Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/539

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PENAL SETTLEMENTS. PORT MACQUARIE.

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Murrumbidge he (unknowing that it was the Hume) called it the Murray, and Sturt's nomenclature was followed.

The new country thus discovered could not be occupied at once. The nearer interior could absorb all and more than all the multiplying flocks and herds of the colony. Some extension was needed, however. A strictly penal settlement was required. In 1821 Port Macquarie was temporarily occupied as the home of the doubly convicted or re-transported; and in 1823 Surveyor-General Oxley sailed in the cutter 'Mermaid' to survey Port Curtis and Moreton Bay, with a view to the formation of convict establishments, in pursuance of Mr. Bigge's recommendations, which had been approved in England.^[1] On the way he landed at Port Macquarie, where Captain Allman (48th Regt.), an old Peninsular officer, was commandant. The natives were well treated by Allman. Strict discipline and neatness characterized the little settlement. Mr. Uniacke, who described Oxley's journey, reported that—"whenever (as frequently happens) any of the prisoners attempt to escape into the woods they are instantly pursued by some of the (natives employed as) black police, who possess a wonderful facility in tracing them, and being furnished with arms they seldom fail to bring them back alive or dead." Oxley examined the country at Port Curtis and thought it unfit for a penal settlement.

The expedition (sent in pursuance of Bigge's recommendation) resulted in the formation of a penal settlement at Moreton Bay, where Lt. Miller was the first Commandant for a brief period. His successor, Captain Bishop, remained but a short time. The third Commandant, Captain Logan, had the reputation of being a strict disciplinarian. He

↑ About the same period Newcastle at the Hunter river was abandoned as a penal settlement in accordance with Mr. Bigge's advice (P.P. 19th June 1822, p. 165). The convicts were sent in the first instance to Port Macquarie, but eventually were removed further from the free settlements to Moreton Bay, it being a portion of Bigge's plan that they should be remote from the free population, but on the coast where supplies could be landed easily and whence escape was difficult. Brisbane threw the Hunter river port open to trade. The Australian Agricultural Company obtained the privilege of working the coal-mines close to the shore, and free settlers spread rapidly over the district. But though it ceased to be a penal settlement, convicts were employed in ironed gangs there as in many other places.

[1] About the same period Newcastle at the Hunter river was abandoned as a penal settlement in accordance with Mr. Bigge's advice (P.P. 19th June 1822, p. 165). The convicts were sent in the first instance to Port Macquarie, but eventually were removed further from the free settlements to Moreton Bay, it being a portion of Bigge's plan that they should be remote from the free population, but on the coast where supplies could be landed easily and whence escape was difficult. Brisbane threw the Hunter river port open to trade. The Australian Agricultural Company obtained the privilege of working the coal-mines close to the shore, and free settlers spread rapidly over the district. But though it ceased to be a penal settlement, convicts were employed in ironed gangs there as in many other places.

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