Bennelong

Governor Arthur Phillip had instructions from King George III to

endeavour by every possible means to open an Intercourse with the Natives and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all Our Subjects to live in amity and kindness with them. [1]

No Aboriginal people ventured into the British settlement at Sydney Cove after February 1788. To comply with his orders, the governor directed that one or more be taken by force. On 31 December 1788, Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball of HMS Supply and Marine Lieutenant George Johnston ambushed two Aboriginal men at Kayeemy (Manly Cove) on the north shore of Port Jackson. A seaman threw a rope around the neck of one man and dragged him into the ship's boat, but the other man escaped. In Watkin Tench's description, his friends attacked the boats as they pulled out, hurling

spears, stones, firebrands, and whatever else presented itself … nor did they retreat … until many musquets were fired over them. [2]

Captain John Hunter commented:

The terror this poor wretch su

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For 57 years first Government House was the centre of the social, economic and political life of the colony. It was a symbol of British authority to those who were forced or who chose to settle here and a symbol of invasion for First Nations people, whose land was claimed and forever changed by the newcomers. Yet in its early years, first Government House was also a place of close contact between Aboriginal people and the settlers.

Being about to enter, he cast up his eyes, and seeing some people leaning out of a window on the first storey, he exclaimed aloud and testified the most extravagant surprise.

Marine Lieutenant Watkin Tench describing the reaction of Arabanoo on seeing the governor's house being built, 1788

Phillip had arrived in the colony with instructions from the king to develop relations with the local people ‘and conciliate their affections’, but with little success by the end of 1788, he resorted to kidnap. On 31 December 1788 he sent two boats to Manly Cove and a young man was seized and brought back to the governor’s house. Arabanoo (he was initially n

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Bennelong

Indigenous Australian cross-cultural pioneer

For other uses, see Bennelong (disambiguation).

Woollarawarre Bennelong^[a] (c. 1764 – 3 January 1813) was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between the Eora and the British, both in the colony of New South Wales and in Great Britain. He was the first Aboriginal man to visit Europe and return.^[2]

In 1789, he was abducted on the authority of GovernorArthur Phillip, who hoped to use Bennelong to establish contact with the native people. Bennelong escaped after several months. A tenuous relationship subsequently developed between Bennelong and the colonists with various attacks and reconciliations occurring throughout 1790. He came to be a significant ambassador of the Eora.

Bennelong was taken to Great Britain in 1792 and he resided in London for three years. Eventually his health deteriorated and in February 1795 he was returned to Australia. Bennelong soon