Convicts, transporation etc

White Blackfellows – Charles Barrett

Published in 1948 by Hallcraft, Melbourne. Octavo, 261 pages, well illustrated. A very good copy in a nice albeit chipped dust jacket.

We recognise that the title of the book is unacceptable. Accept the book though for the history within. Sixteen different histories from all over Australia. Many of these have inspired other works – Patrick White etc. And, quite a few appear in longer form within the Voyager collection – but in no other place do we have a balanced presentation of so many.

Mrs Fraser, William Buckley, James Murrells, Barbara Thompson etc and the dubious Louis de Rougemont

$40.00

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The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

First edition published by Hutchinson’s London in 1975. Octavo, 254 pages plus bibliography, end paper maps. Very good condition.

The most remote penal colony in the world was Sarah Island on the west coast of Van Diemen’s Land. In 1833 after eleven years of misery it was decided to close it down and move the convicts to Port Arthur. Ten convicts were commissioned with the task of constructing a Brig to make the voyage around the coast. They saw their chance and seized the vessel and made their escape … but as always there is more to the story.

A well researched highly fact backed novelisation – super read.

The story of the final escape form Sarah’s Island through the Gates of Hell

$30.00

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Reminiscences of an Australian Pioneer – Robert Barton [Uncle of Banjo Patterson] – 1917

Barton’s reminiscences – a “squatter of the olden days”. Born in 1842 in the central West belonging to the first generation to follow the original land-takers in the west.

Barton, was an uncle to Banjo Patterson and spent his life in New south Wales and Queensland. His portrait as frontispiece is rather dull but his life was not.

By 1840 the squattocracy was firmly ‘landed’ and well-to-do. Barton looks back positively to the convict origins of his family’s assigned men. As a young man in his twenties the bushrangers Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall bushranging gangs were part of his life. Later he is confronted by the trade union movement and striking shearers.

First edition published by Tyrrells, Sydney in 1917. Octavo, vii, 288 pages with portrait of author. Original purple cloth rather standard binding, spine faded as usual with the plum coloured dye. Pages toned but clean and some age to ends, ownership details on front ends and the odd helpful annotation from an informed early owner – likely first. Scarce and worthwhile copy.

One on the best Australian Pioneering stories

$140.00

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Clay Pipes from Port Arthur 1830-1877 – Maureen Byrne’s 1977-1978 Excavations at Port Arthur – Descriptive Account by Alexandra Dane and Richard Morrison.

Maureen Byrne was emerging as one of Australia’s best archaeologists before she tragically died from a terrible asthma attack in 1978, she was only 24-year-old. [See also our copy of her work on the Ross Bridge]

The massive collection of clay pipe fragments she found are held at Port Arthur. Dane and Morrison produced this thorough analysis. Published by the Department of Prehistory at the ANU, Canberra – Technical Bulletin No 2 – issued in 1979.

Large sized, original wrappers, spiral bound fifty-five pages with eleven pages of plates covering a multitude of examples.

Port Arthur established as a convict settlement in 1830 and remained so for a quarter of a century, after that it was a home for the poor and those with metal health issues. This work identifies that at some time it was likely a home for a number of military officers.

The pipes [over a thousand of them] were mainly made in Scotland which in the Victorian era was the centre of such pipe making in the World. Makers are identified – Mc Dougall, Murray, Coghill, Burns etc and the many decorative bowls that followed such lines as heraldic, heads, botanicals etc.

An unusual subject the detail of which could make you the star of the next dinner party – do people still have dinner parties?

Port Arthur its history through the pipes left behind.

$40.00

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The Women of the 1790 Neptune [Convict Ship] – Anne Needham et al – 1992

Self published by the principal author in 1992. The work follows a further four years research by Anne Needham after she first published on the subject.

Perfect bound large format, card cover, 187 pages illustrated nicely throughout. Scarce and sought after – a very good copy

The seventy-six convict woman are listed on the front cover and the list of free female passengers are listed on the title.

The convict women came from all parts of England. At the end of a good Introduction we see a map with the locations and names. The extraordinary history behind many, if not all, is set out incredibly well in the first 120 pages. Then the voyage out then the goings on at Norfolk Island and New South Wales.

Needham’s well researched history of the women from the Neptune.

$90.00

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Tasmanian Rogues & Absconders 1803-1875 – Graeme-Evans

This is volume II and our favourite the middle years, being 1821-1836 … so a subset of the main title.

Self published by Alex Graeme-Evans of Launceston in 1994.

Larger soft cover format, perfect bound. 104 pages, nicely illustrated throughout.

What is it that makes rogues and absconders interesting … a rhetorical question. Much better reading than “everyday folk” … apologies. One thing for sure there were plenty of them … threaded intimately through the history of the Apple Isle.

For every rogue there seems to have been at least one absconder

$25.00

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White Blackfellows – Charles Barrett

The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

Reminiscences of an Australian Pioneer – Robert Barton [Uncle of Banjo Patterson] – 1917

Clay Pipes from Port Arthur 1830-1877 – Maureen Byrne’s 1977-1978 Excavations at Port Arthur – Descriptive Account by Alexandra Dane and Richard Morrison.

The Women of the 1790 Neptune [Convict Ship] – Anne Needham et al – 1992

Tasmanian Rogues & Absconders 1803-1875 – Graeme-Evans

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