Lifestyle and Leisure
The history of Botany Bay
Ben Lewis takes a closer look at the history of one of Australia’s most famous places
Starting at the very beginning, we take a look at a place that a certain Captain James Cook happened across on a trip that turned out to be fairly important in the development of Australia as we now know it. In fact it was on 29th April 1770 that Cook anchored in a place that he originally decided to name Stingray Harbour after they noticed an abundance of the creatures in the bay's waters. The harbour was then renamed Botany Bay after members of his team went ashore and discovered a large quantity of previously undocumented plants on the mainland around the bay.
They didn't know it at the time but deciding to land at Botany Bay was to play a large part in dictating where a certain famous city, now known to the world as Sydney was to be developed. The first documented evidence of Australia's discovery by Europeans dates back to 1606, some 164 years before Cook's bay-naming landing. However, by 1770 no one country had taken advantage of the rich resources available to anyone willing risk colonisation. So, under instruction from the King of England, King George III, the purpose of his voyage was to map and lay claim to the country's east coast. And so it was that on Cook's maiden three-year voyage around the world, he charted the Australian coastline in his ship HM Bark Endeavour and on 22nd August 1770, whilst moored at Possession Island, he named the section of eastern Australia where he had landed 'New South Wales'.
It wasn't until eight years later in 1778 that the first fleet of British ships arrived in Botany Bay to take possession of the claimed land. Between the 18th and 20th of January 11 ships led by Captain Arthur Phillips sailed into the bay to offload a cargo of convicts and set up a penal colony. Under the penal colony system British convicts had previously been transported to America. However, with America winning their independence in 1783 this was no longer an option. As a result, with the death penalty becoming increasingly unpopular in Britain, New South Wales proved to be the ideal location to dispose of the country's undesirables. Unfortunately for some, in the 1700's it did not take much to be considered a criminal worth deporting so those first ships were filled with convicts found guilty of everything ranging from pickpocketing to murder.
Typical transportees were young and most likely from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin, and Liverpool, and had been punished before. Once in Australia, the convicts would be assigned to the government or to traders as labourers, under the assignment system. They would have a master assigned to take charge of them. Any misbehaviour of convicts would require them to have their case heard by magistrates who would then decide on the punishment.
On the first journey of colonisation it did not take long before Captain Arthur Phillips realised that Botany Bay itself was a completely inadequate place to start the colony thanks to the sandy infertile soil that rendered it unsuitable for the growth of food and building. Soon after the boats sailed on and the settlement was built in Sydney Cove, a short trip up the coast.
Despite the move, the name Botany Bay was immortalised in the ballads of those who, in times of hardship for many, had lost their loved ones to the prison ships. After surviving some harsh treatment many of the convicts served their time successfully and went on to be granted land and successfully lead lives as Australian citizens, largely to the cost of the aboriginal natives. However, this is another story altogether. In modern times Botany Bay has been well developed and has prospered as a suburb of Sydney and home to the city's international airport. In 1996 the municipality of Botany was formally declared a city in recognition of the growing regional importance of the area.
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