Bennelong and Phillip: A History Unravelled

by Kate Fullagar

The first dual biography of Bennelong and Governor Arthur Phillip, two pivotal figures in Australian history – the colonised and coloniser – and a bold and innovative new portrait of both. Bennelong and Phillip were leaders of their two sides in the first encounters between Britain and Indigenous Australians, Phillip the colony’s first governor, and Bennelong the Eora leader. The pair have come to represent the conflict that flared and has never settled. Fullargar’s account is also the first full biography of Bennelong of any kind and it challenges many misconceptions, among them that he became alienated from his people and that Phillip was a paragon of Enlightenment benevolence. It tells the story of the men’s marriages, including Bennelong’s best-known wife, Barangaroo, and Phillip’s unusual domestic arrangements, and places the period in the context of the Aboriginal world and the demands of empire. To present this history afresh, Bennelong & Phillip relates events in reverse, moving beyond the limitations of typical Western ways of writing about the past, which have long privileged the coloniser over the colonised. Bennelong’s world was hardly linear at all, and in Fullagar’s approach his and Phillip’s histories now share an equally unfamiliar framing.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Australia

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 4, 2023

About the author

Kate Fullagar is an associate professor of Modern History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She is the author of The Savage Visit, the editor of The Atlantic World in the Antipodes, and co-editor of Facing Empire.

Reviews

[John Gilbert]

Here we have a dual biography of two of the most important people in the settlement of Australia by the British, with Bennelong often thought of as the original conduit between Cpt Phillip, the British and native peoples. An interesting venture to write of both of them and their impact on history, but unfortunately Ms Fullagar chose to write the encounters and their impacts on history in reverse. It didn't work for me at all as one needed to have a much greater understanding of the time and history to make any real sense of their relationship and importance in Australian history.

A library ebook, DNF at around 30% as it was far too difficult for me to make any sense of it all. Sadly I have been very much looking forward to reading this and understanding more of the difficult relationship between the invaders/colonisers and the first people who had been here long before 1788 when their entire existence radically changed forever. Cannot give it a rating.

[Ron Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

It did not surprise me, but it did disappoint me, the results of the Voice referendum. It did demonstrate that lurking under the Australian twenty-first century psyche is prejudice against the first nations people of this country. There were other factors at play but this prejudice or racism was an underlining element. So much of this is based on ignorance of the history of the treatment of Aboriginal people. This book is an important step in filling that void.

It has fascinated me, the relationships between the invaders, the colonialists, or settlers. The term a person uses would define so readily their view of the arrival of the British at the Great South Land, New Holland, New South Wales, or Terra Australis (terra nullius) and eventually Australia.

I remember my primary school Social Studies textbook with the sketch of Phillip proclaiming this new land for Britain. I was somewhat surprised when I discovered that it had been painted by British painter Algernon Talmage in 1938. Naturally there were no Aborigines (Eora people occupied that part of the continent), no convicts either.

Fullagar has written an account of the inter-twinning of the lives of two men who were so important at the time when Europeans first arrived in Australia. Interestingly she starts at their deaths and works her way back their childhoods. I thought this was most effective. They both died within months of each other.

I had read Tim Flannery’s 1788 Watkin Trench, but little other about this period and I had similar prejudicial views of Bennelong sourced from European authors. Fullagar gives an insightful account of the man, his achievements and world view. We read much about his personal life, his family and wives. She gives similar treatment of Phillip. The reader will gain a bank of knowledge of the Eora people, their culture and lifestyle. I also gained insights into life in eighteenth century Britain.

Phillip was employed to develop a treaty with the inhabitants and he needed a negotiator from the indigenous people to be able to construct a treaty, that was the reason for the initial kidnapping and imprisonment of Bennelong. Eventually Bennelong could see advantages for himself and his people if he became the go-between in the settler indigenous relationship.

Fullagar concludes her detailed study with many unanswered questions, what ifs? How different would the relationship be if a treaty had been signed. She a pleas for conciliation.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author chose to approach the lives of these two men from the end of their lives, going backwards. In this way she challenges assumptions about, amongst other things, the relative importance to Phillip about his time in NSW, and the views of the First Nations people to Bennelong. Incredible research too - it's amazing the detail she was able to unearth about eg Bennelong's time in England.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It’s possible that all history-writing has an element of soul-stealing. I have tried in this work, nonetheless, to inject as much detail and subtlety into Bennelong’s life story as my sources could yield. I have done so not only to reverse common misunderstandings about Bennelong (most of them invented in the early 1800s), but also to revise prevailing assumptions about Aboriginal society being simple or ill-fated through the initial period of colonisation."

Fulluger's entwined reverse histories of Bennelong and Phillip is a provoking and intriguing read. Fullager takes the two figures together, noting that Bennelong is never discussed without Phillip, and that Phillip increasingly rarely is viewed without Bennelong. However, she reverses the order of the telling: we start with an examination of their graves, and trace backwards to their births (and a little beyond). Interestingly, this simple switch causes a very different narrative to emerge in their lives, as our impressions form from their later life actions, not their former. It is an interesting trick, and one which reveals how important the process of storytelling becomes to history, and how it can distort our perspectives.
With Phillip, Fullager uses his later years to emphasise the military leader's commitment to British expansionism, and to position his time in Sydney as a part of a British career, not a break with it into a new country. With Bennelong, her contention is more around a differential reading of sources, which she uses to argue that his later years have been consistently misrepresented as being divorced from his culture, when they demonstrate the opposite. In reality, much of Fullager's portrayal rests on this differing interpretation, rather than the revelation of viewing history backwards.
Fullager makes a strong case for her read on both men, and this book will undoubtably shift the needle in the stories we like to tell ourselves. However, while there was new detail here for me, mostly on Phillip (the account of what appears to be collusion in facilitating a lesbian relationship through a marriage of convenience was the most intriguing) the main impact on me of the narrative was to cause me to wonder again at how history can reflect the times and beliefs of the historian more than the subject. So much of our sense of self can rest on whether Phillip was a villain or a hero, a beset humanitarian in an impossible situation or a conqueror with little care for the humans he conquered. None of these have ever felt fully human to me, or respecting that as much as founding our nation might be important to us, it may not have been so important to those who did it.
With Bennelong, I am reminded again how much we interpret from so little. I appreciate this book in challenging held beliefs but can subscribe less to its fervent arguments for new ones. We have a richer understanding of Yiyara cultures now, and this can inform those readings. However, I feel there is still danger in making him into who we want him to be, being unwilling to acknowledge how much of him remains unknown, and in this way, fill in blanks with who we want him to be.

[Justin Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed as I believe this book is fake history and not biography. The words "seem", "could, "possibly", "a chance", "might have", "may have" and "perhaps" litter this book. I think in the absence of Bennelong's own records, the author attributes specific thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, goals and strategy to Bennelong from her own wishful imagining and speculation. It is done in a way to try and leave it as fact in the reader that I did not appreciate. In this author's reality Bennelong's gluttony is rebellion and his alcoholism is diplomacy. Near the end, introducing another author's completely fictional story about Bennelong encountering the HMS Endeavour was bizarre and poor. Working backwards in time from their deaths to their births caused fragmentation, some repetition and was unhelpful.

[Brodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow i loved the approach fullagar took to this, charting their lives side by side backwards in time. a truly novel way of approaching the telling of a history which showed a lot of things previously missed or overlooked. i learnt a lot from the content of the book but also the method used and i'm grateful for it. i loved the note in the conclusion that the idea of moving backwards came to her while reading a novel about love, academics truly do find inspiration anywhere huh. also, arianwen parkes-lockwood did a truly excellent job narrating the audiobook

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne bookclub 2024 ✅

[Angus Mcfarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read an intriguing review on this before gratefully receiving it as a birthday present. It was in the first instance very informative about two people whose names I knew, but of whose biographies I knew little. It has also made me realise I knew little about the formative first years of English colonisation in Sydney – my home country and city. For example, the outbreak of small pox amongst the local indigenous community and the uncertainty surrounding its origin, was not a familiar fact to me. But it was the longer story of Bennelong and Phillip, each given space for their legacy, final years, colonial interactions and background, in that order, which filled in the picture. Moreso than what they each did, who they were and why they did what they did became clear.
Overall, I think Bennelong is given more dignity by the author than he is generally credited with, while Phillip is moderated down from the enlightenment hero status some have given him. This seems fair, although Bennelong seems to be given greater benefit of the doubt than Phillip when his actions are evaluated. This may be partly due to the emergent nature of Bennelong’s story: as we learn more about the cultural setting from which he came, his actions and inactions may be viewed with greater nuance. Phillip’s evaluation is fair enough though – we are all products of our time and no-one fully transcends this, nor the eventual critique that emerges from the wisdom of hindsight.
The fascinating element of the story as told, however, is the lining up of their lives with one another’s. While some similarities are curious coincidences (their year of death), the upbringings which gained them the status they had to be spokesmen for their nations at the time had more in common than I’d have expected. This is not over-played, but contrasts nicely with the inevitable cultural distance that separated them and became the courageous relational project they embarked on as the colony began.
The unconventional approach of telling story future to past was a little hard to follow at times, but worked well for me overall. Would I have paid more attention if it were reversed? Hard to say of course, and there were numerous times I had to think about where I was up to. But as a way of illuminating on the who and why of a person, perhaps this is the way of it for all of us: we are products of our upbringing, so it is our formative years that hold the ‘aha’ moments for the outcomes of our lives. (How often did Chernov refer to Alexander Hamilton’s formative years to explain his story?) I am not a committed determinist, but the idea of us each choosing our own destiny doesn’t ring fully true either.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘They died within one year of each other, even though more than two decades separated them in age. Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, died in 1814 in Bath, southwest England, after serving the British empire around the globe for more than forty years. Bennelong, a Wangal man from today’s Sydney region, died in 1813, a member of a group of Indigenous people living along the northern shore of Parramatta River.’

I was intrigued by the idea of a dual biography of Governor Arthur Phillip and Bennelong, with a narration that began at the end of each of their lives and worked backwards. Yes, Phillip and Bennelong represent two sides of the encounter between British colonists and Indigenous Australians.

As Ms Fullagar writes:

‘Ending a history back in earlier times helps us see anew the groundings of the two men’s lives.’

Of course, it would be so much easier if similar records existed about both. We know that Arthur Phillip served the British empire for more than forty years (and we learn that he had a first and somewhat unusual marriage). But much of what we know about Bennelong is what others recorded about him, generally through a prism of European superiority. By moving outside conventional biography. Ms Fullagar provides a more nuanced view of Bennelong’s interactions with Phillip and a broader perspective of his life.

‘Unlike the governor, Bennelong had to keep living with the colonists after their brief moment of understanding.’

An interesting and intriguing read.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[SnakatBooks]

In 1814, Captain Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, died. He was joined soon by Bennelong, the famous Yiyura representative, in 1813; afterwards, the two friends had a falling out before deciding to embark together on a trip to London. At least, that is how it happens in Kate Fullagar’s account, which makes the unusual - and not wholly successful - decision to ‘plot key events’ almost entirely in reverse.

Following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, and the establishment of the colony in Sydney Cove against Joseph Banks’ recommendation, Phillip immediately began the search for a native intermediary. It was hoped that British colonisation of Australia would be an amiable one (an absurd notion to any 21st-century reader), following their previous pattern of ‘conquering’ land, whereby a treaty is made with the indigenous peoples; of course, to do so, they needed to be able to speak with the population. But none would willingly work with the British. Aboriginal attacks on Phillip’s men were not yet abating months into their arrival. ‘Eventually,’ Fullagar writes, ‘he came to think that only a forced meeting would break the cycle of hostility and get him closer to acquiring a negotiator.’

Rest of the Review Here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/snakat9...

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The names Bennelong and Arthur Phillip are important to the history of the beginning of the colony of Australia. Twenty-five years different in age, both men had significant roles in the nation building, and relationship forming between settler/invaders and the original inhabitants. This book reviews this relationship, in reverse timeline to examine the men, their lives, and interactions with each other.

An examination of encounters, capture, hospitality and the trip to Britain for Bennelong. Re-imagining the interactions with both men's motives in mind, rather than the usual colonial writers view.

This also shared much history of both men's lives, which was so much more than the storied beginning of Australia. Relationships and bonds, loyalties and kinship, paths, retribution and violence.

So many facts and considerations outlined here, to rethink these first encounters, and the forming of the nation we call Australia.

This also provides a treasure of Darug language and customs, culture and life. The idea that Parramatta is called so because of a misheard Darug name for the area, the epitome of the white man not listening, learning and respecting.

Without reviewing the truths and our country will never move towards better relationships between settlers and those indigenous to these lands. So much to be done before the intended treaty and understanding is reached.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a timely and important history of early relations between Indigenous peoples and British settlers. Both Arthur Phillip and Bennelong have long been victims of inaccurate biographies and Fullagar aims to remedy this by upending the chronology (working backwards rather than forwards) moving beyond conventional Western ways of thinking and writing about the past .

The book explores the deaths, marriages, domestic arrangements, and life backgrounds of both men and how they both experienced the events of 1788 onwards. In so doing, it demonstrates that Philip was not so much a moral founding father of Australia, but rather an unquestioning servant of the British Empire who did not view his time in the New South Wales colony as the high point of his career. Bennelong is shown to be a respected leader whose concern was with the protection and preservation of his people and culture.

Importantly, the book demonstrate that conciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians can and must happen.
This is a book that anyone interested in Australian history and the relationships between colonizers and Indigenous peoples would learn something from.

[G Batts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fullagar uses this book to show us that there are multiple sides to every story and, of course, because most of history is undocumented, the best a historian can do is imagine what happened based on available evidence.

The structure of this book is brilliant. By working the timeline backwards, Fullagar disrupts the European assumption that history is the progression of technological advancement and also challenges our thinking of First Nation Australia finishing when colonisation began. By telling the stories of Phillip and Bennelong in parallel, using anthropological language for both, it reminds the reader that Phillip was a product of his time and modern society is very different so we can’t assume modern logic drove his decisions. This taking him off the pedestal that many historians (and Australians) have put him on. This structural decision also humanises Bennelong, in a way that many other white authors don’t, reminding us that he was a human making do with the situation he found himself in - rather than a caricature in what had become by that time a white story.

[Hillcloptushome.com.au · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be quite a challenging read. The book turns a usual biography on its head. The author’s resin for this upheaval is to show a ‘glimpse in fresh ways of how the futures (the everything) that the meeting of Bennelong and Phillip could have produced but did not’ p245.

I thought I knew a little about these two figures from school and wider readings. Turns out I knew very little. I really enjoyed this approach and really made me think of Australian or in this case the British empires history in a very different light.

The use of indigenous clan names and places was refreshing. However, I found myself frequently looking back at the maps to determine where particular events occurred . To my mind many clans and places referenced in this book were I sufficiently explained or otherwise very confusing.

This book will stay with me for some time. A refreshing and thoughtful perspective on history as I thought I knew it.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bennelong and Captain Arthur Phillip are important figures in Australian post-colonisation history. Bennelong was an important conduit between the British invaders and the indigenous people. I was therefore interested to read this history that examines the relationship between the two men. Kate Fullgar chose to write about their lives in reverse whch does put their time together in context in their lives but it is also a bit clumsy as it lead to some repetition because some events had to be explained before the narrative reached far enough back - I found the construct confusing.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was well researched and gave a good deal of insight into the culture and traditions of the aboriginal tribes around Sydney cove. There was also quite a lot of detail of Bennelong and Phillip's cross-cultural relationship.

I disliked the non-linear narrative however. Jumping around in the timeline isn't very helpful for consumption of a history read. Rather than "A History Unravelled" I would call it "Ravelled".

I'd really only recommend it to someone very keen on learning more about Bennelong.

[Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting read. i know surprisingly little of the history of the colonisation of australia, only some basic knowledge regarding james cook and the first fleet, i hadn't heard of bennelong or philip. telling their histories backwards was a unique way to look at their histories, intertwining them while trying to understand and look at them as the seperate individuals they were. there is a considerable amount of spectulation where evidence is unavailable, particularly in later chapters where bennelongs life predates colonial arrival.

[Maxine Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

'the mother is surrounded by other women who are easing her pains and guiding the baby into a waiting hollow of soft leaves.'
'At first the colonists called him Manly, after the place where he'd been taken. Phillip had named this place himself, after the impression he had of the men of the northern beach.'

[Fiona Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I’d known that the chapters in this dual biography were in reverse chronological order. I got halfway through the book before I decided to read from the back to the front. However the chapters also read in reverse order. It kind of did my linear timeline head in.

[Fay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a DNF - I just couldn't get engaged .. and life is too short. With very little really recorded about Bennelong there was lots of speculation .. and I found the backwards presentation of their lives made it all a bit more disjointed.

[Damien Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at two very different men and their intertwined lives. I realised how little I knew about life after the first fleet landed in Australia. 

[Lisa]

I read the introduction which was quite interesting, but couldn't muster enough interest to read the rest of it.
I don't rate books I don't finish.

[Kate]

Not a fan of the reverse-chronological structure.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not entirely convinced that the reverse structure was a good idea. Especially toward the end of the book, it felt forced. Overall, however, this is a good piece of work.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this history book, and it provided a lot of insights into this time period. I learnt a lot, and Kate is a great writer. Highly recommend.