Back in the 1800s, Australia was a continent that ran on violence. Indeed, that was its raison d'etre. It was here, as far away from the British Isles as it's possible to get without lobbing up on the ice floes of Antarctica, that the dregs, the scum, the cutthroats, the poor, the unfortunate and the rebels of the British Empire were sent to serve out sentences for crimes ranging from petty theft to murder.
Conditions were deplorable, and in reality little different to those experienced by African slaves who survived the middle passage trip to the Americas. Untimely death from illness, exhaustion or disease was commonplace, as were hangings, and floggings for minor transgressions of the rules (after a fair trial, of course).
The aim was to brutalise the convicts into submission and to distance them geographically so they couldn't sully the sensibilities of the British upper and middle classes. (Now they can't keep away from the place, but that's another story.)
In those days, transportation to the other side of the world might as well have meant transportation to Mars, given the length of the voyage and the appalling conditions aboard the transports, and it was near impossible for a freed convict to raise enough cash for a trip home, assuming that a freed convict was allowed to do so. So once transported to Australia, there was virtually no chance of a convict returning. Even if a convicted criminal was serving a seven-year sentence, it was in effect a life sentence as they were in the Antipodes for good.
The other effect of course was that many of those in the military deemed unsuitable for active duty in Britain's wars, or who'd offended a superior officer, ended up guarding criminals and acting as a de facto police force in outfits such as the New South Wales Corps, which ultimately became a mutinous band of soldiery (and we'll use the term loosely) whose main forte was the monopoly trade in rum, which at one time became the colony's main currency. The nature of such a posting also meant that many of those in the soldiery who were good men quickly became bitter or homesick or both.
The mixture was a heady one: thieves, rogues, forgers, murderers, prostitutes, ne'er do wells and Catholic and Irish rebels (and sometimes all of the above rolled into one) and the beginning of a police force built on corrupt practises and a penchant for oppression of what it regarded as the criminal classes.
It's against this background that the lawlessness and the cynical and almost universal dislike of authority that came to characterise early Australian society (and still does, to a certain extent) should be viewed, rather than the kind of pioneering spirit and frontier busting of the American expansion that led to opportunistic outlaw gangs roaming the West. There is a belief that our crims are somehow different, and it's telling that murderous groups of outlaw bushrangers like the Kelly gang who roamed the countryside in the 1800s are still regarded today almost as fairytale icons of European settlement.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jonathan Scanlan
Surfer, I am sorry to have to say this but you really need to learn some history.
Go pick up John Hirsts Sense and Nonsense in Australian History for a more accurate picture of the convict settlement.
In fact, I have had a good look at some of the convict documents and the bulk of the transportation were white collar crooks. Then, once on the continent, they were treated like kings with rights to sue their employers for mistreatment and a free plot of land when they finished up.
Brutality only emerged in a handful of of isolated cases.
2 - STM
Oh dear, Jonathan. Maybe it's you who need to go back and study your history. The brutality of convict settlement is well documented. Try Port Arthur, Moreton Bay, Norfolk Island, Macquarie Harbour, the work camps west of Sydney and in the Blue Mountains. Then there were the penal settlements in WA.
The white-collar crims DID do well, but the rest of them, mostly, didn't. Most of the criminals were NOT white-collar. I'm not going to argue with you, however. You have made a blanket statement about my lack of knowledge of Australian history when these things are not only well-documented, but a whole host of information is available out there to disavow your of your deluded and misguided belief that penal settlement on this continent wasn't violent.
Off the top of my head, I can name one person here just in this story whose father did 7 years in Van Dieman's Land - Ned Kelly's father, and for rustling two pigs. I doubt whether most of the convicts who did suffer through that era would be convinced as to the veracity of your point of view were they alive today.
3 - Jonathan Scanlan
oh sure, there was brutality, but it's probably overstated. To imply there was more than anywhere else in the world is inaccurate.
Heck, when the men and women first hit the shore, an orgy broke out on sight since they hadn't seen the opposite sex in months of travel.
But that's really beside the point.
4 - STM
Jon, it WAS violent. It was brutal, in fact. No, perhaps not any different to anywhere else. Except that the convicts transported to Australia were little more than white slaves, and as an Aussie, you know this to be true as well as I do. The other big difference: convicts and their offspring formed the bulk of the population here at one stage, especially in the earler years of the first colony.
However, this part of the story is only to offer an opinion on why Australians are so accepting of the kind of crime that sees gangsters dropping dead left right and centre, and why we just shrug our shoulders - because, as has been speculated by people more knowledgeable than me, it's part of the very fabric of our collective psyche.
5 - STM
And remind me next time you post a story to be the first poster, and to shoot it down in flames in the first few moments :) I hate to be ageist, but you're saying I don't know our history. I do know it. The gangland wars are also part of our history, and I think I was out there living it while you were but a twinkle in your daddy's eye.
6 - Jonathan Scanlan
Yeah, I know Stan. But is it really fair to call them slaves when they received a wage and could lodge complaints and sue their employer for mistreatment? Wage slaves and cheep labour maybe, but not slaves in the full sense of the word.
It's a popular speculation that the convict past weighs heavily in the Australian psyche; but remember they were superseded by free settlers very quickly and never had an uprising.
In fact, very few of present day Australians have any connection to the convict roots. If there is a generational legacy it could only have been passed down in the sorts of laws and institutions that have been developed and kept since that period.
7 - Jonathan Scanlan
Any time Stan, I mean, half the time I write stuff is to get it denounced by the loonies that frequent these boards. :)
Oh and while I'm at it... always wanted to tell you that Christmas article of yours from 06 is gold.
8 - STM
Jon, thanks buddy. We love our Christmases in the sun. You'll kniow how hot it gets up in Queensland, which is where all my immediate family comes from.
I'll just add here on the topic that it wasn't until the 1830s and the passing of the Magistrate's Act that convicts actually got a fair deal in terms of their punishments and their courts. Even then, the establishment was violently opposed to it - because they saw the convicts as scum who could be treated away from the norms people had come to expect from the British justice system.
Indeed Governor Bourke passed the law because he was so affected by the brutality meted out to the convicts in NSW. He made a number of submissions to London in regard to it, which in turn led to simmering opposition to transportation among the public in Britain and eventually an outcry in that ultimately led to the end of the transports to WA. That is all very well documented, especially Bourke's correspondence.
It was only in WA and Victoria that the convicts were treated reasonably, and even then not always.
Places like Moreton Bay, Macquarie Harbour, Port Arthur and the Blue Mountains camps were indeed hell holes. I will never subscribe to the view that the convicts were well treated - until the very end and before the transports stopped.
There is far too much evidence to suggest the exact opposite. You and the author of the book are entitledv to your views of course, but I don't believe they are right and plenty would agree with me, including serious historians.
9 - STM
Doc Dread ... there is something very strange going on with the comments thread here (apart from the fact Jonno and I are going hammer and tongs). Any chance of fixing it up old boy before I belt my terminal with a sledgehammer???
10 - Jonathan Scanlan
Well, most of my knowledge is from what I read during and since I undertook Australian History at uni, and in that case it was only one unit.
I'll defer to your better judgement... in my own experience, most of the people who jump up and down about the violence and brutality of the convict settlements do tend to overstate things because their primary school teachers always tried to make it more exciting.
Oh and yes, there does indeed seem to be a glitch with the comments.
11 - Clavos
The comment problem stems from the peculiarities of the Southern Hemisphere (as opposed to the normality of the Northern). :>)
Interesting article, SS. I know little about Aussie history, so it's a real eye-opener for me. While reading it, I reflected on the resiliency of the human spirit; that such a magnificent country as contemporary Australia is could have sprung from such inauspicious beginnings.
12 - Dr Dreadful
I don't know about a comment problem, but there does seem to be something cockeyed going on. The page layout is all over the place from where I'm sitting.
I'll get on to Chris and see if he knows how to fix it.
13 - Clavos
Picky, picky, Doc. You knew my meaning...
Chris CAN fix it (I think).
14 - Dr Dreadful
Fascinating piece, BTW, mate, and I wish you'd write more.
I only know Richard Roxburgh from his portrayal of the effeminate and psychotic Duke in Moulin Rouge, so it's kind of hard for me to picture him in that sort of tough guy role.
Highly unlikely that Underbelly will ever make it across the Pacific, of course, so I'll have to look for some clips on YouTube.
That's how I get my fixes of Kath and Kim and Chaser, after all!
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Interesting piece, Stan.
It's helpful to be reminded from time to time what kind of hell an open air prison can be.
16 - Christopher Rose
The page looks fine to me. Anyone else having problems?
17 - Jet in Columbus
I don't see anything wrong, of course that's not a comment on the editoral content...
18 - Dr Dreadful
Oh, NOW it looks fine!
I'll never understand the Internet, never...
[shuffles off into corner, mumbling to self]
19 - Lisa McKay
It was the Amazon codes, surfer -- they get separated by commas, not semi-colons. It looks okay now because I fixed it a short while ago.
20 - Silver Surfer
Thanks Lisa and Doc ... I thought that might have been the problem. Must remember not to use semi-bloody-colons.
Doc Dread, if you like Richard Roxburgh (I saw him recently in a movie set in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where he stars with Justine Waddell and does a perfect Geordie accent - called the One and Only, and fantastic) you can get a copy of this in the US apparently. I say to Americans: if you can't understand the lingo, try bloody harder. It's not rocket science for anyone with an IQ above 65.
It's one of the best shows I've seen, but I think it hasn't gone down well in the US because of the Aussie accents (well, it IS set in Australia, silly).
I saw a review of it where the reviewer said it needed subtitles (lol) and suggested the storyline was improbable (whoops. The storyline is very close to what actually happened, the minor deviations being only for script and dramatic licence purposes).
Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction.
Apparently, the guy who wrote The Shield said he got most of his ideas from Blue Murder. I had to laugh a few weeks back when one of the posters on a gun thread here said the Australian police forces weren't known to be corrupt. Riiiight ...
The actor who does Neddy Smith (Tony Martin) also gets the criminal just about perfect. That's wyhy it's so good.
An old mate of mine also had one of the key roles, and proved to me once and for all that he's no ham actor - an affliction that seems to strike many of those of dramatic bent in this country.
One in particular who'll remain nameless because I don't want any trouble :)
21 - Dr Dreadful
Not Jason Donovan?
22 - Silver Surfer
No, although ...
The person is one who does a great American accent but reached his limit IMO pretending to be a pom.
I think we've discussed this before, non??
23 - troll
"The Roots of Violence are:
Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principles"
Gandhi
...just a reminder
24 - Dr Dreadful
@ #22:
Aha! That guy...
25 - STM
#23 Troll ....
Gandhi's never been that popular in Australia. We've never had much time for passive aggressives. Be aggressive or be passive, I say, but never both at the same time.
Although there was a popular TV character here whose name was Mahatma Kote.