Welcome to the story 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. Episodes released weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Sep 30, 2026 · 46:19
Last time the emancipists were on the back foot but then two hammer blows hit with Governor Macquarie’s departure. The new governor of NSW, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was a tough…
Sep 16, 2026 · 48:24
In this episode we say farewell to Governor Lachlan Macquarie after twelve years in Sydney. He championed the name Australia, made 26 January an official public anniversary, and…
Sep 9, 2026 · 54:11
Governor Lachlan Macquarie was on a sincere mission to lift up the former convicts known as emancipists. For years that project had gone his way — until the colonial…
Sep 2, 2026 · 54:37
In early New South Wales, more than four-fifths of the non-Aboriginal population were convicts, former convicts, or their children. Once free, these people — the emancipists —…
Aug 19, 2026 · 50:56
Episode 38 follows John Macarthur after he slipped out of New South Wales just before Lachlan Macquarie arrived to restore order. Having masterminded the Rum Rebellion, Macarthur…
Aug 12, 2026 · 54:26
In September 1803 Lieutenant John Bowen raised the Union Jack at Risdon Cove on the Derwent, founding the first European settlement in Van Diemen’s Land. The next year, Governor…
Jul 29, 2026 · 56:09
In 1803, Governor Philip Gidley King in Sydney sent two ships to near modern day Hobart. There had been multiple earlier European visits to Van Diemen’s Land but these ships were…
Jul 22, 2026 · 48:12
Last week 'The Women's Pioneer Society of Australasia' invited me to speak about the Political History of Australia podcast.…
Jul 15, 2026 · 56:16
The people of what we now call Tasmania had lived in complete isolation since rising seas carved out Bass Strait around 10,000 BC, transforming their homeland from a southern…
Jul 8, 2026 · 1:05:13
This episode we pause the story of Governor Lachlan Macquarie to take a panoramic tour of Australia’s near-abroad and Australia’s infant settlements in the early 1820s. With the…
Jun 24, 2026 · 53:26
In 1813 New South Wales was a fast-growing, optimistic society. The colony’s teenage growth spurt could no longer be contained by the rugged sandstone wall of the Blue Mountains…
Jun 17, 2026 · 45:50
After the upheaval of the Rum Rebellion, London finally responds. In late December 1809, Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie arrives in Sydney Harbour. He moves quickly to be…
Jun 10, 2026 · 52:13
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…
Jun 3, 2026 · 55:22
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…
May 20, 2026 · 59:00
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…
May 13, 2026 · 46:51
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…
May 6, 2026 · 36:59
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…
Apr 29, 2026 · 40:22
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…
Apr 22, 2026 · 37:45
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…
Apr 15, 2026 · 49:11
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…
Apr 8, 2026 · 51:02
In 1788 Governor Arthur Phillip had proclaimed that the British Empire was now in charge of two-thirds of a continent. It was an audacious claim for a little speck of 1,500…
Apr 1, 2026 · 38:41
In 1802 the political focus of New South Wales was not domestic but geopolitical. The British and the French had been at war for nine years already and had well over a decade…
Mar 18, 2026 · 38:20
In September 1801, Captain John Macarthur of the NSW Corps was challenged to a duel by his commanding officer. Macarthur declined the challenge but his opponent was insistent and…
Mar 10, 2026 · 38:36
In the late 1790s, John Macarthur took a step back from politics as he was pre-occupied with establishing the Australian wool industry. In mid-1800, the new governor Philip…
Mar 4, 2026 · 30:13
In the first year of the 19th century Captain Philip Gidley King was sworn in as the third Governor of New South Wales. The second governor (John Hunter) had come to the job…
Feb 25, 2026 · 32:37
Governor John Hunter served as the second governor of New South Wales during the second half of the 1790s. As Hunter’s governorship progressed, his misery and paranoia grew as he…
Feb 11, 2026 · 39:32
After the John Baughan Affair political tension returned to the small but now flourishing colony of New South Wales. It was 1796. In this increasingly tense atmosphere some…
Feb 4, 2026 · 34:35
Governor John Hunter arrived in Sydney in 1795 with instructions directly from King George III to clean up the perceived mess in New South Wales. Hunter had first come to Sydney…
Jan 28, 2026 · 34:10
John Macarthur is the biggest personality of early New South Wales. He arrived with the army aboard the Second Fleet in 1790 … at what was known as the Starving Time. But…
Jan 21, 2026 · 38:08
Governor Arthur Phillip departed NSW after almost five years in late 1792. For the next three years NSW had no official governor and so the military boss Major Francis Grose…
Jan 14, 2026 · 31:35
It’s widely assumed Captain Arthur Phillip is not only the hero of the First Fleet but he was also the hero as governor for the first five years of New South Wales. The reality…
Nov 19, 2025 · 29:19
The British flag had been raised, the law had been laid down, the French had sailed off and infant Sydney Cove was starting to resemble a settlement. Governor Arthur Phillip had…
Nov 12, 2025 · 36:39
It’s forgotten today but Proclamation Day on 7 February 1788 was more significant than 26 January 1788. Proclamation was the day that all were assembled and Captain Arthur…
Nov 5, 2025 · 20:54
The British have arrived in Botany Bay but Arthur Phillip quickly decides to relocate to Sydney Harbour. Just as he is leaving Botany Bay however two large mysterious ships turn…
Oct 29, 2025 · 28:14
The First Fleet departs England and eight months later all 11 ships arrive safely in Botany Bay. Mid way through the First Fleet’s voyage, Captain Laperouse of France is ordered…
Oct 22, 2025 · 28:07
The British have decided to colonise New South Wales and First Fleet fever grips England. The East India Company tries unsuccessfully to scuttle the project. Captain Arthur…
Oct 15, 2025 · 27:17
Following the relentless lobbying of Jospeh Banks and an unwitting contribution from American Thomas Jefferson, in 1786 the British Government makes an abrupt and dramatic…
Oct 8, 2025 · 20:28
James Cook continues his exploration of the Pacific, while Joseph Banks stays back in England to campaign for the settlement of New South Wales as a British colony. Hosted on…
Oct 2, 2025 · 19:49
In 1770 Cook & Banks become the first Europeans to land on the fertile east coast of "New Holland", which they rename "New South Wales" and claim for Britain. Hosted on Acast.…
Oct 2, 2025 · 26:53
For most of the world, the story of Australia started as a fable about a great south land that must exist to keep the world in balance. The myth came from a joint venture between…
Oct 2, 2025 · 26:28
Tracing the centuries long enmity between Britain and France, and how that imperial rivalry played out in the South Pacific as the race for Terra Australis intensified. Hosted on…
Oct 2, 2025 · 16:12
The crucial partnership between softly-spoken James Cook and the effervescent Joseph Banks as they set out on The Endeavour in the search for Terra Australis. Hosted on Acast.…
Sep 26, 2025 · 32:16
This pre-release sample episode tells the largely unknown story of how Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton first entered the public's imagination. His career as a…
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