|
1. King George’s Sound.—In 1825, when Sir Ralph Darling was appointed Governor of
New South Wales, his commission was supposed to extend over all that part of
Australia which lies between the 139th meridian and the eastern coast. Not that
the whole of this country, or even the twentieth part of it, was occupied by
settlers—the region was merely claimed as British territory. But the remainder
of Australia, comprising about two-thirds of the continent, had not, as yet,
been annexed by any European nation; and when, in 1826, a rumour prevailed that
the French were about to occupy that region, the Sydney people were alarmed
lest so great a territory should thus be lost for ever to the British Empire;
they, therefore, in that year, sent a detachment of soldiers to take formal
possession of the country and to found a settlement at King George’s Sound.
From this early effort, however, no practical result ensued; and, during the
few years of its existence, the place continued to be nothing more than a small
military station.
2. Swan River.—But, in 1827, an
English captain, named Stirling, after having sailed along the western coast,
gave a most favourable account of a large river he had seen on his voyage. He
was not the first discoverer of this river, which, as early as 1697, had been
visited by a Dutch navigator, named Vlaming, who was sailing in quest of a
man-of-war supposed to have been wrecked on these shores. Vlaming had seen this
stream, and, astonished by the wonderful sight of thousands of jet black swans
on its surface, had given to it the name of Swan River. But it had remained
unthought of till Captain Stirling, by his report, awakened a warm and hopeful
interest in this district.
Shortly afterwards the British Government resolved to found a colony on
the banks of this river, and Captain Fremantle arrived as the pioneer of the
intended settlement. When he landed on the shore, he found that a nearer view
of the country was far from realising the expectations formed by those who had
viewed it merely from the open sea. He began to have forebodings, but it was
now too late—the ships, containing eight hundred of the first settlers, were
already close at hand; and, in the course of a week or two, after narrowly
escaping shipwreck on the reefs along the shore, they landed Captain Stirling,
the first Governor, with his little band, on the wilderness of Garden Island.
Here, in this temporary abode, the colonists remained for several
months—sheltering themselves in fragile tents, or in brushwood huts, from the
rough blasts and the rains that beat in from the winter storms of the Indian
Ocean. Exploring parties set out from time to time to examine the adjoining
mainland; but, however fair it seemed from a distance, they found it to be
merely a sandy region, covered with dense and scrubby thickets. The only port
was at a place called Fremantle, where there was but little shelter from the
storms of the open ocean; and the only place suitable for a town was several
miles up the Swan River, where the waters expand into broad but shallow
lagoons. Here the colonists determined to build their city, to which they gave
the name of Perth. But the site was not favourable to enterprise; an impassable
bar stretched across the mouth of the river, which was, therefore, inaccessible
to vessels. The goods of the colonists had to be landed on an exposed beach at
Fremantle, and then carried overland through miles of sand and scrub.
In 1830 about a thousand new immigrants arrived; and towards the end of
this year the colonists succeeded in settling down in their new homes at Perth.
3. Land Grants.—Most of these immigrants were attracted to Western
Australia by the prospect of obtaining large estates; they knew how valuable
land was in the well-settled countries of Europe, and, when they heard of
square miles in Australia to be had for a few pounds, they were captivated by
the notion of so easily becoming great landed proprietors. But the value of
land depends upon surrounding circumstances, and ten acres in England may be
worth more than a whole wilderness in West Australia. At that time foolish
notions were in every quarter prevalent as to what could be done by means of
land. The British Government thought it possible to make the colony
self-supporting by paying for everything with grants which cost it nothing, but
which would be readily accepted by others as payment. Thus the Governor,
instead of his yearly salary, was to receive a hundred thousand acres, and all
the officials were to be paid in the same manner. The land was distributed in
great quantities to people who had no intention of using it, but who expected
that, by the progress of colonisation, it would increase enormously in value,
and might then be sold for splendid prices.
To induce immigrants to bring with them useful property, the Government
offered a bonus of twenty acres for every three pounds worth of goods imported;
and the colonists—quite unconscious of the future that lay before them—carried
out great numbers of costly, though often unsuitable, articles, by means of
which the desired grants were obtained. It was found difficult to convey this
property to the town, and much of it was left to rot on the shore, where
carriages, pianos, and articles of rich furniture lay half-buried in sand and
exposed to the alternations of sun and rain.
Splendid horses and cattle of the finest breed had been brought out, but
they wandered useless in the bush. For, till the country was surveyed, nothing
could be done in the way of agriculture; and, even after the surveys were
completed, owing to a regulation that those whose grants exceeded a square mile
should be allowed the first choice, all the sections nearest to the town were
obtained by officials and wealthy speculators, who had no intention of using
them. Many of these persons held a district almost as large as an English
county, and, therefore, the lands remaining for selection by farmers and small
purchasers were generally far in the interior. The sections were pointed out on
the maps, but the places themselves had never been trodden by a white man’s
foot, and were held by tribes of hostile savages. Some, indeed, tried to settle
upon these distant regions, but they were lonely and isolated, and many of them
perished, either from disease and hunger, or by the spears of the natives. Yet
there were very few who made any attempt at agriculture, and the costly ploughs
and implements that had been imported lay rusting on the beach. The horses and
cattle died off, the sheep that had been introduced at great expense were almost
all killed through feeding on a poisonous plant, which grew in patches over the
country; and the men themselves were forced to loiter at Perth, consuming their
provisions and chafing at their ruinous inaction.
4. Mr. Peel.—There was one gentleman who had spent fifty thousand pounds in bringing with him to
the colony everything that could be required for farming and sheep-breeding on
a magnificent scale. He brought with him three hundred labourers; but the land
was by no means so fertile as he had imagined, and he
had scarcely commenced his farming operations when he found that his only
escape from ruin was to enter, single-handed, on the self-dependent life of the
ordinary settler.
5. Gloomy Prospects.—Matters grew
worse and worse, and those of the disappointed colonists who had sufficient
prudence to start before their means were all exhausted either returned to
Europe or sought the other colonies, where several achieved success—notably the
brothers Henty, who settled at Launceston and established at Portland Bay the
whaling station already mentioned. The gloomy reports of those who reached
England prevented any further accession of immigrants, and in 1835 it was
rumoured, though erroneously, that the British Government intended to abandon
the place.
In the following year (1836) the colony of South Australia was founded;
and a great extent of territory previously marked as belonging to West
Australia was assigned to the new settlement. These two colonies, during their
early years, experienced trials and difficulties of the same kind; but while
South Australia, in a short time, emerged to a career of brilliant prosperity
through sturdy determination to make the land productive, West Australia for
forty years never enjoyed more than a transitory gleam of success.
6. Introduction of Convicts.—This little improvement consisted of a message received from
Earl Grey in 1848 asking the settlers if they were willing to accept convicts
in their midst. The other colonies had refused them, but it was thought not
unlikely that West Australia might be glad to get them. Opinions were divided
as to the reply which ought to be given: while some were averse to the idea,
others believed that the money sent out by the British Government to maintain
the convicts and soldiers would originate a trade which might give to the
colony new life and fresh prospects. These arguments prevailed, and in 1849 the
first shipload of convicts arrived. From time to time new gangs were received,
and the place began to be much more populous than before. The shopkeepers in
Perth became rich, and the farmer squatters of the surrounding districts found
a ready market for their produce. Yet this success was only partial; and there
was nothing which might be said to constitute general prosperity. In the little
town of Fremantle, the few and scattered houses had still a rural aspect, and
the streets echoed to the sound of no commercial bustle. In Perth the main
street was still a grassy walk, shaded by avenues of trees, and even in the
business quarter the houses stood each in the midst of its spacious garden.
7. Evils of Convictism.—West Australia
had now to suffer the consequences of having become a penal settlement. Many of
the convicts, on being liberated, took up their abode in the colony; but their
dispositions were seldom either amiable or virtuous, and from the vices of
these men the whole population began to lose character in the eyes of other
countries. A large number of the prisoners were no sooner liberated than they set
off for the goldfields in the eastern colonies, which thus began to share in
the evils of convictism. These colonies were not inclined to suffer long in
this manner; and, to defend themselves, they refused admission to any person
who came from West Australia, unless he could show
that he had never been a convict. Thus the colony at Swan River was branded,
and held to be contaminated; no free immigrants sought its shores, and many of
its best inhabitants departed.
This stigma continued to rest on West Australia until the year 1868,
when the transportation of criminals from Great Britain altogether ceased, and
the colony no longer received its periodical supply of convicts. Since that
time it has, in a great measure, retrieved its character; it is now doing what
it can to attract free immigrants, and offers large tracts of pastoral land at
low rentals, while the farming classes are attracted by free selection at only
ten shillings an acre, with ten years in which to pay it. It has joined Perth
to Albany by a good railway, and several branch railways have been constructed,
as well as a large number of telegraph lines; and at Albany, the town on King
George’s Sound, it has established a coaling depôt for the mail steamers on
their way to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. But West Australia is still what
it was called twenty years ago, “the giant skeleton of a colony,” consisting of
about forty thousand people, scattered over a hundred thousand square miles of
territory, behind which stretches a vast region of unexplored wilderness. There
is every indication, however, that its progress in the near future will be
rapid. Up to 1870 it formed what was called a Crown colony: the people had no
voice in their own government; their affairs were managed for them by the
officers of the English Government. At that date, however, when transportation
was abolished, the colony was promoted to the partial management of its own
affairs, and the people began periodically to elect a Legislative Council. In
1890 it was still further promoted, being raised to the full dignity of an
independent colony, having, like the other colonies of Australia, a Parliament
of two Houses, with power to make and unmake its own laws as it pleases. Perth
is now rapidly increasing, and the colony is on the eve of its palmy days.
CHAPTER XVI.
|
