Australian Historians are so fortunate to have great fact-challenging historians and revisionists such as Robert J. King, Robert Hughes, Edgar Penzig, Colleen McCulloch, Ion Idries and Dan Byrnes as well as some inquisitive but understanding Academics such as Russel Ward, Alan Frost, John Ward, Jo Woolmington, Geoffrey Blamey, Portia Robinson and Brian Fletcher. The main thing about the works of these historians and writers is that they sell the truth and their own thoughts on issues in contrast to off-the shelf recycled material so often re-served.
For years school students were boringly informed that Australia was discovered by Captain James Cook on his “Endeavour” voyage, that the hulks in the Thames were full of felons desperately in need of a gaol; that Australia had a rebellion when some rum-sodden soldiers arrested a tyrannical Governor who was hiding under his bed. The first view disappeared when an Aboriginal gentlemen stood up and said, “Excuse me sir, but we discovered Australia forty-thousand years before Captain Cook”. In the Bligh arrest case, it was overlooked that Robert Campbell was having diner with Governor Bligh at the time of the arrest and it thus begs the question as to how both men hid under the same bed.
Let us put some pirates, Spanish Galleons, passionate wars of independence, daring whalers and sealers together with a starving man trying to brew some beer, make some bricks, or sow some vegetables, for tomorrow. Put some action into the equation buddy! It really was there all the time. Edgar Penzig’s works are an example of what I mean. He is good at it! Edgar opened our minds to Australia’s own outlaws and wild “west”. Edgar made the true history of Australia stand up and be counted; written to entertain the reader and the student too. If the Intellectuals and Academics do not like it, then they can keep on re-reading their own junk, on their own.
As a granny down at the Genealogical Society or Herbert in the local historical society have discovered, Australia has a colourful history. A Tasmanian convict was once destined to be the future King of Denmark, illegally that is, joining the likes of, um, Hamlet. The one time Dictator of Denmark, Jorgen Jorgenson was an originally an Officer in the Royal Navy stationed in Van Diemens Land. He later “Invaded” Denmark, took over the country, was then overthrown by his own Admirals and transported back to Van Diemens Land. What a character! Having read the background on 165,000 of these fellows, I can say quite categorically that Jorgen’ story is unique among them but among many fascinating and entertaining stories about the transported convicts.
One great example is the story of the eight year old black female Mauritian slave, Constance de la Seblamere, who was sentenced to life transportation for slipping her minder a purgative. She arrived here black, female and a life transported convict and also a slave. That same little girl never passed the height of four foot eight inches in height and thirty inches around the waist. As Mrs. Robert Trudgett, Constance screamed out loudly in the township of Orange for the Colonial Government to grant the people of Western New South Wales, local government. She was heard and she won! Parishes were named after Saints. The next Parish in Western New South Wales was named after her, “Saint Constance” Trudgett Parish, in recognition of her determination and achievement.
One group that should never be forgotten were the five Greek Pirates. Arrested for stealing gear from a British Ship they suspected of carrying munitions to the Turks during the Greek War of Independence. They were hardly convicts.
The sixty American Prisoners of War transported to Wrest Point, Hobart, after their capture during an Upper Canada rebellion were yet another unusual group of Convicts. 30% perished from system brutality. Then there were the Canadians captured during disturbances in Lower Canada and transported to Sydney. Some remained in Australia after the main bodies of them were repatriated.
What did Captain William Bligh do for Australia? Absolutely nothing! He is really only recalled for his great survival feat following the Bounty Mutiny. Big deal! In real terms, Bligh’s achievement there pales in significance compared with the escape shortly afterwards of convict Nathaniel Lucas-Fowles of the Third Fleet transport “Atlantic” and others all unskilled in seamanship from Sydney to Timor. The later achieved without a Sextant and Compass, the tools the great seaman Bligh could and did to use. If it was not for the so-called Rum Rebellion, Bligh’s visit here would not be remembered.
As for the acclaimed perpetrator of the Rum Rebellion, John McArthur, well, if ever a character has been exaggerated for his contribution to Australian development, it is he. This man was no more than an otherwise self-enriching achiever. He didn’t bring about the success of the Rum Rebellion as he has long been accredited at all. It was the convict women who made it happen. Major Johnston was urged on to arrest Bligh by some sixty citizens who petitioned him to so act. Mrs. Esther Johnston arrived in the first fleet aboard the “Lady Penrhyn”. Of the thirty three married/partnered petitioners, seventeen were married or partnered to women who arrived on the “Lady Penrhyn” with Mrs. Johnston. Why did they do it? Mrs. Johnston was just as empirical about sheep breeding and the potential of wool as Mrs. Elizabeth McArthur. But dopey Bligh wouldn’t open up the land for sheep grazing. He couldn’t see the land for the sea at the end of Port Jackson. East and west could not meet. As for the arguments with Bligh about law and order and McArthur’s disputes with him, phooey! McArthur was not that popular at the time for the people concerned to take the risk that they did.
East was the sea and west was the dream of an Australian inland with “wool growing in them tha hills”. The wool industry was ready to export and expand. Not so while Bligh had his way and so far he was having it all his own way. He made only four land grants so far, one was to himself and another to ex-Governor King. Some progress! By the way he cancelled four grants too, thus he made no progress at all during his term of stewardship. The western lands were opened up to grazing immediately after Bligh’s arrest. In the long term not one person was punished over the “Petticoat Rebellion”. England needed the wool! Macquarie who cancelled the illegally made land grants re-granted them when he realised that what he did was actually killing the golden fleece. It was the sensibilities of Macquarie’s leadership in recognising the power force behind the convicts and used it to its fullest potential during the critical formative years of the Australian economy that gave Australia a worthwhile economic staple of strategic and global importance so early in its formative development.
Therefore the convict community was significant and important to the foundation of the colony the British Government had to have. This community was vital to the success of the challenges that confronted the British from the onset of European settlement.
It should be pointed out at this juncture that the issue of overcrowded hulks was nonsense. There were only five hulks in the Thames and as Britain was experiencing its Industrial Revolution and a time of great inventions, wharves and roads to them were being built by the hulk incarcerated convicts. In any case hulks were a common form of prison in those days. Hulks were even used in Australia in the 20th Century. The use of the first HMAS Parramatta
During the 1920’s to house prisoners involved in the building of the Peat Island Mental Hospital is an example. Only 181 convicts arrived in Australia who had once been incarcerated on the hulks. It should also be noted that Britain’s prisons held 140,000 French Prisoners of War at one stage during the Napoleonic War. Britain’s gaol population in 1800 was about 4,000 felons.
Having established the colony and created an economic basis for its survival, the issue of transportation of further convicts to New South Wales became a focus of British Policy. It would be fair to say that the first boat loads of convicts dispatched were at the very worst, remedial by modern classifications, co-operative and perhaps generally eager. The realities are that they were mostly petty and first time convictions. Many may have been innocent having being convicted by malicious complainants of a high class. Class differences were important factors in determining the value of accusations and defences in those days. The courts didn’t have a better system then. It should be noted here that at that point in time five shillings or fifty cents was the line between the Judge’s verdict to hang a convicted felon or their transportations. Crimes of violence were hanging offences. Most convicts were petty thieves.
Reform of the British Police and Courts changed the situation as to the character of the convicts from the mid-1820’s onwards thus ushering in a second wave of convicts comprised of more hardened convicts of the serious criminal type. The British Police Force was militarized. Gone were the Warehousemen and Street Runners who had to justify their jobs when a crime was committed. These people nabbed anybody and hoped for a conviction and a pat on the back rather than the sack. Vigilant, competent and reliable witnesses they were not. Skilled Prosecutors and Defence Advocates were appointed and authorised by the Courts from among the learned lawyers. Trained lawyers sat on the bench replacing elected officials. Finally the penalties attached to convictions were lowered.
Unfortunately, this had a major impact on the image of the convict arriving in Australia from then on. The petty thief went home with a slap on the wrist rather than a free one ticket to an exotic South Pacific Island as before. However, many of those hardened criminals who before this time were hung for their offences became the transported convict.
Australia, from about 1828 onwards began to see the bad elements of British society. It was the nature of their crimes and their behaviour while incarcerated in gaols awaiting their transportation that had many of these convicts classified as what is said today to be recidivist. These were virtually unrepentant and hardened multiple offenders of the dangerous kind. It was the fear of these people, who incidentally were a minority of convicts that brought about the creation of the major penal institutions of Port Arthur, Macquarie Island, Norfolk Island (2nd settlement) and Maria Island. Despite the notorious reputation of those institutions most prisoners held there had a choice when arrested, behave and be assigned or misbehave and be gaoled.
By the 1840’s the people of New South Wales were fed up with the dangers introduced by the new chums so sought and achieved the end of convict transportation there. Transportation to Tasmania ended in the early 1850’s.
There was a third wave of convict transportation and this was to Western Australia. These people were selected from among the better types of prisoners held in British Gaols who were paroled on arrival to work in labour short area of that colony. These were mostly hardened criminals but of the remedial class. The success of this experiment was tremendous. Fremantle Gaol, later a notorious prison was in fact a barracks not a prison and held the convicts up until they could be placed with an employer. These were all men and in fact included several murderers and Rapists, types of crimes attached to a transported convict that were rare in Australia before then. The convict transportation ended in 1869 when the Western Australian labour shortages were overcome.
It is not clearly known when the transported convict era ended. Most transported convicts still in the system in New South Wales were pardoned on1st June 1850. The Vandiemensland convicts faded away. The last is believed to have died in Hobart Gaol in 1904, held only because he had been institutionalized so long and not longer capable of surviving freedom. Western Australia abandoned them from1869 onwards to join society.
The convict transportation system last 80 years and brought to Australia son 165,000 people. It attracted their families to join them. Few returned home. It is interesting to compare maps of Great Britain, one with areas showing the origins of the convicts and the other, the migrants. They almost match.
For most people transported to Australia, the British colony of New South Wales offered a new and a better life. It should be pointed out in conclusion that the Wills of many of them reveal an extent of their assets which exceeded those of the peers of the Realm who dispatched them.