Laws
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This explainer outlines what laws are, why societies need them, and how they protect rights, ensure safety and guide behaviour. It explains how parliaments make statute law, how courts develop common law through precedent, and how different types of law—criminal, civil, administrative and constitutional—operate within Australia’s rule‑of‑law framework.
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This explainer outlines the difference between rules and laws, showing how laws are created, enforced and applied to protect rights, maintain order and keep communities safe. It helps students understand why societies need laws, how they guide behaviour and how the rule of law ensures fairness and accountability.
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This explainer outlines the key features that make laws effective, including clarity, consistency, enforceability and fairness. It shows how well‑designed laws protect rights, guide behaviour and support the rule of law by being known, stable and applied equally to everyone.
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This explainer outlines how Australian hate‑speech laws work, including the limits on free expression, the protections against vilification, and the role of courts and human rights bodies in resolving complaints. It highlights how the law balances freedom of speech with safeguarding individuals and communities from harm.
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This explainer outlines how the first five Governors of New South Wales—Arthur Phillip, John Hunter, Philip Gidley‑King, William Bligh, and Lachlan Macquarie—worked to build a functioning colony from a population of transported convicts. It highlights their efforts to apply fairness, justice, and emerging ideas about individual rights while managing a settlement that began as a prison. It also provides context on Britain’s overcrowded prisons, the shift to transporting convicts to Australia, and the role of the Charter of Justice in shaping early governance.
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This explainer outlines Arthur Phillip’s leadership of the First Fleet, his establishment of British law in the new colony, and his efforts to ensure survival, fairness, and stability while navigating conflict with military officers and tensions with Indigenous peoples.
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This explainer highlights William Bligh’s brief, turbulent governorship, focusing on his attempts to break the New South Wales Corps’ control over trade, end the rum economy, and support struggling farmers. His reforms provoked the Corps, leading to the Rum Rebellion and his arrest, though he was later cleared. Despite lasting controversy, his actions helped re‑establish lawful authority in the colony.
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This explainer shows how Lachlan Macquarie stabilised New South Wales by restoring law and order, redirecting convict labour to public works, and supporting emancipists. It highlights his major building program with Francis Greenway, the introduction of official currency, and reforms that helped shift the colony toward a free, organised society. It also notes how opposition from wealthy settlers and the Bigge Inquiry forced his resignation, even though his leadership laid foundations for future self‑government.
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This explainer outlines how John Hunter struggled to regain control of New South Wales after years of unchecked power by the New South Wales Corps. It highlights the Corps’ corruption, its dominance over trade and law, and the obstacles Hunter faced as they blocked information and undermined his authority. Despite being recalled to England over false accusations, his reputation was later restored, and his writings became valuable records of early colonial life.
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This explainer outlines how Philip Gidley‑King worked to strengthen and expand the colony between 1800 and 1806. It highlights his efforts to build the economy through coal, whaling, and farming, his support for emancipists, and his push for fair opportunity. It also shows how constant resistance from the New South Wales Corps—especially John Macarthur—undermined his authority, eventually damaging his reputation and forcing his resignation.
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This explainer shows how Lord Sydney, Thomas Townshend, shaped the principles that guided the founding of New South Wales. It outlines why he adopted the name Sydney in honour of Algernon Sidney, whose ideas about liberty, equality, and the rule of law deeply influenced him. It also highlights his key decisions as Home Secretary: choosing Arthur Phillip as governor, creating the First Charter of Justice, and ensuring the new colony offered convicts the chance for rights, reform, and eventual freedom.
Governor John Hunter
1795 - 1800
In December 1792, Captain John Hunter was appointed second Governor of New South Wales, 11 September 1795 – 27 September 1800.
Governor Hunter began his appointment in difficult circumstances. Three years passed without a governor, after Phillip left in 1792. The New South Wales Corps took control of the colony under the command of Major Francis Grose. Many of the policies created by Governor Phillip to enable fair governance, were abandoned. The Corps controlled all trade, allocation of convict labour, and allocated free land grants to each other – increasing their personal wealth tenfold. Lieutenant John Macarthur was one of the Corps’s influential members who had been given extensive land grants. This made him very wealthy and a powerful enemy for Hunter to control.
The Corps took over law and order by removing civil magistrates, replacing them with their own officers. Removing this separation of powers gave them full control. The trade in rum became a powerful currency amongst the soldiers. Its influence was extensive and corruption quickly took hold. People in positions of power could not be trusted and operated outside the law.
The British Government failed to understand how bad things really were as all information relayed between England and the governor was controlled by the Corps. Important details were frequently altered, omitted, delayed, or withheld making it almost impossible for Hunter to effectively manage the colony’s needs. Any direction from England was also delayed for up to a year, with events rapidly changing dramatically. The Corps did not want the government to know about its new-found privileges and how it extensively controlled everything in the colony.
When Hunter returned as the governor, he had no idea how much things had changed since he left the colony in 1791. Back then, the colony was a penal settlement making the governor’s authority final, as chief jailer. The governor controlled food supplies, convict labour allocation, the military, and land grants. But now, the rules had changed.
Governor Hunter could not properly impose his orders, because the Corps effectively controlled the colony. Hunter was recalled to England in a stern dispatch after the Corps submitted claims of incompetence and mismanagement to the government. He immediately requested a public inquiry, but was ignored. It wasn’t until Hunter published a book on his experiences that the government took note, and his reputation was restored.
The average life expectancy in mid-18th century England was around 37 years for men and women. However, John Hunter lived for 83 years. He passed away on 13 March 1821, at Hackney, London. John Hunter’s original drawings can be found in the Nan Kivell Collection, at the National Library of Australia
Fun Facts
John Hunter was a Royal Navy Officer of the British Fleet. As First Lord of the Admiralty 1783, he reached the rank of Vice-Admiral
John Hunter was Captain of HMS Sirius of the First Fleet in 1788
The New South Wales Corps was formed in 1789 to replace the Marine detachment that had arrived on the First Fleet
Hunter sat in Australia’s first court of Criminal Judicature 11 February, then officially appointed Justice of the Peace by Governor Phillip 12 February 1788
Captain Hunter shipwrecked the Sirius on approach to Norfolk Island in March 1790, whilst attempting to deliver much needed supplies to the fledgling colony
Hunter had an intertest in natural sciences and sent samples of Australian flora and fauna back to England for study. He was an excellent writer and made precise observations of Sydney’s topography and daily events. His work had provided some of the most important documents of early British occupation in Australia
Related Resources
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This explainer outlines Arthur Phillip’s leadership of the First Fleet, his establishment of British law in the new colony, and his efforts to ensure survival, fairness, and stability while navigating conflict with military officers and tensions with Indigenous peoples.
-
This explainer outlines how the first five Governors of New South Wales—Arthur Phillip, John Hunter, Philip Gidley‑King, William Bligh, and Lachlan Macquarie—worked to build a functioning colony from a population of transported convicts. It highlights their efforts to apply fairness, justice, and emerging ideas about individual rights while managing a settlement that began as a prison. It also provides context on Britain’s overcrowded prisons, the shift to transporting convicts to Australia, and the role of the Charter of Justice in shaping early governance.
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