AustLit
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Contents
-
Labouring with the Hoei"I was convicted by the laws",
single work
poetry
(p. 47)
Note: Title spelt: Laboring with the Hoe
- The Ballad of Martin Cashi"Come all you sons of Erin's Isle that love to hear your tuneful notes -", single work poetry (p. 49-51)
- McQuade's Cursei"May Satan, with a rusty crook", single work poetry (p. 135-136)
- "The Hoogli gal 'er face is brown" Lost and Given Overi"A mermaid's not a human thing,", single work poetry humour (p. 184-186)
- Ned Kelly was a Gentlemani"Ned Kelly was a gentleman: many hardships did he endure.", single work poetry (p. 247-248)
- Country Towni"This is no longer the landscape that they knew,", single work poetry
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Transported to Botany Bay : Imagining Australia in Nineteenth-Century Convict Broadsides
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Victorian Literature and Culture , June vol. 43 no. 2 2015; (p. 235-259) 'The speaker of this ballad (circa 1828) laments the fact that, though he was born of “honest parents,” he became “a roving blade” and has been convicted of an unspecified crime for which he has been sentenced to “Botany Bay,” a popular name for Australia. Although he addresses his audience as “young men of learning,” the rest of the ballad implies that he, as is conventional in the broadside form, is a working-class apprentice gone astray. Like this fictional speaker, approximately 160,000 men and women convicted of crimes ranging from poaching hares to murder – but mostly theft – were transported to one of the new British colonies in Australia between the years 1787 and 1867. Minor crimes such as shoplifting, which today would merit some community service and a fine, yielded a sentence of seven years, while other felons were sentenced for fourteen years to life for more serious crimes. While non-fictional accounts of the young colony of New South Wales were published in Britain almost as soon as the First Fleet arrived there in 1788, these were written by people with at least a middle-class education, whereas the vast majority of the convicted felons who were transported came from the working classes. Since books and newspapers were expensive and the level of literacy among working-class people varied considerably, few of them would have had access to such accounts of the new colonies. Several descriptions, mostly borrowed from the writings of the officers who accompanied the First Fleet, were published in cheap chapbook form, while occasional letters from convicts to their families were printed and distributed, and of course there were unpublished letters plus word-of-mouth reports from convicts or soldiers who did return. But none of these were broadly disseminated among working-class people.' (Publication abstract) -
Looking Beyond the Bowyangs: A Critique of Australian Ballad Anthologies
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 147 1997; (p. 25-30) -
y
Momentous Decade : Society and Thought : Australia, 1838-1848
Canberra
:
1976
19373512
1976
single work
thesis
'In searching for the origins of the Australian ethos it is tempting to regard convicts and "old hands" as the seedbed of Australian political democracy as well as part of the humus that nourished mateship and egalitarianism. While, as Russel Ward documents in The Australian Legend, many Australian social attitudes data back to convict days, the origin of Australian political democracy followed urban English rather than American or Australian frontier patterns.' (Thesis description)
-
Diggers in a Rich Vein
1965
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 16 September 1965; (p. 799)
— Review of The Penguin Australian Song Book 1964 anthology poetry ; The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry -
Untitled
1965
single work
review
— Appears in: Encounter , vol. 25 no. 5 1965; (p. 87-89)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry
-
Swagmen Anonymous
1964
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 28 November vol. 86 no. 4423 1964; (p. 55)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry -
Australian Ballads
1964
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , December vol. 23 no. 4 1964; (p. 428-429)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry -
Untitled
1965
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March vol. 4 no. 5 1965; (p. 79)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry -
Untitled
1965
single work
review
— Appears in: Encounter , vol. 25 no. 5 1965; (p. 87-89)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry -
Diggers in a Rich Vein
1965
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 16 September 1965; (p. 799)
— Review of The Penguin Australian Song Book 1964 anthology poetry ; The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads 1964 anthology poetry -
Looking Beyond the Bowyangs: A Critique of Australian Ballad Anthologies
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 147 1997; (p. 25-30) -
Transported to Botany Bay : Imagining Australia in Nineteenth-Century Convict Broadsides
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Victorian Literature and Culture , June vol. 43 no. 2 2015; (p. 235-259) 'The speaker of this ballad (circa 1828) laments the fact that, though he was born of “honest parents,” he became “a roving blade” and has been convicted of an unspecified crime for which he has been sentenced to “Botany Bay,” a popular name for Australia. Although he addresses his audience as “young men of learning,” the rest of the ballad implies that he, as is conventional in the broadside form, is a working-class apprentice gone astray. Like this fictional speaker, approximately 160,000 men and women convicted of crimes ranging from poaching hares to murder – but mostly theft – were transported to one of the new British colonies in Australia between the years 1787 and 1867. Minor crimes such as shoplifting, which today would merit some community service and a fine, yielded a sentence of seven years, while other felons were sentenced for fourteen years to life for more serious crimes. While non-fictional accounts of the young colony of New South Wales were published in Britain almost as soon as the First Fleet arrived there in 1788, these were written by people with at least a middle-class education, whereas the vast majority of the convicted felons who were transported came from the working classes. Since books and newspapers were expensive and the level of literacy among working-class people varied considerably, few of them would have had access to such accounts of the new colonies. Several descriptions, mostly borrowed from the writings of the officers who accompanied the First Fleet, were published in cheap chapbook form, while occasional letters from convicts to their families were printed and distributed, and of course there were unpublished letters plus word-of-mouth reports from convicts or soldiers who did return. But none of these were broadly disseminated among working-class people.' (Publication abstract) -
y
Momentous Decade : Society and Thought : Australia, 1838-1848
Canberra
:
1976
19373512
1976
single work
thesis
'In searching for the origins of the Australian ethos it is tempting to regard convicts and "old hands" as the seedbed of Australian political democracy as well as part of the humus that nourished mateship and egalitarianism. While, as Russel Ward documents in The Australian Legend, many Australian social attitudes data back to convict days, the origin of Australian political democracy followed urban English rather than American or Australian frontier patterns.' (Thesis description)