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Political History of Australia: Daily Summaries Delivered
by John Ruddick
This podcast series by John Ruddick tells the political and geopolitical history of Australia, starting with the fabled "terra Australis" and then tracking the journey from British penal colony to a young federation, a country at war, and today one of the world’s great nations.
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- 6 days ago52 min
E30: London's Verdict on the Rum Rebellion
The men who led the march on Government House to depose Governor William Bligh in 1808 knew there would be consequences. Yet the Rebel Administration played a weak hand with skill and restraint. Beyond removing Bligh at gunpoint, they worked hard to appear measured and proper at every step. In this episode we examine London’s firm response to the Rum Rebellion: dispatching 800 battle-hardened troops from the 73rd Regiment, ordering a court martial, and recalling the New South Wales Corps. Lachlan Macquarie arrives in Sydney at the end of 1809 and is sworn in as governor on New Year’s Day 1810, marking the start of the Middle Colonial Period. The dramatic 1811 court martial of Major George Johnston in London hears explosive testimony from both sides. Johnston is found guilty of mutiny yet receives only the lightest possible sentence - sacked from the army - because the court acknowledged the “novel and extraordinary circumstances” created by Bligh’s tyrannical rule. Johnston returns quietly to farming life, Bligh never commands men again, and John Macarthur remains in England until 1817. The episode closes the Early Colonial era and sets the stage for the new political divide that would dominate the Macquarie years and beyond: Exclusives and Emancipists.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 1 weeks ago55 min
E29: The Rebel Administration
On the evening of 26 January 1808 the New South Wales Corps marched on Government House and did something extraordinary: they deposed Governor William Bligh at gunpoint. It remains the only successful armed overthrow of government in Australian history. What followed was one of the strangest and most revealing chapters in our early colonial story — the Rebel Administration. For nearly two years the colony was run by the very men who had arrested Bligh. John Macarthur effectively became the de facto ruler for a time, land grants flowed freely, regulations were slashed, and the rebels insisted this wasn’t a revolution at all — they were simply protecting the King’s loyal subjects from a dangerous tyrant. Then senior officers Joseph Foveaux and William Paterson arrived to steady the ship, while the entire colony held its breath waiting for London’s reaction. All the while the deposed and defiant William Bligh refused to go quietly. From house arrest in Sydney to his own audacious mutiny aboard the Porpoise and a long, bitter standoff in Hobart, he kept plotting and scheming to reclaim power. In this episode we go deep inside the Rebel Administration - its personalities, its successes, its score-settling, and the long waiting game that everyone in the colony was forced to play until London had played its hand.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 3 weeks ago59 min
E28: The Day of the Rum Rebellion
The label Rum Rebellion was a smear dreamed up decades after the seismic events of 26 January 1808. Those dramatic events were not about rum. It was fight over what the future of NSW should be. For some including Governor Bligh, NSW was to remain a large-scale open prison with a simply economy of small scale ex-convict farmers and an iron grip control by the state. But 20 years into the colony and too many residents could see that this land had too much potential to be limited by the other vision. The day of the Rum Rebellion was fast-moving and dramatic. At the end of it either Governor Bligh or John Macarthur was going to be under arrest.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- May 13, 202646 min
E27: Road to the Rum Rebellion
As 1807 unfolded, the little British colony of New South Wales was politically charged. Previous governors had attempted to reassert official authority by writing to letters to London and saying mean words about John Macarthur and his ‘trading faction.’ Governor Bligh arrived knowing the job of bringing down Macarthur was his job and his alone. There were a series of scandals that erupted across 1807. Almost all involved John Macarthur and Governor Bligh. Each dispute got more acrimimonus until Governor Bligh ordered the arrest of John Macarthur. The criminal trial took place in the heart of Sydney on 25 January 1808. There were a thousand spectators thronged around the court … and then the court dramatically erupted. Governor Bligh was given an out … he was asked to appoint a new presiding judge … but Bligh declared the court chaos seditious. There was no going back. The die was cast.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- May 6, 202636 min
E26: Governor Bligh Arrives on a Warpath
Captain William Bligh assumed office as the Governor of New South Wales in August 1806. Bligh had had a brilliant career at sea but it had been sullied by reports of him being a horrible boss. The governorship of New South Wales was seen by Bligh as a way to redeem his reputation … but rather than change his ways, he doubled down on all his worst traits. Bligh arrived with the mindset of a war-time governor. New South Wales was an administrative mess – Bligh would use state power to knock it into shape. The first thing Governor Bligh did was secure a powerbase among the poorer farmers of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River district. Bligh then started issuing decrees that smashed the economic system that has arisen … and that by and large, was making the colony quite prosperous. All Bligh’s measures had one objective: strangle the power of the trading faction and in particular their leader – John Macarthur.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series are AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 29, 202640 min
E25: How the 'Mutiny on the Bounty' Remade Australia
More than anyone, Sir Joseph Banks (the botanist who sailed with Captain Cook) deserves credit for creating modern Australia. For years, before and after the First Fleet, Banks served as the unofficial Minister for New South Wales. As Banks aged however his judgement slipped and by 1804, his sway over the colony was slipping. So Banks decided to bet big by sending in as governor a famously tough guy (and loyal ally) to reassert authority – Captain William Bligh. Bligh of course was Captain of the HMS Bounty when it suffered the most famous mutiny in Royal Navy history … but that was not a one-off and Bligh had a reputation as a brilliant officer but a bully. Bligh was Banks’ heavyweight champion sent in to constrain John Macarthur … just when Macarthur had arrived back in the colony with a huge land grant. Two decades of simmering political tension is getting close to boil.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series as AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 22, 202637 min
E24: John Macarthur's Back Baby - Bigger and Bolder than Ever!
Governor Philip Gidley King had had two big wins – he had secured Bass Strait and Van Diemen’s Land for Britain and he had ruthlessly and quickly crushed the Castle Hill Rebellion. But Governor King was a micro-manager and he heavily regulated not only economic activity but also the social lives of the colonists. All his central-planning resulted in the return of food rationing and general disquiet. An exasperated Governor King wrote to London with his troubles and London oddly interpreted it as an offer of resignation and they promptly accepted that supposed resignation. Governor King had two more years as governor before his replacement arrived. He had arrived in 1800 as action man but now he slumped into despair and grew fat and sick. And then his worst nightmare – John Macarthur was back from England and not only had he gotten off scot-free over the court martial matter he had arrived with a ginormous land grant.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series as AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 15, 202649 min
E23: The Castle Hill Rebellion
The 1804 Castle Hill Rebellion was the most dramatic convict uprising in Australian history. The rebels were Irish political prisoners who had arrived en masse between 1800 and 1802. They were a powder keg. Almost immediately on arrival they plotted a grand mutiny. The purpose was not just freedom … but freedom to return to fight for Irish independence. The Castle Hill Rebellion was over and out in less than a day after being brutally crushed by Major George Johnston and the NSW Corps. Post the rebellion, Major George Johnston and his troops were now seen as the indispensable saviours of the colony.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please leave a comment, share and rate the show ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Also listen and subscribe at Youtube and Rumble here 👉@politicalhistoryofaustraliaThe Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.auhttps://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlchttps://x.com/JohnRuddick2https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/Produced by Sean Masters(All voices in this series as AI generated bar the narrator.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About Political History of Australia
This podcast series by John Ruddick tells the political and geopolitical history of Australia, starting with the fabled "terra Australis" and then tracking the journey from British penal colony to a young federation, a country at war, and today one of the world’s great nations.
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