The Archaeology of the Convict Probation System: The Labor Landscapes of Port Arthur and the Cascades Probation Station,
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The Archaeology of the Convict Probation System: The Labor Landscapes of Port Arthur and the Cascades Probation Station, 1839–55 Richard Tuffin 1
& Martin
Gibbs 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract In the British colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania, Australia) the period 1839-53 witnessed an irrevocable change in the way in which prisoners (convicts) were managed. Known as the “probation system”, its introduction saw convicts newly transported from the corners of the Empire sequestered in government-run stations across the colony’s length and breadth. At these places, rigorous and uncompromising discipline, classificatory regimes, religious inculcation and trades-training would see the convict molded into working stock for the colony. In reality, such ideologies were to be undone by reactive planning, miscommunication and chronic under-resourcing, as well as helplessly undermined by unforeseen economic and political circumstances. Condemned as a failure, probation has nonetheless left an indelible mark on Tasmania’s landscape. A system only implemented in Van Diemen’s Land and Norfolk Island, it can rightfully claim a significance that extends well beyond these islands’ shores, playing a critical role in Britain’s globe-spanning penological enterprise. In this paper, we chart the course of probation, simultaneously outlining a framework for engaging with these landscapes where penology and labor was so closely intertwined. It will be illustrated with two examples drawn from the Tasman Peninsula: the Port Arthur penal station (1830-77) and Cascades probation station (1842-55). Using archeological and historical enquiry, the different impacts that probation had upon the penological and labor management of these places are examined, providing examples of how the significant landscapes of the probation-era can be examined. Keywords Tasmania . Convict labor . Tasman Peninsula . landscape archeology .
colonization
* Richard Tuffin [email protected]
1
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia
International Journal of Historical Archaeology
Over the 80 year period when felons were transported from Britain to the Australian colonies (1788–1868), the physical and operational nature of the convict system developed in response to a range of evolving penological and economic forces. One of the more dramatic shifts in both philosophy and practice emerged in the colony of Van Diemen’s Land (modern Tasmania) in the 1840s with the institution of the probation system of convict management. This new system sought to retain convicts within government service for longer periods, optimizing their economic utility at the same time as inflicting a “just measure of pain” (Ignatieff 1978). The changes wrought by probation’s implementation were multi-scalar and resulted in the creation of large numbers of new institutional sites across the landscape of Van Diemen’s Land; the introduction of new formalized design
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