American Australian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Australians are Australians who come from the United States or have American ancestry.
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[edit] American immigrants in Australia 1770-Present day
Americans arrived when white men made their first steps on the sands of Botany Bay in New South Wales on Australia's east coast. Thus begun a relationship between Australians and Americans which has endured to the present day. [citation needed] America wasn't an independant nation in 1770, which predates the American Revolution.
Three Americans, Thurmond, Mattra and Gore came with Captain Cook aboard the Endeavour ship in 1770 and one of them, James Mattra had a vision which earned him the title of, 'Father of Australia', cementing his name in history: ‘The desirable and beautiful union ... economy to the public and humanity to the individual’ has become an Australian reality.” Thus began the immigration of over 100,000 Americans who have settled in Australia, 65,000 living here today.One million Australians have an American in their family history.
Americans came as explorers, traders, miners, builders, innovators, growers, engineers, while a million more arrived during WWII as soldiers on furlough, and in fifty more years as farmers, teachers, and other professionals, including entertainers and sportspeople .
[edit] American-Australian heritage
Some American convicts were brought via England from the former colony of America but more Americans arrived in the early 1800s as ships began to bring with them the currency of the day – rum - which was traded the same way we use money today. American whaling and sealing vessels plied the coasts as far south in the eastern part of the State of Victoria. Many of Australia’s indigenous people would have spoken English with an American accent along the eastern coast where the only exposure to white people was with Americans. Many Aboriginals have American ancestors.
The largest wave of Americans - approximately 20,000 who arrived in the 1850s - came for gold, on the heels of the Californian gold rushes. Joshua Bigelow and John Strickland discovered gold in north east Victoria, and African American, George Boston, uncovered gold in Castlemaine.
A Maine newspaper in 1853 wrote of ‘men of industry and steady habits and sober life’ who had left the County of Somerset, Maine, for Victoria, individuals such as Shepherd Smiley and his nephew Edward, and brother in law, Joseph Dillingham. Their fellow New Englander Ephraim Weston who built a hotel in the Upper Buckland in 1857, and thousands more, either dug for gold or became entrepreneurs.
In the Ballarat rebellion at Eureka, Americans calling themselves the Independent Californian Rangers Revolver Brigade were some of the first to be shot by the British troopers. Manning outposts around the Stockade, American diggers armed with revolvers were notable in the brief hand-to-hand struggle inside the stockade. An official report of the action described them dashing up towards the soldiers to ensure a better aim, putting their lives on the line for their fellow miners.
The Colonial authorities were suspicious of the Americans and perhaps their republican intentions, and thus many Americans changed their nationality. Others made the change to avoid a backlash from the treatment given by Americans towards Australians during the Californian gold strikes. Many came as ‘Irish’, ‘Canadian’ or ‘Englishmen’ with an accent.
When the Shenandoah Confederate Naval ship arrived in Melbourne in 1865 it was immediately given a rousing welcome, and Capt Waddell and crew invited to welcoming parties and banquets, but with several men jumping ship, a full scale search was raised and the Shenandoah was ordered to leave port – in fact a contingent of riflemen and artillery stood full-guard overseeing the ship’s departure. The Shenandoah was feared by the British long before it arrived in Melbourne, because it had sunk many Union ships and British ones that were supplying the Lincoln Government in the USA.
[edit] Transport and the diggings
American tools such as picks and shovels, machinery and know-how was in great demand on all the gold fields of Victoria – the quality goods and ready availability through the fast clipper services operating between San Francisco and New York to Melbourne, meant that gold could be dug out quicker and more efficiently.
Francis Clapp, an American from North Carolina, introduced the first tram in Melbourne, and his son Sir Harold went on to be the first head of Victorian Railways. "Railroads are only ten percent iron: the other ninety percent are men", Clapp adopted this as his motto for Victoria.
Other Americans combined their efforts to build the famous Railway Pier at Port Melbourne, and the eastern arcade in Melbourne’s Bourke Street, still standing today was built by Massachusetts-born Hiram Crawford, who made his fortune as a gold miner and later as an entrepreneur. Whole fire brigade engines found their way to places like Beechworth because of Hiram. Melbourne’s volunteer Caverly Fire Brigade was made up of Americans. Hiram Crawford who had a finger in many pies throughout the Victorian Colony formed a coach line called 'Crawford & Co' to rival that of 'Cobb & Co' which began with Americans Freeman Cobb, Swanton, Antony Black, John Peck and John Lamber. Cobb & Co are probably the most well-known of all American-originated companies during that period. In 1868 Rhode Islander, Hiram Slocum drove Queen Victoria's son, the Duke of Edinburgh, from Ballarat to Castlemaine in a Cobb & Co coach with 6 horses.
Through cooperative enterprises, the Americans banded together to build as they had done in their homeland, across rugged and oftentimes inaccessible and inhospitable lands. Pennsylvanian, Walter Sloan built a gold-crushing battery, others constructed tanneries for leather, and hotels erected by the Americans mirrored the American cowboy tradition with swinging doors, whiskey, and the song. Hiram Crawford commissioned the famous opera singer Sarah Burnette to sing in his Star Hotel in Chiltern. Mainers, Benjamin Snow and Joshua Bigelow opened their store in Beechworth just as the Buckland gold strike was announced. Boston-born Benjamin Batchelder and his brothers recorded Bendigo’s progress on camera, preserved to this day.
Henry Morgan from Indiana, brought seeds from the USA, for growing vegetables, fruit and other crops. Americans entered local councils and introduced civic structures to cope with the expanding communities, including agricultural cooperatives. They were a close-knit community and many came from the same towns, those of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, New England friends and relatives working in the towns and on the goldfields. These Americans had a strong work ethic and were dismayed by the ‘social and collective thinking of Colonial Victorians’. American, Gus Pierce charted the Murray to the sea and Peleg Jackson brought in paddle steamers. Dozens of Civil War veterans settled in Victoria.
[edit] Politics, WWII and Today
James Forester Sullivan, from Louisiana, became Minister of Mines in Victoria’s early Parliament, while New Yorker, King O’Malley, cut a tall, handsome figure, as Australia’s first American-born federal politician. He was instrumental in women gaining the vote. He stablished the Commonwealth Bank, set up a socialist platform and introduced the aged pension. He was a colourful character, a raconteur, and a darling of the media. O’Malley conceived the national capital of Canberra and an American designer. Labor leader Arthur Calwell, himself the grandson of an American immigrant Davis Calwell, and architect of Australia’s immigration became an Australian legend. In contemporary times Australia’s first ‘green’ politician and Ohioan, Dr Norm Sanders entered the Senate as a member of the Australian Democrat Party. Former MP, Bob Charles, originating from Kentucky, went to the USA as Consul General in Chicago, in 2005, representing Australia.
During the time of O’Malley’s rise to fame, the Pennsylvanian-born John Greeley Jenkins becomes Premier of South Australia. Celebrations for the arrival of a United States Navy fleet in Melbourne in 1908 had been surpassed only by those conducted for Federation. The Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, ignored Britain's concerns and overlooked protocol when he invited the Americans to visit. Sixteen warships cast a dramatic presence when they arrived in Australian waters. Over 60,000 people stood to watch them enter Sydney and Melbourne harbours.
Immigration from the USA steadily increased. Famous American Australians, the Foster Brothers commenced brewery operations, and during the forties, with the advent of WWII, over a million American soldiers came to Australia on furlough. Arguably, these American soldiers literally changed the face of Australia 's male-female gender stakes, taking home 12,000 Australian brides, many thousands returning to make Australia home. They were turbulent years, and with the women preferring American soldiers, it was a difficult pill to swallow for many Aussie males. Hosiery, chocolate, yankee dollars, flowers and personality won the hearts of many a damsel.
Treaties between Australia and America have contributed to a renewed environment for more Americans to emigrate since the war, with thousands of teachers arriving, others coming with a promise of free land entitlement. American-born, Dr Loren Borland pioneered psychotherapy in Australia, whilst Ruth Alexander founded the Australian Youth Orchestra and music camps. Professor E. Daniel Potts and his wife Annette developed an expertise in American Australian Studies, and more Americans became part of the fabric of Australian life.
[edit] Entertainers
Promoter J. C. Williamson brought music and plays to Melbourne, and others such as Gus Mercurio in acting and boxing, while TV’s Lanky Yank - Don Lane, Tommy Hanlon Jnr, Bob Dyer, Jack Little, Evie Hayes, Will Mahoney, Big Chief Little Wolf wrestler, John Butler rock star, John O’May from Mama Mia musical, Joe Dolce of Shaddup You Face song, opera singer Timothy Dufore, Rita Tanno, from Westside Story, and Marcia Hines are also among many Americans who adopt Australia. Cate Blanchett owes some genes to her Texan father, while Nicole Kidman was born in Hawaii and lived in Washington for 4 years, and Mel Gibson arrived in Australia from New York when he was 12.
Hundreds of US-born basketball players such as Lanard Copeland and Darryl McDonald and champion coach Brian Goorgian headed for Australia. They took out citizenship and lifted Australia’s game to world-beating levels. Athletes, entertainers, medical personnel, academics, engineers and a myriad of other occupations are the flavour of the 21st century migration from the US.
The Australian Society of American Descendants was established to preserve the heritage of American Australians and to promote their contribution to the development and growth of Australia. The American immigrant has been placed on Australia's multicultural map with the first-ever American Australian Exhihition at Museum Victoira in 2005, with plans for Sydney and the other capitals.
