Convict Settlement to Colony: 1803-1825.
Following Nicholas Baudin’s voyages and charting around SA and Van Diemen’s Land in 1802 Governor King got nervous about the intentions of France. So he despatched naval officer John Bowen to establish a con-vict settlement on the Derwent in 1803. He arrived there in September 1803. Meantime the British government had sent Captain Collins with a fleet and settlers to establish a new settlement on Port Phillip (where Sorrento is now located.) He arrived there in 1803. He decided the site was unsuitable and moved himself and his settlers on to the Derwent in January 1804. Governor King sent orders that Bowen was to hand over control of the settlement to Collins but Bowen tarried and did not do this until May 1804. Bowen left and returned to England at the end for that year and Collins became Lieutenant Governor. Hobart became the third Australian settlement after Port Jackson, (1788) and Norfolk Island (1790). Governor King was still worried about French intentions of colo-nising so he also sent Captain William Paterson to form a settlement on the Tamar at Port Dalrymple in November 1804. This became the settle-ment of Launceston in 1806 when he moved to the better location of the junction of the South Esk and Tamar Rivers. Governor Macquarie inter-fered after 1812 and had the settlement moved to George Town on Bass Strait again. He relented in 1824 as he was about to leave NSW and Launceston was founded yet again!
The Van Diemen Land settlements began as convict outposts of NSW with the first direct shipment of convicts from England only arriving in Hobart in 1812. Prior to then convicts came from Sydney. But the British Colonial Office wanted to make money from these penal settlements so from 1813 the colony was open to international trade and commerce. Most convicts in DVL, as in NSW, were assigned to landowners to work for them or to government building teams. But in 1821 a major convict camp was opened in Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast for the most serious offenders. Conditions here were harsh, bleak because of the in-cessant rain and cold, and brutal. It was also a costly exercise to provi-sion a penal settlement so far from a major port and far from agricultur-al areas. Few convicts could escape as there was no other settlement on the west coast to escape too. Mainly because of its cost Macquarie Har-bour penal settlement was closed in 1833 and these worst offenders moved to another isolated penal site surrounded by water on three sides- Port Arthur. The other early penal settlement on Maria Island which had opened in 1821 was closed at the same time in 1832 and its convicts also moved to Port Arthur. The new largest penal community thus began in1830 at Port Arthur.
The 1820s saw some fairly rapid growth in Hobart and elsewhere. In 1821 Governor Macquarie of NSW visited VDL and personally named and selected sites for free townships at Perth, Campbell Town, Ross, Oat-lands, and Brighton thus opening up the central region between Hobart and Launceston.
Salamanca Place.
In the 1830s as trade opened up in VDL the wharves were on Hunter Island, now Hunter Street. But the waters were more sheltered on the Salamanca side of the harbour so convicts were employed to mine the steep hill side, create a quarry, and built a new shore line so that deep sea facilities for ships could be provided near Salamanca. John Lee Archer was involved in this 1827 plan to re-shape Sullivans Cove which included building up soil in front of the Customs House. In the 1840s the dock facilities moved to Salamanca Place and the large warehouses were built. The apple industry used the sheds right on the wharves in the 20th century. By the 1970s the area was derelict so the Tas. government bought seven warehouses to create an arts centre in 1976. Soon the other warehouses were privately renovated into upmarket galleries, shops and cafes.
American Rebel Memorial in Princess Park.
In 1839 a number of convicts (around 160) were transported from Canada to Tasmania because they had taken part in a rebellious movement against the British Crown. They were American patriots who had crossed into Canada, but some were French prisoners from French Canada. They had an uprising, were eventually arrested and shipped to Australia but only the American rebels were offloaded in Hobart. (The French rebels were offloaded in Sydney.) They were given hard labour at Port Arthur. The society they belonged to- the Hunters Lodge – had about 20,000 members who urged the Canadians to fight the British. Seven uprisings occurred. Queen Victoria pardoned the Americans between 1844-48. Only a few stayed on in Australia. None stayed in Tasmania. Most returned to the USA.
Battery Point, Arthurs Circus, and the Lena House Hotel.
Originally guns guarded the harbour from the point, hence the name Battery. Wealthy merchants chose to live there by the 1850s with Alexander McGregor being a good example. He arrived in Hobart from Scotland in 1831.He built up a large whaling fleet and bought Lenna House site from a ship’s captain once he was wealthy. He built this grand house around 1860 with a roof top tower for watching his sailing ships come up the Derwent estuary. It is now a fine hotel, so you can walk in side and look around. Despite two marriages he had no children. Opposite the Lenna is a fine example of a wooden fancy gabled Tudor Gothic style house in Runnymede Street. At the top of Runnymede St is Arthur’s Circus- named after the Governor with its quaint cottages and large horse Chesnuts in the middle of the circus. Is this really Australia? Although in England by the time of its development, Arthur owned this land at Battery Point and sold it off for housing in 1847. The blocks around the circus were all narrow frontage, suitable for workers’ cottages. The cottages were all built around 1850. Battery Point was home to master mariners, shipwrights, seamen, fishermen, shipping agents shipbuilders and as wealthy merchants.
St Georges Anglican Church.
The story of St George’s begins in 1836 with services commencing in 1838. The church was consecrated by Bishop W. G. Broughton, the first and only Bishop of Australia. St George’s was designed in the Neo-Classical style then current in London. The only other examples of this style of church left in Australia are one in Richmond and one in Sydney. The Government architect, John Lee Archer, designed the body of the building; the tower and porch were designed by convict architect, James Blackburn. The church has an unusual layout, with two side aisles instead of a single central aisle. It still has its original cedar box pews. The Government agreed to grant convict labour, stone and timber for the church tower. Lime, lead and glass had to be provided by the church members. By 1847 the tower was finally completed, but the porch and the rooms at the basement of the tower were left unfinished. St George’s porch was not added until 1888. The stone for its fine fluted Grecian columns was quarried at Bellerive. James Blackburn (1803–1854), was a civil engineer, surveyor and architect who had been transported for forgery in 1833. He was pardoned in 1841, but continued in private practice as an architect until 1849. His work included: St Mark’s Anglican Church at Pontville (Romanesque), the Lady Franklin Museum (Grecian) and The Grange at Campbell Town (Tudor).
Narryna House.
Narryna was built as a grand Georgian style house in 1836, one of the first on the hill at Battery Point for Captain Haig. He had built a warehouse down in Salamanca Place in 1833 and lived in that with his family whilst the house was completed. He sold it in 1842 and the property then had many different owners. It is a fine box like, very symmetrical simple Georgian house of grand proportions and constructed with first class quality sandstone. One long time resident was an early mayor of Hobart and a MP. The government bought the house as a TB hospital in 1946. It was established as Australia’s first heritage house museum in 1955.
St David’s Park.
This was originally the first Hobart graveyard, right opposite the first hospital on the corner of Salamanca Place and Davey Street. Was this a coincidence or expeditious planning? In 1926 the graveyard was converted into this park. In the centre is a fine memorial to Lieutenant Governor Collins. Some of the old headstones are now on the wall behind the Tasmanian Supreme Court. Collins you will remember was the first Lieutenant Governor of VDL and found a new mistress among the Norfolk Islanders, 16 year old Margaret Eddington. In Sydney he had had two children with Ann Yeates in the 1790s. His wife always remained in England. He had two illegitimate children with young Margaret Eddington before he died in 1810. His morals and administration were heavily criticised by the NSW Governor William Bligh.
