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Soaring over them all is the larrikin; almost archly self conscious- to smart for his own good, witty rather than humorous, exceeding limits, bending rules and sailing close to the wind, avoiding rather than evading responsibility, playing to an audience, mocking pomposity and smugness, taking the piss out of people, cutting down tall poppies, born of a Wednesday, looking both ways for a Sunday, larger than life, sceptical, iconoclastic, egalitarian yet suffering fools badly, and, above all, defiant.' Manning Clark,
Defiance
- (Convict
trouble makers)
- Pemulwuy - (The first resistance leader to fight the establishment )
Pemulwuy was an Aborigine who objected to the presence of the English in Australia and so waged a guerrilla resistance from 1790 to 1802.
Branded an outlaw, he was once captured, chained and left comatose in Parramatta prison where he was expected to die. Inexplicably however, he shed his chains and escaped. According to the Eora people, this was achieved by turning himself into a bird.
After his slaying in 1802, Governor King described him as 'Brave and independent character'.
Taking the piss Convicts
mock the p0mpous
Although baffling to Americans, the more comfortable an Aussie feels with a mate, the more they ridicule them. Over the years, Australians have dealt with the great torrents of insults by learning how to laugh at themselves thus laying the foundations for the great Australian tradition of 'taking the piss'.
- Billy Blue - Taking the piss out of the pompous
Billy Blue was of African decent and he had such a colourful personality that his frequent law infringements were looked upon with a 'benevolent ' air by police.
He was quite a character due to his respectable attire of top hat and discarded military uniform. To see a black convict strutting about Sydney in such a dignified manner encouraged Sydney's cultural elite to laugh at their own pompous behaviour.
- Arabanoo - A master of returning insults with interest
Arthur Phillip kidnapped Arabanoo as part of a ploy to improve communication between the colonists and the natives. It is likely that Arabanoo imparted some of his characteristics upon his captors as it was noted that:
"If the slightest insult was offered to him, he would return it with interest and frequently turned a laugh against his antagonist. "
- Bennelong - A mimic with a devastating wit.
Bennelong was an Aborigine kidnapped for the purpose of study. It was noted that Bennelong loved wearing European cloths and mimicked the speech and habits of his white cotemporaries with a 'devastating wit'. He was also known to mimic Arthur Phillip's French cook with 'great hilarity'.
Egalitarian
ethic- Convicts ask for fair crack of
the whip!
The trucking magnate Lindsay Fox (net worth $350 million) said of Australia:
'We don't have a class structure. We have people who relate to people. No body is superior. No body is inferior. The people who I went to school with collect the garbage around here. But if they want to come in and have a drink, that's fine with me.'
Lindsay was referring to Australia's egalitarian ethic. This ethic is a legacy of Convicts who assessed the worth of others on the basis of their substance rather than their title.
- Unknown ex-con - Dine with me or not at all!
Freed Convicts did not tolerate notions of 'class superiority' and made of point of offending those who exhibited it.
A folk tale tells of a dinner held by a 'superior' group. A ex-con got through the door, sat down at the end of the table and rolled the corner of the table cloth so tightly around one hand that no one could throw him out without dragging the cloth and all the food off the table as well. He then used one hand to enjoy a hearty meal!
- James Squire - Leading by example
Whilst some freed Convicts broke notions of class superiority by insulting the 'Exclusives', other ex-cons like James Squire led by example. Already highly valued for being the colony's first brewer, James became a wealthy philanthropist and banker to his poor neighbours.
After his death, the Convict artist Joseph Lycelt wrote:
"Had he been less liberal, he might have died more wealthy; but his assistance always accompanied his advice to the poor and unfortunate"
- James Grant - First humanitarian activist
James Grant was a distinguished member of British society when found guilty of a trumped up charge and sentenced to transportation. However he reserved scorn for the common Convict and so used his many connections to travel in relative luxury and away from the common rogues and desperadoes. Upon arrival in Australia, he was a welcome addition to the socialite set and was not required to work.
However his elitist attitudes soon began to change. He gained an appreciation that many Convicts were falsely accused or political prisoners that were suffering illegal and abusive treatment in Australia. He began to speak out against the barbarity of penal life, calling it 'slavery' and became convinced that his Christian duty was to act as an advocate for those who could neither read nor write.
Australia's establishment was bemused as to why Grant, as a member of high society, would champion the cause of the lowly Convicts. For his outspoken ways, he was convicted of sedition and transported to Norfolk Island where he was starved, flogged and spent four months in solitary confinement. The judge at his trial declaring:
"Mr Grant, you are acting so much against your self interest that I guess the cause only in supposing you mad-for, although your sentiments may be most righteous, why do you espouse in this way the cause of the prisoners? We have never treated you as a prisoner."
Arabanoo - Enlightening the British.
Although a British captive, Governor Phillip was keen to impress Arabanoo with notions of English justice. On one occasion, Phillip organised for Arabanoo to view the flogging of two Convicts caught stealing. However to the Governor's surprise, Arabanoo was horrified by the barbarity.
As well as being unimpressed with the British justice system, Arabanoo would not tolerate the British notions that the Aborigines were in any way inferior.
John Wilson - Australia's first diplomat
Convicted of stealing nine yards of 'velveret' cloth, John Wilson was transported to Sydney on the First Fleet. After gaining his freedom in 1792, he went bush. Judge Collins recorded that:
".....he preferred living among the natives in the vicinity of the [Hawkesbury] River, to earning the wages of honest industry for settlers. He had formed an intermediate language between his own and theirs, with which he made shift to comprehend something of what they wished him to communicate."
John Wilson was an excellent bushman and observer of nature. In addition, he was a linguist and a diplomat who could relate to government, Convict and Aboriginal persons, and a leader capable of great kindness and compassion.
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As a cultural legacy of Convicts adapting to novel environments and their tendency to break rules, Australia is a world leader in technological evolution and social reform.
- Daniel Gordon - A novel way to escape death
Daniel Gordon was a Convict of African decent. In 1789, he was caught stealing and was subsequently committed for trial where a death sentence was expected. However on his day in court he appeared 'wild and incoherent' forcing the judge to deem him unfit for trial. Appreciating Daniel's acting qualities, Governor Collins wrote:
"His fellow convicts gave him credit for the ability he had acted his part and perhaps he deserved their applause"
He died 29 years later, Aged 81.
- James Bloodworth - Innovated to make good use of poor materials
James Bloodworth was the colony's first builder and he made good use of poor materials. He obtained lime mortar by burning shells and used mud mortar for lesser purposes.
Strength
of conviction
-
Convicts
defiant
to the very end
On the battlefields of Gallipoli, Tobruk as well as the world's sporting arenas, Australians have forged a reputation as very determined people. Such events beg the question: "Did England export all their prime stock in the form of Convicts thus explaining the need for them now to field foreigners in all their elite sporting competitions? "
- Mary Bryant - Australia's loss is England's gain.
There are few tales of perseverance that rival that of Mary Bryant. Unhappy with her life as a Convict, Mary escaped in the Governor's six oar cutter with her husband, baby son, three year old daughter and five other Convicts. They then rowed to Timor, (5000 Kilometres from Sydney) navigating the uncharted Great Barrier Reef and the Torres strait.
Upon arrival in Timor, they claimed to be ship wreck victims but were soon identified as Convicts and sent back to England for trial. On the return journey, her husband and son died of fever.
Sadly for Australia, the English press found her tale of perseverance quite stirring and so rather than transport her once more, she was freed into the community where she strengthened the weakened gene pool.
- Galvin
- Suffering pain for his mates.
Galvin knew the names of Irish Convicts who were planning an uprising and he was determined not to reveal who they were to the authorities. This resulted him being flogged until the bones on his back stood out, he was then striped naked and flogged on his buttocks until they were a bloody pulp, then flogged on his back again.
At the end of the torture, the Magistrate concluded that Galvin "would sooner die than become an informer"
J.F Mortlock - Never say die
J.F Mortlock was convinced his uncle had cheated him out of his rightful inheritance and he was transported to Australia as a result of a ensuing family squabble.
After attaining his ticket of leave, he returned to England to pursue the matter of inheritance but was soon arrested for returning before the expiration of his original sentence. Once more, he was transported to Australia and after serving his sentence in full, he returned to England to continue his struggle.
The Hobart Herald once said of him:
'He appears to have had but one set object in life. That was, while he passed it as congenially and pleasantly as his humble circumstances would allow, to still keep in view his deep wrongs, with a determination that nothing could shake a restitution of his natural rights'
Hie died a pauper after failing in his quest.
The
love for grog - Convicts drink to forget,
but Australians never
forget to drink.
Australia has many notable drinking icons including cricketing hero David Boon who in 1989 put back 52 beers on the flight from Australia to England and ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who in 1954, was immortalised by the Guinness Book of Records for sculling 2.5 pints in 12 seconds.
It is easy to understand why alcohol occupies such a prominent position in an Australians thought processes when one appreciates the hardship some ex-cons endured to supply the colony with grog.
- James
squire - Flogged for his passion for beer
So important was his mission to supply the colony with beer, James Squire felt it legitimate to break the law to realise his noble quest. In 1791, James appeared in the magistrates court to answer the charge:
"Feloniously stealing a certain quantity of medicines, being hospital stores, the property of the crown, and one pound of paper"
In his defence, James said he only stole to help a sick friend. However, it was suspected that his real aim was to brew beer. The medicines were horehound, a herb that can be used as a imitation for hops whilst the paper could have been used for beer labels.
Found guilty, James was sentenced to receive:
'Three hundred lashes, one hundred and fifty now, and the remainder when he as able to bear it'
However his punishment merely strengthened his resolve and it was not long before he was growing hops, yeast and barley thus ensuring the harshness of colonial life was soothed by amber ale.
Molly Morgon - The 'chardonnay set' owe a debt to this Convict.
Molly Morgan opened a wine shanty in the Hunter Valley and her inn marked the beginnings of Maitland. Without her, the Hunter wine industry may never have bloomed into the world renowned wine region it is today.
Frazier - Rest in Peace.
Frazier was a talented blacksmith who was amused by the simplicity of the locks on the store houses. With a rusty nail, he picked the lock on the rum store and within a year, he had drunk himself to death.
Group of convicts - The rum song
The following folk tune offers a insight into the purpose alcohol served in the colony. Thus the Australian love of alcohol is perhaps a classic example of drinking to forget but now forgetting why.
Cut yer name across me backbone
Stretch me skin across a drum
Iron me up on Pinchgut Island
From today till Kingdom come
I will eat your Norfolk dumpling
Like a juicy Spanish plum
Even Dance the Newgate hornpipe
If you'll only give me rum.
