Great Moments in Australian History

388 Pages·2010·25.816 MB·English

by  King, J.

Other books (selected) by Jonathan King
The Other Side of the Coin (1976)
Stop Laughing, This is Serious! (1978)
Waltzing Materialism: Attitudes that shaped Australia (1978)
A Cartoon History of Australia (1980)
Governor Phillip Gidley King (with John King, 1982)
The First Fleet: Convict voyage that founded a nation (1982)
The First Settlement: Convict village that founded a nation (1985)
In the Beginning: The founding of Australia from the original documents (1986)
Voyage into History (1987)
Australia’s First Fleet: The original voyage and the re-enactment (1988)
Battle for the Bicentenary (1989)
The Man from Snowy River (1995)
Australia’s First Century: A pictorial history of Australia (2000)
Gallipoli Diaries: The Anzacs own story, day by day (2003)
Gallipoli: Our last man standing (2004)
Mary Bryant: Her life and escape from Botany Bay (2004)
Gallipoli’s Untold Stories (2005)
Historica (2006)
Western Front Diaries: The Anzacs own story, battle by battle (2008)

For Jane King (née Lewis),
my wife, who worked long and hard on this book,
as she did on all of my other books
First published in 2009
Copyright © Jonathan King 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
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is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational
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Foreword
I
t is a bright idea to select the great moments in Australian history and breathe
life into them.
This book presents over sixty of those moments or turning points: Governor
Arthur Phillip sailing into Sydney harbour in 1788, the first Aboriginal reaching
Britain, the exploring of the Blue Mountains and the vast dry interior, and the
excitement of finding rich gold in an Australian creek. Here is a labourer winning
the Victoria Cross at Gallipoli, the first woman—a West Australian—winning a
seat in parliament, and some tense moments of World War II. I know of no other
Australian book with this approach, though Justice Michael Kirby recently urged
Canberra to devote a whole museum to the ‘Defining Moments’ in our history.
Jonathan King begins each episode with his version of the conversations and
gestures that might have taken place between those who observed or created these
moments. I must admit that I feel uneasy when I see, in history books, these
conversations being plucked from the vanished airwaves. At the same time, many
Australians now learn much of their history from films and television specials,
and there the conversations are freely ‘made up’. Significantly, in the last fifty years
no single history book has been so powerful a teacher as the film Gallipoli.
Jonathan King has often tried to awaken Australians to their history, and
believes that the awakening has far to go. His book sets out to reach ‘people
who do not normally buy history books’. Many historians—even those who
might choose a different set of moments—hope that his book succeeds.
Geoffrey Blainey
Melbourne
v
Contents
Introduction ix
Timeline xiv
Prelude Sixty thousand years ago: Aboriginal arrival xxi
1606 First European lands in Australia, by mistake 1
1629 Batavia savagery kickstarts European history in Australia 5
1770 Captain Cook discovers east coast of New Holland 10
1783 A New Yorker ‘invents’ Australia 16
1788 Lieutenant King befriends Botany Bay Aborigines 21
1788 Captain Phillip founds a European settlement half a world from Europe 26
1791 Mary Bryant makes the greatest convict escape 32
1793 Bennelong becomes first Aborigine to meet the King 37
1804 Flinders puts Australia on the map 41
1805 John Macarthur ‘starts’ wool industry 46
1808 Rum Rebellion deposes Governor Bligh 51
1810 Lachlan Macquarie lays foundations for a great city 56
1813 Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth cross Blue Mountains 60
1834 Buckley ‘Murrangurk’: Wild white man returns from dead 66
1851 Hargraves discovers gold and transforms colonies 71
1854 Peter Lalor leads Eureka rebellion demanding democracy 77
1856 Trade union leader James Stephens wins eight-hour day 83
1860 Burke and Wills cross continent for first time 87
1880 The last stand of Australia’s most famous bushranger 92
1889 Sir Henry Parkes inspires colonies to form a nation 96
1890 Man from Snowy River springs to life 102
1895 Banjo Paterson and Christina Macpherson create ‘Waltzing Matilda’ 107
1901 Barton ushers in new nation of Australia 112
1904 John Watson forms world’s first Labour Government 119
1912 Mawson survives Antarctic blizzard for Australia’s sake 124
1914 HMAS Sydney, round 1: Captain Glossop sinks Germany’s Emden 130
1915 Charles Bean lands with the Anzacs at Gallipoli 135
1915 Albert Jacka wins Australia’s first Gallipoli VC 141
1917 Sir John Forrest rides first transcontinental train 147
1917 Light Horse charge captures Beersheba 151
1918 General Monash wins turning-point battle of Hamel 157
1919 Smith brothers fly from England to Australia 163
1921 Women break new ground as Edith Cowan enters Parliament 168
1927 Dame Nellie Melba helps open nation’s new Parliament 172
1930 Melbourne Cup wonder horse Phar Lap wins Australian hearts 176
1932 Jack Lang and Captain de Groot open Sydney Harbour Bridge 181
1934 Bradman conquers world cricket 186
1934 ‘Smithy’ flies the world to conquer the skies 190
1941 HMAS Sydney, round 2: Germans sink Australian flagship 194
1941 Fearful Prime Minister switches allegiance from Britain to USA 201
1942 Watchman spots Japanese midget sub attacking Sydney Harbour 206
1942 Chocolate soldiers stop ‘Japs’ on Kokoda Track 211
1943 Enid Lyons becomes first woman elected to Federal Parliament 218
1945 Dr Florey wins Nobel Prize for saving soldiers’ lives 224
1945 Dancing Man celebrates Second World War victory 228
1954 Queen Elizabeth II conquers Australian hearts 231
1956 Golden Girl stars in first Olympics ‘Down Under’ 236
1965 Charlie Perkins’ Freedom Ride confronts racism 242
1971 Jack Mundey introduces world’s first green bans 248
1971 Boomerang thrower becomes first Aboriginal parliamentarian 254
1972 Aborigines achieve separate representation with Tent Embassy 259
1972 Whitlam leads Labor to power, breaking 23-year drought 265
1973 Queen opens Sydney’s Opera House without Utzon 270
1975 Governor-General sacks Prime Minister Whitlam 275
1983 Green pioneer Bob Brown helps save Franklin River 282
1983 John Bertrand wins America’s Cup in Australia II 288
1988 ‘First Fleet’ tall-ships thrill Australia 294
1993 Eddie Mabo wins land rights victory 301
2000 Cathy Freeman wins Olympic gold in Sydney 306
2002 Doctor saves lives after Bali bombings 311
2007 Julia Gillard becomes highest-placed woman in politics 316
2008 Prime Minister says ‘sorry’ to Aborigines 321
2008 HMAS Sydney found after sixty-six years 327
2009 Residents pioneer ‘go’ not ‘stay’ in nation’s worst bushfires 332
2009 Captain Bligh’s descendant becomes first elected female Premier 338
Acknowledgements 342
Picture credits 344

IntroduCtIon
t
his book highlights some of the great moments in Australian history—the
key events that defined the nation.
Each moment and its historical background is reported in the style, and at
roughly the length, of a newspaper feature story. Since the choice of events is
bound to leave some readers dissatisfied, it’s appropriate to explain the selection
criteria. The main one was news value. All the events had to be headline-
making—either ‘front-page news’ in its day or important enough in hindsight
to have hit the front pages. They had to be of wide significance, affecting the
whole nation rather than sectional interests. This approach generally favoured
big-picture events over great achievements by individuals, though most stories
are told from a single point of view. The story of Sydney’s founding by Captain
Arthur Phillip, for example, tells us a great deal about the first British settlement
from the European point of view; the account of Bennelong’s tragic life reflects
the consequences of that settlement for indigenous Australians.
The events also had to be turning points, altering the course or character of the
nation. Edward Hargraves’s 1851 revelation that gold was to be found in New
South Wales, for example, helped launch a gold rush that completed the transfor- This Aboriginal rock
mation of the former penal colonies into thriving societies of free settlers. painting of the Lightning
Many of the stories, particularly those that cover the best-known events, are Brothers, Yagjadbulu and
told from the perspective of the people involved. We see James Cook taking Jabaringi, was traditionally
possession of the continent’s east coast for Britain; Gregory Blaxland, William associated with the
Lawson and William Wentworth crossing the Blue Mountains; the Australian arrival of rain—always
Imperial Force landing at Gallipoli and establishing the Anzac legend; Prime celebrated when it finally
Minister John Curtin transferring Australia’s allegiance from Britain to the United came after the long dry
States in the face of a seemingly imminent Japanese invasion; and Eddie Mabo periods that characterised
winning recognition of title to his ancestral lands in 1993. life in northern Australia.
ix
Great MoMents in australian History
The events include significant firsts, such as Willem Jansz’s becoming the
first European to land on Australian soil; Edith Cowan’s becoming the first
woman elected to Parliament; and John Bertrand’s 1983 America’s Cup win, the
first by a non-American challenger in 132 years. They also include colourful or
dramatic events, such as the wreck of the Batavia in 1629 and William Buckley’s
return to European settlement in 1834 after more than thirty years living with
Aboriginal tribes. Among the individual stories with national impact are those
of New South Wales colonial Premier Sir Henry Parkes, who inspired Federation;
Aboriginal activist Charlie Perkins, who helped break down discrimination; and
environmentalist Bob Brown, who began his distinguished career in the fight
to save the Franklin River.
Even with these guidelines, and the advice of many other historical scholars,
deciding what to include and what to leave out was difficult. I have tried to achieve
a balance between colonial and modern; between men and women; between
Aboriginal and European; and between radical and conservative politics.
The great moments were not all good moments by any means. Some were
very bad, at least for those involved. The sinking in 1941 of HMAS Sydney with
the loss of all hands was a terrible moment, and it left Australians wondering
for the next sixty-six years what had happened. That mystery added to the
significance of the wreck’s eventual discovery.
The stories embrace exploration, war, politics, industrial relations, crime,
sporting achievements, natural disasters and even a little poetry. They are
presented in chronological order and written in a style that first-time readers of
history should find accessible and enjoyable. Since this is a popular book rather
than a scholarly treatise, there are no footnotes or references.
Each story begins with a dramatised opening, in which the historical characters
are imagined acting out or discussing the great moment as it unfolds. Wherever
possible, these are individuals who were in a position to give an eyewitness
account of the event in question, but the settings, action, and dialogue are
fictionalised. In most cases, these dramatisations are based on contemporary
accounts, journals, books, newspaper or magazine reports, or documentary films.
I have also relied on imaginative empathy—on my feel for the subject matter. In
some cases, the characters seemed to put words into their own mouths.
After the opening dialogue, I explain why this was a great moment and
provide the historical background. Each story ends with a postscript that notes
interesting facts, unforeseen consequences or surprising twists. Explorers Robert
x