The Decline of Faith and the Rise of Secularism in 19th-Century Australia

A Christmas Day That Shocked the Bishop

On Christmas Day in 1846, William Grant Broughton, the Lord Bishop of Australia, witnessed a scene that deeply troubled him. As he walked toward St. James’s Church in Sydney, he saw Dr. Charles Nicholson, the Speaker of the Legislative Council, lounging in a carriage while reading a newspaper—clearly with no intention of attending church. This moment crystallized Broughton’s growing concern: Australia’s political and social elite were drifting away from religion.

Men like William Wentworth, Robert Lowe, Richard Windeyer, and Alexander McLeay—figures of influence—were either indifferent or openly hostile to the Church of England. Meanwhile, in the rural interior, squatters were consumed by land acquisition, showing little interest in spreading Christian worship among the isolated settlers. Broughton saw this as the “unlovely fruit” of a broader “careless liberalism” that threatened to sever the spiritual ties binding society.

The Global Crisis of Faith

Broughton’s anxieties were not unique to Australia. Across the Western world, the mid-19th century marked a turning point in religious belief. The Enlightenment, industrialization, and scientific discoveries were reshaping humanity’s understanding of its place in the universe. Writers like Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Fyodor Dostoevsky grappled with doubt, while Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam lamented the fading certainty of divine purpose.

In Australia, poet Charles Harpur echoed these struggles. His 1847 poem To the Spirit of Poesie questioned whether life was merely a fleeting dream, devoid of divine meaning. Meanwhile, Charles Darwin’s observations during his 1836 visit to Australia would later fuel his theory of evolution, further challenging traditional religious views.

Missionaries and the Struggle to Convert Indigenous Australians

Amid this crisis of faith, some still sought to spread Christianity. In 1845, Catholic bishop-elect John Brady recruited Spanish Benedictines Rosendo Salvado and Joseph Serra to evangelize Aboriginal Australians. Salvado, a nobleman turned missionary, believed that only Christianity could redeem humanity from its fallen state.

Arriving in Western Australia in 1846, Salvado founded the New Norcia mission, attempting to convert the local Noongar people through agriculture, education, and religious instruction. Yet despite his efforts, he faced deep cultural resistance. When he took Aboriginal converts to Rome in 1849, he was dismayed to find that European civilization had no greater success in instilling faith than the Australian wilderness. Salvado’s mission raised painful questions: Could Indigenous Australians be “civilized” without being destroyed?

The Convict System and Moral Decay

While Salvado wrestled with spiritual challenges, colonial society grappled with its own moral dilemmas. The convict system, particularly in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), was widely seen as corrupting both prisoners and free settlers. Probation gangs bred violence, drunkenness, and sexual depravity. Public executions and floggings desensitized society to suffering, while the scarcity of women exacerbated social instability.

By 1847, Lieutenant-Governor William Denison condemned the system as irredeemable. Yet many settlers, desperate for cheap labor, argued that transportation was economically necessary. The debate mirrored larger tensions: Could a prosperous society be built without moral compromise?

The Push for a White Australia

As faith waned and convict labor became increasingly controversial, another question emerged: Who should populate Australia? Some, like entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd, advocated importing Pacific Islanders and Indian laborers. Others, including Robert Lowe, vehemently opposed this, fearing racial and cultural degradation.

By 1848, the consensus among urban workers and the middle class was clear: Australia should remain a white, free society. The Sydney Morning Herald declared that the colony must be “replenished and subdued by the unmixed, undeteriorated progeny of our own Anglo-Saxon fathers.” This sentiment laid the groundwork for later exclusionary policies.

The Legacy of a Secularizing Era

By mid-century, Australia was at a crossroads. The old religious order was fading, replaced by a growing faith in progress, industry, and British identity. Yet the moral questions remained unresolved. Could a society built on convict labor and land seizures maintain its integrity? Could Indigenous Australians be integrated, or were they doomed to vanish?

The struggles of Broughton, Salvado, and others reflected a broader global shift—from divine authority to human agency, from spiritual certainty to secular doubt. Their legacy endures in modern Australia’s complex relationship with its colonial past, its Indigenous heritage, and its evolving national identity.

In the end, the Christmas Day that troubled Bishop Broughton was more than a personal disappointment—it was a symbol of an age in which old certainties were crumbling, and new ones had yet to take their place.