REGULAR FEATURES
EPISODE 3 - ARRIVAL By: Al Finegan
U
nbeknownst to all on board Lady Juliana, she was the first vessel to arrive at Sydney cove since the First Fleet's arrival almost two and a half years before. The women, all dressed up to look their best were excited, anticipating a cheering crowd to welcome them. They were soon deeply disappointed. It quickly became obvious to Mary and Jane that their arrival had provoked deep disappointment and even anger in the reception party on the dock. Of all the responses the women of the Lady Juliana had expected or feared, it was surely not this one. The colony was in the grip of starvation. Judge Advocate David Collins was mortified at the arrival of, "… a cargo so unnecessary and so unprofitable as 222 females, instead of a cargo of provisions". Lieutenant Ralph Clark was blunter, lamenting the arrival of still more "damned whores". A journalist who witnessed the arrival of the women wrote, “They were all fresh, well looking women.” The passengers might
have been a feast for the eyes for some, but the women also signified a devastating burden on the new colony. How on earth were they going to feed another shipload of people? Governor Phillip had petitioned for more skilled men, more food, and more women to remedy the imbalance of the sexes. London seems to have answered his petitions in the wrong order. The colony had been expecting a store ship with a few skilled men aboard to take charge of building and agricultural projects. What had been delivered was 222 females with their “brats” to be housed and fed instead of a cargo of provisions. There was at least one positive note, the ship carried letters from home and the first news of events in Europe to the settlement since the First Fleet had sailed in May 1787. The next few weeks became a nightmare for 12-year-old Mary and her fellow convicts. They were immediately pressed into service to take food stores from the Lady Juliana and dump them on the dock.
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under armed guard, carts were loaded and transported to locked storehouses. Mary was shocked at the poor condition of the soldiers and convicts. They were all skin and bones with sunken cheeks and eyes, staring hungrily, not at them, but at the food being unloaded from the ship. A soldier told Mary how the colony was almost out of food, with the daily ration being a small portion of weevil infested flour, barely enough to survive. He said that men had been dropping dead in the streets from starvation and six marines had recently been hanged for stealing food. The arriving women were by far the fittest people in the colony. The biggest of them were put to work for the next five days unloading the ship of all her stores, food and animals, and land them on the dock. The others, including Mary and Jane, were sent to live and work at the hospital to help feed and nurse the hundreds of starving inmates, using fresh food and medical supplies from the Lady Juliana. When the final sums were done at the end of the week it was calculated that the
colony could increase its weekly ration from four to five and a half pounds of flour per week. Mary settled into the hospital routine, becoming more competent at nursing the feeble patients who were slowly recovering, thanks to the extra supplies from the Lady Juliana. On the first Sunday after their arrival, all women were assembled by a tree which had become the spot for divine services. Under the guidance of the colony’s minister, they said prayers, heard a sermon, after which the reverend baptised all the children who had been born on board. After two weeks from their arrival, the 21st June 1790, the storeship Justina anchored in Sydney Cove. Its arrival was a blessing that changed the atmosphere of the entire colony from gloom to optimism. Then as the colonists began to see some hope for a brighter future, the Second Fleet arrived. The colony had only one week of relief between the blessed arrival of the Justina and the delight of the stores she had
