ALAN CARLTON
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Charles Darwin visits Hobart

Picture
Charles Darwin in the Beagle.
 
30.1.1836 Left Sydney.
5.2.1836: Arrives in Hobart Town.
17.2.1836: Leaves Hobart town.
Collects 119 species of insect. 63 were new. Discovers a new species of skink and flat worm.  Collects 5 lizards and one snake.
 
He wrote about:
Biology. The plants and animals he saw.
The convict society.
Tasmanian aborigines.
 
Charles Darwin: Near its mouth, there are extensive Basaltic platforms, the sides of which show fine facades of columns; higher up the land becomes mountainous & is all covered by a light wood.- The bases of these mountains, following the edges of the Bay, are cleared & cultivated; the bright yellow fields of corn, & dark green ones of Potato crops appeared very luxuriant.
 
Charles Darwin: Late in the evening we came to an anchor in a snug cove, on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania, as Van Diemen’s Land is now called.- The number of Ships was not very considerable.- The first aspect of the place is very inferior to that of Sydney; the latter might be called a city, this is only a town.- In the morning I walked on shore,- The streets are fine & broad; but the houses rather scattered; the shops appeared good: The town stands at the base of Mt. Wellington, a mountain 3100 ft, but of no picturesque beauty: from this it receives a good supply of water, a thing which is much wanted in Sydney.- Round the Cove, there are some fine Warehouses; & on one side a small Fort – Coming from the Spanish Settlements, where such magnificent care has generally been paid to the fortifications, the means of defence in these parts appeared very contemptible.”
 
Charles Darwin: 7th…10th During these days I took some long pleasant walks examining the geology of the country. The climate here is much damper than in New S. Wales & hence the land is much more fertile. Agriculture here flourishes; the cultivated fields looked very well & the Gardens abounded with the most luxuriant vegetables & fruit trees. Some of the Farm houses, situated in retired spots had a very tempting appearance. The general aspect of the Vegetation is similar to that of Australia; perhaps it is a little more green & cheerful & the pasture between the trees, rather more abundant.
 
Charles Darwin: I had been introduced to Mr Frankland, the Surveyor-General & during these days I was much in his Society.  He took me two very pleasant rides & I passed at his house the most agreeable evening since leaving England.  There appears to be a good deal of Society here:  I heard of a Fancy Dress Ball at which 113 were present in costumes!  I suspect also the Society is much pleasanter than that of Sydney.  They enjoy the advantage in there being no wealthy Convicts. … The Colony moreover is well governed; in this convict population, there certainly is not more, if not less, crime than in England.
Charles Darwin: Whereas ex-convicts poisoned affairs in New South Wales, there is a better class of Society here.
Charles Darwin: It is a most admirable place of emigration.
Charles Darwin: The Australian colonies far outstripping in civilization those of S. America.
Charles Darwin: I would be very loth to emigrate.  The moral state of the lower orders is of course detestable, the society of the higher is rancorously divided by party feeling & the country is not to me pleasing.  
Charles Darwin: The hunting skills of Australian Aboriginals were chief among attributes that prompted him to declare these people far from being such utterly degraded beings as they are usually represented.
Charles Darwin: Aboriginals’ skills sufficed only to make them appear to me to stand some few degrees higher in the scale of civilization than the Fuegians[1]. 
Charles Darwin: The Australian aboriginals’ population decline as inexorable, an instance of the rule that contact between ‘the varieties of man’ led to ‘the stronger always extirpating the weaker’. 
Charles Darwin: When two races of men meet, they act precisely like two species of animals. They fight, eat each other, bring diseases to each other but then comes the most deadly struggle, namely which have the best fitted organization, or instincts (i.e. intellect in man) to gain the day.
Charles Darwin: The Tasmanian Aborigines’ bush skills caused the Black Line of 1830 to fail in the short term, yet thereby was conveyed to them the power and numbers of the whites.  So the way opened for the intrepid exertions of George Augustus Robinson and Aboriginal deportation to Flinders Island. 
Charles Darwin: The removal as ‘most cruel’ with the infamous conduct of some of our countrymen. The only alternative would have been total slaughter of the Aboriginals and Van Diemen’s Land enjoys the great advantage of being free from a native population.  
Charles Darwin:  I do not know of a more striking instance of the comparative rate of increase of a civilized over a savage people.
Charles Darwin: The extinction of races: the grade of civilization seems to be a most important element in the success of competing nations.  
 
 


[1] Fuegians: Indigenous people of Tierra gel Fuego. The most southerly people in the world. 

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  • Home
  • Photos
    • photos >
      • All Saints Church
      • Anglesea Barracks
      • Art Mob
      • Boer War
      • Botanical Gardens
      • Brooke Street Pier
      • Brunswick Hotel
      • Campbell Street
      • Castray Esplanade
      • Cenotaph
      • Constitution Dock
      • St David's Cathedral
    • photos >
      • St David's Park
      • Elizabeth St Mall
      • Elizabeth St Pier
      • Franklin Square
      • Hadley's Hotel
      • Hobart GPO
      • Hobart Congregational Church
      • Hobart Rivulet
      • Hobart Town Hall
      • Holy Trinity Church
      • Heading South Sculpture
      • Hutchins Old School
    • photos >
      • Kunanyi / Mt Wellington
      • MacQuarie Street Primary School
      • Maritime Museum
      • MacQuarie Wharf
      • Parliament House
      • Penitentary
      • Railway Roundabout
      • Regatta
      • RHH
      • Royal Visits 1868 1901 1920 1927 1934
      • Royal visit 1954
      • Salamanca Place
    • photos >
      • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
      • Theatre Royal
      • Victoria Dock
      • Saint David's Cathedral
      • Saint David's Park
      • St George Anglican Church
    • Street art: photos >
      • Bidencope Lane
      • Criterion Collins Liverpool Streets
      • Elizabeth Street North Hobart​
      • Kemp Despard Streets
    • Streets: photos >
      • Argyle Street
      • Barrack Street
      • Bathurst Street
      • Brisbane Street
      • Brooker Highway
      • Campbell Street
      • Collins Street
    • Streets: photos >
      • Davey Street
      • Elizabeth Street
      • Goulburn Street
      • Harrington Street
      • Hunter Street
      • Liverpool Street
      • Macquarie Street
      • Murray Street
  • Places
    • Places >
      • All Saint's Church
      • Anglesea Barracks
      • Atheneum Club
      • Baha’i Centre
      • Boer War Memorial
      • Brook Street Pier
      • Brunswick Hotel
      • Boats in the docks
      • Constitution Dock
      • The Drunken Admiral
      • Franklin Square
      • Gas Works
    • Places >
      • Hadley's Hotel
      • Heading South Sculpture
      • Hobart GPO
      • Hobart Synagogue
      • Hobart Town Hall
      • Holy Trinity Church
      • Hunter Street
      • Ingle Hall
      • Old Wool Factory
      • Ordnance Stores
      • Parliament House
      • Penitentiary
      • Princes Park
    • Places >
      • Princes Wharf 1
      • Scots Memorial Church
      • Saint David's Cathedral
      • Saint David's Park
      • Saint George Anglican Church
      • St Michaels Collegiate School
      • Supreme Court
  • History
    • History >
      • Tasmanian Timeline
      • Early Tasmania
      • Mid Nineteenth Century
      • Late Nineteenth Century
      • 20th Century
      • Tasmania’s aborigines
      • Convicts
    • People >
      • John Lee Archer
      • William Bedford
      • Andrew Bent
      • Louis Bernacchi
      • James Blackburn
      • William Bunster
      • William Buckley
      • Thomas Bromfield
      • Luke Castray
      • William Champion
      • David Collins
    • People >
      • John Colvin
      • Charles Darwin
      • Governor Eadley
      • TT Flynn
      • John Franklin
      • Lady Jane Franklin
      • Charles Gaylor
      • Haig: Elizabeth and Andrew
      • Henry Jones
    • People >
      • James Kelly
      • Robert Knopwood
      • Lachlan Macquarie
      • Douglas Mawson
      • Charles McLachlan.
      • George Mure
      • Pearce: Henry and John
      • Robert Pitcairn
      • Poulett-Harris
      • Reid: Arthur and Alison
      • James Clark Ross
      • Ikey Solomon
      • Phillip Smith
      • Abel Tasman
      • Mark Twain
      • AJ White
      • Andrew and Elizabeth Haig
  • Community
    • Hobart Marathon Festival
    • Hadley's Hotel
    • history is not set in bronze
    • Wooden Boat Festival 2019
    • What do you think of Hobart?
    • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
    • The Mountain
  • Walking Tours
    • Dave's Walking Tour
    • The Tench Walking Tour
    • Botanical Gardens Circuit
    • ​Alfred’s feeling religious walk
    • Battery Point Sculpture Trail
    • Lachlan gets to the point
    • Street art: Luffy paints the town
  • Blog
    • healing through living
    • This website
    • about another website
    • Acknowledgement
    • Contact
  • The Full Complement
    • Alan Carlton
    • Daniel Frank
    • Paul Barrington
    • Jodi Sutton
    • Jodi Sutton talks about mistakes
    • Jodi Sutton: The phone
    • Ann Heath
    • Maddie Atkins
    • Karen Wong
    • Jo-Anne Cherry
    • Jo-Anne Cherry: Retirement
    • Errol Kilov
    • Garry Owen
    • Katherine Janney
    • Jacques Cawood
    • John Chung
    • Gordon Henry
  • Songs
    • Forty Years Ago
    • Tomorrow
    • Clouds in the River
    • I Woke Up
    • Hold My Hand
    • Cornelian Bay Boathouses
    • Dance on the Deck
    • Eucalyptus Globulus