Southland the Early Days of the Colony the First Year 1788 Learning Activities Activity

The first year – 1788

/ Read the following activity sheet to discover, month by month, what life was like in the colony in its first year, 1788, and its effects on the Aboriginal people.
January
British / Eora
26thJanuary 1788
Governor Phillip chooses a spot in Sydney Cove to proclaim New South Wales a British colony. Along with some of the soldiers, he raises the Union Jack to show that (in their eyes) the British are the new owners of the land.
On the first day, all the soldiers and male convicts come ashore to start chopping trees and clearing the ground. The females have to stay on board the ship until the ground is cleared. They set up tents to sleep in. On the last day of January, there is a huge storm and heavy rain drenches the tents.
/ The Eora do not think the strangers who came in the boats will stay. They think the boats look like giant birds.
A group of Aboriginal people go down to the water’s edge. They shout and wave their spears at the strangers in the boats. They think these pale-skinned people look strange, especially in all their heavy clothing.
February
British / Eora
Lots of people become sick because they do not have enough fresh vegetables. Seeds are planted but the seedlings die.
On the 6th of February, the female convicts are allowed to come to shore. Everyone is living in tents.

‘Hut in New South Wales’ in Phillip A1790,
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay,PByrne et al,Dublin(Monash University Library Rare Books Collection). / The local Eora people are curious about what is going on in the camp. Some Aboriginal women come down to the beach where Phillip’s men are working. They are talkative and happy. They help the men make a fire and seem very friendly.
They still do not think these visitors will stay. The first contact between the British and the Aboriginal people is friendly.
When Governor Phillip goes exploring further up the bay, he meets more of the Eora people. At this stage, most of the contact is still friendly.
March
British / Eora
Governor Phillip orders the soldiers and convicts to build proper huts for the winter. They have to cut down trees and clear the ground. The weather gets worse with lots of rain and more people get sick.
Some of the convicts start to steal food and clothes.
An older Aboriginal man and a younger Aboriginal boy help Governor Phillip to explore the bay.
/ As time passes, the Eora watch the colonists chopping trees, clearing land and building houses. They realise that these people are not going to leave. They seem to have taken over their traditional land. The local Aboriginal people cannot understand why this has happened.
There is a fight between the convicts and the local Eora people. The fight breaks out because the convicts want to use the land. The Aboriginal people are custodians of the land and they know they must look after it. One convict is wounded in this battle.
April
British / Eora
Governor Phillip takes a group of 11 men inland to explore for new land to use. They get as far as Parramatta.
People have found they can hunt and eat local animals and birds. They kill kangaroos, cockatoos and crows for food.
/ The Eora cannot understand how the land can be ‘owned’ by these strangers. The idea that land can be taken by people who do not belong to it seems strange to them. In Aboriginal law, the land belongs to the people, not to individuals. For the Aboriginal people, the land that belongs to one group of people has no value to people from another group.
May
British / Eora
One of the ships from the First Fleet, the Lady Penrhyn, leaves to sail to China. It is the first ship to leave the colony.
Two convicts are killed at RushcuttersBay.

‘View of the Settlement on Sydney Cove, Port Jackson 20th August, 1788’ in Hunter J 1793, An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, London
(La Trobe Rare Books Collection, State Library of Victoria). / On the 29th of May, the first major conflict over land issues between the First Fleet arrivals and the Aboriginal people takes place. It happens near RushcuttersBay, Sydney, and two convicts are killed. Two days later, Phillip sends out an expedition to find and punish those responsible.
June
British / Eora
The colonists have trouble with dingoes, which attack the farm animals. Many colonists find it difficult living in these harsh conditions.
Lots of cattle die from eating poisonous plants. Some are lost when
no-one looks after them properly.
The convicts start to build a stone house for the governor.

‘Governor’s House at Sydney, Port Jackson 1791’ in Bradley W 1802,
A Voyage to New South Wales, manuscript (Mitchell Library, State Library ofNew South Wales). / The lifestyle of the colonists affects the traditional lifestyle of the Aboriginal people. Trees are cut down and the land cleared. This destroys the traditional plants and habitats of local plants and animals upon which the Eora depend.
The Eora people find the governor’s house strange at first. They have not seen anything like it before because they never build permanent homes.
July
British / Eora
With the establishment of the colony in New South Wales, the number of people trying to live off the land and sea doubles. By July, with no plants growing for food and with fish moving out of the bay to deeper water, there is not enough food to go around. / The local Aboriginal people begin to starve because they are not able to find food as easily as before. Colonists continue to take more new land for themselves and deny Aboriginal people access to their land.
To add to this, they are denied access to the two freshwater creeks.
The colonists seem to be taking over more and more of their land all
the time.

August
British / Eora
In August 1788, Phillip, accompanied by an exploration party, travels overland from Manly Cove to Pittwater and back.
Food is becoming short in the new colony. The large number of people in the colony trying to live off the land is affecting the local environment. The colonists are depleting the number of fish in the bay, killing kangaroos and polluting the streams.
/ The Aboriginal people are facing the prospect of starvation because the colonists have taken over their hunting and gathering sites. There are incidents of violence between British and Aboriginal people.
The colony is running out of food. Governor Phillip decides to send his flagship Sirius to South Africa to get supplies of food. Until now, the Eora have always survived wellon local plants, fish and native animals. Now they are forced away from their land in order to find food.
September
British / Eora
The colony consists of two streets with four rows of huts. The windows have no glass because it is all needed for the governor’s house.
The colonists are beginning to starve. They do not know how to choose and eat local plants and they are not very good fishermen. They begin to steal the weapons of the Aboriginal people to sell in Britain.

A view in Port Jackson New South Wales/
print from engraving (1791) by James Heath
(Reproduced with permission ofNational Maritime Museum Collection 00000853). / They are very good fishermen. They do not worry about leaving their tools and canoes lying around because it has always been safe to do so.
October
British / Eora
None of the seeds planted at Sydney Cove grow well, so a new area growing seeds is started. The convicts are sent inland to Rose Hill to start digging the ground. / There is new contact between the Aboriginal people and the British with boat traffic along the ParramattaRiver between Sydney Cove and Rose Hill, as well as escaped and lost convicts and marines straying into the bush.

November
British / Eora
Governor Phillip is very worried. The supplies of food are low and lots of people have died. He finds the land is very harsh. They can’t eat the local plants and the seeds they brought from England have not grown. He is hoping the ship, the Sirius, will return from South Africa with food.
/ Although the food supplies of the Eora people have been affected by people taking over their land, they are still able to survive on local plants and animals.
December
British / Eora
There is a sermon on Christmas Day but the convicts get nothing special to eat. The governor has a special lunch but only the officers are invited to dine with him.
The colonists decide they have to be able to talk to the local Aboriginal people if they are to ‘get on together’.

‘A chain gang: convicts going to work nr. Sidney N.S Wales’ in Backhouse J 1842, Narrative of a visit to the Australian Colonies, Hamilton Adams, London (Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office). / The Aboriginal people are not keen on the idea of talking to the colonists. They do not believe that people can own traditional land.
They have always been taught to respect the land and its traditional owners. In their traditional culture, they would not go onto another group’s land without first asking permission.