British colonisation of South Australia

The French Nicolas Baudin and the British Matthew Flinders had both made exploratory voyages along the central southern coastline. On 8 April 1802, the vessels of the two explorers met off South Australia, at what is now called Encounter Bay. They each gave names to various places around Kangaroo Island and the two gulfs: Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf. The British Government, not wanting to be pre-empted by the French, sent out expeditions to Port Phillip and northern Tasmania, and set up the first free settlement, the Swan River Colony, in 1829. Historian Geoffrey Dutton suggests three clear phases in the foundation of the colony: first, the practical men, with their discoveries, second, the theorists, in particular Wakefield and Gouger, who had not seen Australia, and, lastly, the settlers, who had to marry fact with ideals. Previous European settlement Prior to the establishment of a formal British colony, Kangaroo Island was inhabited by sealers more or less continuously from 1803, when American sealing captain Isaac Pendleton established an outpost at what was named American River. The island soon became a target for sealers based in the British colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. In 1826, The Australian estimated that Kangaroo Island had a population of around 200 people, who in addition to sealing also traded in salt and wallaby and kangaroo skins. However, following the decline of the sealing industry, the island's population had dwindled significantly by 1836. Several farms were established at Three Well Rivers, with poultry and pigs being reared and barley, wheat and vegetables under cultivation. Many residents lived with Aboriginal women – either from mainland South Australia or Aboriginal Tasmanians from the sealing colonies on Bass Strait – who were often violently abducted from their homelands and made to work as slaves. ==1829–1831==

Wakefield Influenced by prison reformer Elizabeth Fry serving a term in prison for abducting a minor, Wakefield turned his mind to social problems caused by over-population. In 1829, he wrote a series of anonymous "Letters from Sydney" to a London newspaper, The Morning Chronicle, in which he purported to write about his own experiences as a gentleman settler in New South Wales (completely fictitious), outlining his various ideas as a new theory of colonisation. Wakefield saw the colonies as "extensions of an old society"; all classes would be represented among the settlers. In addition, the colonies would be more or less self-governing. His ideas were not original, but Wakefield was the one who synthesised a number of theories into one plan of systematic colonisation, and who spread the ideas among the British public and urged the Colonial Office to push forward with such a plan. After his release from prison in 1830, he funded the National Colonization Society, with Gouger as secretary and a large number of enthusiastic members. In 1831 a "Proposal to His Majesty's Government for founding a colony on the Southern Coast of Australia" was prepared under the auspices of Gouger, Anthony Bacon, Jeremy Bentham and Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, but its ideas were considered too radical, and it was unable to attract the required investment. However, the scheme, which included free trade, self-government and the power to select the Governor, was not approved as these ideas were considered too radical and republican. ==1833–1835==

South Australian Association (1833) In 1833, the South Australian Association was established and began to lobby the government for the establishment of a colony in South Australia, with Crown-appointed governance. The aim of the association was to bring to fruition the idea of "systematic colonisation", as proposed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, in the creation of a new colony in South Australia by the British government. The proposal was for a colony that belonged to the Crown but with its administration run by trustees. The aim of the Association and details of the planned administration of the proposed colony were published on 11 January 1834 in The Spectator: The members of the South Australian Association were men of varied backgrounds, from philanthropists to merchants, including Wakefield, Robert Gouger, Robert Torrens Sr and George Fife Angas. The Act provided for the settlement as the Province of South Australia, for the sale of lands, for funding of the venture, and for governance. • the disposal of land; • an Emigration Fund which for conveying poor emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to South Australia; and • appointing a treasurer, assistant surveyors and other officers necessary to carry the Act into execution. The British government appointed Commissioners to oversee implementation of the Act, to control sales of land and the administration of revenue: thirteen Commissioners were based in London (at 6 Adelphi Terrace in 1840), with a Resident Commissioner appointed by the board and stationed in the colony. Those first appointed, on 5 May 1835, were Colonel Robert Torrens (Chairman), Rowland Hill (Secretary), G. Barnes (Treasurer), George Fife Angas, Edward Barnard, William Hutt, J. G. Shaw-Lefevre, William Alexander Mackinnon M.P., Samuel Mills, Jacob Barrow Montefiore, Lt Col George Palmer, and John Wright, representing the Colonial Office. The first Resident Commissioner was James Hurtle Fisher. Sales of land had proved difficult; buyers did not rush to buy an acre of wild land for 20 shillings. It was left to the South Australian Company (formed on 15 October 1835, after talented businessman George Fife Angas resigned as Commissioner The South Australian Company acted as a "third power" in the control of the colony and the one which saved it. Official appointments The South Australia Act was finally ratified on 19 February 1836 and the first appointments made. ==1836==

Letters Patent and the Order-in-Council The procedure for the founding of the South Australian province was unclear to the Board of Commissioners, so Letters Patent, specifically Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom erecting and establishing the Province of South Australia and fixing the boundaries thereof, were presented to the government on 19 February 1836, and with its adoption along with an Order-in-Council on 23 February 1836 the foundation of the South Australian province was achieved. The main changes in the Letters Patent were to amend the wording in the 1834 document which referred to the land as "unoccupied", and to recognise the rights of the "Aboriginal Natives" to live unhindered within the lands of the Province of South Australia. The first migrant ship, the John Pirie, set sail for the colony three days later. An amendment to the 1834 Act (the South Australia Government Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 60), passed 31 July 1838) incorporated the changes. They had to be between 15 and 30 years of age, preferably married, and needed two references. Steerage passengers paid £15–20, middle berth £35–40, and cabin class £70. Children under 14 years were charged £3 while those under 1 year were free. Montefiore and Lt-Col Palmer helped Colonel Light to prepare two of the ships, Rapid and Cygnet. They proposed a new code for emigrant ships carrying more than 100 passengers, which meant having a minimum deck height and including a medical practitioner on board. These reforms reduced mortality and were later adopted by all British emigrant ships. Four ships chartered by the South Australia Company set sail for South Australia in early 1836: • On 22 February, just days after the Letters Patent had been adopted, the ship John Pirie set sail with 24 passengers on board; • The ship Duke of York set sail with 42 passengers on 24 February. • On 30 March the ship Lady Mary Pelham departed London with 29 passengers. • The fourth ship was the Emma, which left London with 22 passengers on 21 April. All four ships of the South Australia Company arrived at Nepean Bay on Kangaroo Island: the Duke of York on 27 July, Lady Mary Pelham on 30 July, John Pirie on 16 August and Emma on 5 October. More ships left in the coming months, making a total of at least nine, which for convenience can be regarded as the First Fleet of South Australia. Apart from the last one, HMS Buffalo, all went to Nepean Bay first. on 27 July 1836, but this was soon abandoned in favour of a settlement on the mainland. Some of the original ships sailed on to Holdfast Bay in November and December, with Gouger, now Colonial Secretary and Chief Magistrate, arriving on the on 8 November 1836. The settlers set up camp, to be joined by the Buffalo on 28 December. The foundation of South Australia is usually considered to be Governor Hindmarsh's Proclamation of South Australia at Glenelg on 28 December 1836. Colonel Light was given two months to locate the most advantageous location for the main colony. He was required to find a site with a harbour, arable land, fresh water, ready internal and external communications, building materials and drainage. Light rejected potential locations for the new main settlement, including Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and Encounter Bay. Light decided that the Adelaide plains were the best location for settlement. ==Settlement growth==

The settlement grew steadily. In 1836 the South Australian Company imported pure merinos from the German region of Saxony, and cows and goats were also shipped over. Sheep and other livestock were brought in from Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales. The wool industry was the basis of South Australia's economy for the first few years, with the first wool auction held in Adelaide in 1840. The settlers were mostly British, but some German settlers, mainly "Old Lutherans", also emigrated in the early years. The first large group of Germans arrived in 1838, with the financial assistance of the Emigration Fund. Most moved out of Adelaide and to the Barossa Valley and settlements in the Adelaide Hills such as Hahndorf, living in socially closed communities, by 1842, and did not participate in government until responsible government was granted 15 years later in 1857. ==1840: Adelaide City Council==

Established in 1840, with its first meeting held on 4 November 1840, the City of Adelaide Municipal Corporation was the first municipal authority in Australia. At its time of establishment, Adelaide's (and Australia's) first mayor, James Hurtle Fisher, was elected. However, the new corporation suffered financial woes, after several of its actions were unauthorised or reversed by the British government, leading to considerable debt and, so it wound up as insolvent in 1843. ==Architecture and engineering==

The office of Colonial Architect was established by July 1840, with George Strickland Kingston the first appointee to the role. Other architects who served in this role included Richard Lambeth; William Bennett Hays; and Edward Hamilton, with George Soward acting in the position for six months after Hamilton's resignation in 1860. Engineering and architecture departments changed in structure and naming over the years, with the names including: • Colonial Engineer's Office (1841–1852) • Colonial Architects Department [I] (1852–1854) • Public Works Department (1854–1857) • Colonial Architects Department [II] (1854–1860) • Engineer and Architect's Department (1860–1867) From 1867, the functions were split into separate entities: • Engineer in Chief's Department (1867–1906) • Architect in Chief's Department (1867–1960) ==Demise of the Colonization Commission==

As it became evident that the colonial administration had brought the province of South Australia to near bankruptcy in 1840, the South Australian Colonization Commission was stripped of its powers. Records in the State Records of South Australia include a document in which the "Colonization commissioners defend their position as regards responsibility for the crisis" on 17 July 1841. The post of Agent General for Emigration (covering emigration to all colonies) existed from 1837 to 1840, with Thomas Frederick Elliot, youngest son of Hugh Elliot, appointed to the position. After the South Australian Colonization Commission was abolished, SA records shows "Copies of letters from the Colonization Commissioners to the Colonial Office, 1841–1842, and from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners to the Colonial Office, 1842–1843 (GRG 48/2)". (The Colonial Land and Emigration Commission was wound up in 1855, succeeded by the Emigration Commission, which was abolished in 1878.) ==South Australia Act 1842: Crown colony==

The South Australia Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict c. 61) is the short title of an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the long title "An Act to provide for the better Government of South Australia". The Act was passed on 30 July 1842. It repealed the South Australia Act 1834 and the amendments made to that Act, and instituted a different form of Government over the colony. The Act was introduced as a result of recommendations by a British Parliamentary Enquiry into the failure of the colonial administration which had brought the province of South Australia near bankruptcy in 1840, and gave the British Government full control of South Australia as a Crown Colony. ==Moves towards independence==

By the mid 19th century, there was a strong desire for representative and responsible government in the colonies of Australia. The Australian Colonies Government Act 1850 was a landmark piece of legislation, granting representative constitutions to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and the colonies enthusiastically set about writing constitutions which produced democratically progressive parliaments with the British monarch as the symbolic head of state. In 1850 and elections for legislative councils were held in the colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. In 1855, limited self-government was granted by London to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. An innovative secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 1856, in which the government supplied voting paper containing the names of candidates and voters could select in private. This system was adopted around the world, becoming known as the "Australian Ballot". In the same year, all male British subjects ages 21 or over were granted the right to vote. Self-governing colony (1856) South Australia became a self-governing colony in October 1856 with the ratification of a new constitution by the British parliament via the Constitution Act 1856 (UK). This Act provided for a bicameral Parliament with full authority to enact laws, apart from a few Acts requiring Royal Assent. The Legislative Council was elected by property owners only, while the 37-member House of Assembly was elected on a broad male franchise. A parliament was elected by secret ballot on 9 March 1857, by which time 109,917 people lived in the province. Several decades after the federation of Australia in 1901, the Constitution Act 1856 was replaced by the Constitution Act 1934. ==See also==