Nautico-imperialism and settler-colonialism: water and land in the New South Wales colony

Abstract

This article outlines the role of rivers and oceans in colonial land 'settlement' in Sydney. The analysis exposes a form of thalassic colonisation, whereby territoriality was a defining feature of settler-colonialism in the first decades of the colonial invasion, but wherein claiming and/or controlling vast bodies of water was necessary to that territoriality. Britain was a maritime empire and Sydney a maritime town in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and there was a maritime pathway to early land theft in Australia. This archival analysis follows the colonial ships and Aboriginal nawi (bark canoes) to undertake a history from the water. Three nautico-imperial logics of settler-colonialism are presented. 1) ‘Aboriginal resistance and labour’ highlights the role of Aboriginal action against and incorporation into the colonial maritime economy and industries, and British Royal Navy exploration more broadly. 2) ‘Atomised colonial landscapes’ shows how Aboriginal Country was used as a colonial resource in the early maritime industries, with land claimed for ship building yards and whaling and sealing infrastructure, and trees felled for ship building. 3) Theorising the rivers and oceans as a ‘nautico-imperial infrastructure’ shows that water preceded land as a pivotal colonial infrastructure for the British maritime empire.