Australian colonial and convict history

Brief biographies of twenty-one convict women from places on the edges of the British Empire, who were transported to Van Diemens Land and New South Wales during the 19th Century.
Research notes in preparation of an online Dictionary of Biography launched in May 2016.
Please note that subsequent research may have added new details and corrected some errors in these biographies.

Metaphors move--and displace--people. This paper starts from this premise, focusing on how elites have deployed metaphors of water and waste to form a rhetorical consensus around the displacement of non-elite citizens in ancient Roman contexts, with reference to similar discourses in the contemporary Global North and Brazil. The notion of 'domestic displacement'-the forced movement of citizens within their own sovereign territory-elucidates how these metaphors were used by elite citizens, such as Cicero, to mark out non-elite citizens for removal from the city of Rome through colonisation programmes. In the elite discourse of the late Republican and early Augustan periods, physical proximity to and figurative equation with the refuse of the city repeatedly signals the low social and legal status of potential colonists, while a corresponding metaphor of 'draining' expresses the elite desire to displace these groups to colonial sites. The material outcome of these metaphors emerges in the non-elite demographic texture of Julius Caesar's colonists, many of whom were drawn from the plebs urbana and freedmen. An elite rationale, detectable in the writings of Cicero, Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and others, underpins the notion of Roman colonisation as a mechanism of displacement. On this view, the colony served to alleviate the founding city-Rome-of its surplus population, politically volatile elements, and socially marginalised citizens, and in so doing, populate the margins of its empire too. Romulus' asylum, read anew as an Alban colony, serves as one prototype for this model of colonisation and offers a contrast to recent readings that have deployed the asylum as an ethical example for contemporary immigration and asylum seeker policy. The invocation of Romulus' asylum in 19th century debates about the Australian penal colonies further illustrates the dangers of appropriating the asylum towards an ethics of virtue. At its core, this paper drills down into the question of Roman colonists' volition, considering the evidence for their voluntary and involuntary movement to a colonial site and challenging the current understanding of this movement as a straightforward, series of voluntary 'mass migrations'. In recognising the agency wielded by non-elite citizens as prospective colonists, this paper contends that Roman colonisation, when understood as a form of domestic displacement, opens up another avenue for coming to grips with the dynamics of 'popular' politics in the Republican period.

For the European colonists of NSW, bread remained an essential staple of their diets and a link to home as they struggled with life in a new place.  While successful grain production took several years to establish, developing processes which efficiently and economically milled local and imported wheat and oats into flour remained a problem for far longer.  The adaptation of European technologies to the alien Australian environment, a limited pool of skilled labour, as well as the peculiarities of a largely unfree convict workforce, added to the complications and in many cases attempts to engage in milling proved unsuccessful.
This thesis explores the efforts of one colonial entrepreneur, John Lucas, to establish two watermills on the Georges and Woronora Rivers south of Sydney during the 1820s. Although the broad pattern of the history of Lucas and his mills is known, there has not been a detailed study of this colonial enterprise or the operations of these industrial sites. This study aims to understand how the two mills, separated by a considerable distance, functioned as a single economic unit integrating with Lucas' broader mercantile interests.  It will consider the issues of technological transfer and environmental adaptation, as well the role and efficiency of a predominantly convict industrial labour force.  It will also consider the environmental, technological and commercial reasons for the decline and collapse of the milling operations.
Lucas’ Brisbane and Woronora Mills were recently located by the author in the Georges River basin, south of Sydney. Their archaeological study allows us to answer some important questions about how these mills operated as early industrial sites using convict labour.

The squatter Charles Franks and his shepherd were brutally killed by Aboriginal people in 1836 in the Port Phillip District. Free settlers memorialised Franks as a gentleman and innocent victim of violence. The shepherd, however, was barely remembered by free settlers at all. Examining the aftermath of the killings in free settler correspondence, this article considers free settler portrayals of convicts, as well as notions free settlers held about themselves. The reactions of Port Phillip’s free settlers to the deaths conformed to prevailing practices and tropes deployed in establishing the settlement’s social order.

This electronic book is a result of a small research project bearing the same title, funded by the University of Barcelona and carried out by this University’s Australian Studies Centre (Centre d’Estudis Australians CEA) in 2010. The collection of essays in English and Spanish presented here is the research group members’ reflection on the theme of migration from a variety of fields within the Humanities, so as to create as broad and objective a theoretical base as possible to look at its contemporary manifestations. It makes for a study that takes into account the socio-historical, cultural, political and geographic factors involved in migration, which attempts to offer a framework for analysing the current migratory situation in Catalonia, Spain and Europe at large. As this project’s proposal came from the University of Barcelona Australian Studies Centre, the paradigmatic point of departure for our approach is the Australian experience, a settler nation with a long experience and history of cross-cultural contact within the nation-space through colonisation, migration, assimilation, integration, multiculturalism and so on. We therefore believe that the Australian experience offers relevant insights for our European context, to which the intercultural nature of the nation-state is relatively new; in establishing this intercontinental link, we would also like to highlight the global character of migratory phenomena and the resulting need that the issues raised by migration be dealt with from such a global perspective, beyond the socio-political comfort the traditional nation-state provides for the people who inhabit its discursive limits.

'The fighting Gunditjmara' tells the story of the Gunditjmara people from western Victoria, who have fought for country and for nation, from frontier wars to world wars. The article looks at how Aboriginal servicemen and servicewomen serving in the Australian military forces have often spoke of being part of a long-standing, continuous warrior tradition that embodies deep respect for their forebears who fought for their traditional lands. Such sentiments were encapsulated by Captain Reg Saunders, a Gunditjmara man,  "I would have fought the war my forefathers fought because I think we were right. We were fighting for survival." One of the most famous Australian soldiers of the Second World War, Saunders was the first identifiable Aboriginal to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. He is from a long line of Gunditjmara men and women - who have earned the reputation 'the fighting Gunditjmara' - who have served in the Australian military.

It is more than 225 years since HMS Sirius wrecked on the reef at the newly settled and isolated colony of Norfolk Island, stranding more than 320 persons – convicts, free settlers, marines and children – pushing the fledging settlement to near starvation. Among those forced to suffer an eleven-month stay in 1790-1791 was midshipman and prolific amateur watercolourist George Raper (1769-96), who against all odds saved his paint-box and paper. He produced a number of pivotal works, including the loss of the Sirius, detailed images of the settlement, agricultural areas, and flora and fauna that were to be the salvation of the tiny British outpost in the Pacific.

This article offers a preliminary investigation of illegal movement by British convicts on one of the remote, frontier pastoral districts of New South Wales (Australia) in the 1820s. Principally I am concerned here with some broader questions concerning the redistribution and demographic movement of the NSW convict population during this important period of expansion and reorganisation. What were the frequency and the nature of illegal movement on the remote Bathurst frontier? To what extent was the forced relocation of the convict population countered by their returning illegally? Did they, by clandestinely leaving their employment situations, succeed in improving their situation? Did they find a genuine 'change of place'?

The Western Australian penal colony, enacted in 1850 and lasting until the mid-1870s, has typically been examined as the end product of a larger pan-Australian process of convict transportation. As such Western Australian convictism has been viewed as essentially the same as that enacted in the Eastern Australian penal colonies, but on a much smaller scale, and crucially, as unimportant within the greater story of Australian convictism. This view has been exacerbated by a concerted effort in Western Australia itself to erase the convict period from colonial memory. In comparison with New South Wales and Tasmania, there has been very little archaeological or historical research conducted into the Western Australian penal system. Consequently we know very little about the operation of the system, the lives of the convicts within it and the impact it had on the development of Western Australia.

This view that Western Australian convictism was basically the same as that in the eastern Australian colonies is problematic because the system existed within a penal paradigm that was fundamentally different to the one which inspired the settling of New South Wales 60 years earlier. In 1850 British transportation occurred within a legislative and ideological framework that was focussed on reform and incarceration, rather than the simple removal of unwanted criminals. Transportation was no longer considered an effective punishment and the practice was only continued by the British government to advance specific strategic interests and operated within a global administrative and legislative framework applied equally in different penal colonies. Modelling of this global framework demonstrates that the form and operation of the Western Australian system had as much in common with contemporary penal colonies in Bermuda and Gibraltar, as with earlier systems in New South Wales and Tasmania.

Physically, Western Australian convictism was designed to meet both the needs of the British penal system and those of the colony. Fremantle Prison, the central hub of the network, operated under the same legislation as any other British prison within the Empire and was intended for the reform, control and punishment of newly arrived and recalcitrant convicts. However the “ticket-of-leave” system, a limited form of parole, was extensively used outside the prison to mobilise convict labour and ticket-of-leave men were dispersed throughout a network of eight regional convict depots and subsidiary work stations. Archaeological and historical investigation of three convict depots, at York, Toodyay and Guildford, demonstrate that away from Fremantle, traditional penal concerns of security, control and reform were low priority. Instead, these places were designed to allow settler access to convict labour and to reinforce traditional British class hierarchies. Convicts granted a ticket-of-leave were not subject to processes of reform, had economic freedom, and crucially, the capacity to enact personal agency to improve their own lives. The archaeological record suggests that convicts supplemented the standard penal diet by hunting, sought to improve their daily lives in other ways by the open consumption of alcohol, tobacco and patent medicines, and maintained political and ethnic identity through their use of material culture.

Recording and analysis of the built environment and spatial layout of regional depots suggests that they were also used to reinforce traditional class hierarchies. Convicts, transported to Western Australia, in part to form a colonial working class, were at the bottom of the colonial hierarchy, below other members of the Convict Establishment including soldiers and civilian administrators. The physical form of convict depots, while built to a standard design, also provide evidence of class barriers and conflict between different groups. The Royal Engineers responsible for building the depots used the limited legislative power available to them to undermine the power and influence of the civilian Superintendents in charge and to advance their own position and prestige.

This research suggests that convictism in Western Australian operated as two parallel and complementary systems that allowed the needs of both the British government and the Western Australian colony to be met. This dual convict system was largely successful, allowing geographical, economic and population expansion and tying the colony into global administrative and trade networks.

The history of John Lucas’ watermills in the Georges River Basin Sydney has been well covered in previous articles by the authors. These 2 watermills, built on Williams Creek in 1822 and the Woronora River in 1825 had a linage going back to the first fleet with John Lucas’ father; convict Nathaniel Lucas, building a watermill and then a windmill on Norfolk Island in 1795, becoming the colonies first miller.

An historical review of the construction of jetties at selected convict probation stations on Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania, by convicts during the colonial penal era. The paper traces the evolution of the jetties from their penal origin and into the late-19th and early-20th century free-settlement period.

The received view in Australian historiography is that although the local environment provided a wealth of foods that had sustained Indigenous Australians for thousands of years, 'in complete ignorance of this, the first European settlers lived through famine as they tried to survive on ship's rations'. Had they shown more respect for the Eora people, and their ways, the colonists would not have been threatened with 'extinction from starvation'. This article challenges this notion by presenting evidence that the newcomers actively utilised native foods.
The early colonists did seek to find out about Eora food sources and practices, and rather than clinging to English foodways in ignorance of indigenous resources, there was much experimentation and consumption of local produce. Until introduced foods were successfully produced and in good supply in the colony, indigenous foods played an important role in the diets of many individuals, and were used by the authorities to supplement official rations when salt provisions were in short supply.

Previous articles in this series have discussed the history of John Lucas’ two water mills and their archaeological remains. This article discusses the combined operation of the two mills to source wheat and deliver flour to markets in Sydney. This involves the maritime landscape of the Georges River and its tributaries together with the boats that would allow transport of materials and people between the two mills, creating a single economic and social unit. The maritime connections of the Lucas family have been detailed in the family history. Their farming interests in Tasmania were most probably useful in the supply of wheat to John Lucas’ mills. It is also possible that Lucas may have imported wheat from the Illawarra or even overseas. To maintain the economic advantage of avoiding import duty, Lucas would have needed to transit flour through Liverpool for land transport to Sydney. The elements and remains of this landscape are relevant to understanding the operation of the mills

Despite Australia being one of the most robust and progressive film industries during the early years of moving pictures, it experienced a significant decline in film production from 1915. Whether this decline was a direct result of poor government policy is something that the Royal Commission on the motion picture industry in Australia 1926–1928 investigated. Marking a significant, yet terribly neglected moment of Australian film history, the Commission surveyed a variety of issues which had stunted the development of the national Australian cinema. By surveying the early period of the Australian cinema, in this article I will discuss how the Royal Commission’s recommendations pushed for the national industry to become more active within the Hollywood world cinema model.

This article covers possibly the last convict road gang in NSW which constructed Mitchells New Line of Road to the Illawarra in 1843-5. Recent studies of the letters from Assistant Surveyors Roderick Mitchell and William Darke to the Surveyor General have brought to light details of these convicts. Several other articles, by the authors, describing this road are contained on this Academia site.

A Personal History of Family History & its wider contribution

My current project about the female convicts has caused me to think deeply about the historiography on this topic. To realise how famiily history put flesh and blood on the skeleton of writing 'history from below'. I'll use my ten minutes to ponder the significant methodological shift this caused. How focus on the personal and the ordinary also produced changes in interpretation and perspective. Family history has led to the discovery of new sources. It has influenced the digitisation of existing sources. Family history's role in Australia has been significant beyond the personal for more than thirty years. It is at its best when combined with academic scholarship. Now Aboriginal historians are also researching their family history, academic and family historians can potentially play a vital role towards Reconciliation between the Aboriginal  people and other Australians.

Nicolas Battis, a man of colour, and a Private in the band of the 13th Light Dragoons, lived a life that included service at the battle of Waterloo and transportation to Australia as a convict.
In May 2023 Nicolas Batise’s (sic) place of enlistment was identified: According to the Edinburgh, Scotland, Army Attestation Registers, 1796-1857 on ancestry.co.uk Nicolas Batise, a labourer born in Guadeloupe enlisted in the ‘Loyal Macleod Fencibles’ at Edinburgh in November 1798. On enlistment he had a black complexion, very dark eyes, black hair, was 20 years of age and 5/7” tall.

This article looks at one of the earliest farmers in the area south of Sydney, David Duncombe. Together with his convict servants he raised cattle and produce on what is now a forgotten but fertile area between the Georges and Woronora Rivers.

On 15 March 1817 the convict ship the Chapman departed from Cork with 200 male prisoners on board. When it dropped anchor off Sydney Cove four months later, its prison doors opened to reveal 160 gaunt and brutalised men. Twelve were dead and twenty-eight lay wounded in the hospital below deck. As officials pieced together the horrors of the voyage many questions arose. Why did Michael Collins claim that his fellow convicts conspired to take the ship? Why was Captain Drake unable to rein in the violent and sadistic Third Mate Baxter? Was there really an attempted mutiny on the Chapman? Or was this cold-blooded murder? Using daily journals from the crew, detailed testimony from several convicts and official colonial government correspondence, this book unravels what happened during those four months at sea. Tarnished by intrigue, suspicion and mutual hatred, this is the story of one of the darkest episodes in the history of penal transportation between Ireland and Australia.

There are three rivers between Sydney and the Illawarra, the Cooks, Georges and Woronora. Mitchell's Illawarra road was made possible by the damming of the Cooks River between 1839 and 1841 using convict labour. This article describes the section of Mitchell's Illawarra Road south of the Woronora River towards Wollongong

Of the many ships that must have been associated with moving wheat and flour between John Lucas’ watermills in the Georges River basin and market there is only 2 for which we have a name. The Olivia, a schooner of 60 tons, owned by the Lucas family was used to take wheat from the family farms in Van Diemen’s Land to his mill’s and the Alligator, a schooner of 198 tons stranded in the entrance of the Georges River when trying to deliver wheat to Lucas’ mills. The newspapers of the day reported their tonnage and the sailing rig but nothing else is known about them as records of ships registered prior to 1840 are incomplete. This article discusses what we can learn about the size of these ships.

Primary sources provide evidence of food playing a significant role in cultural exchange and communications between colonists and Australians. During Arthur Phillip's tenure as founding governor of New South Wales' between 1788 and 1792, many Aboriginal Australians, under various circumstances, would dine at his table and some would reside at Government House. The symbolic construct of the table would play an important socio-political role in developing cross-cultural relations with members of local Australian communities.

The 1833 convict revolt at Castle Forbes in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales was a sharp reminder of the fragility of law and order in the colony's remote farming and pastoral districts. It was followed by a government inquiry into the management of the estate and the practices of local magistrates at Patricks Plains (Singleton) which exposed the largely hidden world of relations between masters, magistrates and servants on the margins of the colony. While much has been said about the extraordinary political fallout of the revolt, this article takes a closer look inside the Castle Forbes estate to gleam some picture of both the broader atmosphere and immediate circumstances preceding the tragedy. The analysis includes new evidence of an extraordinary punishment regime in the lead up to the revolt. I demonstrate that while the revolt was the product of decayed labour and interpersonal relations, it also revealed structural and regulatory problems in the administration of the convict assignment system, particularly as arose from the role of local magistrates in arbitrating workplace disputes. Ultimately, the Castle Forbes revolt represented a rare and tragic malfunction in local governance.

This report presents the findings of archaeological test excavations completed at the site of the first Military Barracks completed in Oatlands, Tasmania, c1827. The same building served as convict barracks, a probation station and later the Oatlands State School.
Archaeological excavations were completed as part of the Southern Midlands Council's 2012 Summer Archaeology Program.

There are three rivers between Sydney and the Illawarra, the Cooks, Georges and Woronora. Mitchell's Illawarra road was made possible by the damming of the Cooks River between 1839 and 1841 using convict labour. This article describes the section of Mitchell's Illawarra Road starting at the Cooks River dam
1

The Australian Government's successful nomination of eleven 'convict sites' for World Heritage listing has again highlighted complex relationships between history and heritage. This article considers one convict site excluded from the nomination - the Coal River Heritage Precinct in the heart of Newcastle (NSW). While the site falls short of fulfilling conventional heritage criteria, the material remains having been so seriously eroded, its historical significance is nonetheless considerable. As historians, we believe its significance lies in what has been destroyed, as much as in what has survived, because the site evidences a process of adaptation and transformation over time. This theme of adaptation, we argue, is an instructive reflection of the legacies of Australia's convict past, but is not so well embodied by the successfully-nominated convict sites. Drawing on the lessons from this particular case study, we suggest that more progressive and adventurous approaches may be needed to adequately reflect the historical significance of Australia's convict inheritance.

John Lucas built the Brisbane Watermill  in 1822 and the nearby Woronora Watermill in 1825. Lucas relied almost exclusively on convict workers for the manpower to run these two mills and his Inn, The Black Swan, in George Street Sydney.This article looks at the details of Lucas industrial workforce, most of whom were convicts.

Tea was not included in government rations for early New South
Wales colonists. As testament to the embedded cultural importance of tea drinking among Britons of all classes in the late 1780s, colonists found comfort in a native alternative to satisfy their thirst for the exotic beverage.
Published in Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal of Regional Food Studies. Number 1, 2011.

This report summarises the results of archaeological test excavations at the site of the Oatlands Guard House, constructed in 1828. Archaeological excavations were undertaken as part of the 2013 Summer Archaeological Program run by the Southern Midlands Council in Tasmania.