History Matters || Another history myth debunked

The later coal period after 1850 overlapped with this period in New England's colonial history.

The Penal Period, 1801-1840, saw the establishment of European settlement in the North, including coal mining. Port Macquarie became the centre of European civilization outside the lower Hunter.

The second period, Pastoral Expansion 1822-1850, saw rapid expansion of European occupation driven by high wool and stock prices. This expansion came to a shuddering halt with the depression of the early 1840s before undergoing consolidation.

This was the period of the Frontier Wars as the Aboriginal peoples fought back against European occupation. During this period, Maitland with its adjoining river port at Morpeth became the major urban centre in the North, a position it would hold until the 1880s. The Maitland Mercury (founded 1840) became the journal of record for Northern NSW including what is now Queensland (created as a new colony 1859).

Now we come to the third period in the colonial history of the North, Mining, Agriculture and the Rise of the Towns (1851-1900).

In talking about the rise of coal, I said that there was a myth that mining began with gold. Now as we turn to the gold rushes, we have to deal with another myth, that the gold rushes were a seminal point in Australian history.

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That myth, driven be things such as the Eureka Stockade, has some truth, but is also misleading. The core institutional structures, the things that determine our democracy, were formed in the period up to 1850.

All that said, the gold and subsequent mineral rushes did lay the physical basis for the New England we know today. They also transformed the balance of power within the Australian colonies. One outcome was the rise of the Port Phillip District from a minor part of New South Wales to a national power house. A second outcome was the decline in the relative importance of Northern NSW.

I will discuss some of this over the next few columns. But first, some dates.

In 1851, gold was discovered at Swamp Oak Creek near Tamworth. This was followed by major discoveries at Nundle and Rocky River 1852. Timbarra ( New Rocky River) 1853, Toooloom-Pretty Gully 1857 and Hillgrove 1881.

This was followed by the discovery of other minerals including tin in 1871-1872 at Elsmore, Oban, Tingha, Vegetable Creek, Stannifer and Stanthorpe followed by diamonds (1875), copper (1876), ), antimony 1877, silver 1878 plus other minerals at various times.

These rushes transformed the North.

Jim Belshaw's email is ndarala@optusnet.com. His New England life blog is http://newenglandaustralia.blogspot.com/: his New England history blog http://newenglandhistoryl.blogspot.com.au/

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