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THE PROCLAMATION

Since the Cygnet, captained by Thomas Lipson, had already been despatched to Port Lincoln to await the arrival of the Buffalo, the attention of the community was focused on Governor Hindmarsh’s landing. On Saturday December 24, both vessels were at anchor in Port Lincoln where the two captains conferred. Later that day the Buffalo set forth on the last lap of its historic voyage. As it sailed past Nepean Bay its three gun salute was answered by two guns from the struggling Company Settlement. The second survey party, stationed at Rapid Bay, where Boyle Travers Finniss, William Pullen and William Jacob were carrying out surveys, observed a large ship sailing up St Vincent Gulf on December 27 and assumed that it must be the Buffalo.
When December 28 dawned, it must have been an awesome experience for those on board the Buffalo to observe the Mount Lofty Ranges aglow with the flames of a bushfire. From seven miles out to sea, the light was so brilliant that the new-comers discerned the ropes of the rigging and the outlines of men on the Cygnet silhouetted against the luminous sky, while the latter was advancing shoreward a half-mile ahead of the Buffalo.
At 7 am a boat was sent to the shore with a messenger to request that Robert Gouger, Colonial Secretary, return in that boat to confer with the Governor. Deputy Surveyor-General, George Strickland Kingston, accompanied Gouger in the absence of Light. When Kingston advised Hindmarsh that he was committed to meet Light six miles inland that morning to decide on the site of the capital city, the Governor indicated his wish that both men should be present at the Proclamation Ceremony, following the landing of the Vice-regal Party at 2 pm. On joining Light, Kingston delivered the Governor’s message. Agreement was reached between them that the site where Adelaide now stands was the most favourable for the capital city. Retracing his steps to the Bay, Kingston arrived after the Proclamation was read. Light, still combating ill-health, preferred to direct his energies to the survey of the city site rather than attend the ceremony which entailed a twelve mile walk in intense heat.
Three boats came to the shore; in the first were Governor Hindmarsh, George Stevenson (his secretary) and Hurtle Fisher (Resident Commissioner) as well as their families; in the next boat came Rev. C. B. Howard (Colonial Chaplain), Osmond Gilles (Colonial Treasurer) and others; in the third boat were the twenty marines. With the summer sun glaring fiercely down upon these new settlers, it was doubtless an arduous walk across the sandy stretch to the settlement beside the lagoons. The official party first entered Gouger’s spacious tent where the Commission was read and oaths administered to the Governor and the members of his Council. Then they emerged to the open woodland to stand beneath the shade of a gum tree where Stevenson read the document known as ‘The Proclamation of South Australia’. Bearing in mind that the British House of Commons had passed ‘A Bill to erect South Australia into a British Province and to provide for the colonisation and government thereof’ in 1834, we may regard the celebration as a public ceremony in honour of the Governor’s arrival and commencement of his new office. The actual Commission as read announced the establishment of government, appealed to the founders to prove themselves worthy colonists and expressed noble sentiments with regard to the Aborigines’ entitlement to the privileges exercised by British Subjects.
Although the shade temperature was hovering around 100 ° F, a cold collation which included dressed Hampshire ham was served. Then, with festivities concluded, the official party returned to the Buffalo. While the sailors became intoxicated and the natives were setting fire to the woods, the last of the colonists to arrive were unable to conceal their disappointment with the outcome of their hazardous 158 day voyage. They had expected to occupy the land they had purchased long before they left England.
The name ‘Glenelg’ for the site of the settlement appeared in print, for the first time, in the Proclamation. In his diary, George Stevenson wrote that it was he who suggested to Hindmarsh that ‘the beautiful plains on which the tents were pitched’ take the name of Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for the Colonies. A letter, a joint effort of the Governor and his secretary, was written six days later advising Lord Glenelg of Hindmarsh’s gesture.

 

 
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