This pre-release sample episode tells the largely unknown story of how Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton first entered the public's imagination. His career as a lawyer had been unremarkable, but his astute management of a cricket crisis in 1879 set him up as a leading figure in the Sydney establishment.

For most of the world, the story of Australia started as a fable about a great south land that must exist to keep the world in balance. The myth came from a joint venture between an Egyptian pharaoh and some Phoenician sailors around 600BC, and motivated future European explorers during the age of imperialism.

Tracing the centuries long enmity between Britain and France, and how that imperial rivalry played out in the South Pacific as the race for Terra Australis intensified.

The crucial partnership between softly-spoken James Cook and the effervescent Joseph Banks as they set out on The Endeavour in the search for Terra Australis.

In 1770 Cook & Banks become the first Europeans to land on the fertile east coast of "New Holland", which they rename "New South Wales" and claim for Britain.

James Cook continues his exploration of the Pacific, while Joseph Banks stays back in England to campaign for the settlement of New South Wales as a British colony.

Following the relentless lobbying of Jospeh Banks and an unwitting contribution from American Thomas Jefferson, in 1786 the British Government makes an abrupt and dramatic decision to send the First Fleet to Botany Bay. Listen and subscribe at: Apple and Spotify - http://bit.ly/4mH2zEE Rumble and YouTube - @PoliticalHistoryOfAustralia Please tune in and share. The Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.au https://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlc https://x.com/JohnRuddick2 https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/ https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/ Produced by Sean Masters (All voices in this series as AI generated bar the narrator.)

The British have decided to colonise New South Wales and First Fleet fever grips England. The East India Company tries unsuccessfully to scuttle the project. Captain Arthur Phillip had had only a middling career in the Royal Navy but he was then appointed as the supremo of the big bet on Botany Bay.

The British have arrived in Botany Bay but Arthur Phillip quickly decides to relocate to Sydney Harbour. Just as he is leaving Botany Bay however two large mysterious ships turn up. Phillip is alarmed that these ships may try and claim the world’s greatest natural harbour … but it is the British who secure Sydney Cove on the first Australia Day – 26 January 1788. Listen and subscribe at: Apple and Spotify - http://bit.ly/4mH2zEE Rumble - @PoliticalHistoryOfAustralia Please tune in and share. The Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.au https://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlc https://x.com/JohnRuddick2 https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/ https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/ (All voices in this series as AI generated bar the narrator.)

It’s forgotten today but Proclamation Day on 7 February 1788 was more significant than 26 January 1788. Proclamation was the day that all were assembled and Captain Arthur Phillip morphed into Governor Arthur Phillip and the law of New South Wales was declared to all. It was an ingenious blend of a military dictatorship and English law. We also see Captain Laperouse of the Royal French Navy pay a State Visit to Sydney Cove … before we say a sad farewell to the French hero who played a colourful cameo in the birth of modern Australia. Listen and subscribe at: Apple and Spotify http://bit.ly/4mH2zEE YouTube @PoliticalHistoryOfAustralia Please tune in, like, share and leave a comment... ideally positive! The Hon. John Ruddick MLC is a member of the NSW Legislative Council. johnruddick.com.au https://www.tiktok.com/@johnruddickmlc https://x.com/JohnRuddick2 https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnruddickmlc/ https://www.facebook.com/johnruddickmlc https://www.instagram.com/john.ruddick/ (All voices in this series as AI generated bar the narrator.)