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The Convicts' Contribution to the Built Environment of Colonial Western

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The Convicts' Contribution to the Built Environment of Colonial Western School of The Built Environment The Convicts’ Contribution to the Built Environment of Colonial Western Australia between 1850 - 1880 Fiona Bush This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University September 2012 ABSTRACT Western Australia was founded as Australia’s first free colony in June 1829. The colony was not as successful as those in eastern Australia, and many of the settlers argued that the poor progress was due in part to a shortage of labourers. By 1849 the colonists had decided that their only way forward was to become a penal colony and the first ship arrived in June 1850 carrying 75 convicts. The thesis explores the impact that convicts had on the built environment of Western Australia. To understand the convicts’ contribution to the building industry this thesis begins with a study of buildings constructed before 1850. Extensive research was undertaken into the types of buildings erected by the settlers between 1829 and 1850: such as the types of materials used, the design and who actually constructed the buildings. The study found that before the arrival of the convicts the colony had a shortage of men with skills in the building trade. One of the major factors that enabled the convicts to contribute to the development of the colony’s building industry was vocational training, in areas such as bricklaying, brickmaking, carpentry and masonry that they obtained during their incarceration in public works prisons in Britain. This training was provided by the British government before the convicts were transported to a penal colony, as part of a new system of penal discipline. Following their arrival in Western Australia, soldiers of the Royal Engineers continued the convicts’ training on public works projects in the colony. This thesis expands our knowledge of how the convict system operated in Western Australia, especially how it differed from that used in Australia’s eastern colonies. It highlights the integral part that the Royal Engineers had in the convicts’ training, a role not previously investigated. The examination of how ticket-of-leave men (convicts out on parole) were utilised by private i settlers indicated that there were considerable flow-on effects for the private citizen, not just for public projects. In particular, the research has shown that the skills gained by the convicts while erecting government colonial buildings were of direct benefit to the settlers. One important and far-reaching benefit was the substitution of brick for rammed earth or wattle and daub. Finally, the thesis used an archaeological methodology to analyse and compare two groups of buildings; those constructed before 1850 and those constructed after 1850. This use of archaeological methods to analyse standing structures is considerably under-utilized in Western Australia. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This was John’s idea. It seemed a good idea at the time, my daughter had gained her driver’s license so Mum’s taxi had become redundant and there was a need for this research. Six years on I’m not so sure how good an idea it was. I have certainly learnt a lot (expanded my knowledge of the convict system and colonial buildings in Western Australia) and struggled with unknown territory - theory. As a mature age student I found that uni life and research had changed markedly, you could now search databases on-line! So much could be done from home, down-loading journal articles and other material and don’t even get me started on how amazing Trove is! My especial thanks go to the Australian National Library for that wonderful gift. Thankfully a lot hasn’t changed, people are still willing to help and I was extremely blessed with the number who helped and cared. I therefore have many people whom I would like to thank. To the staff at Battye Library who were always extremely clever at finding illusive manuscripts and suggesting other sources of information and the wonderful people in the State Records Office of Western Australia. They would often search for hours for little used despatches and my offbeat queries. I also need to extend a special thankyou to the owners of the properties that I visited. They gave freely of their time and knowledge of the buildings in their care and allowed a complete stranger to poke around in their marvellous buildings. A big thank you to my good friend Janie Pearson who willing became my field assistant, writing down incomprehensible measurements and once had to rescue said measurements from a water tank (thankfully empty) – it pays to go on field trips with a tall person! To my quilting friends, the Blackboy Hill Quilters and the Possum Patchers who provided welcome relief and laughter from research and writing, who despite the fact that they couldn’t understand why I was doing a thesis and were puzzled when after three years ‘it’ still wasn’t finished, urged me onwards. iii My good friend Inger who, like my family has travelled this path with me from the beginning. She often had the unenviable task of picking me up; applying the bandaids and pushing me back on that path, always with sound advice and humour. To my colleagues who were supportive and provided advice on building construction and thesis drafts, particularly Kelly who helped with archaeological theory, but especially Penny who, like Inger has been incredibly supportive reading thesis chapters, providing advice, sympathy and ensuring that ‘it’ has actually reached completion. I would also like to thank my supervisors John Stephens and Reena Tiwari for providing advice and encouragement, which from John became increasingly ‘just write something’, which was probably more of a plea! Curtin University generously awarded me with a three year post-graduate scholarship, for which I am truly grateful. They probably despaired of me finishing. To Smeagol who came on fieldtrips, and who has faithfully kept me company during the day, sleeping under the desk, but always ready for that illicit walk (and dinner). Fluffy cocker spaniels can be amazingly therapeutic. Finally I need to thank the two most important people in my life, my husband and daughter. For the past six years they’ve had to put up with a person who has gone from being completely ecstatic over research findings and vernacular buildings to one who became grumpy and dismal. Despite this they’ve hung on. Conor provided encouragement, suggestions and timetables. Sympathy, cups of tea, tried to develop a database for ‘my convicts’ and she fixed my graphs so that they became something that even an engineer could be happy with. Despite these setbacks she managed to graduate with a double degree! Mark has been my field assistant and driven me to places that he’d never heard of and didn’t really want to go to and then had to hang around while I cooed over the buildings. He manipulated my measured drawings and maps into something that could be easily inserted into a document and bought endless take-aways when it was obvious that iv dinner was going to be extremely late or non-existent. He ignored the fluff fairies and dust was a non-existent entity. He’s been wonderful. To you all Thag you very buch (Tolkein 1975, The Hobbit) v Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Error! Bookmark not defined. ABSTRACT I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III TABLE OF CONTENTS VI List of Figures ix List of Tables xiii ABBREVIATIONS XIII DEFINITIONS USED IN THE THESIS XIV 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Methodological Approach 6 1.2 Thesis Outline 12 2.0 METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 14 2.1 Methodological Approach 14 2.2 Theoretical Framework 21 Architectural Studies 22 Archaeological Theories 34 2.3 Conclusions 40 3.0 SETTING THE SCENE 42 3.1 From Free Settlement to Penal Colony 44 3.2 Development of the English House 51 3.3 Traditional British Building Techniques 57 Wattle and Daub 57 Rammed Earth 58 vi Table of Contents Cob 60 Brick 61 Stone 62 Timber 62 4.0 PRE-CONVICT BUILDINGS: 1829 - 1850 64 4.1 Construction Methods and Materials used by Settlers 64 Wattle and Daub 65 Rammed Earth 73 Cob 76 Brick 80 Stone 85 Timber 92 4.2 House Design 104 4.3 Conclusions 124 5.0 THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ENGLISH PRISON SYSTEM IN THE EIGHTEEN AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 128 5.1 The Birth of Prison Reform 130 5.2 The Rise of the Penitentiary 135 5.3 A National Prison System 138 5.4 The Transportation System 141 5.5 The Royal Engineers & the 20th Company of Sappers & Miners 150 Brief History of the Corps and Royal Engineers 153 Convict Supervision by the Engineers 156 Wray as Acting Comptroller General 160 The Engineers’ Department and Colonial Works Office 163 The Effectiveness of the Engineers 170 5.6 Repercussions of the Penal Servitude Acts for Western Australia 171 5.7 Cessation of Transportation 176 5.8 Conclusion 179 6.0 THE CONVICT SYSTEM IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA 182 vii Table of Contents 6.1 Convict Studies 182 Historical and Economic Studies 187 Studies on the Impact of Incarceration 193 Genealogical Studies and Individual Stories 195 Remains of the Confinement System 197 6.2 Statistical Information on Western Australia before 1850 200 6.3 Convicts, Ticket-of-Leave Men and Public Works – the System 208 6.4 Conclusions 225 7.0 CONVICTS: TRANSFORMING THE COLONIAL BUILDING INDUSTRY 227 7.1 Convict Training on Public Works and its impact on the Private Sector 228 7.2 The Rise of Brick as a Building Material in Western Australia 242 7.3 Conclusions 259 8.0 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BUILDINGS ERECTED BEFORE AND AFTER THE ARRIVAL OF CONVICTS 261 8.1 The Builders 262 8.2 Construction Materials and Methods 270 Stone
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