Australian Story

Bodies of nothing but drunkard fornication
Defined in the uniforms of modern wars
Darkens their curves, those endless, outstretched claws
Of morality demolished and decency's denigration

They call them lovers of sin, but they lie
They are the last of the sinners, the emptiest
Those beyond their time of life, the loneliest
Still tender but in their veins the blood is dry

With torn clothes and exposed skin
Meeting lash, raw flesh and those well-hung
Their weals of debauchery and songs sung
Forge unions of seconds in worlds without kin

While watched by the tribal men of the land
And those whose casings hang in display
Whose curious expressions are not of this day
And not of a governor with his restrained hand

And that lashed drunkard orgy, like a teeming sore
Continues to drain us: a watering hole of sand
Where second hand Australians posture and stand
Unable to drink on its alien shore

Yet there are some like me that turn away from
The restrained pen of modern thoughts, to find
The carnal liberation of the human mind
Hoping from that flawed Eden the humanity will come

Such savage and scarlet that no civilisation dares
Springs in that blood soaked orgy, some reason escapes
The learned guilt, the sins of brutalised apes
Which became civilisation over here.

6th February 1788 - The women come to Australia

"Scenes of riot and debauchery after the disembarkation of the women convicts tonight transformed Sydney cove into something resembling a gin palace attached to a brothel.
  All this took place at night during a violent storm with lightening bolts which, at one place, split a tree in half, killing five sheep and a pig that were penned below it. 
   The licentious merriment began when some merchant seamen requested some grog from their captain. No doubt the man had good reason to comply, in the relief at getting rid of the last of his convicts, as he had faced a penalty of £40 for every convict missing.
   Soon the sailors and convicts were in and around the women's tents, some queuing for sex, others making love with women they had forged attachments on the voyage. Others were swearing, fighting or singing.
   While the scene was deplorable no action by the Governor nor his officers. Presumably they thought that intervention would have provoked a serious riot, and that it was best to wait for the morning to re-establish order.
 The women, cooped up on the voyage and for another 10 hot and intolerable days outside Sydney Cove, had not too many chaste figures among them."

"At five o'clock this morning, all things were got in order for landing the whole of the women, and 3 of the ships longboats came alongside us to receive them; previous to their quitting the ship, a strict search was made to try if any of the many things which they had stolen on board could be found, but their artifice eluded the most strict search, and at six o'clock p.m. we had the long wished for pleasure of seeing the last of them leave the ship. They were dressed in general very clean, and some few amongst them might be said to be well dressed. The men convicts got to them very soon after they landed, and it is beyond my abilities to give a just description of the scene of debauchery and riot that ensued during the night. They had not been landed more than an hour, before they had all got their tents pitched or anything in order to receive them, but there came on the most violent storm of thunder lightening and rain I ever saw. The lightening was incessant during the whole night and I never heard it rain faster. About 12 o'clock in the night one severe flash of lightening struck a very large tree in the centre of the Camp, under which some places were constructed to keep the sheep and hogs in. It split the tree from top to bottom, killed five sheep belonging to Major Ross, and a pig of one of the Lieutenants. The severity of the lightening this and the two preceeding nights leaves no room to doubt but many of the trees which appear burnt up to the tops of them were the effect of lightening. The sailors in our ship requested to have some grog to make merry with upon the women quitting the ship, indeed the Captain himself had no small reason to rejoice upon their being all safely landed and given into the care of the Governor, as he was under the penalty of £40 for every convict that was missing. For which reason he complied with the sailor's request, and about the time they began to be elevated the tempest came on. The scene which presented itself at this time and during the greater part of the night beggars every description. Some swearing, others quarrelling, others singing - not in the least regarding the tempest, though so violent that the thunder shook the ship exceeded anything I ever before had a conception of. I never before experienced so uncomfortable a night, expecting every moment the ship would be struck with the lightening. The sailors almost all drunk, and incapable of rendering much assistance had an accident happened and the heat was almost suffocating."

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