History
First Fleet in Sydney Cove 1788
The voyage of the First Fleet from Portsmouth to the Great
South Land ranks as one of the greatest achievements in the history of
sailing. True to his responsibilities, Arthur Phillip guided his fleet
through rough seas and foreign ports with unmatched skill.
He deemed Botany Bay unsuitable and gained a viable place
to establish a settlement at Sydney Cove where he founded a colony beyond
the limits of the unknown.
One could say the colony began as large scale experiment. A
cutting from a northern stock was planted on this temperate shore and left
to itself All outside influences were cut off; the experiment was
isolated. The soil promised little; the climate offered a fair field.
These thousand-odd people were set down in neutral country and with
centuries of civilisation behind them; they had to begin at the beginning
in a new physical environment. They had to solve the problem of living-of
living with an alien soil, and of living with one another. They had to
create their world, spiritual as well as material, from scratch. There was
loneliness. They were bounded by sky and sea and a hinterland as
impenetrable and more unkind than either. How to live together in the
harsh environment was something the colonists had to discover.
Governor Phillip guided the settlement through periods when
starvation was likely and encouraged cultivation. The early days saw
contact between Europeans & Aboriginal people marked by curiosity on both
sides and a desire to live together. Unfortunately for some; relations
broke down into confusion, anger & open hostility. Governor Phillip had
demanded kindness towards the Aborigines, a policy he maintained even
after he was speared in the side.
Albeit the privations, there can be no doubt the First
Fleet Arrivals developed the ability to cope with an entirely different
life in a new and sometimes harsh and unfriendly environment. The First
Fleet Pioneers had written the first of many pages that would live forever
in the history of Australia.
Compiled by Jean Mortimer,
Sources of information;
National Museum Canberra, Phillip of Australia by: MB
Eldershaw, My memory of history studied.
Australia.
Australia- the word
Australia is Latin for southern. For many years before its settlement the
Europeans posited a great land in the south, which they called Terra
Australis. With the Dutch discoveries of the 17th century however the
continent was named 'New Holland'.
This remained the name of the area until Matthew Flinders
published a book on his explorations entitled
A Voyage to Terra Australis
In a footnote to this work Flinders stated that he
preferred the name' Australia' .
Macquarie read this and began to use the name in his
official correspondence. The name 'New Holland' persisted in some quarters
until the 1840s.
First
Fleeter Buried on the South Coast.
John Gowen
HMS Sirius
Corporal of
Marines
26th
January 1788
1791
John Gowen became a marine settler on Norfolk
Island.
1794
Returned to Sydney and joined the NSW Corps as a non-commissioned officer.
1880
Resigned and became Official Government Storekeeper.
1805
John married convict Ordery Appleyard. John
had been granted land in Sydney, Liberty Plains,
Bankstown,
Prospect Creek, Minto and
Petersham Hill.
Moved to
Liverpool on the corner of Elizabeth
and George
streets.
1819 Orderly
passed away.
1821 John
married convict Mary Wood.
1827 Mary
passed away.
1837 John Gowen died at Kiama age 74
while staying with his daughter
Frances.
Buried at Christ Church Anglican Church
Kiama.
John Gowen born circa 1761 died
28-4-1873.
By Ordery
Appleyard had the following children.
Mary
b 17-5-1806
Ann
b circa 1807
John
b 15-12-1810
Frances
b circa 1813
Elizabeth
b 24-4-1816
By Mary Wood
no surviving children.
Albion Park / Macquarie
Rivulet.
Surveyor General Oxley, by
order of Governor Macquarie, on the 2nd Day of December 1816,
met the grantees of and located the first lands in Illawarra. Royal Marine
George Johnston from the First Fleet was one of the recipients.
George Johnston, Esquire,
Senior, (Major Johnston), 1500 acres (Macquarie Gift), on the west side of
Macquarie Rivulet.
1887 Across the Macquarie
Rivulet from Albion Park lived Mr. E.H.Weston. a grandson of Major
Johnson, the original grantee of Johnson’s Meadows. Mr. Weston was a great
horse lover and breeder. He was particularly successful with his jumping
horses at all the district shows. At that time too, he was a prominent
member of the Illawarra Lancers (later Illawarra Light Horse), rising to
the rank of Major. From this body several volunteers went with the
Australian Light Horse to the Boer War.
The Broad Arrow
The Broad Arrow - used to identify property of the
government and probably best known on convicts' uniforms. Henry Sidney,
Earl of Romney, Master of Ordnance to William and Mary, was asked to mark
all government property to reduce theft. He chose to use his family emblem
which is a broad arrow, or Pheon, and this is still in use today by the UK
government 300 years later.
