Tench Watkin - Watkin Tenchs 1788

WATKIN TENCH

Date and artist unknown

Watkin Tench was born in 1758 in Chester, England. He joined the marine corps in 1776 and served in the American War of Independence before sailing to Botany Bay on the First Fleet. He returned to England in 1792, and stayed with the marine corps before retiring as a lieutenant-general in 1821. Tench died in 1833.

Tim Flannery was born in 1956 in Melbourne. He is a writer, a scientist and an explorer. He has published over a dozen books including the award-winning titles The Future Eaters, The Eternal Frontier, Country and The Weather Makers. Tim is based at Macquarie University. He chairs the Copenhagen Climate Council, is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and is the National Geographic Societys Australasian representative. Tim Flannery was the 2007 Australian of the Year. He lives on the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales.

WATKIN
TENCHS

1788

Comprising

A Narrative of the Expedition
to Botany Bay

and

A Complete Account of
the Settlement at Tort Jackson

Edited & introduced by

TIM FLANNERY

The paper in this book is manufactured only from wood grown in sustainable regrowth forests.

The Text Publishing Company
Swann House
22 William Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Australia
www.textpublishing.com.au

Copyright in the introduction and this edition Tim Flannery 2009

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

First published 1789 and 1793
First published by The Text Publishing Company 1996
This edition published 2009, reprinted 2009

Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press
Design by Chong Weng-Ho
Typeset by Lynne Hamilton

National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Tench, Watkin, 1758 or 91833
1788 / Watkin Tench; edited by Tim Flannery.

ISBN 9781921520044 (pbk.)

Tench, Watkin, 1759?1833. First Fleet, 17871788. AustraliaHistory17881851. New South WalesHistory17881851. Sydney (N.S.W.)History17881851. New South WalesDescription and travelEarly works to 1800. Port Jackson (N.S.W.)History. AustraliaDiscovery and exploration.

Flannery, Tim, 1956
Tench, Watkin, 1758 or 91833. Complete account of the settlement at Port Jackson. Tench, Watkin, 1758 or 91833. Narrative of the expedition to Botany Bay.

994.402

Contents

The Extraordinary Watkin Tench
by Tim Flannery

Book One:
A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay

Book Two:
A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson

From Watkin Tench, A Complete Account of The Settlement at Port Jackson, 1793

CONVERSION TABLE FOR WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
USED BY WATKIN TENCH

Length

1 inch = 25.4 mm

1 foot = 30.5 cm

1 yard = 0.914 m

1 mile = 1.61 km

Mass

1 ounce = 28.3 g

1 pound = 454 g

Area

1 acre = 0.405 ha

Volume

1 gallon = 4.55 litres

Temperature

C = (F - 32)

The Extraordinary
Watkin Tench

by Tim Flannery

T he European settlement of Australia occurred so swiftly, and altered the land and indigenous cultures so profoundly, that it can be difficult to imagine what the country was like before the first white settler walked ashore. If we wanted to picture that different land, and think about how it has been transformed, theres no better guide than Watkin Tenchs extraordinary accounts of Australias first European settlement. Bestsellers in their day, they vividly describe the land and the Aboriginal people as they were at first encounter, and comprehensively report how they were affected by the new settlers. Despite their early popularity, Tenchs books have remained virtually unknown to Australian readers for most of the past 200 years and are only now claiming their rightful place in our national literary canon, and inspiring new works of national importance, such as Inga Clendinnens Dancing with Strangers and Kate Grenvilles The Lieutenant.

Watkin Tench was a lieutenant in the marine corps on board Australias First Fleet. Around 1000 people, 700 of whom were convicts, sailed on the eleven ships. Britains jails were overflowing at the time, and with the American colonies gaining independence and thus no longer willing to accept convict labourers, a new solution had to be found. West Africa was briefly considered as the site for a penal colony. Joseph Banks, who accompanied James Cook when he mapped Australias east coast, vigorously championed Botany Bay as a site. An influential voice in Britain, his arguments carried the day. Unfortunately, Botany Bay did not live up to expectations as a site, and upon arriving Governor Phillip quickly made the decision to relocate the settlement to Port Jackson.

*

Watkin Tench was born in Chester on 6 November 1758. Very little is known of his childhood. His father, Fisher Tench, was a dancing master who ran a dance academy and boarding school in Chester with his wife Margaritta. The building that housed this establishment, probably the birthplace of Watkin Tench, still stands. Today a pizza shop occupies the street frontage and theres no sign that one of Australias finest chroniclers was born there. It was presumably a happy home, one in which the young Watkin was well educated, as his fondness for quoting from Milton and Shakespeare attests. Indeed such were his educational achievements that he would be widely considered the most cultured mind in the colony at Port Jackson.

Tench entered the marine corps at the age of sixteen. At the time the marines were considered to be a distinctly junior (and therefore inferior) service, deficient both in pay and prestige relative to the army and the navy. Perhaps Tench joined the marine corps because in those days you had to buy your position in the military, and the cost of a commission with the marines was within his familys reach. Whatever the case, Tench saw active service almost immediately, for by 1776 the American War of Independence was in full swing. Just two years later, in 1778, Tench was captured by American forces; he spent three months as a prisoner of war before rejoining the fray. The end of the war, in 1783, must have brought bittersweet feelings to the young marine. The adventure and the chance to distinguish himself had passed, and he faced the boredom of non-active service. He was placed on half pay in 1786it must have been all but intolerable for a talented and ambitious young man to linger idly on a substantially reduced income.

We can only imagine Tenchs feelings when, just a few months later, the opportunity arose to volunteer for a three-year tour of service (which ended up being nearly five) with the First Fleet. The unusual nature of the commissionit involved having some of the responsibilities of a jailermust have deterred many officers who perhaps saw such service as beneath their dignity. But in it Tench may have seen the chance to develop a second careerthat of a writer.