History of Hobart - 1803 British Settlement

1803 British Settlement

Although several European explorers had navigated along the coast of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) between the 1770s and 1790s, a strong English interest in the Derwent River only began with the return of English Royal Navy Captain William Bligh in 1792 aboard HMS Providence. He stopped briefly in Adventure Bay to take on fresh water before continuing his voyage.

The British government had established a colony at Port Jackson in 1788 under the command of Arthur Phillip which had grown into the settlement of Sydney. Initially founded as a penal colony, by 1800 it was becoming commercially successful as well.

From 1792 until 1802, France and Great Britain had been embroiled against each other in the French Revolutionary Wars, and growing French interest in the South Pacific alarmed the colonists in Sydney. An expedition in 1802 to survey Van Diemen's Land by French explorers Nicolas Baudin and Louis de Freycinet aboard Geographe, Casuarina, and Naturaliste, stopped in the Derwent River to make observations of the indigenous Tasmanians, and the native flora and fauna.

With Bass and Flinders' confirmation in 1798 that Van Diemen's Land was an island, the British claim to the east coast of Australia was not legally valid for Van Diemen's Land. Baudin's presence there caused alarm at the prospect of the French establishing a rival colony, and the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King dispatched a request to the Colonial Office in London for permission to establish a new settlement there.

Whilst King awaited news from London regarding Van Diemen's Land, separate news arrived that the short lived peace with France had been broken by the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars. King decided he could not afford to await word from London and risk France establishing a naval base on Van Diemen's Land.

Acting on his own initiative, he dispatched an expedition under the command of a young 23 year old Lieutenant John Bowen to establish a colony there. Bowen was in command of the whaler Albion. Accompanying him were 21 male and three female convicts, guarded by a company of marines of the New South Wales Corps, as well as a small number of free settlers. The supply ship, the Lady Nelson arrived on 8 September 1803, and HMS Albion arrived on 13 September 1803, thereby creating a presence in Van Diemen's Land for the British.

At the same time David Collins had been dispatched from London in response to King's initial request, and departed from England in April 1803, in command of HMS Calcutta with orders to establish a colony at Port Phillip. Collins had been a member of the First Fleet which had founded Sydney 15 years earlier, and the Colonial Office felt this experience would be invaluable in the creation of a second settlement.

Collins arrived in Port Phillip Bay in October 1803. After establishing a short lived settlement at Sullivan Bay, near the current site of Sorrento, he wrote to Governor King, expressing his dissatisfaction with the location, and seeking permission to relocate the settlement to the Derwent River. Realising the fledgling settlement at Risdon Cove would be well reinforced by Collins' arrival, King agreed to the proposal.

Collins arrived at the Derwent River on 16 February 1804, aboard HMS Calcutta, with Ocean as a supply vessel, immediately taking command from the young Lieutenant by virtue of rank (Collins was a colonel). The settlement that Bowen had established at Risdon Cove was vulnerable to changing tides and poor water supply and did not impress Collins. After three trips across the Derwent River to view possible alternatives, he decided to relocate the settlement 5 miles (8.0 km) down river, on the opposite shore. They landed at Sullivans Cove on 21 February 1804, and created the settlement that was to become Hobart, making it the second oldest established colony in Australia.

In October 1804, Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson was dispatched from Port Jackson by Governor King to establish a second colony on the northern shore of the island. He arrived at the mouth of the Tamar River, and established a camp near the current location of George Town. However, feeling exposed to the off-shore weather, a few weeks later Paterson moved his camp 50.7 km (30.5m) inland to found Launceston.

In January 1807, Lieutenant Thomas Laycock carried dispatches on horseback from Launceston to Hobart Town overland, taking eight days to traverse the island, and he became the first person to make that journey through the interior. His southward journey followed a more westerly route, and he found the mountainous terrain hard going; however his return journey ran through the flatter midlands, and the modern main Midland Highway still follows a similar route to that first Hobart to Launceston ride.