- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Griffith University, Harry Gentle Resource Centre, Department MemberUniversity of New England - Australia, Humanities, Department Memberadd
- Australian colonial and convict history, Convict Transportation, Australian History, Convicts, Queensland history, Brisbane history, and 14 moreCaribbean Slavery, Caribbean History, Female Convicts, Female Convicts to VDL, Slavery, Indentured Labour, Australian colonial history, Convicts, New South Wales, Ex Convicts, Convicts to Tasmania, Child Convicts, female convicts in Van Diemen's Land, Coolie trade, and Chinese indentured laboredit
- PhD (2021-2024). Thesis topic: Rediscovering and reinterpreting Queensland's diverse past: Africans, Indians, Chinese... morePhD (2021-2024). Thesis topic: Rediscovering and reinterpreting Queensland's diverse past: Africans, Indians, Chinese and ethnic minorities at Moreton Bay, 1824-1859. Visiting Fellow (2020-2021). Project: "Offenders, paupers and 'pioneers': Convict women and their families in pre-Separation Queensland". MPhil and GradDipLocFamAppHist, UNE (Australia).edit
In 1876, the African-Caribbean boxer Jack ‘Black Diamond’ Dowridge sailed from London to Brisbane aboard the Osseo—not to step out in the boxing ring, but as an assistant cook on the passenger ship’s crew. It was not Dowridge’s first time... more
In 1876, the African-Caribbean boxer Jack ‘Black Diamond’ Dowridge sailed from London to Brisbane aboard the Osseo—not to step out in the boxing ring, but as an assistant cook on the passenger ship’s crew. It was not Dowridge’s first time in Queensland’s capital city, having sailed to Brisbane as a cook on board the Royal Dane in 1872 and 1874. In London, Dowridge was a fighter in the stable of the famed boxing promoter Nat Langham, but it seems his frequent trips ‘down under’ had inspired him to open his own boxing saloon in Brisbane. Perhaps the semi-tropical climate reminded him of his childhood in Barbados? Maybe he felt welcome in a young, energetic city where a talented black pugilist with London connections could make a name for himself? By all accounts, Australians considered Dowridge an intelligent, educated and well-dressed ‘gentleman’, as much admired for his business acumen as a boxing hall, hotel, theatre and restaurant proprietor as for his boxing prowess. Nevertheless, his negotiations of race and racism in Queensland reveal intriguing episodes and elisions alongside instances of outright prejudice and hostility, pointing to the difficult and marginalised spaces occupied by the African-Caribbean diaspora in colonial Australia.
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Biographical and genealogical data provides valuable material for analysis of the 73,000 men, women and children who, between 1803 and 1853, were transported from throughout the British Empire to the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land... more
Biographical and genealogical data provides valuable material for analysis
of the 73,000 men, women and children who, between 1803 and 1853, were transported from throughout the British Empire to the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Of these, 13,500 were female. Tasmanian historian Alison Alexander writes that as many as 50,000 emancipated convicts eventually departed for Victoria and places further afield. Among these emancipists were ex-convict women, many already married to ex-convict husbands, who continued travelling north to New South Wales and Queensland from the 1850s. This article gives a brief outline of 12 ex-convict women who made a fresh start as ‘free settlers’ and ‘pioneers’ in Australia’s northernmost colony. It provides biographical data for descendants and social historians, and raises questions for further analysis as more information comes to light about these and other ex-convict women.
of the 73,000 men, women and children who, between 1803 and 1853, were transported from throughout the British Empire to the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Of these, 13,500 were female. Tasmanian historian Alison Alexander writes that as many as 50,000 emancipated convicts eventually departed for Victoria and places further afield. Among these emancipists were ex-convict women, many already married to ex-convict husbands, who continued travelling north to New South Wales and Queensland from the 1850s. This article gives a brief outline of 12 ex-convict women who made a fresh start as ‘free settlers’ and ‘pioneers’ in Australia’s northernmost colony. It provides biographical data for descendants and social historians, and raises questions for further analysis as more information comes to light about these and other ex-convict women.
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The establishment of Queensland's first establishment for paupers, the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum on Stradbroke Island, led to over 18,000 males and 3,000 females being transferred by ferry from Brisbane's bayside to their island exile... more
The establishment of Queensland's first establishment for paupers, the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum on Stradbroke Island, led to over 18,000 males and 3,000 females being transferred by ferry from Brisbane's bayside to their island exile between 1865 and 1946. Among their number were at least 148 male and nineteen female ex-convicts who had once served sentences of transportation in New
South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. This article tells the stories of the nineteen ex-convict women who were inmates at Dunwich and one woman admitted to the Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum.
South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. This article tells the stories of the nineteen ex-convict women who were inmates at Dunwich and one woman admitted to the Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum.
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The district of Moreton Bay was opened to free settlement in early 1842 and settlers began streaming north from Sydney, Hobart and further afield. By 1846, one-third of the non-Indigenous population were convicts and ex-convicts... more
The district of Moreton Bay was opened to free settlement in early 1842 and settlers began streaming north from Sydney, Hobart and further afield. By 1846, one-third of the non-Indigenous population were convicts and ex-convicts (emancipists) originally transported to one of Australia’s penal colonies. Although the percentage of convicts among the Moreton Bay population declined over the following decades as the number of free emigrants expanded exponentially, ex-convicts continued to arrive and settle on the south side of the Brisbane River well into the late 1800s. Among them were several female ex-convicts and their husbands who lived at Kangaroo Point, East Brisbane, South Brisbane, Ipswich and places in between. For publication details please go to: https://annerleystephenshistory.org/
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Chapter in Lucy Frost and Colette McAlpine (eds), From the Edges of Empire: Female Convicts Born or Tried Outside the British Isles, Convict Women's Press, Hobart, 2015. Available from:... more
Chapter in Lucy Frost and Colette McAlpine (eds), From the Edges of Empire: Female Convicts Born or Tried Outside the British Isles, Convict Women's Press, Hobart, 2015. Available from: http://www.convictwomenspress.com.au/index.php/book-catalogue
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This article by Janis Hanley and Jan Richardson focuses on the Chinese market gardeners of early Queensland who were cultivating fruit and vegetables on small parcels of land, often beside creeks, from at least the 1860s. Our research... more
This article by Janis Hanley and Jan Richardson focuses on the Chinese market gardeners of early Queensland who were cultivating fruit and vegetables on small parcels of land, often beside creeks, from at least the 1860s. Our research examines their traditional, sustainable and organic agricultural practices, and the complex interrelationships and micro-economies that flourished between Chinese market gardeners, European settlers, First Nations peoples and their local environments .
The market gardens in two Queensland locations are considered: Croydon, a hard-rock gold mining town in the Gulf Country; and the former Shire of Stephens, centred in Annerley, Brisbane. Croydon is on Tagalaka country, parts of which are under native title, while Stephens falls in the country of the First Nations people of the Yuggara language group.
https://enlighten.griffith.edu.au/sustainability-lessons-from-colonial-queensland/
The market gardens in two Queensland locations are considered: Croydon, a hard-rock gold mining town in the Gulf Country; and the former Shire of Stephens, centred in Annerley, Brisbane. Croydon is on Tagalaka country, parts of which are under native title, while Stephens falls in the country of the First Nations people of the Yuggara language group.
https://enlighten.griffith.edu.au/sustainability-lessons-from-colonial-queensland/
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The 1851 New South Wales census revealed 2,224 convicts and ex-convicts living in the ‘Northern Districts’, now part of Queensland. Some were convict exiles transported directly to Moreton Bay in 1849 and 1850, but the majority moved... more
The 1851 New South Wales census revealed 2,224 convicts and ex-convicts living in the ‘Northern Districts’, now part of Queensland. Some were convict exiles transported directly to Moreton Bay in 1849 and 1850, but the majority moved north from New South Wales or Van Diemen’s Land after Queensland opened to free settlement in 1842. Researchers of Tasmanian convicts have access to the Tasmanian Names Index, Founders & Survivors, and the Female Convicts Research Centre database, but investigating convicts and emancipists in free settlement Queensland is a more difficult proposition. Researchers must polyangulate multiple record sets to create their own databases, cross-referencing New South Wales convict records with Queensland’s early convict, court, gaol, hospital and benevolent asylum records, along with birth, marriage and death registrations, Trove’s digitised newspaper collection, and online databases ranging from the Prosecution Project and Old Bailey trial records to Ancestry.com and the Digital Panopticon.
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Building on my MPhil thesis on female convicts in free settlement Queensland, I have written biographies of female convicts and ex-convicts, their husbands, partners and children who came to Queensland after the closure of the Moreton Bay... more
Building on my MPhil thesis on female convicts in free settlement Queensland, I have written biographies of female convicts and ex-convicts, their husbands, partners and children who came to Queensland after the closure of the Moreton Bay penal settlement in 1839. This Harry Gentle Resource Centre Visiting Fellow talk, presented at Queensland State Archives on 22 October 2020, brings to light unknown and missing stories, photographs and burial places of female convicts and their families in pre-Separation Queensland. To view the associated digital project, go to: https://harrygentle.griffith.edu.au/projects/offenders-paupers-and-pioneers/
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Spring Seminar, Female Convict Research Centre, Hobart, 9 October 2017.
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Queensland State History Conference (In Time and Place), Gold Coast, May 2017.
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While much attention has been paid to the convicts who served time at the Moreton Bay penal settlement, much less is known about the 2,200 convicts and ex-convicts who were recorded as living in Queensland on the 1851 census. Many of... more
While much attention has been paid to the convicts who served time at the Moreton Bay penal settlement, much less is known about the 2,200 convicts and ex-convicts who were recorded as living in Queensland on the 1851 census. Many of these convicts are the ancestors of Queensland’s oldest families yet their stories remained hidden due to the ‘hated stain’ of convictism. The challenge for researchers and family historians alike is to tell the individual stories of these convicts and, in doing so, to write an important but missing chapter in Queensland’s colonial history.