The New South Wales General Standing Orders was the first compilation of government orders and notices [1] intended to inform colonists of the law as it stood in 1802 after the arrival of the First Fleet. [2] It was the first book to be printed in Australia. [3]
In 1802 Governor Philip Gidley King instructed the government printer, George Howe, to print a selection of General Orders issued from 1791 to 1802 in a single book. [2] [3] [4] The book was printed at Government Press in Sydney. The orders were indexed by subject to assist locating an order due to the large number of orders included.
Governor King selected almost 800 orders issued by former Governors of the colony as well as himself to be included in the book. A wide range of areas were covered by the selected orders, from ‘the punishment of restless and turbulent characters’ to the ‘quantity of wheat to be demanded for a loaf’. Governor King's decision to compile and print these orders was to establish an effective means of circulation for government orders and notices. As orders were previously circulated irregularly, the publication would satisfy officials’ protests about the inadequate access and not allow colonists to continue with their claims of ignorance about them. [2] [3] It has been argued that the impact of print "was gradually to transform the nature and perception of authority among colonists." [5]
After the book was printed, all future general orders were published in the Sydney Gazette , which was also printed by George Howe. [6]
There are three copies known to be still in existence. [2] The State Library of New South Wales [7] and The British Library both hold a copy in their collections. [8]
A facsimile of the book was printed by History Books Australia, Black Rock, Victoria in 1983. The reprint was limited to 150 copies and 25 presentation copies.
Vice Admiral John Hunter was an officer of the Royal Navy, who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second Governor of New South Wales, serving from 1795 to 1800.
Captain Philip Gidley King was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales.
Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role in the social, economic, and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century.
The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public. It is the oldest library in Australia, being the first established in the colony of New South Wales in 1826. The library is located on the corner of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place, in the Sydney central business district adjacent to the Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the City of Sydney. The library is a member of the National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) consortium.
Colonel David Collins was a British Marine officer who was appointed as Judge-Advocate to the new colony being established in Botany Bay. He sailed with Governor Arthur Phillip on the First Fleet to establish a penal colony at what is now Sydney. He became secretary to the first couple of Governors, later being appointed to start a secondary colony where he founded the city of Hobart as the founding Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land.
Pemulwuy was a Bidjigal man of the Eora nation, born around 1750 in the area of Botany Bay in New South Wales, Australia. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is noted for his resistance to European colonisation which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788.
MelchisédechThévenot was a French author, scientist, traveler, cartographer, orientalist, inventor, and diplomat. He was the inventor of the spirit level and is also famous for his popular 1696 book The Art of Swimming, one of the first books on the subject and widely read during the 18th century. The book popularized the breaststroke ; he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1990. He also influenced the founding of the Académie Royale des Sciences.
John William Lewin was an English-born artist active in Australia from 1800. The first professional artist of the colony of New South Wales, he illustrated the earliest volumes of Australian natural history. Many of his illustrations were of native Australian birds on native Australian plants.
The following lists events that happened during 1802 in Australia.
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser was the first newspaper printed in Australia, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of New South Wales, authorised by Governor King and printed by George Howe. On 14 October 1824, under the editorship of Robert Howe, it ceased to be censored by the colonial government.
Captain Matthew Flinders was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land, a title he regarded as being "more agreeable to the ear" than previous names such as Terra Australis.
George Howe was a poet, printer, and editor of the first Australian newspaper, the Sydney Gazette.
James Bonwick was an English-born Australian historical and educational writer.
HMCS Integrity was a cutter built by the Colonial Government of New South Wales in 1804. She was the first vessel ever launched from a New South Wales dockyard and carried goods between the colony's coastal settlements of Norfolk Island, Newcastle, New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Port Jackson. In 1804 she took part in a series of voyages to Van Diemen's Land with the aim of founding a colony at Port Dalrymple, the site of the modern settlement of George Town, Tasmania.
Sir William Dixson was an Australian businessman, collector and benefactor who bequeathed his collection of over 20,000 items of Australiana to the State Library of New South Wales, forming the Dixson Library. In recognition of his public benefactions, Dixson was knighted in the New Year Honours of 1939.
Henry Charles Lennox (H.C.L.) Anderson was instrumental in the establishment of the Mitchell Library and held the position of Principal Librarian of the New South Wales Free Public Library as it was then known, from 1893 - 1906.
The Sydney punchbowls, made in China during the Jiaqing Emperor's reign (1796–1820) over the mid-Qing dynasty, are the only two known examples of Chinese export porcelain hand painted with Sydney scenes and dating from the Macquarie era. The bowls were procured in Canton about three decades after the First Fleet's arrival at Port Jackson where the British settlement at Sydney Cove was established in 1788. They also represent the trading between Australia and China via India at the time. Even though decorated punchbowls were prestigious items used for drinking punch at social gatherings during the 18th and 19th centuries, it is not known who originally commissioned these bowls or what special occasion they were made for.
There are 20 known contemporary accounts of the First Fleet made by people sailing in the fleet, including journals and letters. The eleven ships of the fleet, carrying over 1,000 convicts, soldiers and seamen, left England on 13 May 1787 and arrived in Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January 1788 before relocating to Port Jackson to establish the first European settlement in Australia, a penal colony which became Sydney.
The Australian Subscription Library was the first library to exist outside of private collections in Australia. Started in 1826 as the 'Sydney Australian Subscription Library and Reading Room' it shortened its name to the 'Australian Subscription Library' in 1834, and then in 1853 changed its name to the 'Australian Library and Literary Institute’. Its assets were brought by the Government of New South Wales in 1869, and it became the 'Free Public Library. As the collections and services provided by the 'Free Public Library' expanded it became the State Library of New South Wales, which includes the Mitchell and Dixon library collections.
The Historical Records of New South Wales (HRNSW) is a series of books published by the NSW Government Printer between 1892-1901 compiling information from official sources on the history of NSW and Australia. The HRNSW comprises 7 volumes from the period of Captain Cook 1762-1780 to the Governorship of William Bligh and part way through the Governorship of Lachlan Macquarie 1809-1811. The volumes are also available online.
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