Rev John Dunmore Lang 1799–1878

This Scottish minister had a big impact on the history of Australia

John Dunmore Lang was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and Calvinist entrepreneur, and acted as a thorn in the side of the colonial administrations in both Sydney and London.

Born in the Renfrewshire town n of Greenock in 1799, Lang was s raised in the nearby town of Largs, Ayrshire, before being educated at the University of Glasgow. In 1822 he was ordained as a minister by the Presbytery of Irvine, and then emigrated a year later to Sydney, becoming the first Scottish Presbyterian minister to preach in New South Wales.

Upon his arrival in Australia, ia Lang was so horrified by the immorality he found there that he returned to Britain on several occasions in order to encourage Presbyterian ministers and teachers to move to the colony of New South Wales, as well as others from Presbyterian stock. In 1849 Lang sponsored three ships – the Fortitude, and Lima – to come to Brisbane with 600 personallye chosen migrants. Lang issuedssd them with documents in 1848 1 promising free land, which he believed had been verbally agreed by Benjamin Hawes, the under-secretary for the Colonies. Through this, the minister hoped to demonstrate that cotton plantations could be successfully grown from free labour, which would prove that slavery, as still practiseda in the USA, was notot necessary or acceptable. Hawes later denied any such agreement, however. Lang was so outraged that for the rest of his life he argued for selfdetermination for the Australian people in a fully fledged Australian republic.