AUSTRALIA DAY AT SULLIVAN BAY SORRENTO 26 JANUARY 1804
26 January 2018
Each Australia Day we acknowledge our civic events are being held on the traditional land of the Boonwurrung/Bunurong, who were the traditional custodians of the land for many centuries. We go on to acknowledge that the land on which we meet was the place of age old ceremonies, of celebrations, initiation and renewal, and that the Kulin peoples’ living culture had, and continues to have, a unique role in the life of the region.
This acknowledgment is about custodianship, for in a wider sense, we are all custodians of this land and this society. This carries with it our duty to the past, to the present and to the future – to look after this unique place, its culture and its people – a fabulous green wedge hinterland surrounded by two bays, Bass Strait and magnificent coasts.
And Australia Day has a very special place for each of us on the Nepean Peninsula. We may have been born here, chose to live here or chose to become Australian citizens on Australia Day.
At Sullivan Bay near Sorrento and lying between the Eastern and Western Sisters is the place of the first European Settlement in Victoria.
In October 1803, the ships “Calcutta” and “Ocean” carrying Lieut. Governor David Collins, a bold band of officers, marines, convicts, free settlers and a public service – replete with a printing press to publish General Orders – sailed through the Heads arriving at what Collins called the “New Settlement”.
Collins had strict orders to establish a settlement at Port Phillip – pre-empting French interest and exploration.
However, Collins lasted but 15 weeks before abandoning Port Phillip in favour of the Derwent and the establishment of modern Hobart – in all likelihood sailing out of the Bay through the Heads after he re-embarked on the Ocean at 6pm on 26 January 1804 – 214 years ago.
Between 31 December 1803 and 25 January 1804 Collins printed and published ten General Orders providing a unique snapshot of that tottering new settlement.
In the early days of that January, Collins made haste to get away from what he called this “unpromising and unproductive land” – although he knew of accessible plentiful water and a productive hinterland behind Arthurs seat. Much against his religious predilections, he ordered the convicts to work through Sundays reloading the “Ocean”.
Throughout that January, discipline amongst the convicts and his marines was disassembling. Convicts were escaping what Collins now called the “Encampment” – William Buckley had famously done so and survived. Others perished. Others returned famished and were flogged. He ordered a “Night Watch” armed search party to patrol the encampment at night. Collins issued strict “Port Orders” for the prevention of convict stowaways.
The prisoners James Rea and Robert Andrews were punished for “unsoldierlike behaviour” and the NCOs were admonished for their “extreme inattentiveness” in their duty in bringing the men to Parade in a “slovenly and unsoldierlike state”. Shoes were wearing out and provisions were inspected daily and rationed.
Collins was fearful of the Boonwurrung/Bunurong and the danger of nearby fires – probably their fires – ordering the encampment fires out by 9pm. Firearms were to be in constant readiness for service.
Finally, the Ocean was loaded. Collins quit the encampment and boarded the Ocean on the 26th January and Collins sailed with it, passing through the Rip and leaving Port Phillip Bay for ever. He had published his last General Order on January 25, 1804 appointing First Lieut. William Sladden RM next in command. He took his printing press with him. The remaining marines and convicts lingered at the encampment a few more months. The British Government had gone from the new settlement at Port Phillip and the Boonwurrung/Bunurong returned.
So when we think about the 26 January date of Australia Day date in historic Sorrento, this 26 January date has a special significance and cuts both ways. Collins quit Sullivan Bay on 26 January and his failure at Sullivan Bay 214 years ago was his later success at Hobart – and the Boonwurrung/Bunurong resumed the land at Sullivan Bay for another generation.
On this Australia Day we celebrate and think about our diversity of people and lives, our common history with all its tensions and complexity, the remarkable achievements and failures of our society and government and how we can make our nation a better place for our society – for our past, our present and our future.
[Hugh Fraser is a Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor for Nepean Ward. This is an edited version of his 2018 Australia Day address at the Sorrento Bowls Club based on Collins General Orders.]