The first developed settlement scheme followed Cook's 1770 voyage and the work of Joseph Banks and James Matra. Matra, an American Loyalist, initially proposed New South Wales as a home for Loyalists displaced by the American Revolution rather than as a convict colony. A Loyalist community might have affected the colony's later language and identity, although that remains a counterfactual inference. The proposal's evolution into a penal and naval settlement followed the loss of the Thirteen Colonies and Britain's search for new imperial options.
Notable Point · 24:35-26:45
American Loyalists in the first New South Wales proposal
Before New South Wales became a penal and naval project, James Matra proposed it as a new home for American Loyalists displaced by the Revolution.