A Love of Liberty: The Manipulation of the Colonial Tasmanian Institutional System by Invalids

Abstract

"There was also a very non-descript sort of a person, who, on enquiry I found to be one of the 'old gentlemen' for whose use and pleasure the schooner is more constantly employed than she should be; for it appears there are a number of these 'old gentlemen' who are called invalids, and for whom the country provides very comfortable quarters; amusement and food, and a free passage to and fro whenever they feel disposed to pay a visit to their friends or having some money, feel that they would like a little more extended recreation than they can obtain at their marine residence. The 'old gentleman' under notice may be thus described: - He was of low stature, very repulsive looking, dressed in an old swallow-tail coat that had no doubt at one time adorned a very genteel person, but which, under the present circumstances appeared very much out of place. His head was covered with an old cloth cap, and his feet were not covered with a very dilapidated couple (not pair) of shoes. He, too, had provided for himself, for under his arm was a bundle containing sundry scraps, the result very likely of the previous day's begging. This sketch will convey a very inadequate idea of this 'old gentleman', whose restlessness and imbecility were such to give one an idea of a wild animal confined within the limits of a few yards. The whole of the voyage down he scarcely remained stationary five minutes together." ('Mercury', 24 March 1870, p. 3.) ... This impression, made by a visitor to the Port Arthur Penal Establishment In 1870, refers to an emancipist pauper, an individual from the group forming the principal component of colonial Tasmania's aged-poor population, and the virtually exclusive component of that convict settlement's invalid depot. It is also representative of a group ideology, a 'mentalité', which defined the aged poor emancipist as undeserving of society's succour. While such thinking dominated post-transportation Van Diemen's Land, the management and perception of pauper invalids nevertheless underwent a profound transformation in this period. By 1901, in stark contrast to much of the preceding half century, invalid paupers were accepted and treated as a deserving part of Tasmanian society. Charitable institutions, once a cog in a repressive carcereal regime, became an integral element in a comprehensive health management system for the aged-poor. Many mechanisms played a role in this transformation. While the whole story is beyond the scope of this article, one facet, resistance to incarceration, contributed considerably to the process of social change.