These stories first appeared in "Australia's First Christmas"
by Thomas Dunbabin
published in the News (Adelaide), Saturday 24 December 1932
1768
Australia's history might have been very different if a gale had sprung up on Christmas Day, 1768. On that day the Endeavor was sailing down towards Tierra del Fuego and young Mr. Banks entered in his diary:
"Christmas Day; all good Christians, that is to say all good hands, got abominably drunk, so that all through the night there was scarce a sober man in the ship. Weather, thank God, very moderate, or the Lord knows what would have become of us."
When the Christmas of 1769 came the Endeavour was near the Three Kings, off the New Zealand coast. On Christmas Eve Banks had gone out in his boat and shot several gannets or "solan geese," as he calls them.
These were made into a goose pie for the Christmas dinner and eaten "with great approbation." And in the evening "all hands were as drunk as our forefathers used to be upon like occasions."
They made merry at other times than Christmas on that memorable voyage, and strange things happened. One of the queerest was the cutting off, while the Endeavor was sailing up the Australian coast, of the ears of Orton, the captain's clerk.
Orton was drunk at the time, but just who cut them off, and why, Cook was careful not to enquire too closely. He disrated Matra, the New York Corsican, for it, but seems to have thought that Matra played a minor part, if any, in the ear cutting.
Banks spent one more Christmas on board the Endeavour. That was the day that the vessel sailed from Batavia after eight of the ship's company had been buried there.
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| Christmas card design submitted to John Sands Christmas Cards Competition, 1881 |
1787
Christmas of 1787 found the First Fleet lumbering eastward across the Southern Ocean towards Van Diemen's Land. Captain David Collins, of the Royal Marines, "late Judge Advocate and Secretary of the Colony," in his "Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, etc.," writes:
"Christmas Day found us in the latitude of 42 degrees 10 minutes south, and steering, as we had done for a considerable time, an east-south-east course. We complied, as far as was in, our power, with the good old English custom, and partook of a better dinner this day than usual; but the weather was too rough to admit of much social enjoyment."
1788
Twelve months later Christmas was kept in Australia for the first time, so far as we know, but it was not a cheerful time. The natives were "becoming every day more troublesome and hostile." Several men had been wounded by them, and four had been killed, while 14 persons belonging to the little colony were missing.
However, on Christmas Day, 1788, the chaplain, Richard Johnson, preached a sermon adapted to the occasion. "Most of the officers were entertained at dinner by the Governor after the sermon."
1789
For the Christmas dinner of 1789 Governor Phillip had a cabbage weighing 26 lb. sent to him from Parramatta by H. E. Dodd, the superintendent of the settlement there.
1790
Butter, landed on December 17th, from Batavia, made the Christmas of 1790 memorable.
1791
By December, 1791, supplies were so low that the rations had to be reduced. The best that Phillip could do for Christmas was to give an extra pound of flour to each woman in the settlement.
There were Christmas Day services at Parramatta, as well as at Sydney. And at night someone broke into the marine store and stole 22 gallons of spirits.
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| Christmas card design submitted to John Sands Christmas Cards Competition, 1881 |
1793
By Christmas 1793 one Webb, a settler at Parramatta, had started to distill "an ardent diabolical spirit from wheat."
On Christmas Day, the Rev. Richard Johnson preached at Sydney to between 30 and 40 persons, though on the days when rations were given out about 500 persons used to gather at the store.
"The evening produced a watch-house full of prisoners; several were afterwards punished, amongst whom were some servants for stealing liquor from an officer."
1797
Christmas Eve, 1797, was marked by a curious drinking duel. Two young men living between Sydney and Parramatta "having been boasting of their abilities in drinking, regardless of the solemnity of the time, challenged each other to a trial of their skill."
They went to a quiet spot in the bush with some raw spirits. "Their abilities," says the chronicler sadly, "were not equal to their boasting; for one died on the spot and the life of the other was fast ebbing when he was taken up. Had another hour elapsed, he, too, must have perished."
There was some spirit left in a case bottle when they were found.
"On Christmas morning two seamen from the Reliance found the body of a soldier who had been missing for two days from the lookout at South Head. His head and hands had been cut off."
Another soldier who was suspected of the murder was ordered to bury the mangled remains. This he did without any signs of emotion.
"Nor did the body bleed at his touch, or exhibit any sign that superstition or ignorance could turn into an accusation against him."
1799
Christmas Eve, 1799, was marked by a blaze at Parramatta. At 10 o'clock the log gaol "was wilfully and maliciously set on fire and totally consumed."
"The prisoners who were confined there were with difficulty snatched from the flames, but so miserably scorched that one of them died in a few days."
1815
That goose pie recorded by Banks is recalled by a Tasman Sea Christmas. Sailing round Tasmania in a whaleboat with a crew of four, James Kelly found himself on Christmas Day, 1815, weather-bound in a little inlet on the west coast of Tasmania, north of Port Davey. One record of the voyage says:
"This day we had a glorious dinner, two black swans, one roasted (stuck up), the other a sea pie - a three-decker - in the large iron pot, a first rate Christmas dinner on the west coast of Van Diemen's Land."
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| Christmas card design submitted to John Sands Christmas Cards Competition, 1881 |
1816
It is a pity that Lieut. Col. Thomas Davey, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (widely known as "Mad Tom, the Governor") did not spend the Christmas of 1816 on his farm at the Coal River, 15 miles from Hobart Town. It would have added a new chapter to the varieties of viceregal experiences.
The story is preserved in the deposition of George Richardson, His Excellency's overseer.
The midday Christmas dinner, which must have been a good one since it lasted till "between 3 and 4 o'clock," was just over on the farm when six men walked in. These uninvited guests were "Jones, Collier, Septon, the Frenchman from Port Dalrymple settlement, Parker, and a man whose name I was told was Chapman, and who had some red blotches on his face."
Each of the six had a blunderbuss or a musket, and several had a brace of pistols apiece. With them were two native girls.
Rounding up all the men on the place, the desperadoes forced Richardson to give them the keys. They took 5 lb. of tea, 12 of sugar, a cutlass, five gallons of rum, needles and thread, 2 lb. of soap, a'tin pot, 15 or 16 quart bottles, and 3 lb. of negrohead tobacco. Richardson adds:
"They took the trousers, which were a new pair, off my legs. This act was done by Jones in particular, and he put them on. They also took a shirt of mine."
The bushrangers then ransacked the men's hut. They took a razor, a book, a gallon of spirits, and various odds and ends. After this they treated the prisoners to their own spirits. Septon put a pistol to Richardson's breast and threatened to shoot him if he did not drink heartily.
The ruffians made gruesome threats against one Yorke, who had made a deposition about them. They said that if they met him they would cut off his ears and put out his eyes.
Jones offered to bet £500 that the bushrangers would all be in Hobart Town free and safe in five months. They had seen a gentleman who had offered to take up their cause.
The bushrangers also said that they wished to see Col. Davey, "but that they would not hurt him." They then fired off a few musket shots and went into the bush. They wound up Christmas in the Cook style, for Richardson adds:
"I afterwards heard that the same banditti went to Messrs. Stynes and Troy, where they nearly all got drunk."
Sources:
- AUSTRALIA'S FIRST CHRISTMAS (1932, December 24). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), p. 4.
- TWO CHRISTMAS DAYS—1787 AND 1788. (1905, December 27). The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), p. 1626.
- Christmas card designs submitted to John Sands Christmas Cards Competition, 1881; Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
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