Australian history: Researching our links to convicts

It’s a common story that most of us hear when we’re kids, but it could well be a myth. If not a myth, perhaps it’s overstated.

“I have a database with more than 4500 convicts and not one stole a loaf of bread,” convict researcher Diane Blishen said.

“There are cliches and mistaken ideas about the convicts.”

We’d also heard the one about a convict who was sentenced to 14 years and sent to Australia for stealing a handkerchief.

Diane said the issue of convicts being sent to Australia for petty offences was an interesting one. Crime was a way of life for some in Britain in those days (as it is now).

“They never knew any different. They had low education and low income,” she said.

“The class system was such that people who were born into the lower classes had no hope of getting out of it.”

Diane is president of Maitland & District Genealogical Society, which runs lectures about convict research at the Old Police Barracks in East Maitland. The society helps people trace convict ancestors.

“I’m a descendant of 17 convicts. Two were on the First Fleet,” Diane said, adding one was a black man.

He was among 11 black people on the First Fleet, most of whom had been slaves in America.

When the American War of Independence broke out, those willing to fight for the British were promised freedom. This was honoured and some moved to England.

“My ancestor went to England,” she said.

“He was nabbed for stealing a watch chain and ended up here. He was a crack shot and appointed official gamekeeper of the colony.”

This meant he was allowed to wander around with a gun.

“He was ordered to shoot the first emu they found. They described it, more or less like an ostrich,” she said.

Diane had overlaid old maps on Google Earth to “show people where the first tents were erected when the First Fleet arrived”.

Her maps showed the first hospital was a group of tents in George Street.

Diane said when people finish researching their convict history in Australia, often they want to know more.

The society was able to help with this.

“Over the last two years, a lot more records have been made available digitally in Australia, where once you had to go to England or Ireland,” she said.

Records were sometimes available, such as petitions for clemency from family members of offenders. This often included details of the family and where they lived.

Many people think Australia was used as a “dumping ground” for convicts, she said.

“The reality was they selected convicts to come here who had talent to build a colony and create a settlement.”

The society will hold a lecture on Tuesday, and on August 4, about researching convicts back to their origins in the UK and Ireland.

Topics reported on Thursday about a fine example of alliteration.

“Crakanthorp Condemns Constance’s Constant Cold Shoulder,” a headline in a press release screamed.

The statement was about Tim Crakanthorp urging NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance to meet Hunter Street businesses affected by the proposed light rail route.

Reader Ben said Stephen Fry used “the following ripper” on the TV show QI this week.

“Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.”

Quite the tongue twister, that.

A bit of ghost hunting will be done at Tomago tonight.

The National Trust will open the doors of Tomago House.

The Newcastle Ghost Tours event, called Tomago By Torchlight, will involve a bit of “paranormal investigating”.

The house will be open for people to explore with torches, including rooms belonging to the Windeyer family.

Maria Windeyer lived at Tomago House in the mid 1800s. She died in 1876. Some believe her ghost still lingers there.

Tales abound of people having seen her ghost “rocking in her chair on the verandah”.

Ooh, spooky. No sleep for us tonight.