German Missionaries in Australia

There were two reasons driving this dynamic. On the one hand, the ‘missionary drive’ among early settlers in the Australian colonies was weak, and also, British missionaries had far more attractive fields of engagement in the British Empire than Australia. India was a favourite destination next to China and Africa. Protestant German mission institutions collaborated with British and Dutch agencies to place their candidates in the colonies until Germany acquired its own empire in the 1880s.  

 

The missionary project took off slowly in Australia, and often its closest allies were its most vocal critics. Before any sustained missionary venture in Australia even got off the ground, there was already a camp of opinion that Aborigines were being spoon-fed. ‘Much money has been thrown away upon them’ explained the Rev. Marsden at Parramatta in 1831, to the newly arrived Rev. Handt.

 

Rev. Johann Christian Simon Handt from the Basel Mission Society was among the first qualified and trained missionary to arrive in Australia for the express purpose of 'heathen mission'. Missionaries had of course been sent, but this label encompassed both ‘heathen’ and ‘inner’ mission – the latter meaning the conversion and pastoral care of migrants. Lancelot Threlkeld, who preceded Handt in heathen mission in Australia, had not been trained as a missionary.  

 

Both the Rev. Richard Johnson and the Rev. Samuel Marsden had Aboriginal children living with them for periods, and lent their pious support to the missionary idea, but when the very first missionary, William Walker from the Wesleyan Mission Society arrived in 1821, Marsden opposed him at every opportunity.[1] Ten years later Handt arrived to a cool reception in Sydney because the Anglican bishop felt that as the head of the state church he ought to have been more involved in the initiative of the Church Mission Society (CMS). 

 

The Anglicans were slow in entering the mission field in Australia. German Protestant missionaries arrived in the 1830s, and Catholics made an entry in the 1840s. It was with the entry of Moravians in the 1850s that the mission endeavour in the Australian colonies received a boost.

 

 

This list shows the early mission efforts, including Aboriginal schools in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, that commenced up to 1850 and lasted for more than a year. Those with German staff are shown in green and are marked with an asterisk.

 

 Australian missions before 1850

---