The white people came in, built their houses and farms and brought their livestock, and put up fences. So, areas that our people had kept healthy by fire, which encouraged new growth, which encouraged the animals to come in to feed – hunting grounds, which had been so carefully looked after for many generations – were not accessible to them, because now there were farms in the middle of them. They had been pushed out.
Of course, there was also the war that our people were fighting for country. So those people who weren’t killed off by those different things that we talked about … they were fighting trying to drive white people off their country. They didn’t give up country without a fight, and so towards the end, Big River people and the Oyster Bay people – the remnants of those groups – joined together, and they were fighting together as one group.
In the end, the settlers took the remainder of our people to Flinders Island. In the Great Lakes area, the remnants of Waylitja’s people met with Robinson*, and agreed to go with him for a time. Around 17th January 1835, there’s a description from a white person’s perspective of them marching through the streets of Hobart, and from there they were shipped off to Wybalenna on Flinders Island, and they never saw their country again, because most people died at Wybalenna.
So, maybe Waylitja was fighting the war with his people, I don’t know. But the fact of the matter is, he would have died. If he didn’t die from fighting for country, or if he wasn’t massacred, he was eventually taken to Wybalenna.
* George Augustus Robinson was employed by the government of Van Dieman’s Land. He promised the surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal people that the settlement called Wybalenna on Flinders Island would be a place where they could practise their culture in freedom, but conditions at Wybalenna were more like a prison camp, and the population suffered greatly from disease and homesickness.
Return to scene 27 to continue with the story.
FACT FILE:
CONVICTS IN VAN DIEMEN’S LAND
All of the convicts who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land (as Tasmania was known then) were put straight to work, either as servants for free men, or in gangs doing physical labour like mining coal, cutting stone, or felling trees. A lot of hard work and a lot of resources were needed for the growing colony to become established.
The life of a convict was tough, but many convicts who were prepared to work hard and obey the rules managed to make a new life for themselves after they gained their freedom. Others, however, were abused by their masters; tried to escape and were punished; or became involved in further crime once they reached Van Diemen’s Land.
We often hear mention today of convicts who were transported to the Australian colonies for simply ‘stealing a loaf of bread’. Along with these, however, were other convicts who were genuinely violent and hardened criminals.
Penal settlements were established and jails were built in the colonies to contain and manage troublesome convicts. The jails for women were sometimes known as ‘female factories’ and were smaller and closer to town. The jails for men were larger, and most were situated in more isolated penal settlements that were difficult to escape from, such as Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour.
These places in particular had a reputation for being hell on earth. Convicts were forced to do long, exhausting days of gruelling physical work, with barely enough food or clothing to keep them alive, and they were whipped or put into isolation cells for disobedience.
Convicts at times became so desperate that they preferred to die than to continue life in one of these penal settlements. Some of these convicts tried to escape, and died in the wilderness or were shot while escaping. Others murdered another convict or an officer in plain view of witnesses, knowing that the penalty for murder was death, but seeing this as a preferable option to the never-ending suffering of servitude.
Return to scene 28 to continue with the story.
FACT FILE:
MATTHEW BRADY
During the fifty years that Britain transported 75,000 convicts to Tasmania, four hundred escaped convicts took up arms and became bushrangers. This was one of the highest rates of rebellion in any of the British colonies.
Matthew Brady was an English convict, who was sent to Sydney on a seven-year sentence in 1820. He rebelled against the harsh conditions of convict labour in Sydney and was repeatedly given ‘the lash’ for attempting escape. Eventually, Brady was sent as punishment to the newly created penal station of Sarah Island, in Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemen’s Land, in 1823.
In 1824, Brady and some other men managed to steal a small boat and make their escape from Macquarie Harbour. They then began their life as bushrangers in Van Diemen’s Land. Brady became known as the Gentleman Bushranger by his admirers, as he was so well-mannered while robbing his victims, and in particular treated ladies very politely.
The government was not impressed and put up posters advertising a reward for his capture. In return, Brady put up posters advertising a reward of twenty gallons of rum in return for the capture of Governor Arthur!
After nearly two years as bushrangers in Van Diemen’s Land, Brady and his gang captured a boat, planning to sail it to the Australian mainland, but were forced to turn back due to bad weather.
Eventually, Brady was betrayed by one of his gang members, who led the soldiers to him in return for a pardon.
Brady was hanged to death in 1826. His cell was filled with flowers from many ladies of Hobart, who had adored and admired the Gentleman
