![]() With the 1851 discovery of gold in Australia, however, sailors deserted their ships en masse to travel to the goldfields. The peak of Australian whaling activity was between 18, with up to 1300 men working in the industry each year. The first Sydney-based, oceangoing sperm-whaler Argo, owned by the pastoralist John Macarthur, sailed out of Sydney in 1806. Small-boat, shore-based whaling conducted around Tasmania and in the bays of the south-east mainland grew rapidly. The discovery, with the settlement of Hobart, that the Derwent River estuary was a breeding ground for the southern right whale encouraged the launch of the first Sydney-owned whaler, the King George, in June 1805. Business people were more likely to invest in the less costly sealing industry. Whaling was an expensive industry: fully outfitting a suitable ship cost more than £10,000. Their success saw the start of the Australian whaling industry and Eber Bunker, captain of the William and Mary, went on to become a leading figure in the early colony. When their human cargo had been delivered, the William and Ann, Mary Ann, Matilda, Salamander and Enderby’s own ship Britannia went whaling. In early 1791 the Third Fleet set sail for Sydney. However, private contractors provided the ships, rations and crew of the Second Fleet, resulting in appallingly high death rates among the convicts.Įnderby lobbied the British Government to award the contract for transporting convicts to NSW to the whaling industry, and then let the whalers hunt in the waters of the South Pacific before returning to England with their cargoes of oil. The First Fleet had been arranged and financed through government channels. Transporting convicts and supplies to the newly established colony would provide his ships with a profitable cargo for their outward voyage. While Enderby was at the forefront of the international whale oil business, he also saw another commercial opportunity, noting that whaling ships were travelling to the South Pacific with no cargo before returning fully laden. Until the development of petroleum in the 1850s, whale oil was the primary machine lubricant and preferred lamp oil in Europe and North America. The First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788 just as the international whaling industry was rapidly expanding to meet the increasing demand for whale oil that would continue throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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