In 1831, a group of Moreton Bay convicts seized the schooner Caledonia, took the Captain hostage, and set off on a murderous rampage through the islands of the South Pacific. More than fifty years later, a group of French convicts from the penal settlement at Noumea returned the compliment.
The twelve escaped convicts from the penal settlement at New Caledonia, some of whom have been in custody here for some weeks awaiting extradition, were brought up at the Police Court yesterday morning. There was a large crowd outside to see the unhappy fellows conveyed from the prison van to the court. Two of the prisoners had before escaped to Queensland and were returned to Noumea. The twelve were ranged across the floor of the court, and each was dealt with separately. They bore themselves quietly and respectfully during the proceedings.
The Hon. E.B. Forrest, M.L.C., French vice-consul, occupied a seat on the bench. Inspector Lewis conducted the prosecution, M. Parés acting as interpreter. On behalf of the French Government there appeared M. Focachon, surveillant-en-chef at Noumea. M. Focachon said the prisoner Francois Doyat, who was sentenced to hard labour for parricide, escaped from Caledonia on 22nd May 1887, and had been illegally at large; Doyat answers the description of the man in the warrant. Doyat was then committed to the Brisbane Gaol for fifteen days till handed over to the French officer. All the other prisoners were dealt with in the same manner. Mr. Pinnock told them all that they might make application to the Supreme Court to quash these proceedings. The following are the sentences and crimes to which and for they were committed: –
- Bono, hard labour for life for highway robbery and embezzlement.
- Marc Jean Blanc, various robberies, imprisonment for twenty years.
- Jean Pierre Fleurentin, fifteen years hard labour for robbery.
- Henri Cassagne, hard labour for life for murder.
- Tibaldi, fifteen years’ hard labour for murder.
- Joseph Rey, eight years’ hard labour for robbery, and twenty years’ hard labour while at Noumea, and twenty years’ police surveillance for house breaking.
- James Castillon, ten years’ hard labour for robbery, and ten years’ police surveillance. Pierre Michel, fifteen years’ hard labour, and five years’ police surveillance for robbery.
- Joseph Rissler, ten years’ hard labour, and twenty years’ police surveillance for robbery.
- Balbi, ten years’ hard labour, and ten years’ police surveillance for murder.
- Eugene Cosson twenty years’ hard labour for robbery, and other sentences, amounting in all to sixty years. In the afternoon, the prisoners were placed in the prison van, and escorted up to the gaol by two mounted constables, Sub-inspector Graham in charge.
Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Thursday 22 September 1887, page 7
France had been sending prisoners to New Caledonia for over a decade. It was a particularly handy spot for the political variety – they were so far from France, they could not spread their propaganda.
A sentence to New Caledonia sounds ideal to the modern reader, but it wasn’t quite the resort style prison one imagines. Prisoners were kept on short rations, and were expected to hunt or gather any shortfalls. Perhaps it was better to nick off to the north Queensland Coast and island-hop.
In weeks, the escapees were on a reasonably-paced boat to Noumea, leaving behind a controversy in the opinion columns of Australia. How dare the French endanger the safety of Australians by shipping their criminals and revolutionaries to her doorstep? Convicts? How dreadful!
Moreton Bay and More 