The Road to Botany Bay: An Exploration of Landscape and History

7 Elysiums for Gentlemen

7 Elysiums for Gentlemen It may be as well to notice here apeculiar characteristic of the free labouring class in Australia: it is in a state of constant migration, "The Emigrant Mechanic' Geometry cannot take the place of myth. Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude One result of Flinders's Spencer Gulf survey was that he became a founding father. A little over thirty years after his passage Edward Wakefield formed in London the South Australian Land Company. Its object was to initiate a grand experiment in the art of colonization and for the formation of a community among which industry would be wholly unfettered either by restrictions on trade, by monopolies or by taxation.* The experiment was clearly utilitarian in inspiration and, as the historian Douglas Pike has shown, Jeremy Bentham was personally involved in its planning.2 One of its curious features was that the colonizers set sail for the general region of Spencer Gulf's eastern shores with no clear idea of where they would settle. The idea was that their surveyor, William Light, who in theory at least was to arrive in the area some time before the main party, would examine the coast to find a suitable location for the capital of the future province. When the colonists arrived, they would with any luck be able to disembark almost immediately; and almost immediately begin their utilitarian experiment. In the event, Light had only a few weeks in which to assess the eligibility of various sites. And, inevitably, his siting of what was to become Adelaide on plains near the mouth of the River Torrens on St Vincent's Gulf drew hostile comment. One critic, for example, argued that 'until the line of sea coast has been surveyed, the most eligible site cannot be determined on'.3 Who 202 Elysiums for Gentlemen knows, he said, whether the site of Adelaide may not turn out to be like Cook's Botany Bay, which was 'an excellent place . . . as long as Port Jackson lay unknown within a couple of hours' sail of it'. As he observed, the fault lay not with Light but with the planners: 'Col Light could as easily walk from Australia to England in three weeks, as examine 1,500 miles of coast in three months.'4 Light himself could only agree. As he complained, 'I ought to have been sent out at least six months before any body else, which would have given me time to settle emigrants or stores as they arrived.'5 Even so, in his own defence, Light could argue that his choice of St Vincent's Gulf, rather than Spencer Gulf, had not been wholly arbitrary. For, and this was where Flinders came in, a comparison between Flinders's Port Lincoln on Spencer Gulf and his own proposed site on St Vincent's Gulf proved the latter was decisively superior, both as a harbour and in its agricultural potential. Not only this: in arriving at this conclusion, Light had been immeasurably helped by Flinders's own account of St Vincent's Gulf and, in particular, of the Mount Lofty Range bordering it on the east with its promise of rain. To this extent, his decision had been a rational one. The debate over the site of Adelaide was in marked contrast to the general approval of Light's town plan. There were many features of the town plan that were attractive. For one thing, Light made imaginative use of the River Torrens, siting the northern part of the capital across the river at an angle to the city's southern half. For another, Light punctuated his streets with open central squares. On top of this, provision was made to preserve the integrity of the plan by buffering it against future development with a 'green belt'. But the main reason why Light's Adelaide met with approval was that it employed the rational principle of the grid. Light's picturesque additions were desirable, but it was the rational and equal division of the land into purchasable blocks that was the essential precondition of capitalist settlement - of the self-regulating 'democracy', based on free trade, which Wakefield was promoting. The colonists' acceptence of Light's plan is easy to understand . After all, their initial willingness to invest in Wakefield's experiment had depended on their acceptanceof the proposition 203 THE R O A D TO B O T A N...