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By Australia I refer to the European colonisation of this land mass. Terra Australis became Australia in 1817, although it had been referred to as New Holland prior to this by Europeans. The reality of its Indigenous heritage is far older and not the intention of this short essay to cover. It is, however, deserving of a deep respect by all who live here and who choose to visit. The real history of Australia is, then, limited to a more modest time span. It is my suspicion that many Australians are unaware that Australia began its British colonial life as a penal colony.
“The land that is now known as Australia was called by various names by the Indigenous peoples who lived there for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. These names varied between different language groups and regions. The Indigenous peoples had a deep spiritual connection to the land and had a name for every feature of the land.”
Australian Historical Roots Are Poorly Understood
Yes, some folk may be aware of something about convicts related to a few old buildings in Sydney or Hobart but are largely ignorant of the true nature of this reality. The NSW penal colony operated from 1788-1840. Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1858. Western Australia had an injection of convict labour from 1850-1868.
“Although there was no direct transportation of convicts to Port Phillip, convicts were brought into the colony by various means at various times. David Collin’s party, which settled at Sorrento in 1803, included some 300 male convicts…”
A penal colony, however, does not just shut down like switching off a light or a steam engine. To understand the reality of a place where armed soldiers guard sections of the population and there are stratas of officials judging the lives of the inhabitants night and day takes you into an entirely different world from our own. Watkin Tench tells us that every letter inscribed by convicts aboard the First Fleet was checked by the marine guards prior to departing England. This is a foretaste of the world they were about to enter.
The Real Deal For Convicts Transported To Australia
There were such things as conditional tickets of leave, which, on one hand, sort of freed a former convict, after time served, but would restrict their movement within the colony. A ticket of leaver could be restrained to a particular district and if found by authorities to have left that area for whatever reason they would be resentenced and reinterred into another prison camp for a period of 3 years or more. Intimate relations between convicts would be impacted by these onerous restrictions for years. Officious ministers of religion and other colonial worthies could control the lives of former convicts on moral grounds. You can sense the opportunities for the misuse of power on a grand scale. Especially, when you inject the reality that many convicts were of Irish heritage and, indeed, some were political prisoners. Their prison guards and officials were most often English and there is little love lost between the two ethno-cultures.
Life Inside A British Penal Colony
It is important to dig a little deeper and comprehend the cultural mistrust, which exists within a penal colony. Inhabitants are not free to say what they really think, as any public criticism of the authorities would not be tolerated. The social divide between convicts and the other members of the colony was considerable. Once stained, with the taint of having been transported to the colony against your will for a crime you have been convicted of -this never washed off. The British class system was an intolerant edifice and convicts were at the very bottom of it. Convicts and ticketed leavers could never speak their minds without taking care of who might be listening. Those on the right side of the law could use this for their advantage in business and personal matters. This was the reality of life inside a penal colony. Armed soldiers marching about on the streets and layers of silence imposed upon many of the colony’s inhabitants. Getting back to those dates of operation, when the penal colonies, apparently ceased to operate. Things like this do not simply close and stop. The impacts upon lives and generations persist for decades hence. Relationships founded under the harsh rules of a prison colony do not recover, ever. The suspicion and mistrust on both sides remain for lifetimes and into subsequent families over generations. This is the very foundation of what Australia was, is and will become. The real history of Australia is born of this century of punishment by its British forefathers.
Many Former Convicts Could Never Leave Australia
Amid this prison colony were Aboriginal men, women and children in various states of having their lives impacted in completely unforeseen ways. A clash of cultures pitting pre-industrial age ideas and weaponry against the latter’s guns and self-righteous surety of superiority. Inject into this, the mish mash of the British class system, containing winners and losers in economic terms. Picture coastal settlements of colonisers, who were largely dependent upon the British stores of food for their survival, as they struggled with the different terroir of Terra Australis. If you look at Australia today, you can take on board why white folk have stayed so close to the sea in choosing where they live and where their cities flourish. The ocean and their sailing ships represented the emergency exit and where life sustaining rescue would come from if things in the colony went belly-up. Small settlements ringed by unknown expanses of bush, complete with tribes of Aboriginal people who had 60, 000 years of acclimatising experience to call upon. Of course, ticket of leave former convicts could, if having been convicted of serious crimes, never return to Britain or leave the colony. This would place a pall over many of Australia’s inhabitants for the best part of a century in effect.
The Complex Nature Of Australian History
The real history of Australia is not some sunny, slap dash story of peaceful co-existence between European settlers and the Indigenous population. It is rather, a highly complex and contentious series of events taking place over the decades and centuries. Whilst there were some less aggressively virulent white settlers, who endeavoured to have good relations with those Aboriginal people they dispossessed of their land, negative peer group pressure among settlers in particular regions often forced their hand too. Winners, always get to tell their side of the story, as far as histories go. Whitewash applied copiously, where needed to wash away the blood stains and evidence of atrocities, enjoyed the silence of the white settler cohort. Right wing folk today, invariably bemoan when any reference to these mass killings are mentioned, and make a song and dance about feelings of white guilt for future generations. Massacres of Aboriginal people by settlers and soldiers did happen all too frequently but were played down by those in charge of the colonies. Neither were they publicly encouraged. Euphemisms were regularly used in the press and official papers when describing these mass murders. The estimated population of Indigenous folk prior to colonisation in Australia may have been as high as several million but this can only be inferred via modelling, as no records exist.
“we estimated the number of people the landscape could support based on climate and vegetation models that recreated ecosystems during the time of the first peopling of Sahul. We also gathered real-world anthropological information on immigration and emigration rates, long-distance movement, human survival and fertility. We even looked at the probability of disasters such as bushfires and cyclones. After running 120 scenarios of the model many times each, our research found that after expanding to all corners of the continent, the population of Sahul could have been as high as 6.4 million people, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago.”
The previous consensus on this population question was lower, but there is no accurate data about this. Current recent Census data indicates a population today, claiming Aboriginal heritage, at just under a million people. For much of colonial Australian history many white settlers just wanted these native people gone from their appropriated lands. Invasion, theft and violent death were imposed upon hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal people during the colonising period. The First Fleet brought the scourge of small pox to the Aboriginal population around Sydney Cove. This would spread further afield through the NSW colony resulting in terrible deaths for untold numbers of Indigenous folk. The general attitude among many in Australia today is – let’s not think about this, as it happened a long time ago. “she’ll be right, mate.” Is this a callous disregard for the realities of our colonial history?
Terra Nullius
The lawyers came up with the concept of terra nullius – meaning ‘nobody’s land’. This terribly convenient legal idea stated that the natives had no concept of land ownership, as recognised by the British, and, therefore, nobody owned this land prior to the British invasion. It is interesting, reading the accounts of Lieutenant Watkin Tench and his unabashed tone in relation to the invasion and land theft that he was a part of. European sentiment toward the ‘Indians,’ as he called the Indigenous people of Australia, was straight forward in its contemptuous displacement of them. Imperialism marched over any humanitarian concerns by denying these natives any human rights whatsoever. Governor Philip was not a bad man, if adjudged by the evidence, but what he brought to this land was no friend for those long established here. Later, it would be open slather for land sales and endowments by the Crown to those they wished to reward and see populate the colonies. Alongside of this, the academic world belittled all of the 60, 000 year’s of industry and agriculture, as the feeble efforts of hunter gatherers. The denigration of Indigenous culture by Europeans would gain momentum over the decades and centuries to accompany their rapacious theft of their lands and murder of their people. Ends justifying means?
Van Diemen’s Land
Van Diemen’s Land was the other penal colony established by the British (1803). Later to be renamed Tasmania (1856) in a bid to cleanse the place of its convict beginnings. The smaller island colony was blessed with better soil, grasslands and available food sources, than Port Jackson, for its first British convict settlers and their guards. Forrester kangaroos became the diet staple, which kept them alive in the early years. Many early convicts became bushrangers in the first two decades and with their hunting dogs thrived via this kangaroo economy. Van Dieman’s Land became a wild place, infamous for its Blacks and bushrangers. It was not until Lieutenant Governor Arthur in 1824-36 took control that the colonial authorities turned the screws on both these groups. Arthur undermined the convict/bushranger subculture by paying for information and rewarding the betrayal of their fellow absconders and standover men. Harsh penalties saw hundreds hang each year and a much tougher regime installed. Michael Howe was probably one of the most powerful Van Diemen Land bushrangers of this time.
“Michael Howe (1787-1818), bushranger, was born at Pontefract, Yorkshire, England, the son of Thomas Howe and his wife Elizabith. He served two years on a merchant vessel at Hull before deserting to join the navy. About 1806 he joined the army, but again deserted. On 31 July 1811 he was sentenced at the York Assizes to transportation for seven years for highway robbery. He arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in October 1812 in the Indefatigable, and was sent to service with the merchant, John Ingle. Next year he absconded and took to the bush as joint leader of a band of twenty-nine convict escapers and army deserters…”
Lt Gov. Arthur would famously oversee the ‘Black Line’ and the eradication of Aboriginals from Van Diemen’s Land. Make no mistake the Indigenous warriors did attack and kill several hundred settlers, convicts and soldiers in the defence of their tribal territories. It was considered a war between the British and the native population. Of course, many times they were provoked into these actions by convicts murdering members of the Aboriginal population. Both settlers and the penal colony were invading their hunting grounds and seriously diminishing their food sources. The Tasmanian emu would go extinct, along with a number of other edible animals. The kangaroo population was drastically reduced through overhunting and eating by the British. The convicts of Van Diemen’s Land would be empowered by Arthur to systematically kill the native population on the island. Indeed, many of these men would later travel to Port Phillip (in what would become Victoria) to continue the extermination there. The betrayal of the few remaining tribal members via one George Augustus Robinson is, perhaps, the most sickening chapter in this whole sorry saga. This British ‘go-between’ tricked the remaining tribes into leaving Van Diemen’s Land by promising it was temporary and that they were going on a hunting trip. Robinson was paid a large sum of money and land for this Judas-like act. The result was that dozens and dozens of previously healthy native people died whilst trapped and locked up on small islands from wilful neglect and broken hearts. It is, I think, pertinent, to parallel these deaths in custody with the many hundreds dying today in our modern prisons around the nation. Incarceration is, it seems, a death sentence for our Indigenous brothers and sisters. The end result was the complete removal of Tasmania’s Aborigines either via mass killings, terminal sickness or transportation to in-effect prison islands elsewhere. The real history of Australia is littered with tragedy, especially for those not classed as the white skinned members of the lucky country.
Who Were The Early Australians?
Australia had its Irish convict population, along with the dregs of English convicted crims and soldiers that stayed out in the colonies in the hope of making their fortune or at least a better life than back in Britain. It is interesting to see how these lives and cultures intersected to produce a modern Australia. Along with Indigenous survivors and the progeny of convict/settler/Aboriginal admixing. Throw in a smattering of the lesser sons and daughters of the British wealthy elite and you get a rough outline of what begins to make-up the early population of the Australian colonies. The top jobs would invariably go to careerists from the motherland, who made the colonies a stepping stone to greater things, hopefully. When I was taught Australian history much of it revolved around these ‘so-called’ great men and was boring as batshit on this basis alone, as it usually involved a bunch of lies and hagiographical outpourings. We learned surprisingly little about any real convicts or Aboriginal people – they were like cutouts, mentioned only in passing as bit parts in the lives of important men. The teaching of history to children was for the longest time an exercise in propaganda, driven by the power elite. Rum, sodomy and the lash was not on the lips of any teacher I encountered at school, well not during school hours at any rate.
The Shame Of Aussie Bogans
Looking back, I suspect that the low self-esteem of the Aussie bogan population was handed down from the class driven and convict stained roots of the penal colonies downunder. People from the wrong side of the railway tracks kept their mouths shut, unless they were down the pub with their mates. Because those reading the news on the radio and telly spoke with plums in their mouths to sound like well spoken Pommies. The ABC was full of these wannabe Shakespearian actors annunciating their vowels. Still today, I reckon this is why many working class folk hate the ABC, it is an inherited hate from times gone by. Bogans have shaken off their shame, ever since PM John Howard courted the battlers to defeat, then PM, Paul Keating. Right wing politicians bribed the blue singlet mob with generous tax breaks for diesel fuel and work vehicles and middle class family welfare was born. Labor copied them, of course, which is why we find ourselves decades later in the same boat laden with too many tax subsidies for wealthy Australians. It has reached an apogee now, with MAGA and Donald Trump, where stupidity and ignorance is treated like a virtue of authenticity. Telling lies to the citizenry is par for the course and downunder we have One Nation copying the Trump playbook to entice older, white working class Australians. How they equate kissing the ring of billionaires, as ever going to bring them good fortune I don’t know. Stupid is as stupid does, as said by a truly great American. Perhaps, they see themselves as good little anti-woke Aussies who will keep their heads down and do what they are told in order to be thrown a few choice crumbs from the big table? Meanwhile, Pauline is touring Italy on their dime with Gina Rinehart calling the shots on fashion purchases. Maybe, dumb right wing Aussies think that anyone that rich is worth sucking up to?
No Wuckin Furries, Mate
I think it was the late Robert Hughes who described Australia as emerging out of a brutal meritocracy. Personally, I have found the dumbed down nature of social intercourse, especially among blokes downunder, to be of interest. It is, as if, the lingua franca is characterised by this reach for the lowest minimum standards. To make things as undemanding in terms of civics as possible. Is this an outgrowth of our convict roots, where shame once shuffled among us in leg irons, fetters and slop wear. The century of penal colony beginnings of this country provided us with a British born class system, which was eventually rejected by the majority of those adjudged to be the lower classes. Amongst their fellow travellers they would only seek out the bare minimum necessary for social discourse, unless affected by drink, of course, in good Irish tradition. Don’t ask and you won’t have to worry about embarrassing others. Life was not about where you came from but, maybe, where you were headed in this new world.
Who Controls Social Media & AI?
These days everyone reckons they know everything without ever having read a book. Having heard a sound grab on the topic makes them experts in their own estimation. The dumbing down of the world has gone into overdrive, as the digital revolution continues. Few read books anymore. Asking your phone for answers and taking the first cab of the rank is common place. AI is not a neutral or independent information source. Generations of Aussies, who don’t know to dig a little deeper to question the source, abound. Smart arse charisma counts for more than actual research. AI has just made it all that much worse. How many people take the convenient over the alternative? Too many. A handful of American billionaires control AI and dumb folk just consume it, as the new normal. Smart phone = dumb human.
Why History Matters?
The real history of Australia matters because it determines many of the power dynamics at work in this country and its communities. If you have limited knowledge of where you come from, you will always be vulnerable to manipulation via propaganda and disinformation. If you do not understand that Australia was in large parts a prison colony for much of a century at its inception, as a British new world construct, then, you are missing something very important about it. Comprehending the present and the likely future without an understanding of the past, the real past, is fraught with misnomers and misreadings. Class consciousness and suspicion were prevalent Australian characteristics throughout the 19C and well into the 20C. Judging and evaluating fellow and sister citizens went on for decades and centuries. Thus, the fascist One Nation political party with its white supremacy, racism and Anglo archetypal aspirations still appeals to around a third of the population downunder today. Looking back, longingly, to a whiter Australia, where even convicts thought themselves better than Blacks and were involved in the mass killings of them, is no basis for anything positive, in my opinion. Right wing role models like Donald Trump have inspired bogans to revel in their narrow mindedness, rather than feel any shame for it. Pauline Hanson champions white supremacy and hate speech.
Racists now think that they are being authentic and genuine by expressing their xenophobia.
Sovereign Citizens Kill
Sovereign Citizenship seems to be an American imported political idea warmly embraced by a section of the Australian population. There have been a number of murders committed by proponents of this extreme agenda. In North Queensland recently, in Bogie, a man killed 3 of his neighbours in cold blood at his property gate and seriously wounded a 4th member of this family. Darryl Young, a ‘so-called’ sovereign citizen, was convicted of shooting dead 3 people and wounding another and was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for his crimes. In the high country of Victoria, another of these sovereign citizens murdered 2 police officers before eventually being shot dead by police. These are worrying events, as they combine the disavowal of Australian law with gun ownership and a propensity for violence. Sovereign Citizens swelled their numbers during the Covid pandemic, when these selfish individuals bemoaned their loss of freedoms due to public health measures designed to limit the spread of the virus. Lock downs and vaccine mandates enraged some folk. Individual agency bumps up against collective requirements during national emergencies. In my view, it is a sign of the immaturity of these individuals, when they cannot surrender to the need for the greater good. Mistakes and OTT measures may well be made during crises but that is the nature of a public health emergency. Nearly a million Americans died from Covid during the pandemic and this abnormally high figure in one of the richest nations on earth was in part due to the politicisation of public health measures by right wing folk. Not wearing a face mask and not getting vaccinated were dumb moves which cost people’s lives.
“More than four years after three members of a family were murdered and a fourth was seriously injured, Bogie farmer Darryl Young has been found guilty of all four crimes.
The 63-year-old was convicted in the Townsville Supreme Court on Friday 4th September for the murder of Mervyn and Maree Schwarz and Maree’s son, Graham Tighe, as well as attempting to murder Graham’s brother, Ross Tighe.
After 15 hours of deliberations over three days, the jury unanimously found Young guilty of all three murders. An 11–1 majority verdict was later reached on the attempted murder charge.”
Toxic American Culture Polluting The World
Philosophically, individual agency is overtly celebrated by libertarians, especially of the American variety. This overwrought placing of the individual on a higher plane than the collective or community is just plain wrong in a number of situations. The evolution of human beings was achieved in large part via our shared socialisation. Survival during hard times comes down to getting along with your neighbour, not shooting them dead at the gate. Unfortunately, the digital age has seen a serious reduction in real sharing between human beings. Social media is a misnomer, as staring into screens for 10 hours per day is not really socialising in any meaningful sense. Communicating with strangers or bots via digital platforms is not making the world a better place. Actually, social media is filled with hate speech, disagreements, trolls and bots. Algorithms are designed to provoke strong reactions like rage or disgust via your feeds. The narrow lane of digital convenience means that human beings can stay online and avoid much real human contact. Radicalisation is, often, the result of hanging out virtually in chat rooms and forums with other socially deprived nutjobs. Who will challenge your point of view if you spend all your time with like minded entities, many of whom may not even be human? AI agents, chatbots and other non-human actors abound on the web. AI is destroying the world wide web, as we knew it, because lazy viewers are no longer going to the original online news sources but blithely accepting an AI overview. Stupid is, as stupid does. The web is being replaced by an AI homogenised version of it.
Ask yourself who controls AI? American billionaires in the main.
Australia As The Undeclared 51st State of the US
In this island nation, having lost reference to the real history of Australia, we are fast becoming an outpost of imported American culture. The internet and social media have accelerated this popular trend of decade’s standing. Kids grow up with their head’s immured in American entertainment offerings. Pop music, movies, streaming content, US sports, and, these days, the Donald Trump show in Washington DC. YouTube, Tik Tok and the other platforms serve up news and entertainment 24/7. Most of this is predominantly American. Our government has ceded our military security and effective sovereignty to the US, via the very expensive AUKUS deal ($368 billion) for nuclear submarines promised some time in an unlikely future. Australia gets to provide military bases to the US and pay large sums toward their naval ship building programs over many years in the hope of realising 2 used subs of our own. In the meantime, we must behave well according to American geopolitical expectations or risk being punished for it. The inference being – no submarines for an Australia, which does not toe the line.
The New Digital Imperialism
“Have you been getting the message that machines do it better? That AI is smarter than you? Have you been replaced at work by some sort of artificial intelligence program? Digital imperialism: The new colonialism is here. Now, you get to experience what plenty of Indigenous peoples have had to deal with over the journey. The clear and present inference that you are not good enough and too dumb to matter. Your culture thrown on the scrapheap of progress and advancement. This time, however, it is humanity per se copping it in the neck via a form of Social Darwinism. Only a small group of investors matter, those who are shareholders in the Big Tech companies overlording the rest of us.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
©MidasWord
The AI Heresy: A Betrayal of Humanity – PDF
How many AI bots does it take to change a light bulb?
