Shadows of Vinegar Hill

Shadows of Vinegar Hill

Another Australian Timeline


Well, here it is, the timeline that was promised; this is going to be my lucky thirteenth timeline in as little as two years one the site, and in a change of direction the updates aren't going to be as excessively long or rambling as some of my other timelines, if only to have this story keep my attention. In any case, I hope you enjoy and reply.


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(Except from Australia's Opening by Andrew McMiller)

Contrary to almost universally popular belief, Australia's first armed military takeover came not during the days of William Kempsey and James Buckley, but decades earlier in the time of revolution, rebellion and war. During a period not often covered in all Australian history classes today, all whilst a entire world away Europe entered its fifth year of struggle against the machinations of the near imperial Napoleon, several conspirators plotted and planned one of the largest prison break in history up until that point; over 1000 men, 18000 miles and the largest empire and world becoming almost impossibly high walls that needed to be scaled.

From young men sent off on the smallest infractions all the way to the leaders of rebellion in 'the old country', in a foreign alien world totally detached from all ways they lived before, the schemers had connived and cajoled their way through years of punishing torture, ridicule and forced labour in order to even have the chance of a life that was stripped away from them in either just or unjust fashion. These plotters and conspirators were not men of the sword for petty idealism such as revolution and rebellion against their 'superiors', for that was a life they had left behind. No, these men were simple men, and of the simplest things they could crave in life was the comfort of home, family and faith, nothing that was brought along with them to this new world. Indeed, the only motives was a lust for home that stood a million miles away behind high seas and bickering empires; and for that they orchestrated one of the most outstanding (albeit short lived) military takeovers in the history of mankind.

This was the New South Wales Rebellion.

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(Except from The Life and Death of Phillip Cunningham by Howard Bernard Johnson)

Despite initial concerns by other members of his small group of conspirators, Phillip's letters arrived to their intended destinations on time without authorities intercepting the messenger (a power of which they held since the earliest days of the new settlement), a full day before the outbreak was intended to be set in motion. Now with 24 hours to continue planning with his co-leaders (Johnston and Holt primarily) in the Castle Hill farmlands that he and his 'squadron' of convicts were appointed to, he had suddenly found himself with another one thousand Irish men at his side ready to rise up when the 'torch' was lit across the vast landscape of the relatively close townships, with the messages promising any British convict their own freedom if they had only laid down their picks and shovels and supported the attempted break out when the time came. Of course, such a promise would be hard for the Irish rebels to keep long enough to begin contemplating a 'change of spirit', but between the lowly characters that waddled around the fields of New South Wales in 1804 Cunningham would soon discover all the English support he needed. Now was just a matter of hours and minutes.


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(Except from Colonial Australian Statistics from AustralianIrishAncestors.org)

Please note: due to the lack of many significant sources of information on 'births, deaths and burials' during the most catastrophic phase of Irish convict action in New South Wales, especially following the rebellion of 1804, much of the information here comes from a number of conflicting sources. As a result, we here on the administration team have done the best we can to piece together a compilation of all the scarce data we could in order to present to our visitors a rough makeup of colonial New South Wales immediately prior to the rebellion.

Free settlers - ~734

Soldiers - ~230

Total 'civilians' - ~964
__________

British convicts - ~5157

Irish convicts - ~1719

Total convicts - ~6876
__________

Total Population - ~7840


– – – – – – – – – –

(Except from the New South Wales Rebellion article from OpAl)

New South Wales Rebellion

The New South Wales Rebellion of 1804 was a rebellion by convicts against the colonial authority in the British colony of New South Wales. This rebellion culminated in the sacking of the colonial capital at Sydney and the brief overthrow of the British from the Australian mainland before the subsequent recapture and resettlement of the region. It was the first successful armed takeover of an Australian government since European settlement in 1788.[1]

On 4 March 1804, 233 convicts led by Phillip Cunningham (a veteran of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, as well as mutiny on the convict transport ship Anne) escaped from a farm intent on capturing ships to sail to Ireland. In response, martial law was quickly declared in New South Wales. The mostly Irish rebels, having gathered 1048 reinforcements from surrounding regions, marched on settlements at Castle Hill and Parramatta before overthrowing the British New South Wales Corps at Sydney. Failing to capture a single ship in Port Jackson after escaping British soldiers and free settlers scorched many of the larger vessels the convicts were forced to take effective control of the colony. After freeing many other convicts and administering Sydney and Parramatta for almost a year, the British army returned on 15 February 1805 and re-established control over the colony.[2] 180 convicts died during this period with 14 of the rebel leaders later being executed by colonial authorities.[3]
 
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Although I know next to nothing about Australian history during this era, the TL looks to be off to a good start! Keep it up!
 
One question (my standard for new TLs)

1. How far are you going with this?

The Napoleonic Wars will be ending in a few years. Will this lead to more free civilians being sent to Australia and gold being discovered earlier?

That will have all sorts of butterflies on Australia...
 
One question (my standard for new TLs)

1. How far are you going with this?

The Napoleonic Wars will be ending in a few years. Will this lead to more free civilians being sent to Australia and gold being discovered earlier?

That will have all sorts of butterflies on Australia...

I'm wanting to take this up to present day if I can, as well as try to show snippets of the entire world (with POD in 1814, I doubt anything after ~1850 would ever be the same as our timeline). To answer your other question; whilst I won't go into the details, this timeline will certainly involve gold (hell, it was rumoured to be found as early as the 1790's), war and a certain Governor by the name of Macquarie.
 
(Except from the New South Wales Rebellion article on GreatSouthernHistory.com)

Despite what many amateur history enthusiasts tend to believe in regards to the Cunningham uprising, including the bizarre belief that rebellion's leaders had planned to form a new 'Republic of New Ireland' or 'Southern Empire' (two beliefs that seemed to have just appeared in the earliest days of Australia on the internet), the true reason behind the Irish uprising was simply an attempt to escape an alien and hostile world and return to a home whence they came. However, with such a grandiose plan which involved the hijacking of several military and civilian ships in Port Jackson in order to sail thousands of kilometers back to Ireland (in such a hostile time no less), as well as the freeing of thousands of British convicts in order to keep the NSW Corps preoccupied, the original plan was almost doomed to fail from the start.

Indeed, despite its latter success in capturing Sydneytown from the defenders as well as freeing over a thousand British convicts during their time of 'power' in the colony, the would-be escapees would start their breakout attempt in a shambles. Beginning the uprising with the torching of a single to hut in the middle of an isolated field on Castle Hill (a call of which was to rally those convicts Cunningham had called upon the day previous), those 1,500 that successfully broke out of their chains had to struggle and shuffle through the dark night with few oil lamps to guide the way. Through scruffy bush and rolling hills, they poured out from their government-owned farmland homes in all directions with very little guidance by the 'revolutions' leaders, Cunningham himself having to try and control his own rowdy group of convicts in an attempt to heard them towards Constitution Hill.

Eventually, by eight o'clock the night the leaders of the individual groups of convicts (some numbering as high as 230 such as the one led by Cunningham) managed to reign their disorderly troops and pushed them towards their designated locations, still stumbling in the dark of the Australian outback bush. From the Castle Hill and Windsor farmlands to small foundries in Parramatta, the convicts swept across the landscape, ransacking homes and factories of ammunition to take the armaments from free settlers and soldiers alike, streaming further into the darkened landscape towards Constitution Hill. Here, Cunningham rallied around over 800 convict 'soldiers' and spoke for a brief moment, calling for his men to march on the granary near Windsor and Parramatta in order to draw the now alerted NSW Corps (and loyalist militia) away from their defensive settlements on the outskirts of the largest settlements, before their 'leaders' again called upon their men to push onto victory, else they would "never see the lights of Ireland and freedom again".

With a rousing cheer, he marched his main embodiment (best equipped) convicts from Constitution Hill to meet up with reinforcements from a convict-settlement along the Hawkesbury river (numbering in the 400's) whilst ordering 600 others (under the lead of his second-in-command William Johnston) to raid across Castle Hill and Parramatta to ensure stocks of pikes and muskets would be enough to allow the escapees to push over the final wall that stood between them and the 'freedom' of the open sea; Sydney.

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(Except from Australian Speeches Register, Volume 3 by Michael Coulter)

Here is a 'reconstructed speech' supposebly spoken by the Irish-Australian rebel Philip Cunningham on the peak of Constitution Hill during the first Australian rebellion. This quote takes its content from a number of sources dating from the early-to-late 19th century with the earliest written record of the speech coming to us from the second-rebellious period during the 1820's. In any case, this speech may or may not be 100% accurate in its retelling as there are several key changes to it during the decades after Cunningham's death.

"Brothers! In the years since we remain a separate child from the comforting womb of our fatherlands, we have all waited for this single moment in time in which victory is near. For four years we've struggled and toiled in the fields and along the chain gangs and across the burning plains of this land so different from our own; but no longer I say, no longer!

Shall we be emburdened to do the work of a foreign people! (NO!)

Shall we be denied a freedom so essential to all mankind! (NO!)

Shall we strive against the will of our own people! (NO!)

Say it with me now then; from the singing souls of Vinegar Hill so far away to our convict brothers who now surround me on Castle Hill, we we never surrender to the will of a brute and tyrant thousands of leagues so far from our families! We shall never surrender to the will of a dying race that battles for foolish dominance over a dying land! We shall fight for independence and cry out as one that we are not the sons and brothers of a tyrannical empire!

Over there, across these hills through this land so harsh, there are boats, a hundred boats reading to fill with the souls of free men. You, you, and you! Yes men, everyone of you shall take the position of freedom atop these vessels and everyone of you shall smell the scent of freedom as the clear waves wash us back to our mother's lands! Tell me, is that not what we fight for; is that not what we die for!? (YES!)

Then I say to my fellows and say to my brothers, I say this; to a tyranny that stands on the back of a people as pure as ours, to a world that wishes for freedom to be found, and to the men that stand before me now;

Give me liberty, or give me death!"​

– – – – – – – – – –

(Except from A Brief History of Colonial Australia on Andrew McMiller)

By 1804, the de facto colonial capital at Sydney had been occupied for only sixteen years, and yet, unlike many of the first American colonial settlements established two centuries earlier, the centre of New South Wales was already developing a bustling trade-based economy of goods such as exotic spices and additives from China, as well as a bustling underground rum trade headed by the NSW Corps. However, during 1804/1805 risings, this 'peaceful' (as much as you could call a young colonial town peaceful) settlement would soon see its first major threat to its short-standing structures; the Irish rebels.

Soon after sweeping across the plains to the west of the busy capital city, taking over farmlands, ammunition and arms factories and several granaries that ran along the Hawkesbury and Neapen river stations (for convicts), they had found themselves in a prime position to march on Parramatta (before turning to the final prize of vessels that laid in wait in Sydney's Port Jackson harbour). Found shortly after the settlement of Sydney as a prime region for farming, Parramatta was slow to grow due to its inland nature but during the turn of the century it was soon found to be a prime region for smugglers and rum traders to store their stock. Nevertheless, defences in the settlement were ultimately found to be minimal years before the 1804 rising (Governor John Hunter remarked at the limited protection of the region from indigenous raids), and even after the call to martial law by Governor King and the rallying of the NSW Corps, only a few commissioned soldiers and loyalists barricaded themselves within the spread apart town-houses to defend against the swarm of oncoming convicts.

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(Except from the Battle of Parramatta (1804) article from OpAl)

Battle of Parramatta (1804)

Battle_of_Parramata.png


The Battle of Parramatta in 1804 was a minor battle that took place during the New South Wales Rebellion fought between escaped Irish convicts and British loyalists in the colonial settlement of Parramatta in New South Wales.

Led by rebel leader and veteran of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Phillip Cunningham, the battle was fought in the early morning on 5 March 1804 after several hundred convicts under Cunningham stormed the settlement to acquire the stocks of ammunition and armaments that would allow them to continue their breakout from the colony.[2] The town was defended by only several soldiers of the New South Wales Corps and over fifty loyalist civilians against over 800 convicts. During the process of occupying the well defended foundries and buildings that littered the town, 15 convicts were killed with only 4 defenders being found dead after the remaining loyalists were captured.[3] The convict victory in Parramatta allowed the Irish escapees to stage their march on Sydney later that day.

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(Except from The Governors: A History of NSW Government by Jordan Panzram)

Shortly after the fall of Parramatta, Sydney simply fell into a shambles of fear and alarm, its government and citizens (or those that new of the word from out west) became naturally panicked by the growing numbers of the escaped convicts and the dread that fell upon them after they had realized they were most likely planning an attack on Sydney itself. A city of only 3,000 'citizens', the defending forces (an amalgamation of loyalists from the 'Sydney Loyalist Association' and the New South Wales Corps) set up shop in the town in order to protect it from the growing threat, the NSWC fearful of attacking the convicts out on the field after the bolstering of their numbers following the revolts on the Parramatta, Hawkesbury and Windsor convict fields.

From here on out, Governor Philip Gidley King had to make all the right choices when it came to the defence of the settlement, and as he did usually when confronted by news of an aboriginal raid on the frontier regions of the burgeoning colony the leader of New South Wales approached Captain George Johnston (the head of the NSW Corps) to ask for advice. What he came back with was a simple list of instructions; barricade foundries, ammunition storage facilities, and large factories that would, once taken by a mighty convict force, would spell the end of the battle and "the beginning of a rout". Heading his advice, King called on hundreds of male civilians and convicts (who had been promised the growth of their freedoms if they supported the effort) in setting up defensive perimeters around the most vulnerable parts of the town, all whilst several church leaders (primarily those in the service of Reverend Marsden) helped comfort and escort hundreds of women and children to the harbour as a preparatory measure to readily let them escape the town onto boats in case the city did fall to the rebels.

Throughout the day the back-and-forth raiding of the convicts continued in the farmlands of the west, heading slowly towards Sydney taking farmhouse after farmhouse, factory after factory all whilst Governor King and Captain Johnston set their defensive plans into action. By dusk hundreds of women and children had been clambered and forced to the beach by their pastors, and by the clutch of night the convicts had found themselves on the outskirts of the colonial capital in Sydney, the last frontier they had to break in order to set themselves free. With a single shot from 'General' Cunningham's rifle and the stirring sound of 'liberty and death' echoing through the air, the convicts marched down to seal their fate.
 
If you need any help on the world at large, PM Jonathan Edelstein.

He seems to be an expert on the 19th century and might help you shape the world of this TL.

In addition, PM CaliBoy 1990.

Waiting for more, of course, and don't abandon this!!!
 
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