Political History of Australia

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• E42: Australia's First Parliament

  September 30, 2026 · 46 min

  Last time the emancipists were on the back foot but then two hammer blows hit with Governor Macquarie’s departure. The new governor of NSW, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was a tough Major-General who had seen a lot of war. Governor Brisbane…

• E41: Macquarie's Farewell: 'I Anticipate the Applause of Posterity.'

  September 16, 2026 · 48 min

  In this episode we say farewell to Governor Lachlan Macquarie after twelve years in Sydney. He championed the name Australia, made 26 January an official public anniversary, and was the first leading figure to address the colony as a…

• E40: The British Empire Strikes Back

  September 9, 2026 · 54 min

  Governor Lachlan Macquarie was on a sincere mission to lift up the former convicts known as emancipists. For years that project had gone his way — until the colonial establishment struck back and set out to put these “uppity” emancipists…

• E39: What Politicised the Emancipists?

  September 2, 2026 · 55 min

  In early New South Wales, more than four-fifths of the non-Aboriginal population were convicts, former convicts, or their children. Once free, these people — the emancipists — discovered that money and talent could not wash away the…

• E38: John Macarthur, Down and (Almost) Out in London

  August 19, 2026 · 51 min

  Episode 38 follows John Macarthur after he slipped out of New South Wales just before Lachlan Macquarie arrived to restore order. Having masterminded the Rum Rebellion, Macarthur exploited a legal loophole in Lord Castlereagh’s arrest…

• E37: The Tale of Two Tasmanias

  August 12, 2026 · 54 min

  In September 1803 Lieutenant John Bowen raised the Union Jack at Risdon Cove on the Derwent, founding the first European settlement in Van Diemen’s Land. The next year, Governor King in Sydney, under orders from London, sent…

• E36: The Van Diemen's Land Version of the First Fleet

  July 29, 2026 · 56 min

  In 1803, Governor Philip Gidley King in Sydney sent two ships to near modern day Hobart. There had been multiple earlier European visits to Van Diemen’s Land but these ships were going to stay and build a permanent British…

• E35: BONUS EPISODE - Address to 'The Women's Pioneer Society of Australasia'

  July 22, 2026 · 48 min

  Last week 'The Women's Pioneer Society of Australasia' invited me to speak about the Political History of Australia podcast. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please leave a comment, share and rate the…