Sentenced to Debt - What's in a Name?

When I read a book, I always pay attention to its title because it often encapsulates the author's decision to write that particular book. What was it that resonated with the author, that they would devote the long, arduous hours to writing all those pages? 

Some titles, especially for family histories, make the book's content obvious from the start. Usually the family name forms part of the title, to make it easier for extended family members to find the book on various search engines. Some authors of family histories are more creative, such as my cousin (by marriage) John Jennings when he wrote 'A Lot about a Little'.

When I read Behrouz Boochani's powerful book 'No Friend but the Mountains', the author's choice of title did not mean anything to me until I'd read three-quarters of the book, when the author wrote about his home country. Similarly, readers of my book 'Margaret Flockton: A Fragrant Memory' had to reach her retirement years to discover the reason for my subtitle. 

For my most recent book Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter, published in 2020, the title was carefully chosen for three reasons. In 1783 in London Robert Forrester escaped his sentence to death and I liked the play on words. In 1794 in Australia he received a small free land grant beside a flood-prone river and my research proved that this sentenced him to a lifetime of actual debt. Today, his descendants everywhere are beginning to acknowledge that they remain in virtual debt to the original owners of the land taken from them by the colonial government without their permission. 

More miseries: Being nervous and cross examined by Mr Garrow,
Thomas Rowlandson, 1 April 1807

It has taken me many years to learn about, understand and come to terms with these three themes, especially the last one. My journey towards understanding began in my childhood.

In Sydney from 1958 I attended a school located 'out amid the flannel flowers' on 'bare plains swept by sea winds clean'. These were the opening words of the school song for Narrabeen Girls High School, no longer in existence by that name.  There the broad sweep of history always attracted me and I achieved First Class Honours in Modern History in the old NSW Leaving Certificate. Sensitive about my inability to reel off names and dates 'to order'- that's what historians are meant to do, isn't it? - I took another tack at university, a problem-solving tack based on economics and mathematics.

Flannel Flowers,
Image courtesy Patsy Templeton, 2020

Growing up in the old Manly-Warringah Shire of Sydney (now called the Northern Beaches), abounding in beautiful bushland, sandstone caves and lagoons, I never gave much thought to Aboriginal matters although we sang the following words as the second verse of our high school song: ‘Where our native people gathered, where they danced corroborees, young Australians climb Parnassus, on the plains of Narrabeen’. These words turned out to be true because in 2005 the skeleton of 4,000-year-old ‘Narrabeen Man’ was unearthed near a bus shelter at Narrabeen. 

In May 1966, at my graduation ceremony at the University of Sydney, the Great Hall resounded with applause for Charlie Perkins, who’d led the famous 'Freedom Rides' around New South Wales the year before. That day he became the first Aboriginal graduate of an Australian university. 

When I voted for the first time in 1967, I happily joined the overwhelming majority vote at the Referendum for permitting the Federal government to make laws for Aboriginal people and count them within the census. We naively thought it would lead to an instant improvement in the lives of our country's original inhabitants.

In 1967 and 1968, just into my twenties, I taught mathematics to some Aboriginal children at South Dubbo High School but remained ignorant about the disadvantaged neighbourhood where they lived.  

Re-visiting Dubbo, 1987

In the 1970s I was co-founder of the Cameragal Montessori School at Lavender Bay, North Sydney – the name honoring the Aboriginal clan of the area. My parents lived in a street named Wallumatta Road. I liked Aboriginal-sounding names so I made up the name "Billalooa Farm" for our farm.

Cameragal Montessori School, 2012

For almost thirty years life then took me in other directions and I gave little thought to Australian history. I remained unaware that a man named Robert Forrester had once lived on a Crown grant at the Hawkesbury, that he played a prominent part in early interactions there with Australia’s First Peoples and that, through a grandson, he has Aboriginal descendants who have lodged a Native Title Claim in Queensland. 

Anchor Memorial, Thompson Square, Windsor, 1999

In 1999 my mother Julia Woodhouse and I stopped for a coffee in Windsor, on our way towards Wilberforce, the birthplace of my mother’s grandmother Varah Jane Bushell. We stood in front of the Pioneer Memorial in Thompson Square, looking for the name Robert Forrester. He was named as the father on the death certificate for Varah’s grandmother. The digital age had not arrived and I was tracking the family tree the old-fashioned way by working back through the official birth, death and marriage certificates for each generation. There he was, listed as an arrival in 1788. 

It was only then that we realised that we were descended from a First Fleeter. Australian history has absorbed me ever since. And naturally I'll be voting in favour of The Voice at the forthcoming referendum.

Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter is a complete rethink and rewrite of the first book I wrote about Robert Forrester back in 2009. Get your copy of this book here.

Bella Ramsay Makes a Stand

In my last post I mentioned that the Third Fleet convict Bella Ramsay is being considered as an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography's 'Colonial Women' project. Why might that be? 

In 1791 Bella had a tough start to her life in Australia. But she did not let that cow her. Using some of Bella's own words, selected from court documents of 1799, we begin to see a feisty young woman prepared to make a stand against a large group of vengeful men running a kangaroo court inside her home. Here is a taste of that story.

Original Sketch by Julia Woodhouse, 2008

My husband was away. I was preparing the evening meal, alone with my five small children, when our farm worker James Metcalf arrived along with three young natives, each armed with a spear, a warmaraa and a waddy. 

Original Sketch by Julia Woodhouse, 2008

Metcalf said ‘These natives were in the woods with Hodgkinson the night before he was massacred. Give them a piece of bread as they might be the means of finding out the natives that killed Hodgkinson.’

Metcalf left us to find the widow Hodgkinson, who is my friend, and alert seven other neighbours. 

Left alone with the natives, I was glad to see Constable Powell come in, for I was in fear for myself and the children. We have been robbed by the natives, but from their general inhuman behaviour I am the more afraid of them.

Powell said they should be killed for they had killed a worthy good fellow, and it would be a pity to see them go away alive.

'On Trek', from front doorway of Mitchell Library, Sydney.
Photo by Louise Wilson, 2018

Gradually all our neighbours arrived at my house. Butler came with a bright cutlass, saying ‘What sentence shall we pass upon these black fellows – I will pass sentence myself – they shall be hanged.’

Powell wanted to hang them on the beam in my house. I did not consent, knowing he had a place of his own. Powell asked me for a rope and I said I had none. I tried to save the lives of the natives.

Two neighbours went home to collect ropes and the hands of the natives were then tied behind them by a rope put about their necks. They were taken out of my house. 

About a quarter of an hour afterwards I heard the report of two muskets. Two natives lay dead. The other ran away and he later identified the real murderers.

*****

The above dramatic excerpt condenses the main event but not the aftermath. The full version is outlined in 25 pages of meticulously researched historic detail in "More Killings, 1799", Chapter 11 of the book Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter, available online through BookPOD.

Discussion Points for 'Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter'

1. Many books have been written about the establishment of modern Australia but few like this one. Robert Forrester was an illiterate convict but when officialdom’s paper trail is followed in chronological order a powerful underlying story emerges. Do you prefer this 'case study' approach to telling Australia's early colonial story? Does this book have general applicability beyond this particular family, as a social history suitable for Australian libraries and classrooms?
2. The book’s title is a deliberate play on words, intended to convey three meanings. What are they?
3. What did you make of Robert’s concept of ‘home’ in this book? At what point do you think he became an Australian? Does this book tell the story of migration for today’s ‘new Australians’?
4. The author’s original version of this story, Robert Forrester, First Fleeter, published in 2009, was the first sustained attempt to explore the economic impact of government policies and natural disasters on an individual convict settler. Sentenced to Debt continues the author's focus on economic history. Does this theme of the 'haves' and 'have nots' still resonate today?
5. The author, with all of her forebears originating in the United Kingdom and northern Europe, has had a long involvement in community education and humbly offers Chapters 7-11 of this book, in particular, as a ‘truth telling’ exercise. Did she succeed?
6. What attitudes towards women surfaced in this book? What did you make of the relationships between Robert and Mary Frost; between Robert and Bella Ramsay; between Robert and Jane Metcalf; between Robert and his children; between Robert and his friends and neighbours? Does the voice of women emerge from this book?
7. The Past. Did you learn anything new about Australia’s early colonial history? Has it broadened your perspective on anything personal or societal? Did you learn anything new about environmental issues, geography and climate in this book? Did this book convey a sense of place?
8. The Present. Do the issues described in the book affect lives today? The year 2020 has intensified the world’s focus on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ issue? Did this book change your attitude to the issues facing the Aboriginal people of Australia? Did this book strengthen or weaken your own sense of personal identity?
9. The Future. Some of the themes in this book relate to the notion of the Australian identity, citizenship, the concept of national heroes and the celebration of Australia Day. Although the Uluru Statement from the Heart is not mentioned in this book, its resolution is a necessary part of Australia’s future. Did Sentenced to Debt clarify, confirm or change your views about these issues?
10. Because ‘comprehension’ is not routinely taught as a skill in today’s classrooms, the creative writing exhortation to ‘express an idea in your own words’ often allows old meanings to be carelessly distorted. In this non-fiction book did you find the extensive use of quotations from history, to convey the original meaning of any given situation, useful or tedious?
11. Readability. Did this story flow? Was this a book that you ‘couldn’t put it down’ or did you need to digest it in small doses? Did any specific passages strike you as memorable? Were the illustrations helpful? How did you feel as you reached the end? Satisfied? Enlightened? Angry? Confused? Grateful? What did you find most surprising, intriguing or difficult to understand? What adjective would describe the stand-out feature of this book for you? Would you recommend this book to others?

Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter was published by Louise Wilson, South Melbourne, 18 May 2020, ISBN 978-0-9804478-6-6. For more details see here, or purchase the book online at BookPOD

The Tracker - Essential Viewing

Last night I watched my neighbour's DVD of ‘The Tracker’, a movie produced in 2002 by Rolf De Heer but even more relevant and meaningful today, now that we seem more willing to face the ‘truth-telling’ needed in this country. ‘The Tracker’ tells a shocking story anchored in the unwelcome realities of Australian history.

It was brilliantly filmed in the stunning countryside of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia and is worth viewing for that reason alone. The scenery is almost mystical.

It was brilliantly acted too, especially by David Gulpilil in the lead role, who surreptiously led his three white ‘bosses’ by the nose throughout the film. At face value, he was the inferior being, made to walk the whole way while the white men took the easy way, looking down on him from horseback, but floundering without their horses. Who was really the fittest, physically, and the strongest, mentally? As The Tracker, even when chained, he captured flawlessly the advanced sense of humour and irony reported by early colonial diarists among the Aborigines they came across. He demonstrated vividly what Watkin Tench declared about them in 1791, that they ‘possess a considerable portion of that acumen, or sharpness of intellect, which bespeaks genius’.

I recoiled at the role played by Gary Sweet as the lead trooper, the policeman in charge. It mirrored too closely the experiences of my forebears in the 1790s at the Hawkesbury, where the first massacre of Aborigines took place in 1794.  

I liked the part played by Damon Gameau as the young policeman, who started off clearly terrified by his situation but who began to recognise the skills possessed by The Tracker and finally stepped up to do the right thing. Oh that there had been more like him in our history.

I liked Grant Page's depiction of the laid-back older trooper, fully aware of what was going on but laconic, stoical and passively accepting cruel figures of authority. He was typical of the physically tough ‘she’ll be right’ loners who populated our outback.

The scenes of violence towards Aborigines which we all know darken our history were handled with imagery … artwork. It somehow made a more vivid and lasting impression. The payback killing within the Aboriginal community reflected the way in which their own tribal laws worked.

The film has a haunting musical score, with songs sung mournfully by Archie Roach.

All Australians should watch this unusual, engrossing film! I see it can be seen for a few more days (until 6 April 2020) on SBS Online.

Dark Emu

Every Australian should read Dark Emu, Black Seeds: agriculture or accident? At the very least, this mind-blowing book should be on the compulsory reading list for all secondary schools. It overturns all of our ignorant assumptions about pre-colonial times in Australia.

The book has received an overwhelmingly positive response on the Goodreads website, with a very high average rating of 4.5 out of 5, far in excess of most other books on this site. Nearly everyone leaving a comment agrees that this well-written, easy-to-read and relatively short book is essential reading for all Australians.

I was privileged to hear the author, Dr Bruce Pascoe, speak at the Melbourne Writers' Festival a few months ago. His emotion was obvious when he referred to archaeologists discovering grindstones proving that the Australian aborigine was grinding seeds more than 30,000 years ago. Being the first bakers of bread is an accolade usually given to the Egyptians around 17,000 BC. But as Pascoe says in his book, it was the Australian aborigines who were ‘the bakers of antiquity. Why don’t our hearts fill with wonder and pride?’ (Read more in the article The world's first baker: Australian indigenous innovation.)

As Pascoe spoke, I wondered whether our community’s entrenched views of Aborigines could be blamed on the first European settlement being beside Sydney Harbour, a heavily-wooded area on thin soils. It was not farming country, as the incoming settlers soon discovered. With sandstone caves providing a natural shelter for the indigenous population there was little need for housing structures. Many of the First Fleet journal keepers referred to the nakedness of the natives, but we forget that the incoming Europeans arrived at the height of summer, a time of year when many of today’s citizens of Sydney would wear no clothes, if they could get away with it. The first but false impression that the Aborigines were hunter-gatherers took firm hold.

Bruce Pascoe is from Victoria but well aware that Captain John Hunter reported in 1788 that ‘the people around Sydney were dependent on their yam gardens’. The word ‘garden’ is telling, its significant implication of permanent settlement having been ignored. Yams, a highly-nutritious form of sweet potato, were cultivated by a resident tribe, not gathered by wandering tribes. And, as Pascoe pointed out, the cattle imported in 1788 had escaped to the Camden region, where they prospered on these yam gardens until 1795, when exploring parties came across the escapee cattle, in prime condition. The area was promptly named as the Cowpastures.

After 1788 it took decades before European explorers found a way across the Blue Mountains and discovered that Aborigines lived in villages and towns and, aside from their yam gardens, they cared for a grain belt across most of inland Australia. His amazing map of this grain belt is produced in the article The world's first baker: Australian indigenous innovation. Today we heard news from the Flinders Ranges that shifted back by 10,000 years our knowledge of Aboriginal occupation of arid inland Australia, to 49,000 years ago. They possessed amazing technologies much earlier than we thought.

The back cover of Bruce Pascoe's book quotes him as saying "If we look at the evidence presented to us by the explorers and explain to our children that Aboriginal people did build houses, did build dams, did sow, irrigate and till the land, did alter the course of rivers, did sew their clothes, and did construct a system of pan-continental government that generated peace and prosperity, then it is likely we will admire and love our land all the more.'

Now that I’ve read Bruce Pascoe’s book I fully accept the startling truths he espouses. The full range of his evidence is presented in chapters headed 'Agriculture', 'Aquaculture', 'Population and Housing', 'Storage and Preservation', 'Fire', 'The Heavens, Language and the Law', 'Australian Agricultural Revolution'.

But it was his closing chapter, 'Accepting History and Creating the Future', which really made me think. I’m sometimes irritated by the strident calls that we should change the day we celebrate as Australia Day because it was ‘Invasion Day’. From my perspective, Australia was always going to be invaded by someone. While the Aboriginal tribes had their own territorial boundaries they were not organised as a group to defend this large continent, whereas all other human societies fought strongly to protect territorial interests. Aborigines just weren't aggressive enough. It never occurred to me, until I read this book, that the age-old Aboriginal society might have evolved to a level of enlightened self-interest, mutual co-operation and steady-state economic welfare operating on a higher plane than existed elsewhere on this planet. In a way, the Aborigines were psychologically unprepared for people who did not play by their advanced rules.

The old ways of Aboriginal society tantalise us with a vision for a different more sustainable future for the world. Thus one of Pascoe’s closing remarks resonated with me: ‘It seems improbable that a country can continue to hide from the actuality of its history in order to validate that fact that having said sorry we refuse to say thanks’.

I tried to see both sides of the settlement story when writing Robert Forrester, First Fleeter but the need to revise the book in the light of Pascoe’s insights has taken on a new urgency. A Second Edition will also include other research which has come to light in the eight years since the Forrester book first went to print. For example, it will consider another interpretation of the 1783 scam; it will correct reference to the non-existent orgy in February 1788; it will show the true position of Robert's 1794 land grant; and it will review new research into his involvement in the Frontier War with the Aborigines pre-1800.

Darkiñung Recognition

The aboriginal people of the Hawkesbury/northern Blue Mountains area have been carelessly described for many years as belonging to the Dharug tribe. The appellation appears in most of the literature, so naturally Dharug was the term I picked up when referring to the local Aborigines in my books about Robert Forrester and Paul Bushell, published in 2009 and 2010 respectively. (Pictured is my mother's sketch which illustrates page 145 of the Forrester book.)

However Dr Geoff Ford has produced a document which has set me straight, as well as many others. His work was drawn to my attention in the Hawkesbury Historical Society Newsletter, No 102, February 2013, but it was originally submitted to the University of Sydney as a thesis in 2010 and published by the University in 2011. That thesis, in itself, is a fascinating 'outcome' of the 'process' of taking an abiding interest in local and family history. (Dr Ford is a member of the Hawkesbury Historical Society and the Everingham Family Association.)

Ford explored the known fact that historical records dating from Governor Phillip's day described the Aborigines inhabiting the Cumberland Plains (from the Georges River at Liverpool through to Parramatta and Blacktown) as speaking a different language to the Aborigines encountered by the earliest European explorers of the Hawkesbury River. Ford found that only the Aborigines living on the Cumberland Plains belonged to the Dharug (pronounced Tharoog) tribe. He's found that the correct name for the tribe occupying 'the mountain catchment of the branches of the Hawkesbury River below Warragamba, from the Hawkesbury floodplain to the Hunter River floodplain in the north', is Darkiñung (pronounced Darkinyung).

It’s too late to change the books already published by many authors, but books published since 2011 now have the opportunity to benefit from Ford's up-to-date and very thorough research findings. I for one will take care to use the correct term for the local Aborigines in my future writings about early Hawkesbury settlers.

For more details, please refer to Dr Geoff Ford's full 558 page thesis 2010, Darkinung Recognition, online at Sydney University Library, where you can also find a much shorter 'Brief' (summarising the issues and publishing Ford's findings without the extensive analyses), a two page note on geographic borders and a two page Abstract. Presentation of the thesis material in digital form, as a PDF file, makes it easy to find search terms. There are no restrictions on downloading or printing. Spread the word!