'To work the Fair Ones Orderly and Well and on the Toll of the Bell': The Management of Female Convicts at the Penal Station of Moreton Bay

Abstract

<p>Moreton Bay was a penal outpost established in 1824, founded to 'put the terror back into the system'. This article reveals something of the anomalous and elusive female experience on that settlement. The analysis is framed around a highly theatrical display of collective punishment inflicted upon the women in 1829. By examining the meanings attached to this single event the wider dynamics of class and gender and of punishment and workplace resistance are exposed and explored. This long forgotten episode effectively demonstrates the gendered tensions and anomalies created by the presence of female convicts on a remote military penal station.</p>