Closing Hell's Gates: The Life and Death of a Convict Station
Hamish Maxwell-Stewart
Language: English
Pages: 324
ISBN: 1741751497
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
For 12 long years between 1822 and 1834, Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour was the most feared place in Australia. Clinging to the shores of the wild west coast of Tasmania and hemmed in on all sides by rugged uncharted wilderness, the environment itself formed the prison walls that confined the unfortunate convict re-offenders who were sent there. But the conditions were so brutal that many went mad, or chose death or a very uncertain escape into the bush rather than spend their time in this notorious place. Based on detailed accounts from the time, Closing Hell's Gates contains dozens of personal stories of the harsh and unforgiving life that people were forced to lead, both as convict and overseer, and in so doing reveals some startling insights about human nature when it is pushed to extremes.
brick shed he saw two runaway convicts from the crest. It was an indication of just how much timber was felled to fire the clamps. It took hours of heavy labour to clear the thick scrub, remove the overburden and cut out the wet heavy clay—all of this was done by ganged convicts. After the fired clamp had cooled down the enforced labour had to transport tens of thousands of bricks to Settlement Island in oared barges. Other materials were needed in order to aid the daily functioning of the
time-consuming mishap it was decided to stockpile timber at Settlement Island, rather than risk the long exposed journey to the pilot station. A breakwater was constructed which stuck out into the harbour like a large arm. Logs were collected in the calmer water on the lee side of this structure and from here they were rolled to the sawpits. Even in the best of weather the tasks that the gangs were ordered to complete were arduous in the extreme. In bad conditions they fell beyond the
was no sure sign of a lack of talent, but rather a lack of sufficient financial resources to secure a captain’s commission. At 1821 prices this would have set him back £1100, even after accounting for the sum of money he would have received for selling his existing lieutenant’s commission. A popular toast in the army was ‘to a bloody war and a sickly season’, since high death rates lowered the price of commissions and created more opportunities for promotion through merit alone. After the ending
various fish and plants to be found in the vicinity of the penal station. In each of the plant drawings the reproductive organs are clearly visible or have been slit open with a surgeon’s scalpel to provide a detailed view of their contents. It is a remarkable record of a desire to understand the environment by capturing it and ordering it on paper. Others kept records of the rainfall and tidal movements or raised echidnas as pets, feeding them with ants. Crockett’s collecting passions lay in
assumed command of the absconders, was particularly audacious and the war that he now waged on colonial society was shot through with symbolic gestures. William Faber, an emancipist herdsman, reported that when Dry’s house at Quamby’s Brook was attacked, the bushrangers seized Dry’s nephew. In a complete reversal of the normal relations of the country estate they enquired of the assembled assigned servants as to their captive’s character. Thus, for a brief moment, the unfortunate nephew’s fate