Many had been convicted of stealing small things like a handkerchief, a piece of cheese, a packet of snuff, twelve cucumber plants or a book, like William Francis, who stole A Summary Account of the Flourishing State of the Island of Tobago — probably to sell, not read!
But most had really stolen much more. In those days if you stole goods worth more than a guinea you had to be hanged. So if the judge or magistrate thought you had a chance to reform they found you guilty of stealing only a few of the things you’d taken, so you could be sent to the navy — or transported to a new land. The poor wretches transported for stealing a crust of bread make a good story, but those who were transported for stealing small things were probably guilty of much more and had been sentenced by a lenient magistrate to give them a second chance.
Once the First Fleet arrived, however, most of the criminals still didn’t want to make an honest living. They preferred to steal instead of work. The marines sent with them sulked because they didn’t get the alcohol that was part of their wages. They wouldn’t even guard the convicts, police the colony, or act as magistrates. They saw themselves as only being there in case the French or ‘natives’ attacked.
And then the Guardian, the ship bringing new supplies to the colony, was wrecked.
By the time this book begins, life in the colony was dirty, dangerous and hard.
Many people were also very hungry — unless, of course, they worked their gardens, like the Reverend Johnson, and had lots of vegetables like corn and potatoes, or went fishing every second night like Surgeon White, or collected oysters or wild spinach.
There was lots of food if you knew where to find it — and members of the Indigenous nations around Sydney Town lived comfortably and were tall, strong and well muscled, unlike the usually puny and starved colonists. But as this book shows, life was soon a nightmare for the Indigenous people following the arrival of the English.
Did the colony starve?
It is important to see the ‘starvation’ of the colony in context. The official rations weren’t enough to enable anyone to do a full week’s hard physical labour. But there was lots of wild food, fish and game (though that wasn’t always plentiful), as well as oysters and wild green vegetables, like the warrigal spinach and cress that grew almost faster than it could be picked. (One warrigal spinach plant will cover three metres in two weeks of hot, moist weather. We grow it on our property — or rather, it grows itself.)
Each man in the colony was given tools and land on which to grow vegetables, but not the skills or knowledge to help them do this. Few bothered to try, and even fewer did it properly. The early ‘colonists’ were, after all, thieves and criminals, often people who preferred an easy life of crime to working. The marines, too, reared as gentlemen, refused to dirty their hands in the garden, and were furious that they were not given the rations of meat, bread and particularly alcohol that were part of their wages. It is their angry letters home that form so much of our view of the colony’s hunger.
The few in the colony who did die of hunger were either mad, like the man who saved three weeks of rations so he could walk to China, or had their rations stolen or cheated from them.
While there are many references to the hungry colony, there are also references to it being a healthy place to live. The wheat crops failed, but the corn/maize crops were excellent. Potato crops were disappointing, especially in dry weather, but fruit and nut trees and vines grew fast, as did vegetables like pumpkins and cabbages. At the most hungry time, the ration of fish was 4.5 kilos a week, more than enough protein even for a hard worker, with enough flour for a bread roll a day — plenty if you combined the rations with fresh corn and other vegetables and fruits.
In addition, most, or even all of the marines and officials, including Governor Phillip, had brought their own stocks of food and animals from the Cape of Good Hope. (This was a good thing as the colonists were sent from England with female sheep but no ram. As lambs were born it seems that one officer, at least, had the sense to buy a male sheep and bring it to the colony.)
There were hens, cows and goats. Most of the cows soon strayed, although the wild herds would be found again years later, but the goats remained — so many that they soon became a nuisance wandering into gardens. So there would have been milk and fresh goat’s cheese, although little butter. As for any farming community of that time before fridges, cans and freezers, however, there were periods when certain foods weren’t available — the hens didn’t lay, the cow dried up, rain or drought spoilt the harvest.
Mostly the colony was hungry for familiar food — bread and potatoes — and the amazing amount of alcohol most people drank back then. Mothers even gave their children gin to stop them crying, and wine was given as a medicine to the sick. The absence of lots of alcohol was seen as an extraordinary deprivation.
The convicts had been given a generous allowance of new clothes on board the ships before leaving England. But as Maria observed, most of them wouldn’t have been able to sew, even though they had been given needles and thread to keep their garments mended. A hundred years later, all girls were taught to sew in village or ‘parochial’ schools, to both mend and make their family’s clothes. From then up till about 1970, most girls were taught at school how to make simple outfits, as well as how to knit jumpers and baby clothes. However, many of the women of the First, Second and Third Fleets may never have learnt how to use a needle and thread.
Alcoholism
Rum was both the currency and the comfort of the early colony, after Governor Phillip left. Enormous amounts were brewed and distilled illegally, or brought in and sold by the officers. Drunkenness was common back in England; it was even worse here. Crops like wheat and potatoes were often used for making alcohol instead of kept for food; family life in many cases didn’t exist. It is difficult, today, to realise quite how much terror and social stagnation were due to alcoholism back then.
What happened next …
The tiny colony clinging to the edge of a great land became a town, then a city. More colonies were founded; new — free — settlers arrived; gold was found and even more people arrived. Then 101 years after Andrew White sailed for England, the land became one nation — Australia.
But that is the subject of some of my other books.
References
This book relies on the English accounts of those who wrote about the happenings at the time. The English almost certainly misunderstood much of what happened. Some were prejudiced; some were liars; at other times their accounts leave tantalising questions. But they were there.
These early accounts may all be hard to read at first, but as you get used to the old-fashioned way of writing, they are fascinating voices from another time.
Collins, David, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, with Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, etc. of the Native Inhabitants of that Country, Reed in association with the Royal Historical Society, Sydney, 1975 [first published 1798–1802].
Flinders, Matthew, A Voyage to Terra Australis, G & W Nicol, London, 1814, vol. 1.
Fowell, Newton, Letter Received by John Fowell from Newton Fowell, 31 July 1790, State Library of NSW, Mitchell Library, MLMSS 4895/1/21.
Howe, George (ed.), The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Sydney, 1803–1842.
Tench, Watkin, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales: Including an Accurate Description of the Colony; of the Natives; and of its Natural Productions, G Nicol and J Sewell, London, 1793.
White, John, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, J Debrett, London, 1790.
Other great references
Australian Archaeological Survey Consultants Pty. Ltd., The Waverley Council Area: an Aboriginal Perspective: a Report to the Waverley Council, The Council, Sydney, 1995.
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1996.
Flood, Josephine, Archaeology of the Dreamtime: the Story of Prehistoric Au
stralia and its People, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, rev. ed., 1995.
Harris, Alexander, Settlers and Convicts, or, Recollections of Sixteen Years’ Labour in the Australian Backwoods / by an Emigrant Mechanic, Foreword by Manning Clark, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1964 [first published 1847].
Holden, Robert, Orphans of History: the Forgotten Children of the First Fleet, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2000.
Horton, David, Aboriginal Australia: Wall Map, Aboriginal Studies Press for AIATSIS, Canberra, rev. ed., 2000.
Horton, David (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture, Aboriginal Studies Press for AIATSIS, Canberra, 1994.
Tindale, Norman B., Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits and Proper Names, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974.
Acknowledgements
Nanberry: Black Brother White wasn’t an easy, or simple, book to write.
It began as the story of a possum, and the man — Surgeon White — who tried unsuccessfully to tame it. At that stage I had read all the early colonial diaries and letters, and thought I knew all the story to be found.
But as I wrote, more information arrived on my doorstep, a series of coincidences: the discovery of the transcript of Rachel’s extraordinary trial, more letters rediscovered, another painting, lists of ship’s crew and Charterhouse students. The book changed to a deeper one, with Rachel; and then another, that made Andrew White the hero, as I learned more about his life too. But slowly, gradually, yet another book emerged. It was Nanberry who was at the forefront now, the amazing child who not only survived ‘smallpox’ and the death of his family but also the possible death of his entire people. The book changed, layer by layer.
As always, this book has been a team effort. When you are trying to reconstruct the past, working with often contradictory material and place names that have vanished — and in some cases the places vanished too — it is easy to get lost, especially when material comes from so many disparate places. Kate O’Donnell and Kate Burnitt worked with their invariable meticulousness and insight, keeping every thread together; the vision of Liz Kemp and Lisa Berryman, as usual, helped me find the true heart of the book. Lisa is combination guardian, Godmother, sounding board and concept launcher for every historical novel I write.
I’d also like to give my great thanks to Steve Sheen, for his invaluable material on Andrew Douglass (Douglas) White, researched over many years; and for the unstinting generosity with which he shared it and allowed me to use it in this book. Many thanks as well to Hugh Grogan, for setting me on the right course to find the sappers of Waterloo, and — always — to Noël Pratt and Angela Marshall, not just for helping turn a mess of a manuscript into a book, but for their kindness, their depth and breadth of knowledge, and their dedication and insight, helping keep the balance and accuracy needed when writing about cultures that aren’t my own. There are few friends like Angela who, when asked to read a manuscript, have the wide eclectic knowledge to send back a footnote: ‘By the way, Nanberry probably wasn’t the one who sailed up the Shoalhaven.’
When you write about the past the problems are often the bits that you don’t know that you don’t know. (That sentence makes sense if you read it twice.) Angela’s watchfulness has meant that the obsessive rummaging in the past that leads to these books is done by two, not one, and in this, as so many books, her help is beyond words of gratitude.
About the Author
Jackie French is a full-time writer and wombat negotiator. Jackie writes fiction and non-fiction for all ages, and has columns in the print media. Jackie is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. She writes across all genres — from picture books, humour and history to science fiction.
Other titles by Jackie French
Historical
Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall
Soldier on the Hill • Daughter of the Regiment
Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • The White Ship
How the Finnegans Saved the Ship • Valley of Gold
Tom Appleby, Convict Boy
They Came on Viking Ships • Macbeth and Son
Pharaoh • A Rose for the Anzac Boys
Oracle • The Night They Stormed Eureka
A Waltz for Matilda
Fiction
Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries • The Secret Beach
Summerland • Beyond the Boundaries
A Wombat Named Bosco • The Book of Unicorns
The Warrior — The Story of a Wombat • Tajore Arkle
Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories
Non-fiction
Seasons of Content • A Year in the Valley
How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri
Invaded My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer
How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges
Stamp, Stomp, Whomp
The Fascinating History of Your Lunch
Big Burps, Bare Bums and Other Bad-Mannered Blunders To the Moon and Back • Rocket Your Child into Reading
The Secret World of Wombats
How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?
The Animal Stars Series
1. The Goat who Sailed the World
2. The Dog who Loved a Queen
3. The Camel who Crossed Australia
4. The Donkey who Carried the Wounded
5. The Horse who Bit a Bushranger
Outlands Trilogy
In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood
School for Heroes
Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior
Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs
Wacky Families Series
1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate
3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome
5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla
7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken
8. My Pa the Polar Bear
Phredde Series
1. A Phaery Named Phredde
2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce
3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian
4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom
5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian
6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid
7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team
8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants
Picture Books
Diary of a Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
Pete the Sheep (with Bruce Whatley)
Josephine Wants to Dance (with Bruce Whatley)
The Shaggy Gully Times (with Bruce Whatley)
Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip (with Bruce Whatley)
Baby Wombat’s Week (with Bruce Whatley)
Queen Victoria’s Underpants (with Bruce Whatley)
The Tomorrow Book (with Sue deGennaro)
Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2011
This edition published in 2011
by HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Jackie French 2011
The right of Jackie French to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright.
Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
French, Jackie.
Nanberry: black brother white / Jackie French.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9022 1 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9714-1 (epub)
For children.
Australia—Social conditions—19th century—Juvenile fiction.
A823.3
Cover design by Jane Waterhouse, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover images: Aboriginal boy © Penny Tweedie/Corbis; View of Sydney Cove by Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW, Call number: DG 60; leaves and possum from shutterstock.com
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