Richard Bourke

: "This article is about the NSW governor, for the Irish statesman see Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo"

General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB (4 May 1777 – 13 August 1855)was Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, Australia between 1831 and 1837.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Bourke was educated at Westminster and read law at Christ Church, Oxford. He joined the British Army as an ensign in the Grenadier Guards on 22 November 1798, serving in the Netherlands with the Duke of York before a posting in South America in 1807 where he participated in the siege and storming of Montevideo. He was promoted major-general in 1821.

In recognition of his duty to the crown, Bourke was first appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern District of the Cape of Good Hope before his appointment succeeding Sir Ralph Darling as Governor of New South Wales in 1831.

Bourke proved to be an able, if controversial, Governor. Appalled by the excessive punishments doled out to convicts, Bourke passed 'The Magistrates Act', which limited the sentence a magistrate could pass to fifty lashes (previously there was no such limit). Furious magistrates and employers petitioned the crown against this interference with their legal rights, fearing that a reduction in punishments would cease to provide enough deterrence to the convicts.

In 1835 Bourke implemented the doctrine of "terra nullius" by proclaiming that Indigenous Australians could not sell or assign land, nor could an individual person acquire it, other than through distribution by the Crown. [cite web | url = http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=42 | title = Governor Bourke's Proclamation 1835 (UK) | work = Documenting a Democracy: 110 key documents that are the foundation of our nation | publisher = National Archives of Australia | accessdate = 2008-03-05 |quote = This document implemented the doctrine of "terra nullius" upon which British settlement was based, reinforcing the notion that the land belonged to no one prior the British Crown taking possession of it. Aboriginal people therefore could not sell or assign the land, nor could an individual person acquire it, other than through distribution by the Crown. ... Although many people at the time also recognised that the Aboriginal occupants had rights in the lands (and this was confirmed in a House of Commons report on Aboriginal relations in 1837), the law followed and almost always applied the principles expressed in Bourke's proclamation. This would not change until the Australian High Court's decision in the Mabo Case in 1992.]

Bourke, however, continued to create controversy within the colony by combating the inhumane treatment handed out to convicts, including limiting the number of convicts each employer was allowed to seventy, as well as granting rights to freed convicts, such as allowing the acquisition of property and service on juries. It has been argued that the abolition of convict transportation to Australia in 1840 can be attributable to the actions of Bourke.

Emboldened by these changes, Bourke abolished the distinction of the Anglican Church as the state church of New South Wales, declaring each religious community on equal footing before the law. He also increased spending on education and was credited as the first governor to publish satisfactory accounts of public receipts and expenditure. In 1837, the year of his promotion to lieutenant-general, he named the town of Melbourne after Viscount Melbourne the U.K. Prime Minister. Bourke Street in Melbourne's central business district and the town of Bourke, New South Wales were named after him, in turn. There is a statue of Bourke outside the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney which records his accomplishments as Governor in florid detail.

Bourke was promoted general in 1851, and died near Limerick, Ireland in 1855.

External links

* [http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/portphillip/inter/6728.shtml Images and transcript of Sir Richard Bourke's journal] at the State Library of Victoria.

References

*Hazel King, ' [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010120b.htm Bourke, Sir Richard (1777 - 1855)] ', "Australian Dictionary of Biography", Volume 1, MUP, 1966, pp 128-133.