Colonial Staples: Steam Imperialism in Britain’s Carbon Frontier of Victoria

James Watt’s coalcoal-fired steamsteam enginesteam engine(s) was invented in 1786 just two years before the First FleetFirst Fleet arrived in SydneySydney CoveSydney Cove to establish a penal colony. Coalcoal was first found by Europeans in 1791 near NewcastleNewcastle and mining began near Nobbys HeadNobbys Head, with the first coal shipment leaving what would become the world’s largest coal exportexport(s) port in 1799. This period also saw the rapid march of the Australian south-eastern frontier on little cloven hooves, shepherded by settler shock troops dealing death and disease to the land’s original custodians. Fleeces from these rapidly expanding pastures supplied the LancashireLancashire woolwool mills, just as textilestextiles industrialised, with the steam-powered loomsteam-powered loom replacing the hand loom. In the Port Phillip District of New South Wales (which in 1851 became the colony of Victoria) the dominant woollen industry increasingly depended on steam power to process and transport its product. The use of coal on a commercial scale from the late eighteenth century powered an explosion in manufacturingmanufacturing between 1780 and 1840, the same span of years in which the Australian coloniescolonies were appropriated. Coal-fired industrialisationindustrialisation and colonial expansion might easily be conflated as a twin-headed beast. Instead the relationship between carbonisation and colonialism is more complex. In Port Phillip local sources of coal were delayed due to official reticence, legislative barriers and Indigenous ‘disturbances’.