Scroll down for Summary of TEACHERS Information
** Regarding The History of the Period
** And HOW to RUN the Play
Scroll down to the end to find out how to-
** Download the COMPLETE Play Documents as PDF.
** Download PDF Slide Show of Pictures and additional History Information for Teachers evaluation.
THE PLAY
1802 Sydney."GOVERNOR KING'S FAREWELL
party for the French Expedition."
Real Events----Real People.
AIM: To easily promote some people that contributed to our Early Australian White History.
A SIMPLE PLAY TO ENCOMPASS ALL the CLASS.
SHOULD OCCUPY 3 classroom periods only.
1. Signposts and Taste READINGS.
2. Select the PLAYERS.
3. Enjoy the PLAY.
HOW:
JOBS to be done:
1. To include ALL THE CLASS..A job can be found for ALL.
2. Signs, drawings, and simple uniforms or period clothes.
3. Equal speaking time for all participants.
4. A Historical commentary, and Introduction for each ACT, should allow Girls, to make up for the historical imbalance of men (Boys).
5. Understudies should be given a go.
TEACHER READ: With Some light discussion to follow.
1. SIGNPOSTS To Early Australian History and the Play Setting.
2. Get a “TASTE of our early PEOPLE.”
SELECT:
1. Actors and Actresses.
MAKE SIMPLE: Uniforms or Clothing. Use a LARGE name SIGN.
READ: Directly From the script. Tutors may change how they like. Have FUN!!
PERHAPS attach a Video and Sound link.-Another job?
SIGNPOST to EARLY AUSTRALIA
TEACHER’S use.
Australia, a very large island at the bottom of the World Globe. After Seamen from European countries, about 1600’s, sailed down the West coast of Africa the winds seemed to blow east to west. However, when the early Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch used that wind they sailed towards a very harsh inhospitable country, seemingly uninhabited. They all decided to give it a miss and sailed more upwards to land in the area we now call Indonesia. Past Indonesia they sailed up to the Philippines, China and Japan. Also up to India.
The rest of Australia as well as parts of Tasmania, called Van Diemans Land, and its West coast was visited mostly by Dutch and French explorers, with the exception of one English sailor called William Dampier in 1688. A Dutchman, Captain Dirk Hartog left a pewter eating plate ashore at small island in Western Australia, in 1616.In 1697 Captain Flamingh, found Hartog’s plate and swapped it for one of his own. Captain Hamelin, from the Nicolas Baudin Expedition, found Flamingh’s plate when exploring North West Australia.
Navigation, or knowing exactly where you are on the earth, was only guess work until Captain Cook in his second of three expeditions, used 3 chronometers to time the distance in hours from a central point in London. That allowed ALL MAPS to have Latitude and Longitude written on them.
On Captain Cooks 1st voyage, in 1769, to Tahiti he was to help the scientists on board ( including Joseph Banks) to track and time the Transit of Venus to give Scientists of the day some understanding of our solar system. This proved to be relatively unsuccessful. The second part of his Admiralty orders was to explore and chart the Pacific. After this Sailors then knew where they were on a World Map.
This eventually found him roughly at the bottom of Australia’s East coast. He called it Point Hicks, we know call it Cape Everard. He then sailed all the way upwards past the tip of Northern Australia.
Although in Captain Cook’s case, the French Sailor Explorer, De Bougainville would have landed on Cape York Peninsula, the East Coast of Australia before Cook, but rough seas of the Barrier Reef drove him away, back into the Pacific. Cook was not the first to TRY to track the transit of Venus, there were others. Notably Englishmen Mason and Dixon, who surveyed and drew a map line in America’s South also attempted the task but because of ship problems never got to an appropriate area.
TASTE of our early PEOPLE
TEACHER’S use
A day after the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay, two French Ships, under La Perouse arrived. If the French had not been held up in the Polynesian Islands, for 6 weeks, when several of the ships crew were murdered, by natives, what then?.
Captain Arthur Phillip commanded the entire First Fleet, and was Australia’s First Governor. Other members of HMS Sirius, were Captain John Hunter, who became the Colonies 2nd Governor, and also Lt. Philip Gidley King, who became its 3rd Governor from 1789 to 1806.
King was the first Governor to bring a wife. She did her best to support other women in the Colony. Sydney still had bouts of starvation. Free settlers, and released Convicts, had pushed outwards past The Hawkesbury, Windsor and Parramatta regions to find good pastures. Overseas Trading ships also called, from the Orient ( Hong Kong) America and the Pacific Islands.
The Marine Corps by being the only “POLICE FORCE” of the English Government and the Governor of the Colony, still held a lot of power, and they were able to resist changes from the very first days of Captain Governor Arthur Philip although as a Sea Going Superior Officer, he was able to command them..
The N.S.W. Officer Corps took over from the Marine Corps. Australia’s distance from England, and harsher land and climatic conditions than those experienced by Joseph Banks, inevitably led to shortages of many items. Merchant Ships from all over the world called at Port Jackson with many goods that would fulfill shortages. In some ways the Governors were powerless to prevent the Officer Corps, who were there to “make their fortune,” from purchasing goods and re selling them for profit.
The N.S.W. Officer Corps also used RUM as a kind of money system. The Officers got the Rum from visiting ships, then used it as bargaining and bartering item with the population. The acting Governor, Lt. Governor Major Grose of the N.S.W. Officer Corps, who was in charge of the Colony, in between Phillip and Hunter, taking over, allowed this to happen. The Officers were now able to prosper and be free to farm and Trade.
Captain Philip and then the Second Governor Captain John Hunter, and King tried to stop the bartering. Bligh who was after King was even deposed by the N.S.W. Officer Corps. Only when Colonel Macquarie, the 4th Governor, arrived with his own Army Regiment soldiers, and disbanded the Marine Corps, did it stop.
POTENTAIL PLAYERS as HISTORICAL CHARACTERS
Act 1. Captain Philip Gidley King, the Governor. Lt. Colonel William Paterson, in charge of the N.S.W. Corps and Lt. Governor.
Macdonald- Governor Kings major domo. William Chapman- King’s Secretary.
Mrs. Anna Josephina King- and her Cook.
Mrs. William Paterson- wife of Lt. Col. W. Paterson
Act 2. Dr. George Bass- intrepid explorer. His sailing and business partner Charles Bishop. Lt. John Murray of The lady Nelson
James Underwood, released Convict, who became a successful Boat yard Owner and Sealing Businessman.
Mrs. Elisabeth Marsden- wife of the Rev Samuel Marsden. Sarah Bird, a released convict, who developed business’s also owned a Public House
Mrs. Greville. Ex Actress, and friend of Lt. John Murray.
The French Midshipman Leon Brevedent, who circumnavigated and suggested the name French Island at Westernport. Victoria.
Act 3. Ensign Barrallier- Governor King’s Military attaché, and Explorer.
George Howe- official Government Printer. Mr. Robert Campbell Business Importer.
Surgeon D’Arcy Wentworth. Lt. Pierre Millius, from the French Expedition
Jane Dundas, released Convict and Josephina King’s maidservant. Margaret Catchpole, released Convict and esteemed member of the Rouse and other Household’s. Mary Reibey- released Convict and Business Entrepreneur..Mrs. James Rouse-released convict and wife of James Ruse 1st Public Landowner.
Act 4. The French Contingent, led by Commander Baudin, and . Francois Peron a Naturalist, ex soldier and a possible spy.
Lt. Charles Robbins R.N. Captain of Cumberland . Mr. Charles Grimes, Assistant Government Surveyor. Mrs. Elizabeth Macarthur, wife of Captain John Macarthur. Mrs. Elizabeth Rouse. Mary MacDonald (wife of King’s major domo) liaison for the French Officers social visits, with ladies of the Colony and Governor King. Mrs. Susannah Larra, wife of James Larra, ex convict of Spanish and Jewish origin. He was one of many disaffected people’s, of non English nationality in Sydney Cove.
Download PDF Slide Show of PICTURES and Additional History Information
| Click to view separate ACTs below | DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PLAY PDF |
| ACT 1. 8 People (4 Boys, 4 Girls) --> | READ ACT 1 |
| ACT 2. 9 People (5 Boys, 4 Girls) --> | READ ACT 2 |
| ACT 3. 9 People (5 Boys, 4 Girls) --> | READ ACT 3 |
| ACT 4. 9 People (4 Boys, 5 Girls) --> | READ ACT 4 |
