- Joined
- Jun 30, 2012
- Messages
- 13,277
I think the convicts in 1803 might have been the group which tried to settle at Sorrento on Port Phillip Bay. Also there was a group at Geelong from which William Buckley escaped. When you speak of thousands, it was nothing like that. Melbourne was founded in 1835, prior to that I believe only those two other attempts were made to settle. Victoria was never a penal colony. In the mid 1800s there was an attempt made to land convicts at Williamstown in Melbourne and it was strongly resisted. The main convict settlements were Hobart, then NSW, then Queensland. I believe there might have been a few at Frremantle. There is a big difference in mindset of people living in Sydney compared with Melbourne. Read up on the Rum corps and Capt John McArthur and Governor Bligh. They estabilished the early political climate. These days the descendents of the Rum Corps are there in the form of police, and the convict culture still exists to a certain extent. I think you need to understand our typical attitude towards police, there is an age old tradition the nobody turns informer, there is a blind eye turned on a lot of things. However if you like we will always arrange to sell you that big bridge in Sydney.
Hobart is a very strange place, and I don't go to Port Arthur, there are too many ghosts there.
Hobart is a very strange place, and I don't go to Port Arthur, there are too many ghosts there.