. When it closed in 1878 it had 200 inmates (prisoners, convicts, paupers and lunatics.) But the convict built heritage of Tasmania survived for us to see and admire today.
Hobart. 172 Macquarie Street. Macquarie Manor built around 1880 in local sandstone. .Architect Henry Hunter. Early Exploration.
Abel Jansz Tasman of the Dutch East India Company discovered Tasmania in 1642 and named the island after Antony Diemen, Governor of the Dutch East India Company. Van Diemen’s Land was next sighted by the French Captain, du Fresne in 1772 just two years after Cook had sighted the east coast of Australia. Just 16 years later the British settled at Botany Bay and to deter further French exploration and possible settlement on Van Diemen’s Land they established an outpost of NSW on the island in the 1803. Prior to this, explorers like Captain Bligh in 1792 had sighted and named Mt Wellington and George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the island in 1798. David Collins began the first island settlement in 1803 at Risdon, but moved it to Sullivan’s Cove in 1804(the wharf area of Hobart). Also in 1804, a northern settlement began at what is now George Town under the control of Colonel Paterson. Paterson moved this settlement to Launceston in 1806. In was not until 1812 that Governor Macquarie acted to bring all Van Diemen Land settlements under the control of the Hobart Town. The settlements all became independent of NSW in 1825 when Van Diemen’s Land with allowed its own judiciary and Governor.
What happened to the Aborigines of Tasmania?
During the last Ice Age, New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania were joined as one land mass as levels were lower. During this cold period (about 35,000 years ago) Aborigines settled lowland parts of Tasmania. As the world warmed, sea levels dropped and about 12,000 years ago Aboriginal groups were left isolated on Tasmania. When whites began settlement of Tasmania there were 9 tribes on the island compromising between 4,000 and 10,000 Aboriginal people. Conflict between British settlers and military and the Aborigines began almost straight away with the first significant conflict at Risdon in May 1804 just before Collins moved the settlement to Sullivan’s Cove. Once the Van Diemen’s Land Company was formed and began operations in the North West near Stanley in 1826, conflict with Aboriginal people escalated.
The biggest known massacre was at Cape Grim near Stanley on lands of the Van Diemen’s Land Company in February 1828. Four shepherds are believed to have located a group of Aboriginal people. They shot 30 of them and threw their bodies off a 60 metre high cliff into the ocean. The massacre was retaliation for the killing of 118 sheep by the aboriginal people. This in turn had been retaliation for the abduction of aboriginal women by the shepherds (although some of this was undoubtedly undertaken by visiting whalers and sealers to the area). Trouble had begun as soon as the Company established grazing properties at Cape Grim in 1826. The magistrate of the area, Mr Edward Curr, a manager of the Van Diemen’s Land Company decided not to investigate the massacre and no charges were laid against the white shepherds. It was two years before another government official visited the area, investigated the reports and concluded that 30 people had been massacred. By the time of the 1830 round up or “Black Line,” only 60 of the estimated 500 Aboriginal people living in the North West area in 1826 were still alive. 1826 was the year when the Van Diemen’s Land Company established itself there! But this terrible massacre is forgotten history, or is it? (Remember we visit Highfield House the headquarters of the 250,000 acre Van Diemen’s Land Company estate near Stanley.)
In 1828 martial law against Aboriginal people in settled areas was proclaimed by Governor Arthur. The next step was the famous “Black Line” of 1830 whereby authorities tried to round up all aboriginal people, not already in missions, by forming an impenetrable line. The idea was to round up all Aborigines that might threaten settlers in the central districts and drive them on to the Tasman Peninsula where Port Arthur is now located. Some 5,000 men were involved in the 1830 march at the astronomical cost of £30,000. It was a dismal failure. Only two Aborigines were captured. It was Arthur’s greatest failure as Governor of VDL. But this amazing act was followed by the rounding up of all Aboriginal people known and moving them off Van Diemen’s Land to Wybalenna on Flinders Island. The authorities were determined to have no interference from aboriginal Tasmanians. In 1847 the last remaining Aborigines (47 in all) at Wybalenna were transferred to a new mission at Oyster Cove near Hobart. This was the final act in the subjugation of Tasmanian aboriginals, following the loss of their hunting lands, the capture and enslavement of their women, and the conflict and massacres. So within 50 years of settlement the Aboriginal population had dropped from between 4,000 and 10,000 to just 47. Apart from gun shots and violence, dislocation to Flinders Island, disease, and cultural destruction had almost destroyed an entire peoples. The last full blood Aboriginal to die was Trugannini of bronchitis in 1876.
In 2002 the massacre story re-emerged. Keith Windschuttle in his book: “The Fabrication of Aboriginal History” claimed there was very little violence against Aborigines in Tasmania. Only 118 known Aboriginal deaths were ever recorded but around 200 whites were killed by Aboriginals between 1824 and 1831(hence the Black Line episode). Windschuttle believes most Aborigines died of disease. He argued that muskets were slow to reload so it is implausible that four shepherds at Cape Grim could shoot 30 fast running Aboriginal people. Several academics including Ian MacFarlane in his PhD and Josephine Flood in her book: “The Original Australians” have disputed Windschuttle’s claims. The controversy continues.
Lithograph from the Allport Library Collection, Hobart.
French lithograph of VDL natives (from the Allport Library Collection, Hobart.)
Convict Settlement to Colony: 1803-1825.
Following Nicholas Baudin’s voyages and charting around SA and Van Diemen’s Land in 1802 Governor King got nervous about the intentions of France. So he despatched naval officer John Bowen to establish a convict settlement on the Derwent in 1803. He arrived there in September 1803. Meantime the British government had sent Captain Collins with a fleet and settlers to establish a new settlement on Port Phillip (where Sorrento is now located.) He arrived there in 1803. He decided the site was unsuitable and moved himself and his settlers on to the Derwent in January 1804. Governor King sent orders that Bowen was to hand over control of the settlement to Collins but Bowen tarried and did not do this until May 1804. Bowen left and returned to England at the end for that year and Collins became Lieutenant Governor. Hobart became the third settlement after Port Jackson, (1788), Norfolk Island (1790) and then Risdon Cove (1803). Governor King was still worried about French intentions of colonising so he also sent Captain William Paterson to form a settlement on the Tamar at Port Dalrymple in November 1804. Thus began the settlement of Launceston in 1806 when he moved to the better location of the junction of the South Esk and Tamar Rivers. Governor Macquarie interfered and had the settlement moved to George Town on Bass Strait. He relented in 1824 as he was about to leave NSW and Launceston was again founded!
The Van Diemen Land settlements began as convict outposts of NSW with the first direct shipment of convicts from England only arriving in Hobart in 1812. But the British Colonial Office wanted to make money from these penal settlements so from 1813 the colony was open to international trade and commerce. Most convicts in DVL, as in NSW, were assigned to landowners to work for them or to government building teams. But in 1821 a major convict camp was opened in Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast for the most serious offenders. Conditions here were harsh, bleak because of the incessant rain and cold, and brutal. It was also a costly exercise to provision a penal settlement so far from a major port and agricultural areas. Few convicts could escape as there was no other settlement on the west coast to escape too. Mainly because of its cost Macquarie Harbour penal settlement was closed in 1833 and these worst offenders moved to another isolated penal site surrounded by water on three sides- Port Arthur. The other early penal settlement on Maria Island which had opened in 1821 was closed at the same time in 1832 and its convicts also moved to Port Arthur. The new largest penal community had begun in1830 at Port Arthur.
The 1820s saw some fairly rapid growth in Hobart and elsewhere. In 1821 Governor Macquarie of NSW visited VDL and personally named and selected sites for free townships at Perth, Campbell Town, Ross, Oatlands, and Brighton thus opening up the central region between Hobart and Launceston.
Van Diemen’s Land and the Norfolk Island Connection.
A ship was sent out from the fledgling Botany Bay settlement in 1788 to settle Norfolk Island. A mere seven officials and 15 convicts were sent in 1790. More followed in the early 1790s.It was a strategic but financially burdensome settlement and so the British Colonial Office made the decision to abandon Norfolk Island in 1805. The convicts, guards and free settlers were ordered to move to Van Diemen’s Land. The first Norfolk Islanders arrived in VDL in 1805 and by 1808 a total of 713 settlers and convicts had arrived. The last 200 occupants of Norfolk Island were sent to VDL in 1813. The convicts were accommodated in VDL prisons, and the free settlers moved up the Derwent River to New Norfolk (1808) and in the north near Launceston to Norfolk Plains (1813). This latter settlement had its named changed to Longford in 1833.
When the Norfolk Islanders arrived in VDL they increased the Hobart population overnight from 483 people to 1,060 people. Little food was available and accommodation was short so arrivals had to share lodgings with convicts. Any remaining convicts were pardoned and all received land grants. Most of the free Norfolk Islanders had been convicts at some stage. Around 50% were given land grants, usually 10 acres or less around Sandy Bay and Glenorchy, and 30% were moved up the Derwent to New Norfolk. The Islanders mainly had farming skills. However, Lieutenant Governor Collins, head of the VDL settlement found a new mistress among the Norfolk Islanders- a 16 year old called Margaret Eddington. Her parents were convicts but she had been born as a free women. Collins was 53 years old in 1808 when Margaret arrived. Collins had two children with Margaret, one in 1808, the other in 1809. He died suddenly in 1810 and was buried on site that was to become St David’s Cathedral. He had also had two children with a mistress in Sydney in the 1790s.
But the saga of the connection with Norfolk Island did not end there. In 1824 Norfolk was re-opened as a convict prison for the worst of the worst prisoners. It gained a reputation for brutally, inhumanity and the harshest of discipline. When transportation to NSW ended in 1840 the British government still kept sending convicts to Norfolk Island. Around 2,000 were there at any one time. In 1842 the control of Norfolk was transferred from NSW to VDL because VDL still had convict transportation. Just before self government was granted to NSW in 1856 the British government transferred control of Norfolk Island back to NSW and the convicts on Norfolk at that time were evacuated to Port Arthur in 1855. This occurred even though convict transportation to the soon to be self governing Tasmania had ceased in 1852. One final point: after closing down Norfolk Island for a second time in 1855 the British government then re-opened it in 1856 by settling 194 Pitcairn Islanders, mainly descendants of the Mutiny of the Bounty sailors, to Norfolk Island. Some Tahitians moved with the Pitcairn islanders.
Penal Colony to Self Government in Tasmania: 1825-1856.
This period began in 1825 with VDL being separated from NSW and becoming a colony in its own right. In that same year the Richmond Bridge, Australia’s oldest, which was begin in 1823 was finally opened to traffic. In 1826 the Van Diemans Land Company began its operations on the North West coast near Stanley. The period of the 1830s and 1840s saw VDL grow in population and settlement spread across the northern plains near Launceston, through the centre of the island, and around the Hobart area. It was a period when grand houses, fine churches and small villages were settled usually with much of their wealth coming from wool. Perhaps one sign of the maturing colony was the arrival of the first Anglican Bishop in 1843, the Rev. Francis Nixon who lived in Bishopsbourne, now called Runnymede in North Hobart which we will visit. By then the Aborigines had been subdued but Bishop Nixon found plenty of missionary work necessary to improve living conditions for the Aborigines. This was also the period when libraries, hospitals, newspapers, sailing clubs and sport teams were established.
In 1836 (the year when SA was founded) when Governor Arthur, the first VDL Governor, left the colony to be the Governor of Upper Canada the population had reached 43,000 of which 24,000 were “free” settlers. But most of these free settlers had been convicts at some stage and had been pardoned.
In 1849 the first anti-transportation (of convicts) meeting was held in Launceston. Shortly after this the British Colonial office announced that transportation to NSW, Queensland and Van Diemen’s Land (but not WA) would cease in 1853. The last convict ship from England arrived in Hobart in May 1853 (but convicts arrived from Norfolk Island in 1855). Partial self government was introduced in 1850 by the British Colonial Office. Full independence was not granted until 1856 when the colony’s name was change from Van Diemen’s Land to Tasmania. Later the name of the capital, Hobart Town, was changed to Hobart in 1881.
But the convict heritage of Tasmania was not simply wiped away with the cessation of transportation in 1853. Convicts at Port Arthur were not released and the British did not withdraw its last militia forces from Port Arthur and Tasmania until 1870. Port Arthur finally closed as a prison in 1878 just a couple of years before the beautiful church at Port Arthur church was destroyed by fire. There were almost 900 prisoners at Port Arthur in 1863 including 100 who were serving life sentences. When it closed in 1878 it had 200 inmates (prisoners, convicts, paupers and lunatics.) But the convict built heritage of Tasmania survived for us to see and admire today.
Hobart. The city at dusk. Early Exploration.
Abel Jansz Tasman of the Dutch East India Company discovered Tasmania in 1642 and named the island after Antony Diemen, Governor of the Dutch East India Company. Van Diemen’s Land was next sighted by the French Captain, du Fresne in 1772 just two years after Cook had sighted the east coast of Australia. Just 16 years later the British settled at Botany Bay and to deter further French exploration and possible settlement on Van Diemen’s Land they established an outpost of NSW on the island in the 1803. Prior to this, explorers like Captain Bligh in 1792 had sighted and named Mt Wellington and George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the island in 1798. David Collins began the first island settlement in 1803 at Risdon, but moved it to Sullivan’s Cove in 1804(the wharf area of Hobart). Also in 1804, a northern settlement began at what is now George Town under the control of Colonel Paterson. Paterson moved this settlement to Launceston in 1806. In was not until 1812 that Governor Macquarie acted to bring all Van Diemen Land settlements under the control of the Hobart Town. The settlements all became independent of NSW in 1825 when Van Diemen’s Land with allowed its own judiciary and Governor.
What happened to the Aborigines of Tasmania?
During the last Ice Age, New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania were joined as one land mass as levels were lower. During this cold period (about 35,000 years ago) Aborigines settled lowland parts of Tasmania. As the world warmed, sea levels dropped and about 12,000 years ago Aboriginal groups were left isolated on Tasmania. When whites began settlement of Tasmania there were 9 tribes on the island compromising between 4,000 and 10,000 Aboriginal people. Conflict between British settlers and military and the Aborigines began almost straight away with the first significant conflict at Risdon in May 1804 just before Collins moved the settlement to Sullivan’s Cove. Once the Van Diemen’s Land Company was formed and began operations in the North West near Stanley in 1826, conflict with Aboriginal people escalated.
The biggest known massacre was at Cape Grim near Stanley on lands of the Van Diemen’s Land Company in February 1828. Four shepherds are believed to have located a group of Aboriginal people. They shot 30 of them and threw their bodies off a 60 metre high cliff into the ocean. The massacre was retaliation for the killing of 118 sheep by the aboriginal people. This in turn had been retaliation for the abduction of aboriginal women by the shepherds (although some of this was undoubtedly undertaken by visiting whalers and sealers to the area). Trouble had begun as soon as the Company established grazing properties at Cape Grim in 1826. The magistrate of the area, Mr Edward Curr, a manager of the Van Diemen’s Land Company decided not to investigate the massacre and no charges were laid against the white shepherds. It was two years before another government official visited the area, investigated the reports and concluded that 30 people had been massacred. By the time of the 1830 round up or “Black Line,” only 60 of the estimated 500 Aboriginal people living in the North West area in 1826 were still alive. 1826 was the year when the Van Diemen’s Land Company established itself there! But this terrible massacre is forgotten history, or is it? (Remember we visit Highfield House the headquarters of the 250,000 acre Van Diemen’s Land Company estate near Stanley.)
In 1828 martial law against Aboriginal people in settled areas was proclaimed by Governor Arthur. The next step was the famous “Black Line” of 1830 whereby authorities tried to round up all aboriginal people, not already in missions, by forming an impenetrable line. The idea was to round up all Aborigines that might threaten settlers in the central districts and drive them on to the Tasman Peninsula where Port Arthur is now located. Some 5,000 men were involved in the 1830 march at the astronomical cost of £30,000. It was a dismal failure. Only two Aborigines were captured. It was Arthur’s greatest failure as Governor of VDL. But this amazing act was followed by the rounding up of all Aboriginal people known and moving them off Van Diemen’s Land to Wybalenna on Flinders Island. The authorities were determined to have no interference from aboriginal Tasmanians. In 1847 the last remaining Aborigines (47 in all) at Wybalenna were transferred to a new mission at Oyster Cove near Hobart. This was the final act in the subjugation of Tasmanian aboriginals, following the loss of their hunting lands, the capture and enslavement of their women, and the conflict and massacres. So within 50 years of settlement the Aboriginal population had dropped from between 4,000 and 10,000 to just 47. Apart from gun shots and violence, dislocation to Flinders Island, disease, and cultural destruction had almost destroyed an entire peoples. The last full blood Aboriginal to die was Trugannini of bronchitis in 1876.
In 2002 the massacre story re-emerged. Keith Windschuttle in his book: “The Fabrication of Aboriginal History” claimed there was very little violence against Aborigines in Tasmania. Only 118 known Aboriginal deaths were ever recorded but around 200 whites were killed by Aboriginals between 1824 and 1831(hence the Black Line episode). Windschuttle believes most Aborigines died of disease. He argued that muskets were slow to reload so it is implausible that four shepherds at Cape Grim could shoot 30 fast running Aboriginal people. Several academics including Ian MacFarlane in his PhD and Josephine Flood in her book: “The Original Australians” have disputed Windschuttle’s claims. The controversy continues.
Lithograph from the Allport Library Collection, Hobart.
French lithograph of VDL natives (from the Allport Library Collection, Hobart.)
Convict Settlement to Colony: 1803-1825.
Following Nicholas Baudin’s voyages and charting around SA and Van Diemen’s Land in 1802 Governor King got nervous about the intentions of France. So he despatched naval officer John Bowen to establish a convict settlement on the Derwent in 1803. He arrived there in September 1803. Meantime the British government had sent Captain Collins with a fleet and settlers to establish a new settlement on Port Phillip (where Sorrento is now located.) He arrived there in 1803. He decided the site was unsuitable and moved himself and his settlers on to the Derwent in January 1804. Governor King sent orders that Bowen was to hand over control of the settlement to Collins but Bowen tarried and did not do this until May 1804. Bowen left and returned to England at the end for that year and Collins became Lieutenant Governor. Hobart became the third settlement after Port Jackson, (1788), Norfolk Island (1790) and then Risdon Cove (1803). Governor King was still worried about French intentions of colonising so he also sent Captain William Paterson to form a settlement on the Tamar at Port Dalrymple in November 1804. Thus began the settlement of Launceston in 1806 when he moved to the better location of the junction of the South Esk and Tamar Rivers. Governor Macquarie interfered and had the settlement moved to George Town on Bass Strait. He relented in 1824 as he was about to leave NSW and Launceston was again founded!
The Van Diemen Land settlements began as convict outposts of NSW with the first direct shipment of convicts from England only arriving in Hobart in 1812. But the British Colonial Office wanted to make money from these penal settlements so from 1813 the colony was open to international trade and commerce. Most convicts in DVL, as in NSW, were assigned to landowners to work for them or to government building teams. But in 1821 a major convict camp was opened in Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast for the most serious offenders. Conditions here were harsh, bleak because of the incessant rain and cold, and brutal. It was also a costly exercise to provision a penal settlement so far from a major port and agricultural areas. Few convicts could escape as there was no other settlement on the west coast to escape too. Mainly because of its cost Macquarie Harbour penal settlement was closed in 1833 and these worst offenders moved to another isolated penal site surrounded by water on three sides- Port Arthur. The other early penal settlement on Maria Island which had opened in 1821 was closed at the same time in 1832 and its convicts also moved to Port Arthur. The new largest penal community had begun in1830 at Port Arthur.
The 1820s saw some fairly rapid growth in Hobart and elsewhere. In 1821 Governor Macquarie of NSW visited VDL and personally named and selected sites for free townships at Perth, Campbell Town, Ross, Oatlands, and Brighton thus opening up the central region between Hobart and Launceston.
Van Diemen’s Land and the Norfolk Island Connection.
A ship was sent out from the fledgling Botany Bay settlement in 1788 to settle Norfolk Island. A mere seven officials and 15 convicts were sent in 1790. More followed in the early 1790s.It was a strategic but financially burdensome settlement and so the British Colonial Office made the decision to abandon Norfolk Island in 1805. The convicts, guards and free settlers were ordered to move to Van Diemen’s Land. The first Norfolk Islanders arrived in VDL in 1805 and by 1808 a total of 713 settlers and convicts had arrived. The last 200 occupants of Norfolk Island were sent to VDL in 1813. The convicts were accommodated in VDL prisons, and the free settlers moved up the Derwent River to New Norfolk (1808) and in the north near Launceston to Norfolk Plains (1813). This latter settlement had its named changed to Longford in 1833.
When the Norfolk Islanders arrived in VDL they increased the Hobart population overnight from 483 people to 1,060 people. Little food was available and accommodation was short so arrivals had to share lodgings with convicts. Any remaining convicts were pardoned and all received land grants. Most of the free Norfolk Islanders had been convicts at some stage. Around 50% were given land grants, usually 10 acres or less around Sandy Bay and Glenorchy, and 30% were moved up the Derwent to New Norfolk. The Islanders mainly had farming skills. However, Lieutenant Governor Collins, head of the VDL settlement found a new mistress among the Norfolk Islanders- a 16 year old called Margaret Eddington. Her parents were convicts but she had been born as a free women. Collins was 53 years old in 1808 when Margaret arrived. Collins had two children with Margaret, one in 1808, the other in 1809. He died suddenly in 1810 and was buried on site that was to become St David’s Cathedral. He had also had two children with a mistress in Sydney in the 1790s.
But the saga of the connection with Norfolk Island did not end there. In 1824 Norfolk was re-opened as a convict prison for the worst of the worst prisoners. It gained a reputation for brutally, inhumanity and the harshest of discipline. When transportation to NSW ended in 1840 the British government still kept sending convicts to Norfolk Island. Around 2,000 were there at any one time. In 1842 the control of Norfolk was transferred from NSW to VDL because VDL still had convict transportation. Just before self government was granted to NSW in 1856 the British government transferred control of Norfolk Island back to NSW and the convicts on Norfolk at that time were evacuated to Port Arthur in 1855. This occurred even though convict transportation to the soon to be self governing Tasmania had ceased in 1852. One final point: after closing down Norfolk Island for a second time in 1855 the British government then re-opened it in 1856 by settling 194 Pitcairn Islanders, mainly descendants of the Mutiny of the Bounty sailors, to Norfolk Island. Some Tahitians moved with the Pitcairn islanders.
Penal Colony to Self Government in Tasmania: 1825-1856.
This period began in 1825 with VDL being separated from NSW and becoming a colony in its own right. In that same year the Richmond Bridge, Australia’s oldest, which was begin in 1823 was finally opened to traffic. In 1826 the Van Diemans Land Company began its operations on the North West coast near Stanley. The period of the 1830s and 1840s saw VDL grow in population and settlement spread across the northern plains near Launceston, through the centre of the island, and around the Hobart area. It was a period when grand houses, fine churches and small villages were settled usually with much of their wealth coming from wool. Perhaps one sign of the maturing colony was the arrival of the first Anglican Bishop in 1843, the Rev. Francis Nixon who lived in Bishopsbourne, now called Runnymede in North Hobart which we will visit. By then the Aborigines had been subdued but Bishop Nixon found plenty of missionary work necessary to improve living conditions for the Aborigines. This was also the period when libraries, hospitals, newspapers, sailing clubs and sport teams were established.
In 1836 (the year when SA was founded) when Governor Arthur, the first VDL Governor, left the colony to be the Governor of Upper Canada the population had reached 43,000 of which 24,000 were “free” settlers. But most of these free settlers had been convicts at some stage and had been pardoned.
In 1849 the first anti-transportation (of convicts) meeting was held in Launceston. Shortly after this the British Colonial office announced that transportation to NSW, Queensland and Van Diemen’s Land (but not WA) would cease in 1853. The last convict ship from England arrived in Hobart in May 1853 (but convicts arrived from Norfolk Island in 1855). Partial self government was introduced in 1850 by the British Colonial Office. Full independence was not granted until 1856 when the colony’s name was change from Van Diemen’s Land to Tasmania. Later the name of the capital, Hobart Town, was changed to Hobart in 1881.
But the convict heritage of Tasmania was not simply wiped away with the cessation of transportation in 1853. Convicts at Port Arthur were not released and the British did not withdraw its last militia forces from Port Arthur and Tasmania until 1870. Port Arthur finally closed as a prison in 1878 just a couple of years before the beautiful church at Port Arthur church was destroyed by fire. There were almost 900 prisoners at Port Arthur in 1863 including 100 who were serving life sentences. When it closed in 1878 it had 200 inmates (prisoners, convicts, paupers and lunatics.) But the convict built heritage of Tasmania survived for us to see and admire today.
Quay Quarter Sydney. AMP Centre.
When it was built in 1976 it boasted 45 floors with the sole purpose of providing commercial office space all of which were contained within the concrete, steel and glass enclosure.
At the time of its completion the Peddle Thorp & Walker designed Mainline built structure had a roof height of 188 metres (617ft) which made it Sydney’s tallest building where from 2011-2017 the Port Authority of NSW positioned a radar on the top of the building to monitor commercial shipping in Sydney Harbour.
In 2013 BVN Architecture Pty Ltd (trading as Bligh Voller Nield) designed a masterplan for the Quay Quarter Sydney project which involved a new tower.
BVN in conjunction with AMP Capital and the City of Sydney conducted a design competition for Quay Quarter Tower which saw the winning design entry submitted by 3XN a Danish architectural practice headquartered in Copenhagen and with offices in Stockholm, London, New York and Sydney.
BVN were appointed as the Executive Architect to work with 3XN and develop their design for construction.
Construction began in early 2018 following the approvals of the project in 2015.
The appointment of the lead contractor for the project was Multiplex and they were tasked with a rebuild and reclad of the building’s exterior along with a height increase and the incorporation of the existing floor space.
Overall the building would be transformed with a complete modernisation of its external appearance and design.
On completion the redevelopment phase the height of the building was increased to a height of 216 m (709 ft) and now boasted a new floor level of 54 floors with a completely revamped interior and a100% increase in total floor space.
Today the AMP Centre is known as Quay Quarter Tower and was topped out in 2021 (In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction.
Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlayed into a media event for public relations purposes. It has since come to mean more generally finishing the structure of the building, whether there is a ceremony or not. It is also commonly used to determine the amount of wind on the top of the structure).
It was finally completed in early 2022.
The International High-Rise Award in November 2022 paid the ultimate recognition outstanding contribution of 3XN and BVN injected into the project.
But the greatest honour was bestowed in December 2022 when the architects were awarded the World Building of the Year Award announced at the World Architecture Festival held in Lisbon, Portugal.
Circular Quay.
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Governor Bligh's statue Circular Quay, Sydney. He was not only the victim of a mutiny but a military coup which ended his governorship of NSW in 1808. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bligh
On a rocket to the fourth dimension... (HSS) 1 Bligh Street, Sydney
Happy Sunday Slider!
YX16 OKB (6553) ARRIVA Kent & Surrey Alexander Dennis - Enviro 400 MMC - YX16 OKB (6553) is seen at Chatham Bus Station before departing on route 140 to Earl Estate, Bligh Way Shops on 19th January 2024
Ex Arriva Midlands 4524
*please be aware that all buses I drive and take pictures of are made safe before doing so*
1 Bligh Street, Sydney I took a few pics of this atrium with a 10mm and a 14-24mm lens before I was advised that I was "not allowed to use that kind of camera here" and that using a phone was okay. I packed up and came back later - Kind of worked better this way I think.
1 Bligh Street, Sydney 53488797730_d71956fd0f_b
Fortkerk (Fort church) in Willemstad, Curaçao Buy this photo on Getty Images : Getty Images
Built in 1769 as part of Fort Amsterdam in what is now the UNESCO World Heritage City of Willemstad, Curaçao, the Fortchurch is a Historic Monument.
It has sturdy walls that were built to withstand any attack. A cannonball imbedded in an exterior wall has been left as a reminder of the attack by the British in 1804 when the Fort was shelled. (Local legend has it that the cannonball was fired from Captain Bligh's infamous Bounty).
The original tower of the Church was octagonal and was replaced by a round one in 1903, which is clearly marked on the facade.
Submitted: 20/01/2024
Accepted: 21/01/2024
SN15 LNK (6480) ARRIVA Kent & Surrey Alexander Dennis - Enviro 400 - SN15 LNK (6480) is seen at Earl Estate, Bligh Way Shops on 16th January 2024 before departing on route 140 to Chatham Bus Station
*please be aware that all buses I drive and take pictures of are made safe before doing so*