A Boozy Rip-off - Russians Find Few Changes

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday June 16, 2007

John Huxley

GENEROUS hosts. Extravagant parties. Fabulous fireworks. But scary, sky-high prices. And a big, big drink problem. This, in terms that suggest little has changed, was how Leontiy Andrianovich Gagemeister summarised his visit to Sydney exactly 200 years ago.

Lieutenant Gagemeister was captain of the Neva, the first Russian ship to visit Australia. En route to Russian trading settlements in the north-western Pacific, the British-built sloop sailed into Port Jackson to pick up supplies on June 16, 1807.

This morning Russians in Australia, including the ambassador, Alexander Blokhin, will join history enthusiasts at South Head signal station to celebrate the bicentenary of the Neva's arrival.

"We'll hoist the Union Flag just as they would have done on the day to announce the new arrival, and have readings from journals and letters written at the time," said Peter Poland, president of the Woollahra History and Heritage Society.

The free public event has been welcomed by Elena Govor, a research fellow at the Australian National University whose history of Russian-Australian contact, When the World was Wide, was launched this week.

"It is an important date in our history, especially for Russians now living here," said Ms Govor, who was born in Minsk, Belarus, and moved to Australia in 1990. "The Russian seamen came during a very complicated period in the life of the young colony."

Not only was food in short supply, but the governor, William Bligh, was engaged in a power struggle with Sydney's rebellious Rum Corps. That did not prevent him showing his visitors a good time, Ms Govor said, drawing from the reminiscences of Gagemeister, a world traveller of Baltic-German descent.

Bligh was inland when the Neva arrived. But having been shown "the utmost courtesy" by his deputies, the ship's officers were invited to the governor's residence on his return.

It proved a cordial visit - Britain and Russia were allies - and a memorable one. "At 11pm the night sky was illuminated by firework. The dinner commenced at midnight, and then dancing lasted till the very morning."

The governor supplied the Neva with bread, meat and vegetables, much to Gagemeister's relief. "Honestly, I did not want to buy fresh meat here ... everything is excessively expensive here."

Apart from his seamanship, Gagemeister was proficient in mathematics and astronomy, and could read and write Russian, German, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, Ms Govor said.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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