Free settlement begins at Swan River and South Australia
Two colonies founded without convicts, on opposite sides of the continent
Quick facts
- Swan River founder
- Captain James Stirling, proclaimed 18 June 1829
- South Australia founder
- Governor John Hindmarsh, proclaimed 28 December 1836
- Distinction
- both founded without convict transportation
What happened
Captain James Stirling proclaimed the Swan River Colony, later Western Australia, on 18 June 1829, after Captain C. H. Fremantle had taken possession of the remaining unclaimed part of the continent on Britain's behalf a month earlier. Unlike New South Wales, Swan River was founded expressly for free settlers, though the colony later accepted convicts from 1850 once its economy struggled. South Australia followed on 28 December 1836, when Governor John Hindmarsh read the colony's founding proclamation at Holdfast Bay under a large gum tree, urging settlers to prove themselves founders of 'a great free colony' and pledging to extend British legal protection to the Aboriginal population, who were, in his words, 'equally entitled to the privileges of British Subjects'.
Why it matters
Both colonies broke from the convict-transportation model that defined New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, drawing free migrants on the promise of land and self-improvement rather than punishment. Hindmarsh's stated protections for Aboriginal people in South Australia's founding proclamation were rarely enforced in practice, an early instance of the gap between colonial rhetoric and colonial conduct that would recur throughout the frontier era.
How we know
Stirling's tenure and the Swan River proclamation are documented in the Australian Dictionary of Biography; the South Australian proclamation's text survives and is quoted directly by the History Trust of South Australia.
Sources
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University. Biography - Sir James Stirling · Primary source (author-declared)adb.anu.edu.au · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- History Trust of South Australia, SA History Hub. The Proclamation · Primary source (author-declared)sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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