New evidence on Arthur Phillip’s first landing place 26 January 1788

Michael Flynn and Gary Sturgess

The location of Governor Arthur Phillip’s first landing and the flag-raising ceremony in Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 has been an issue of dispute and uncertainty among historians since the 19th century. The cove was divided into an east and west side by the Tank Stream and it was clear that the ceremony was held very close to the landing place, as described by Judge-Advocate David Collins. None of the generally known eyewitness accounts mentioned on which side of the cove the landing took place. History is full of blind spots where chroniclers failed to record something that seemed obvious or commonplace at the time, or because there was so much else going on. Since 2011 we have been working on a close analysis of sources, which allow the spot to be pinpointed with much greater accuracy. Early maps and paintings of Sydney Cove and manuscript journals collected by various institutions over time are now readily accessible through online digitisation. New evidence has emerged, the most significant item being an obscure letter from a First Fleet sailor John Campbell identifying the site as lying on the west side of the cove, the only surviving primary evidence from a First Fleeter. This is supported by the 1847 obituary of First Fleet convict John Limeburner and an entry in the 1806 NSW Pocket Almanack, published when Philip Gidley King (an eyewitness) was Governor. All three sources accord with the persistent 19th century oral tradition of a landing at a spot near the bottom of Bethel Steps, The Rocks (behind the south end of the present Overseas Passenger Terminal),i and a flag raising ceremony held on or very close to George Street, between Cadman’s Cottage and the former Mariners’ Churchii at the corner of Hickson Road.iii In 1789 John Campbell, a seaman on the Lady Penrhyn transport, sent a letter specifically indicating the west side location. It was completely unknown to historians of the First Fleet until digitised in 2010:iv

the Governor went on Shore to take Possession of the Land with a Company of Granadeers & Some Convicts At three A Clock in the Afternoon he sent on board of the Supply Brigantine for the Union Jack then orders was Gave fore the Soldiers to March down to the West Sid of the Cove they Cut one of the Trees Down & fixt as flag Staf & H[o]istd the Jack and Fired four Folleys of Small Arms which was Answered with three Cheers from the Brig then thay Marched up the head of the Cove where they Piched their Tents Jacob Nagle, an American-born sailor who was in Phillip’s boat’s crew when he first visited Sydney Cove wrote:v

We landed on the west side of the cove The first mention of activity on the east side is on 28 January 1788 when workmen began assembling Phillip’s canvas house there. Nagle and his fellow crewmen camped on shore ferrying the Governor back and forth from HMS Sirius where he slept each night till moving into his house on 19 February:

1 Eight of us that belonged to the Governors barge pitched our tent by the water side on a rock near the landing place and the boat in view. The convicts ware amediately employed in cutting down timber and clearing to build log houses for the officers and soldiers on the west side By the 1880s four versions of the landing place were in circulation. No-one could agree, but, two gained prominence: (1) Loftus Street near Macquarie Place on the east side and (2) in front of the Mariners’ Church on the west side. The east side view predominated because it seemed to be confirmed by the visual evidence of the only picture of Sydney Cove before 1792, a sketch by John Hunter dated 20 August 1788 depicting a large flagstaff flying a Union Jack on the Loftus Street site.vi From its formation in 1901 the [Royal] Australian Historical Society was divided on the issue. The ‘eastern’ advocates dominated and successfully lobbied state and city authorities to approve a plaque and flagstaff erected in Macquarie Place in 1907 (re-erected in Loftus Street in 1967).vii Arthur George Foster, a fellow of the RAHS, led the west side advocates and published a booklet in 1920 setting out his position, supported by George Arnold Wood, Challis Professor of History at the University of Sydney. Wood emphasised the discovery in 1918 of the item in the 1806 NSW Almanack giving the west side location in a section titled ‘Chronology of Many Local Occurrences Remarkable and Interesting’:viii

British colours hoisted on the north point of the present Dock Yard and possession taken by Gov. Phillip, lieuts Ball and King of the Royal Navy, and lieuts. Johnston, Collins and Dawes of Marines. Jan 26 [1788]. In 1806 King, who was present at the ceremony in 1788, authorised the publication of the almanac by Howe, the government printer. The north point of the dockyard in 1806 was exactly where the old Rocks residents had remembered – around Cadman’s Cottage. Foster’s opponents returned fire. They received their own boost when the journal of First Fleet naval lieutenant William Bradley was acquired by the Mitchell Library in 1924 with a plan of Sydney Cove dated 1 March 1788 depicting a flagstaff on the east side. The Mitchell Library recently discovered that Bradley’s journal was written up in 1802 or later. Its illustrations may have been drawn from memory years later and should be treated with caution. There is no documentary evidence for the eastern flagstaff erected in the redoubt prior to 4 June 1788. No-one came forward with any oral history of an east side landing, but between 1882 and 1906 three old men published their strong views in favour of the west side based on what they had heard as boys and young men living at The Rocks in the 1820s and 30s when a tree growing opposite Cadman’s Cottage and cut down in 1832 was believed to mark the site of the landing.ix Several newspapers had expressed outrage in an early form of heritage awareness:x

A swamp oak at the lower end of George-street, near the Dock-yard, upon which the British flag was first hoisted in the town, has been lately cut down by the gang employed in repairing the streets. The tree was considered sacred by Governor Macquarie, and the old hands of the Colony. When the First Fleet convict John Limeburner died in 1847 his obituary (recently digitised) stated:

2 THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. - John Limeburner, the last of the first fleeters, as they are called in this Colony, died at Longbottom on Thursday week last, at the advanced age of 104 years… Jack remembered the British Flag being first hoisted in Sydney on a swamp oak-tree, which was placed in the spot, at the rear of Cadman's house, now occupied as the Water Police Court. The tree stood until the government of General Darling, when it was ordered to be cut down. A remnant of this tree is now in the possession of one of Australia's sons, who intends to deposit the relic in our Colonial Museum when erected. The casuarina opposite Cadman’s Cottage was probably only a sapling in 1788, but it served as a totemic marker of the site’s historic associations. In 1900 Richard Kemp (born The Rocks 1823) recalled one rock in particular:xi

When Governor Phillip landed in 1788 there was, between where the Mariners' Church and the Sailors' Home now stand, a very large flat rock set on its edge, running in a north-easterly direction from the shore for about 25ft., the outer end being 12ft. to 15ft. high, de- creasing towards the shore end, where it was about 4ft. Inside this rock was a snug little cove, the mouth being about 16ft. wide, the depth about 20ft. A white sandy beach went along the shore side - my bathing place when a youngster - and it was in this cove that Governor Phillip landed, and on the higher ground whereon the Mariners' Church now stands erected his flagstaff, and hoisted the flag of all flags - the "Union Jack of Old England." In 1902 Kemp added with acerbic Australian humour that ‘Phillip no more landed or hoisted the flag on the [Macquarie Place] locality than he did on Mount Kosciusko or Bathurst Plains’ and gave as his source an acquaintance to whom a First Fleeter had pointed out the landing site.xii Early plans of Sydney Cove depict several large rocks in the water below the Mariners’ Church site. Part of the flat rock shelf around them was exposed at low tide but the big rocks were always above water. They are evident on the original version of Dawes’s plan of July 1788, Raper’s of 1791 and Bradley’s of 1788xiii and can be seen in a view of the cove by JW Lewin (1808).xiv They are also depicted in a picture by Thomas Watling from the mid- 1790s.xv In May 1788 Phillip explained to Evan Nepean why he chose this spot to land 1,200 people (most of whom were to be housed in tents on the west side of the cove):xvi

it was absolutely necessary to be certain of a sufficient quantity of fresh water, in a situation that was healthy, and which the ships might approach within a reasonable distance for the conveniency of landing the stores and provisions Surgeon Bowes Smyth described Sydney Cove at several points in his original journal on 23- 27 January 1788:xvii

having many rock eminences, quite perpendicular & perfectly flat at top wh[ich] will answer every purpose of load[in]g and unload[in]g the Largest Ships equally the same as if made by the most expert workmen…. The most commodious quays by the water beggar’d all description… The ships some of them lays so near the stone cliffs that you may w[it]h ease jump from the ship on shore.… The water here even to the very side of the shore is 5 & 6 fathoms & exactly like a Canal in a Garden, you may w[it]h ease fasten the ships to the trees instead of putting down the Anchor A new view is emerging of this landing place as Sydney’s first wharf, before the Hospital (or King’s) wharf near today’s MCA was built 300m to the south in 1790-91. In 1788 Phillip called it ‘the public landing-place on the west side’.xviii The Mariners’ Church marked a point where the tidal rock shelf between the deep water and land was at its narrowest, forming a

3 natural quay. Proto-George Street led to it. Sand or mud flats impeded boat access to the southern end of the cove. The beach appears to have been accessible to the George Street level by means of a gap in the natural sandstone wall that ringed Sydney Cove. This gap in the rocks can be seen in views of the area from the 1790s.xix During the 19th century the track became Bethel Street, leading down to a new landing place built into the newly constructed quay. Bethel Street was built over a century ago, but Bethel Steps were placed over the former street, leading to what is still Sydney’s main landing place for large ships. From 1791 the maritime focus of Sydney Cove moved to the hospital wharf and the old landing place was abandoned. It was used only by the boat's crews employed by the chief surgeon and naval officer who lived opposite the site. Because it was a ready-made wharf, the site was taken for granted and attracted little comment. A faint echo appeared in the Sydney Gazette in 1826 when an item noted that in the colony’s earliest days:xx

the Sydney wharf was the natural rocks. A plaque and flagstaff were erected in the wrong place 107 years ago as a result of a mistaken interpretation of historical sources. The current renovation of the Overseas Passenger Terminal provides an opportunity to mark the beginnings of Sydney as a maritime city at this newly identified site.

i Bethel Steps, Statement of Significance, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, digitised at: http://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/sydney-About_us-Our_heritage_role- Heritage_and_Conservation_Register.htm&objectid=178 ii Album of photographic views of Sydney, c1879-1884, Mariner’s Church at left with Bethel Street, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, digitised at: http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=431113

Circular Quay c1870s, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, digitised at: http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=420939 iii Mariners’ Church, Statement of Significance, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, digitised at: http://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/sydney-About_us-Our_heritage_role- Heritage_and_Conservation_Register.htm&objectid=91 iv John Campbell, Letter to his parents, 9 August 1789, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, digitised at: http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=442905 v Jacob Nagle his Book A.D. One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty Nine May 19th. Canton. Stark County Ohio', 1775-1802, compiled 1829, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, digitised at: http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemLargeCopyright.cgi?itemID=802482&size=full&album=1&col lection=823938&parent=87969 vi Yale University USA, ‘View of the settlement on Sydney Cove, Port Jackson 20th August, 1788’ published in John Hunter, An historical journal of the transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk island, 1792, digitised at: http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3444367

4 vii Sydney Morning Herald 18 May 1907 p 12; 10 August 1907 p 6,; 10 August 1907 p 6, digitised at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14870909?searchTerm=%22To%20Mark%20the%20Historic%20Spot%20 Where%20%22&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc|||l-state=New+South+Wales viii New South Wales pocket almanack and colonial remembrance… 1806 [compiled and published by George Howe]. [compiled and published by George Howe] pp 25-26, digitised at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn4763931 ix John Bingle, ‘Birthday Thoughts in New South Wales, Australia’ 1887 (ML SLNSW MSS 7115/1); Thomas Brennan, The Newsletter, 3 November 1906, quoted in AG Foster, Early Sydney (1920) p 53. x Sydney Herald 7 May 1832 p 3, digitised at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/12844441/1527453?searchTerm=%22considered%20sacred%20by%20Gove rnor%20Macquarie%22#pstart1527453 xi Sydney Morning Herald 24 October 1900 p 5, digitised at:: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/28245333?searchTerm=%22inside%20this%20rock%22&searchLimits=sort by=dateAsc|||l-state=New+South+Wales xii Sydney Morning Herald 9 May 1902 p 3, digitised at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14440629?searchTerm=%22Phillip%20no%20more%20landed%20or%20h oisted%20%22&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc xiii Bradley’s plan (dated 1 March 1788 but possibly drawn much later) Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, digitised at: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/terra_australis/charts_maps/bradley_charts/ xiv Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, digitised at: http://acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=457554 xv Thomas Watling, ‘A partial view of Sydney Cove taken from the Sea side before the Surgeon Generals House’ c1792-1797, digitised at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/art-nature-imaging/collections/first-fleet/art- collection/historical.dsml?sa=4&lastDisp=gall&beginIndex=3& xvi Phillip to Nepean 15 May 1788, HRNSW Vol 1 Pt 2 p 124. xvii National Library of Australia, Journal of Surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth 23-27 January 1788, digitised at: http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.ms-ms4568-s123-v http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.ms-ms4568-s131-v xviii Standing Port Orders 16 October 1788, reproduced in Sydney Gazette 10 October 1827 p 2, digitised at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2189136?searchTerm=%22public%20landing%20place%22%201788&searc hLimits=sortby=dateAsc|||l-decade=182|||l-year=1827 xix ‘View of Sydney Cove’ 1793 John Hunter, State Library of Victoria, digitised at: http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/nmets.do?DOCCHOICE=353119.xml&dvs=1415862134773~683&loca le=en_GB&search_terms=&adjacency=&divType=&usePid1=true&usePid2=true xx Sydney Gazette 13 May 1826 p 2, digitised at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2185807?searchTerm=%22natural%20rocks%22%20wharf&searchLimits=s ortby=dateAsc

5