The Botany Bay Medallion

‘The Act of 1786 [Geo. III. c.59] for the Encouragement of the Southern Whale Fishery proved to be the foundation of an important industry…in the wake of whalers other British traders would follow.

The furtherance of this plan became one of the central objects of Lord Hawkesbury’s commercial policy’. Vincent T. Harlow, Vol. 2, Founding of the Second British Empire 1763-1793, Longmans, London 1964

Governor Arthur Phillip RN knew establishing land bases, to support a ship-based whaling industry in the Southern and Indian oceans, known to be teeming with marine life, was prominent among the many ambitions Prime Minister William Pitt and his ‘secretive inner circle’ of powerful politicians Lord Hawkesbury, Henry Dundas and Lord Mulgrave had for New Holland.

‘The tremendous monster, who had occasioned the unhappy catastrophe just recorded [ 7 September 1790 Governor  Phillip’s spearing] was fated to be the cause of further mischief to us’. Marine Captain Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, Ed. L.F. Fitzhardinge, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1961

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1790 – Manly Beach,3 September: ‘A native [Wileemarin] with a spear in his hand came forward…His excellency held out hand…advancing towards him…the nearer, the governor approached, the greater became the terror and agitation of the Indian’. Marine Captain Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, ed. L.F. Fitzhardinge, Angus and Robertson, 1961

Starvation, kidnap, disease, death, dispossession and dispersal. Wileemarin, from Broken Bay, had every reason to fear the advancing Governor. See: Kidnapped – Manly What’s in a Name

‘When leaving Bay [24 January 1788] Phillip noticed two [2] French ships in the offing…there would seem to be “some justification for the saying that England won Australia by six [6] days”. Edward Jenks, History of the Australian Colonies, cited H.E. Egerton, A Short History of British Colonial Policy, Methueun, London 1928  See: Australia – Britain By A Short Half-Head

The spearing of Governor Phillip must be seen in the context of the race between France and England to invade and occupy the island continent of New Holland,now Australia.

‘To remove his fear, governor Phillip threw down a dirk, he wore at his side…the other [Wileemarin] alarmed at the rattle of the dirk, and probably  misconstruing the action, instantly fixed his lance, aimed his lance with such force and dexterity striking the governor’s right shoulder, just above the collar bone’. Tench. ibid.

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‘The territory of England is too small for its population. She requires a monopoly of the four [4] corners of the globe to enable her to exist. War procures this monopoly, because it gives England the right of destruction at sea’. Napoleon, cited Jonathan Holslag, A Political History of the World, 3000 Years of War and Peace, Pelican, 2018  

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‘Phillip was authorised to see to the defence of the colony…Military and police raids against dissenting Aboriginal groups lasted  from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

These raids [‘kill 6… bring in the heads’] had commenced by December [14] 1790′.Professor Bruce Kercher, History of Law in Australia, Allen and Unwin, 1995

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‘Dawes whose duty it was to go out with that party [14 December] refused that duty by letter’.  Professor G. Arnold Wood, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society Vol. X, 1924, Part  1

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‘From 1788 there had been continuous disputation between the civil power represented by the autocratic uniformed naval governors and the military’. John McMahon, Not a Rum Rebellion But a Military Insurrection, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 92, 2006

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1790 – September 7, Manly Beach: A ‘tremendous monster’ stranded on Manly Beach.  Aborigines greeted the seasonal return of their totem with ‘rapture’.  After an extremely lean winter the whale flagged the promise of coming abundance.See: Manly Location, Location, Location

The stranding however proved a tipping point for ‘further mischief’ that can be linked to the near annihilation of a free people, Australia’s First Nations’ Peoples. See: Arthur’s Algorithm – ‘infuse universal terror’ open – sesame

Governor Arthur Phillip’s career in the Royal Navy had began harpooning whales in the Arctic. Now (1790) armed with a pistol, dirk’ and a bottle or two of fine French reds he was rowed across to Manly where he met up again with the warrior Bennalong.

‘[The governor] uncorked a bottle, and poured out a glass of it, which the other [Bennelong] drank off with his former marks of relish and good humour, giving for a toast, as he had been taught “the King”. Marine Captain Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, ed. L.F. Fitzhardinge, Angus and Robertson, 1961 

A little way off a group of ‘other’ Aborigines stood watching this strange pantomime.

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