Imagining a Public: Anniversary Dinners and the Democratic Political Imaginary in Colonial New South Wales, 1788–1842

Abstract

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the 26th of January was celebrated as the founding anniversary of the colony of New South Wales, typically with a ‘public’ dinner. A political faction of locally born ‘natives’ and former convict ‘emancipists’ used this invented tradition to rally around arguments for democratic rights. Moving beyond their role in political organising, I read these anniversary dinners, and their reporting in the press, as an expression of a democratic political imaginary. The dinners became a stage on which political ideas were debated and endorsed by a representative public in a performative ritual that scripted a vision of a democratic colony, before it was granted democratic institutions.

I thank the anonymous reviewers whose feedback significantly improved this article.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 E.J. Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction: Inventing Traditions’, in The Invention of Tradition, ed. E.J. Hobsbawm and T.O. Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 1–14. For earlier scholarship on the anniversary see: K.S. Inglis, ‘Australia Day’, Historical Studies 13, no. 49 (1967): 20–41; David A. Roberts, ‘26 January 1788: The Arrival of the First Fleet and the “Foundation of Australia”’, in Turning Points in Australian History, ed. M. Crotty (Sydney: University of NSW Press, 2009), 32–47; Anne Coote, ‘Celebration of Anniversary Day to 1900’, Sydney Journal 2 (2009): 22–28.

2 On this campaign in general see: John Hirst, Freedom on the Fatal Shore: Australia’s First Colony (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2008); Mark McKenna, The Captive Republic: A History of Republicanism in Australia 1788–1996 (Cambridge:  Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Frank Bongiorno, Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia (Melbourne: Black Inc., imprint La Trobe University Press, 2022).

3 C.M.H. Clark, A History of Australia. Volume II: New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1968), 55, 66, 72, 80, 97. For other scholarship on the political importance of public dinners in the 1820s see: Carol Liston, ‘New South Wales under Governor Brisbane, 1821–1825’ (PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1980), 435–48; John Ritchie, The Wentworths: Father and Son (Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 1997), 210–11, 215–16, 219–20; Bongiorno, 25–27.

4 John N. Molony, The Native-Born: The First White Australians (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), 74–76, 114–15, 150; Chris Holdridge, ‘The Pageantry of the Anti-Convict Cause: Colonial Loyalism and Settler Celebrations in Van Diemen’s Land and the Cape Colony’, History Australia 12, no. 1 (April 2015): 141–64.

5 Charles Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press Books, 2003), 23. Taylor’s concept draws upon Benedict Anderson’s “imagined communities”: Benedict R. O’G. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised ed. (London: Verso, 2006).

6 Simon Gunn, ‘Analysing Behaviour as Performance’, in Research Methods for History, ed. Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire, Research Methods for the Arts and Humanities (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012), 184–201, 191.

7 Judith P. Butler, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (New York: Routledge, 1997), chap. 4, quotation on 160.

8 Judith Butler, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), chap. 1.

9 Robin Gollan, Radical and Working Class Politics: A Study of Eastern Australia, 1850–1910 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1960); Hirst; McKenna; Paul A. Pickering, ‘“The Oak of English Liberty”: Popular Constitutionalism in New South Wales, 1848–1856’, Journal of Colonial History 3, no. 1 (2001): 1–27; Peter Cochrane, Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2006); Benjamin T. Jones, Republicanism and Responsible Government: The Shaping of Democracy in Australia and Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014).

10 Hirst, 208; Terry H. Irving, The Southern Tree of Liberty: The Democratic Movement in New South Wales before 1856 (Sydney: The Federation Press, 2006); Sean Scalmer, ‘Containing Contention: A Reinterpretation of Democratic Change and Electoral Reform in the Australian Colonies’, Australian Historical Studies 42, no. 3 (2011): 337–56.

11 Irving, 37, 88.

12 Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia: A History. Volume Two: Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), xiv, 222–25, 243–49, 316–17.

13 Michael Roe, Quest for Authority in Eastern Australia, 1835–1851 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1965), chap. 8–9, quotation on 188. For more on temperance as another expression of the democratic imaginary see my forthcoming book: Matthew Allen, Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial New South Wales, 1788–1860 (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press), chap. 6–7.

14 Angela Woollacott, Settler Society in the Australian Colonies: Self-Government and Imperial Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). See also: Marilyn Lake, ‘The Gendered and Racialised Self Who Claimed the Right to Self-Government’, Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History 13, no. 1 (2012, doi:10.1353/cch.2012.0011); Ann Curthoys and Jessie Mitchell, Taking Liberty: Indigenous Rights and Settler Self-Government in Colonial Australia, 1830–1890 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

15 For the earlier history of toasting see: James Nicholls, Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009), chap. 2.

16 Rémy Duthille, ‘Drinking and Toasting in Georgian Britain: Group Identities and Individual Agency’, Leaves 10 (2020): 1–19.

17 Peter Brett, ‘Political Dinners in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain: Platform, Meeting Place and Battleground’, History (London) 81, no. 264 (1996): 527–52; Marc Baer, ‘Political Dinners in Whig, Radical and Tory Westminster, 1780–1880’, Parliamentary History 24, no. S1 (2005): 183–206.

18 The Monitor (Sydney), 12 April 1828, 4.

19 On gentility see: Penny Russell, A Wish of Distinction: Colonial Gentility and Femininity (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1994); Kirsten McKenzie, Scandal in the Colonies: Sydney & Cape Town, 1820–1850 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2004); Michèle Cohen, ‘“Manners” Make the Man: Politeness, Chivalry, and the Construction of Masculinity, 1750–1830’, Journal of British Studies 44, no. 2 (2005): 312–29.

20 On gender and toasting in Britain see: Rémy Duthille, ‘Toasting and Gender in Great-Britain in the Eighteenth Century’, Zinbun, 50 (2020): 37–55; Charles Ludington, The Politics of Wine in Britain: A New Cultural History, 2013 edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), chap. 10.

21 James Epstein, ‘Radical Dining, Toasting and Symbolic Expression in Early Nineteenth-Century Lancashire: Rituals of Solidarity’, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 20, no. 2 (1988): 271–91.

22 Rémy Duthille, ‘Political Toasting in the Age of Revolutions: Britain, America and France, 1765–1800’, in Liberty, Property and Popular Politics: England and Scotland, 1688-1815: Essays in Honour of H.T. Dickinson, ed. Gordon Pentland and Michael T. Davis (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), 73–86.

23 Penny Russell, Savage or Civilised? Manners in Colonial Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2011), 122–27.

24 Anderson.

25 For the importance of public meetings in colonial Australia see: David Goodman, ‘Public Meetings and Public Speaking in Colonial Australia’, Australian Cultural History, no. 16 (1997): 107–27.

26 Roberts, ‘26 January’, 33–34.

27 Philip Gidley King, Official Journal … 1786–December 1790, Mitchell Library C 115, 72; George B. Worgan, Letter written to his brother Richard Worgan, 12–18 June 1788 […], Mitchell Library Safe 1/114, 7; Arthur Phillip, Letters, with related papers and journal extract … 1787–1792, 1794–1796, Mitchell Library Safe 1/457, 26 January 1788.

28 George Howe, ed., New South Wales Pocket Almanack: For the Year of Our Lord and Saviour (Sydney: G. Howe, 1809).

29 Proceedings of a General Court-Martial … For the Trial of Lieut-Col. Geo. Johnston … (London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1811), 81–82.

30 Gazette, 30 January 1813, 2; 23 January 1813, 1.

31 On Robinson see: Michael Massey Robinson, Odes of Michael Massey Robinson, First Poet Laureate of Australia (1754—1826), ed. George Mackaness (Dubbo: Review Publications, 1946).

32 Gazette, 30 January 1813, 2.

33 They are extant for 1813, 1817, 1820, 1822 and 1824–26.

34 Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788–1825, State Archives of NSW, 4/1737, 27–28. For the regulation governing ‘the regular form of assembling’ see: Gazette, 27 November 1813, 1.

35 Gazette, 1 February 1817, 2.

36 Gazette, 31 January 1818, 2.

37 Gazette, 29 January 1820, 3.

38 Gazette, 5 February 1820, 3.

39 Gazette, 8 February 1822, 3.

40 Gazette, 5 February 1824, 2. For the list of stewards see: Gazette, 15 January 1824, 1.

41 The Colonist (Sydney), 5 February 1835, 6.

42 The Australian (Sydney), 13 January 1825, 1; 3 February 1825, 3.

43 Australian, 3 February 1825, 3; Gazette, 3 February 1825, 3. The toasts for the dinners of 1820–24 were not explicitly reported but were described as ‘usual’, ‘loyal’ and ‘appropriate’. It seems likely that Wentworth was the first to propose a public toast to civil liberties.

44 Gazette, 3 February 1825, 3; Australian, 3 February 1825, 3.

45 Australian, 3 February 1825, 3.

46 Liston, 445. See also: Gazette, 7 October 1825, 2; Bongiorno, 26–27.

47 John Dunmore Lang, An Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales: Both as a Penal Settlement and as a British Colony, 2nd ed. (London: A.J. Valpy, 1837), vol. 1, 209–15.

48 For more on politics under Darling see: Brian H. Fletcher, Ralph Darling: A Governor Maligned (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1984), chap. 13.

49 Gazette, 28 January 1826, 3.

50 Gazette, 1 February 1826, 3.

51 On the meeting and petitions see: Australian, 10 January 1827, 2; Gazette, 15 January 1827, 2; Monitor, 20 January 1827, 4; Gazette, 27 January 1827, 3.

52 Monitor, 27 January 1827, 8.

53 Darling to Hay, 9 February 1827, Historical Records of Australia (hereafter HRA), ser. I, vol. 13, 98; Darling to Horton, 26 March 1827, HRA, ser. I, vol. 13, 191.

54 Gazette, 29 January 1827, 3.

55 Monitor, 12 November 1827, 2; Australian, 14 November 1827, 2. For more on this dinner, see Allen.

56 Monitor, 10 January 1828, 6. See also the letter of “Cecil” and the editorial exchange it provoked: Gazette, 16 January 1828, 3; 4 February 1828, 2; 11 February 1828, 3; Monitor 31 January 1828, 6.

57 Gazette, 18 January 1828, 2.

58 Australian, 30 January 1828, 3. See also Gazette, 28 January 1828, 2; Monitor, 31 January 1828, 6.

59 Monitor, 31 January 1828, 6.

60 Darling to Hay, 15 February 1828, HRA, ser. 1, vol. 13, 785; Gazette, 4 February 1828, 2. (Emphasis in original.)

61 Gazette, 27 January 1829, 2; 29 January 1829, 2; Monitor, 2 February 1829, 4.

62 Monitor, 16 February 1829, 5; Gazette, 3 February 1829, 2.

63 Australian, 15 January 1830, 1; 28 January 1831, 3; Monitor, 29 January 1831, 2.

64 Gazette, 29 January 1831, 2; Monitor, 29 January 1831, 2; 2 February 1831, 2.

65 Monitor, 2 February 1831, 2.

66 Monitor, 25 January 1832, 2; 28 January 1832, 2; Gazette, 21 January 1832, 2; 28 January 1832, 2.

67 For laments see: Gazette, 26 January 1833, 2; Monitor, 21 January 1834, 2; The Sydney Times, 30 January 1835, 2; Gazette, 28 January 1836, 3. For the regatta see: Elizabeth Kwan, Celebrating Australia: A History of Australia Day (Sydney: Australia Day Council of NSW, 2007), 2–3.; Roberts, ‘26 January’, 38–40; Coote.

68 Alan Atkinson, ‘The Parliament in the Jerusalem Warehouse’, Push from the Bush, 12 (1982), 76–104; D.E. Fifer, ‘The Australian Patriotic Association: 1835–1841’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 73, no. 3 (December 1987): 155–72.

69 Monitor, 11 January 1837, 3.

70 Australian, 24 January 1837, 2; The Sydney Herald, 23 January 1837, 2; Monitor, 27 January 1837, 2; Gazette, 28 January 1837, 2.

71 Monitor, 25 January 1837, 2.

72 Herald, 30 January 1837, 2.

73 Australian, 30 January 1837, 2.

74 Molony; Holdridge.

75 Colonist, 12 October 1837, 1. See also the more radical call to celebrate the Jubilee through temperance by Rev. James Fullerton: Colonist, 24 January 1838, 2.

76 Australian, 29 December 1837, 1; Monitor, 27 December 1837, 2; Gazette, 30 December 1837, 3.

77 For the failure of the dinner plans see: Commercial Journal and Advertiser (Sydney), 6 January 1838, 2; 13 January 1838, 2. For the dinner and ball see: Australian, 30 January 1838, 2; Monitor, 29 January 1838, 2; Commercial Journal, 31 January 1838, 2.

78 Irving, chap. 6.

79 Herald, 17 January 1842, 2; Australian, 15 January 1842.

80 Australasian Chronicle (Sydney), 2 February 1843, 2.

81 Sydney Free Press, 28 December 1841, 3; Gazette, 28 December 1841; Herald, 3 January 1842, 2; 7 January 1842, 2.

82 Herald, 15 January 1842, 2; Australian, 25 January 1842, 2.

83 Australasian Chronicle, 18 January 1842, 2.

84 Herald, 28 January 1843, 2. There were eight new members of the Committee and three departures in 1843 but the social composition was very similar.

85 Sydney Free Press, 11 January 1842, 2.

86 See the reports in: Australian, 27 January 1842, 2; Sydney Free Press, 27 January 1842, 2; Gazette, 29 January 1842, 2; Herald, 28 January 1842, 2; Australasian Chronicle, 29 January 1842, 2. Molony discusses this dinner in some detail but focuses on its expressions of proto-nationalism, 76. Atkinson makes a similar argument about the parliamentary forms used for meetings of the Australian Patriotic Association in the 1830s: Atkinson, “Parliament”.

87 Herald, 28 January 1842, 2.

88 Herald, 28 January 1842, 2; Australian, 27 January 1842, 2. O’Connell argued some transportation should continue as a means of supplying public labour to build infrastructure. For more on the politics of anti-transportation see: David Andrew Roberts, ‘Beyond “the Stain”: Rethinking the Nature and Impact of the Anti-Transportation Movement’, Journal of Australian Colonial History 14 (2012): 205–15.

89 Fitzgerald was unable to attend and Nichols served in his place.

90 Herald, 28 January 1842, 2; Australian, 27 January 1842, 2.

91 Herald, 28 January 1842, 2; Australian, 27 January 1842, 2.

92 Herald, 28 January 1842, 2. See also: Australasian Chronicle, 29 January 1842, 2; Gazette, 29 January 1842, 2; Sydney Free Press, 29 January 1842, 2.

93 Roberts, ‘26 January’, 40–41.