Backbencher

The fourth lecture in the series, Settlement: Convicts and Pilgrims, was another lecture discussing the settlement of Australia and New Zealand. The lecture started with different pictures that Dr. Isern has taken throughout his adventures. Dr. Isern also started the lecture off with the idea that historians are myth makers and myth builders really. We then moved on to the belly of the lecture which was about the movement of the convicts from England to Australia. The movement of the criminals was due to the suspension of transportation between America and England and the fact that England was becoming over populated rather fast. Dr. Isern went through a list of rather funny names for different kinds of criminals, which I found rather funny, and then moved on to discuss where the criminals were sent. From Newcastle to Norfolk Island, to Botany Bay, the criminals were dispersed across the land in all different directions. The suddenly, like with all land that is rather new in finding, gold was discovered . This, as Dr. Isern stated, brought a lot of ‘undesirables’ which brought a growth that was not expected.


This lecture was rather interesting. I got a kick out of vocabulary of the conflict life. It’s fun to see the different names that were made for the convicts at the time. It’s also interesting to know that most of these convicts really were just petty criminals. There were the worst of the worst on Botany Bay, but most were just whores and people that stole a bit. I wonder what it would be like if America were to send the same type of criminals as England did to an Island off in the ocean. Now that would be history.