The Moreton Bay penal settlement was set up to punish repeat offenders. It was not a place of last resort – that unenviable title went to remote Norfolk Island – but it was intended to be a place that inspired enough dread in convicts to deter them from offending in the Colony,
These prisoners had already offended in the old country and received a free, all-expenses-paid one way trip to Australia as a result. Then, for whatever reason, they did stuff like this:
Absconding and being quite incorrigible (not just incorrigible – quite incorrigible).
Embezzling bread (I don’t even know how you’d begin to embezzle bread).
Suspected of killing a cow (presumably there were no eye-witnesses, except those who contained their evidence to “moo”)
Absconding and being outrageous when taken (what did he do that was so outrageous? Alas, the record is silent).
Violent outrage in prisoners’ barrack (presumably that’s Georgian for “tried to get out”).
Stealing 2 pieces of pork (3 years extra for that, poor sod).
Robbing a man whilst asleep (was it the victim who was asleep or the offender?).
Stealing fat (Ugh. Really? Was he chums with the chap who stole the pork and perhaps planning a BBQ?).
Escaped the Colony to Mauritius (now that’s absconding).
Everyone received 3 extra years, except the chap who did the robbery on a man whilst asleep. He got 2 years.
If they survived the heat, punishing conditions and the dysentery outbreaks to which the settlement was prone, they were returned to Sydney. With horrible tales to tell no doubt.
| Source: Chronological register of convicts at Moreton Bay 14/9/1824 to 15/11/1839. Queensland State Archives Series 5653, Item 869689. |
Moreton Bay and More 