THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Chapter 6
By Dr. Graham
McLennan B.D.S.
Christian History
Research Institute
|
On the 28th December, 1986 South
Australia celebrated its Jubilee of 150 years, and it is timely to consider
its Godly beginnings and the aspiration of its founders for the future.
The person who opened up the Southern portion of
Australia for free settlement was Captain Charles Sturt, one of Australia's
greatest and most heroic inland explorers. He was a man of courage and
prayer, for "in many a scene of danger, of difficulty, and of sorrow he
had risen from his knees calm and confident." (1) God spared his life on numerous occasions.
He endured tremendous hardships when facing the harshness of the Australian
inland, and, as Sturt completed his exploration with his men, who had
complete confidence in and admiration for him, he "went down on his
knees and with tears of joy offered his thanks to Almighty God."(2)
Charles Sturt loved the majesty of the bush and
often "praised his God that He had done such wondrous things."(3)
It was Sturt who in February, 1834 wrote to the Colonial Office. "He
prophesied that the men of South Australia would one day people the heart of
the continent and that the Australian colonies would emulate America. He
urged them to convince the aborigine that the white man was coming as a
brother. He urged them, too, not to give the aborigine trifling presents but
to protect him against violence and aggression, until that day when as
children of the same heavenly Father, they had all learned to look at each
other with love and charity."(4) Stephen's desire was to establish our nation as
"a Christian virtuous enlightened state in the centre of the eastern
hemisphere and within reach of the Chinese, Hindu and Mohammedan nations."(6)
Certainly we are seeing the continuing fulfilment of this great prophetic
statement given to the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Dieman's land more than 160
years ago, as we see China opening up to the printing of the word of God, and
as we see missionaries continuing to be sent out from this nation. Many Christians were instrumental in the
formation of South Australia, amongst them was a man named Robert Torrens who
stated in a speech in the House of Commons in 1827 that "we are
co-operating in the scheme of Providence and are the favoured instruments in
causing Christian civilisation to 'cover the earth as the waters cover the
sea!' "(7) As chairman of the Colonization Commissioners
when they first met in May 1835, he expressed the hope that they would be
performing "an act of mercy for the natives of southern Australia by
bringing them the gift of their great civilization and their Holy
faith."(8) Almost all of the directors of the South
Australian Company were lay preachers. Robert Gouger, who was appointed
Colonial Secretary was a devout Evangelical and even Wakefield acknowledged
that without Gouger South Australia would not have been settled.(9) It was
Gouger who wrote a "Sketch of a Proposal for Colonizing Australia".
He also organized the first public meeting for the free settlement of the
South Australian Coast attended by 2,500 people in a Christian Centre,
"Exeter Hall" in London. George Fife Angas, who resigned as a
Colonization Commissioner to take up a position on the board of directors of
the South Australian Company, was also a committed Christian and the real
father of South Australia's religious liberties. "My great object was,
in the first instance, to provide a place of refuge for pious Dissenters of
Great Britain, who could in their new home discharge their consciences before
God in Civil and religious duties without any disabilities."(10) It was
Angas' hope "that South Australia will become the headquarters for the
diffusion of Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere".(11) "It was claimed that in fifty years he
circulated over one million copies of scripture, many millions of tracts and
two million copies of devotional books such as Spurgeon's Morning by
Morning and Evening by Evening. (12) Angas provided a voluntary nondenominational
elementary education for sixpence a week. The schools' sole textbook was the
Bible! Charles Mann, who believed it was his purpose to
assist in the settlement "with the Bible in one hand and the axe (to
clear the wilderness) in the other"(13) was appointed the first
Advocate General. The Colonial Manager was Samuel Stephens,
appointed by George Angas because he had been converted at a Wesleyan revival
and "fallen to the floor in agony and cried for mercy so piteously that
the Holy Ghost had showered the blessing of salvation on him."(14)
Samuel Stephens arrived in 1836, at Kangaroo
Island. However, he apparently had not learnt about the perserverance of the
saints, developed a drinking problem, and was replaced by David McLaren, who wanted
to enter the Presbyteryian ministry but became a Congregationalist then a
Baptist. The Colonial Office appointed Captain John
Hindmarsh as Governor and on the 28th December 1836, he proclaimed South
Australia a province, calling upon those present "to prove themselves
worthy to be the founders of a great and free colony by their industry and
sobriety, by the strict observance of the ordinances of their religion,"
and to help the natives "by promoting their advancement in civilization
and, always under the blessing of divine providence, their conversion to the
Christian faith."(15) Two days later on the 30th December, Hindmarsh
moved from Holdfast Bay inland and named Adelaide where, within eight years
there were more preachers and places of worship, than the number in the first
decade in New England, U.S.A. (16) and within ten years, over half the
population of 9,000 were attending two of the denominational churches,
Episcopal and Congregational, and further church buildings were necessary.
From its settlement in 1836 to 1915 Sunday School enrolments far exceeded
those of day schools!(17) Lt. Colonel George Gawler arrived in the infant
colony in 1838 to become the new Governor. A hero of Waterloo, was converted
reading a book, Evidences of Christianity, and was determined to
establish a Christian colony. Many Christians settled in the colony, the first
in the British Empire not to be officially aligned to the Church of England.
A group of German Christians, who had been persecuted in Prussia for refusing
to allow a secular sovereign to dictate to them about their faith, settled at
Klemzig on the Torrens and at Hahndorf. These are the words of Pastor Kavel,
their leader, when they swore allegiance in May, 1839: "On our arrival here, we hailed this
hospitable shore as a place of Hebrews 11:32 says "And what more shall I
say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David,
Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered
justice, and gained what was promised..." So also one could continue
about many of the early settlers. People such as Edward John Eyre, Captain
Barker, a staunch evangelical, T.Q. Stow, who commenced the first Congregational
Church in Adelaide in 1837, Lord Glenelg of the Home Office who permitted the
colonising of South Australia, or of Sir George Grey who believed it was such
"a dreadful waste of God's bountiful gifts in Australia"(18) and
who shared with James Stephen the view that "prayer and meditation on
God's Holy Word... were the inexhaustible, unfathomable source of all pure
consolation and spiritual strength."(19) In conclusion, may we wish South
Australians God's richest blessings for the future, and, to quote the words
of Pastor Kavel: "May South Australia prosper; and all its inhabitants,
its immigrants, and all the natives grow together as one blessed nation
labouring unanimously for the advancement of those great objects," and
of Captain Charles Sturt: "May the inhabitants of South Australia
continue to deserve and to receive the protection of that Almighty power, on
whose will the existence of nations as well as that of individuals
depends!"(20) |
Footnotes
1. C.M.H. Clark A
History of Australia Melbourne University Press
1973 Vol II
p.97 (Used with permission)
2. Ibid. p. 101
3. Ibid. p. 98
4. Ibid. Vol. III p.
46
5. Ibid. Vol. II p.
83
6. Ibid. p. 110
7. D. Pike Paradise
of Dissent. South Australia 1829-1857
Melbourne
University Press 1957 p.95
8. Clark loc cit Vol.
III p.48
9. Pike loc cit Vol.
III p. 99
10. Ibid. p.130
11. Ibid. p. 138
12. Ibid. p. 160
13. Clark. loc cit
Vol. III p.49
14. Ibid. p. 51
15. Ibid. p. 55
16. Pike loc cit p.
264
17. Ibid. p. 513
18. Clark loc cit
Vol. III p.41
19. Ibid. p. 40
20. Charles Sturt
Expedition into Central Australia London
T. & W.
Boone 1849 Vol. I p.39