Historical Background

Astronomy

EXTRACT

‘Orion’s hunting dog is called Sirius. That star there is his dog which follows him across the sky every night.’
‘No, that’s Eagle and he is following the kappiheear, who are those three stars in a line you said was a belt; it’s not a belt, they are the three Black Cockatoo sisters and Eagle is protecting them from Crow, who is following them too. That’s Crow there, you can see Eagle is between him and the sisters.’

‘That’s Canopus, that’s part of the bow of a great vessel.’

‘No, it’s Crow. The red star above the three sisters is called Moroitch, the fire in Crow’s belly, and the yellow star below is Koopartakil, meaning turn into grub, which Crow does to trick Eagle.’

‘Orion is chasing sisters, too, the seven sisters called the Pleiades, who set ahead of him every night; we can’t see them now. They are a small group of stars; they were turned into a pack of doves so they could escape him.’

Sources are Dawson p98-101 and ‘New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology’ 14th Impression 1978 Hamlyn Publishing

Read Pages 98 to 101 from Chapter XXI “Meteorology and Astronomy” in “Australian Aborigines” by James Dawson, George Robertson, 1881

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Batman-yarn

EXTRACT

It goes like this: Batman, the cove who crossed over first to start up Melbourne and Geelong, brought in some Sydney blacks to help round up the last of the Island blacks for the governor. When they trapped the blacks they found no women with them; instead they had muskets. The yarn goes they’d swapped their women for guns with sealers who were on their way into the Strait.

BACKGROUND

Source is John Batman letter to Gov. Arthur August 1830 stating he found two females with ninety male Tasmanians.

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The body trade

EXTRACT

‘You Irish did, too, bog-trotter, you lot did it, too. Who were the resurrection coves in Dublin for the body trade to London? Who were they? Who loaded them on the vessels? They were your lot, Irish. It was a big business shipping bodies in for the medical schools. They weren’t paying browns and whistlers for bodies; the palm was yellow georges.’

BACKGROUND

A constant theme in the chaffing between ex-con and manservant is the digging up of Irish bodies by the English for the medical trade. The following references to resurrectionists and the Dublin body trade and the Irish send-off are taken from The Survival of an Irish Culture in Britain, 1800–1845 by M. Durey (Historical Studies 20(78), University of Melbourne April 1982). A few quotes should suffice to illustrate why it is used in my novel:

‘On one occasion, following hostile reports in Irish newspapers of the Dublin-to-London body trade organized by the Home Office and in which Sir Robert Pell played a part, and rumours of children being kidnapped for export, one anatomy theatre had to be protected against a crowd for a week; during an assault on resurrection men, one was killed and another flayed with a cat-o-nine tails.’

‘One of the more important beliefs surrounding the fate of the dead was that by which the Irish visualized the soul and body remaining together after death, or at least by which they perceived the resurrection of the body on the Last Day…A belief in the physical resurrection of the dead was most clearly demonstrated by the hatred of the Irish for the exhumation of corpses to be used in schools of anatomy.’

‘The practice of robbing graves to supply bodies for medical schools in Britain goes back hundreds of years; but it was not until the 1790s…that the demand for bodies on a large scale began to grow.’

‘It was the bodies of the poor which were most frequently exhumed, for the wealthy could afford to protect their graveyards; yet the medical men who trained in the medical schools served not the poor…’

‘Policies put forward during the cholera epidemic to prevent the spread of the disease also infuriated the Irish, especially the order to bury the dead within 12 hours. It was feared that if victims were taken to hospital and died, not only would they be dissected but their remains would be disposed of before the wake could be carried out.

For the Irish, the wake…reinforced the solidarity of the social group; it helped immediate survivors to face the first shock of death; it demonstrated respect for the dead and…allowed time to raise money for the cost of the funeral.’

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Chaplain

EXTRACT

Our chaplain used to foul-mouth a lot but I haven’t heard cabin-boy drop one curse since I’ve been here; that could be all part of his dominic front for hisnabs. If he was at Woolwich he’d know the chaplain’s tongue and wouldn’t dare use it here. Was he hired with the donkey’s ears on his memorial or did they just make him dominic here because he’s already servant?

BACKGROUND

All references about the blaspheming chaplain and his school and library are taken from ‘The English Prison Hulks” by W Branch-Johnson

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Coy Locations

EXTRACT

The other company on the move is the biggest one, Port Philip Association, run from Melbourne by an Island swell, Capt S, and a laird named Major M. One of their runs is nearby on the Barwon; we’ll pass it on the way into Geelong.

It’s a race with big stakes; the two companies might be going for the same water. One must have known about it and kept mum until they were ready to go; now the other mob has forced their hand. You’re ready only when you have enough muskets, not only to shoot blackfella but also to bluff another company to keep off after you’ve found the best ground with the fresh water.

BACKGROUND

Maps in HRV Vol. 5 pp52-55 & p176-7
There are various sources for the timing of occupation of the stations; in particular the diaries and ‘Letters from the Pioneers’ by T. F. Bride published by Robt. S. Brain, Govt. Printer, 1898.

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Fever

EXTRACT

Young people don’t die, don’t they? I stood over BrownJudy saying it again and again louder each time. She should tell that to my mother. She was peering past me at the others listening on the porch. I turned away, I had to, I was ready to bawl.

There I was walking round the back of the stable thinking of my mother and I woke I didn’t really know how many kids she lost to the fever. One died before I came along; I remember going to the grave with her but I don’t know about more except for my little sister. There I was back home;

BACKGROUND

All references are from ‘New History of England’ by L.C.B. Seaman, 1982, Papermac.

Cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, whooping cough, rheumatic fever, diphtheria, smallpox all flourished in crowded towns In early 19th Century Manchester one was lucky to reach 25y.o. In 1839 Bethnal Green average dead of the poorest was 16y.o. (NHE p349)

Population increases post-1750 unprecedented. (p348, 357), almost doubled 1800-50 (p351)
Food riots in 1811-12; Wilberforce, PM of UK, excused authority from all moral obligation, even in times of scarcity, to help the poor to acquire their bread by announcing that ‘parliament could not alter the course of things as they appear in nature’ because they were ‘under the dispensation of Providence only’ (p372)
Foundlings – to commit a child to hospital or workhouse infirmary was the same as infanticide (p349)
Sunday school (p412)

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Garrison

EXTRACT

Judy was on the other side outside the sheriff’s house and the barracks of the Sydney garrison, a dozen troopers and a corporal.

BACKGROUND

The settlers (46 of them) in and around Geelong signed a petition sent to Gov Bourke in Sydney in June 1837 requesting troops to counter the depredations of the Aborigines on their stations. A garrison of a corporal and a dozen troopers arrived in Melbourne in September 1838, later setting up barracks on the Barwon (map HRV Vol.5).

Fyans, the Police Magistrate in Geelong obviously disapproved of their conduct, in particular their co-habiting with black women. He called them crown deserters from the European wars (HRV Vol.2B)
Another garrison was located on the Broken river where it crossed the Mitchell trail used by overlanders from Sydney to Melbourne. Earlier at this location seven whites had been killed by the black.

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Grace

‘FUCK GRACE’

BACKGROUND

In the period after the French and American revolutions much radicalism arose in England and found wide support among the poor masses. One means of combating this was adopted by the Evangelical arm of Anglicanism which stressed more attention to religious observance among the upper class to set good example for the lower orders and thereby re-direct their energies away from their politics into religion. This movement also found expression in households, with servants, where family prayers and grace before meals were said. (A New History of England by L.C.B. Seaman p404 et al)

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Guns

BACKGROUND

Whites in Geelong in the summer of 1838-39 had a musket and brace. At this particular time numerous muskets were available because the British army was re-arming the redcoats with percussion cap muskets and discarding the flintlock. The musket could be used as a shotgun as well (personal correspondence from Antique Firearms Guild of Victoria)

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Jillong

Jillong and Coraiyo are early spellings in reports and letters and the diaries. Shanty was the first public house on Jillong waterfront.

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Kangaroo Island

EXTRACT

‘Your yarn’s no good, cabin-boy. It soon comes apart when you think about it. You’ve got BrownJudy being mother superior on Kangaroo Island, right?’

BACKGROUND

References are ‘Kangaroo Island 1800-1836’ by J.S. Gumpston and ‘Unearthed’ by Rebe Taylor. The latter is rather a genealogical treatment of Tasmanian women on the island. The former is a history of settlement before the English fleet landed thinking they’d found Adelaide. Within this book are two independent accounts by visitors, Robinson, the Protector and Capt. John Hart, a trader who anchored often at the island, of the Aboriginal women they met on the island. In both accounts are Tasmanians and others from Portland Bay.

In other less reliable publications are accounts of Bass Strait Pirates operating during the 1820s and likely earlier when sealing was booming. They had black women and had access to Kangaroo Island and, of course, to the mainland. Pirates can subsist only when trade is booming so perhaps there is some substance to these accounts.

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Lambing

BACKGROUND

References are Homestead History Notes and Dept. Primary Industry www.dpi.vic. gov.au – article by Sue Hides.

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Ledger

BACKGROUND

The features of the ledger i.e. the headings, the flock number suited to one shepherd, the ratio of tups to ewes are taken from three diaries which are essential sources for the book.

They are the Learmonth diary, the Niel Black diary and the narrative of George Russell. The Clyde Company Papers – associated with the Russells – also contain some valuable material.

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Muster

BACKGROUND

Convict musters were held in Geelong until January 1844 (notice in Geelong Advertiser, similar notices are in earlier editions of the paper which was first published in early 1840). That’s all I know about these musters, I can’t find any records of them. They were a replica of convict musters held all over Van Dieman’s Land during Gov. Arthur’s reign (1824-37) of which there are extensive records of the utmost detail.

In VDL transportees became assignees to freeman farmers who were expanding settlement and developing the land; when they ran out of room the system was moved across Bass Strait into the Portland Bay District via Geelong.

It’s easy to explain why there are no records if, indeed, that is the case. There wasn’t supposed to be any musters because the squatters weren’t supposed to be employing convicts; they got around that by calling the muster a ticket-of-leave muster (a ticket meant term served). On their applications to occupy crown land (I don’t know if these were token or not) the squatters had to state their personal and real estate e.g. Fisher stated he had 12000 sheep 600 cattle 9 horse 37 men 3 females, all free; Learmonth had 7000 sheep 11 cattle 5 horse 28 men 7 females, all free – this last phrase is on many of them (see HRV, Vol 6 p143).

But in a report Jan 4, 1840 by Henry Gisborne, Commissioner of Crown Lands, about his tour of the stations in the Portland Bay District the count of hired men is more than 270; these were not all convicts, of course but, given that nearly all of the first settlers of the district crossed the Strait from Van Dieman’s Land then we are bound to conclude that their labourers were the same convicts assigned to them on their former estates and it is most unlikely all, or even many, of these had their ticket-of-leave.

In a report by Charles Sievwright, Aboriginal Protector, after a visit to a station at Mt Mitchell (not in the Portland Bay District) investigating murders of blacks April 1839 (HRV Vol 7), the count is 22 hired, all convicts, seven of whom had received life sentences, two as recently as 1837. This report is the most detailed indication of the calibre of hirelings available.

According to his own memoirs the Police Magistrate of Geelong Capt. Fyans had 12 convicts working for him in Oct 1837. (p208)

That the hirelings were not all convicts can be seen in two remarkable instances; one, of an American black, at Lake Colac, who was captured by the local Aborigines to see what he was: they didn’t kill him but a number of them were killed for the capture; and two, an American Indian, hired by the Learmonths, who lasted only three days before being named an absconder in the diary.

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Native-items

BACKGROUND

Mrs Russell asked her husband to fetch spears, baskets from native dens

Dear George
When you ransack the Native Dens could you not secure for us some of their Spears, baskets, &c? – they are rarities here. We have not an article of native manufacture.
(Clyde Coy Papers Vol2 p239)

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Nicholas Nickleby

BACKGROUND

The reading of a homeland book to others on station was found in one of the diaries that form the basis of my research. I recall another passage from my reading on Van Dieman’s Land that rogue copies of this book had been printed in Launceston after it arrived. I am unable to trace the source of this notice. Nicholas Nickleby was first published in 1838-9 (Oxford Companion to English Literature p376)

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Our sable brothers

BACKGROUND

This term and grace, however articulated, are typical of the sinister poetry unique to religious mantra; it was used by the Wesleyan Missionaries who were in Geelong with the earliest white settlers. The Rev. Tuckfield produced a detailed study of the local native language.

Other missionaries arrived to make many unsuccessful pleas to the white population for mercy with regard to the natives and many unsuccessful attempts to find land until in the autumn of 1839 they were granted an area to establish a mission.

Not many of our sable brothers attended; we can safely presume they didn’t want to go along with a scheme which moved them off their land so whitefella could have it. Such notions did not deter the Wesleyan efforts to make the natives feel safe and, perhaps, learn some farming skills.
HRV has much on the Wesleyan Mission at Buntingdale.

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Poop

BACKGROUND

“To keep us in check, a strong military guard about eighty strong, discharged a volley of ball cartridges every morning on the poop, and ostentatiously reloaded their muskets.”
(Experiences of a Convict by J.F. Mortlock p59)

The practice of firing a gun was common on the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s; it was a signal from the diggers that their weapon had fresh powder ready for any robbers.
(personal correspondence from Antique Firearms Guild of Victoria)

The use of the poop in the novel is based on the assumption that this goldfield practice was a direct descendant of the transportation practice and, therefore, was likely continued during the settlement period, particularly while the natives were active, prior to the gold rush.

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Protectors

BACKGROUND

Robinson was appointed Chief Protector for the Aborigines after his success in rounding up the Tasmanians. He arrived in Melbourne in early 1839, his three subordinates arrived from overseas in March. Sievwright, protector for the Portland Bay District did not arrive in Geelong until June and did not venture out of Geelong until December, partly because he couldn’t buy a horse. Eventually he established a temporary camp at Lake Terang which became a permanent one at Mt. Rouse in 1841.

Robinson’s Journals, G. Presland ed., of his tours of the District have been published.

HRV Vol. 2A & 2B have much on the protectors.

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Runaways

EXTRACT

‘They’re runaways, does his nabs know that? They won’t be staying, they’ll fake they’re staying but they’ll be up and gone before morning. They’re heading for Portland Bay, that’s the way home, there’s a runaway camp along the beach from the whale fisheries; all they have to do is wait for a perch on a whaleboat and they’re home.

BACKGROUND

In respect of runaways heading to Portland Bay the Police Magistrate of Geelong Capt Fyans wrote to the Colonial Secretary (in Sydney) from Portland Bay on 13 June 1839 requesting ‘There must be a Police Magistrate, with three constables and three mounted police, which would be the means of checking the absconders and also keeping the community in decent order…’ Fyans Memoirs p228

On the same day Fyans conducted a census of the population at Portland Bay; he counted over two hundred whalers working for six fisheries. (Historical Records of Victoria Vol 6 p311). This was two years after whaling’s zenith when the catch was 149 in four months of 1837 (Henty Journals ed. L. Peel 1996)

W. Lonsdale wrote to E. Henty to look out for assigned servants heading for Portland Bay after absconding from Melbourne (HRV Vol. 3 p387)

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Sabbath

The earliest service in Geelong was conducted in Dr. Thomson’s woolshed (HRV)

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Salt

Lake near Mt Gellibrand six times saltier than sea (Narrative of George Russell p141)
Lake Corangamite is three times saltier than the sea, it is surrounded by smaller saltier ones.

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Slaves

EXTRACT

I had to agree with them that hisnabs was just another poacher dressed up as laird. I shouldn’t have nodded along with them because I then had to stand the patter about why I was here. They weren’t hanging about like me to shoot blackfellas for a laird; they’d been slaves long enough. Hadn’t I been the same?

They answered for me. I’d be thinking I wasn’t slave any more because I wasn’t the lowest orders anymore, blackfella was. But the laird gave me a gun to shoot blackfella; to them that made me no ordinary slave, it turned me into a murdering slave.

BACKGROUND

Any discussion about whether or not assignees were slaves cannot ignore Chapter V of ‘Governor Arthur’s Convict System’ by W.D. Forsyth

‘Once assigned to private individuals the convicts had to remain bona fide in their service. They were not allowed to live away from their master’s roof, could neither be paid wages nor be allowed spare time in which to work for themselves, and could go nowhere without a pass. Though in comparison with chain-gangs they possessed some liberty, they were still under very close control.’p91

‘finding that many settlers were permitting their stock to range upon their grants tended by convicts not under the surveillance of an overseer,[Arthur] threatened…the proprietor’s assigned servants would be withdrawn and steps would be taken for the immediate resumption of the land.’ p92

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Venereal

Calomel is Hg₂Cl₂ Corrosive sublimate is HgCl₂; both are mentioned in the diaries. Swint is grease from wool-washing and a quarter potash.

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Wrestling

This is described as an Aboriginal Amusement in pp33-37 ‘Remarks on the Aborigines of Victoria’ by W. Thomas, one of the protectors sent from England in 1839.

(Manuscript M57838 in State Library of Victoria). Dawson offers less detail on pp 84,5.

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Weaving

Weaving, spinning, finishing of cloth outsourced to homes was an alternative to agriculture as a source of income for a cottager family. (NHE p350)

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