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THE CONDITION OF THE COLONY
After the disembarkation at Port Jackson at the end of January 1788, all who could work thee employed in putting the stores from the ships under shelter, and in erecting tents and huts. The main burden fell on the convicts, who, according to Captain Watkin Tench of the marines, were given ‘the most slavish and laborious employments’. He continued: Those operations, which in other countries are performed by the brute creation, were here effected by the exertions of men: but this ought not to be considered a grievance; because they had always been taught to expect it, as the inevitable consequence of their offences against society. Severity was rarely exercised on them: and justice was administered without partiality or discrimination. Their ration of provisions, except in being debarred from an allowance of spirits, was equal; to that the marines received. Under these circumstances I record with pleasure, that they behave better than had been predicted of them-To have expected sudden and complete reformation of conduct, were romantic and chimerical.’ (W. Tench, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales, London, 1793, p.3). In midwinter Governor Phillip sent a report back to Lord Sydney in London on the condition of the colony, and on the problem that he had faced in housing and feeding the population, but he concluded his catalogue of trouble with an optimistic forecast of a great future for New South Wales. He wrote:
I have had the honor of informing your Lordship of the situation of his colony prior to the 15th of May, since which two stores have been finished, and the ships are now landing the remainder of the stores and provisions. . .
The hunting the battalion is still going on, and though from seventy to one hundred convicts have been almost constantly employed assisting in this business, it will not, I apprehend, be finished before the end of July; and every day proves the necessity of proper persons being sent out to superintend the convicts. If a small number of carpenters and bricklayers are sent out with proper people, who are capable of superintending the convicts, they will soon be rendered serviceable to the State, and without which they will remain for years a burden to Government. Numbers of then have been brought up from their infancy in such indolence that they would starve if left to themselves; and many (their numbers now exceed fifty), from old age and disorders which are incurable, and with which they were sent to England, are incapable of any kind of work.
Thus situated, your Lordship will excuse my observing and second time that a regular supply of provision from England will be absolutely necessary for four or five years, as the crops for two years to come cannot be depended on for more than what will be necessary for seed, and what the Sirius may procure can only be to breed from. Should necessity oblige us to make use of what that ship may be able to procure, I do not apprehend that the live stock she will bring in twelve months will be more than a month’s provision for the colony; and the Supply is totally unfit for a service of this kind. . .
I have the honour to enclose your Lordship the intended plan for the town. The Lieutenant-Governor has already begun a small house, which forms one corner of the parade, and I am building a small cottage on the east side of the cove, where I shall remain for the present with part of the convicts and an officer’s guard. The convicts on both sides are distributed in huts, which are built only for immediate shelter. On the point of land which forms the west side of the cove on Observatory is building, under the direction of lieutenant Dawes, who is charged by the Board of Longitude with observing the expected comet. the temporary buildings are marked in black; those intended to remain, in red. We now make very good bricks, and the stone is good, but do not find either limestone or chalk. As stores and other buildings will be begun in the course of a few months, some regular plan for the town was necessary, and in laying out of which I have endeavoured to place all public buildings in situation that will be eligible hereafter, and to give a sufficient share of ground for the stores. hospitals,&c., to be enlarged, as may be necessary in the future. The principal streets are placed so as to admit a free circulation of air, and are two hundred feet wide. . . .
If we have been unfortunate in our live stock in general, I had the satisfaction of seeing the cows and horses thrive; but the man who attended the former, having left from for a short time, they strayed and were lost. The loss of four cows and two bulls will not be easily repaired. Pardon, my Lord, these tedious relattions of robberies and losses; it is the only means I have of giving your Lordship a faint idea of the situation in which I am placed. Of the live stock purchased at the Cape, part died on the passage, and the greatest part of what remained since landing. . . .
Of the convicts, 36 men and 4 woman died on the passage, 20 men and 8 woman since landing - eleven men and one woman absconded; four have been executed, and three killed by the natives. The number of convicts now employed in erecting the necessary buildings and cultivating the lands only amounts to 966 - consequently we have only the labour of a part to provide for the whole. . . .
I could have visited to have given you Lordship a more pleasing account of our parents situation: and an persuaded I shall have that satisfaction hereafter; nor do I doubt that this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made; at the same time no country offers less assistance to the first settlers than this does; nor do I think and country could be more disadvantageously placed with respect to support from the mother country, on which for a few years we must entirely depend.
- A. Phillip to Lord Sydney, July 1788, in Historical records of Australia, series I, vol.1, pp. 45-51
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