New TV Drama "Banished" The founding of the Penal Colony in Australia in 1788

[Wiggy]

Great - if you have foxtel!   

[majm]

I remember reading "Sarah Dane" by Catherine Gaskin, This gives a good account of the trivial reasons for transportation,the conditions on the ships and at the penal settlements and how when their sentences were served many made good lives.
 Captain Bligh of the Bounty , was Governor  of N.S.Wales. He was an absolute martinet and was relieved of his post, much to the relief of all concerned.

Anyone remember the Ashes match when the scoreboard said " POMS----CONVICTS----"(Sorry, can`t remember the score) ?Viktoria.

As Governor of NSW he was usurped by a military coup d'etat .  (the only successful one in Oz history)

The main protagonist was working behind the scenes.  The Military leader was sent to England.   

The replacement Governor was Lachlan Macquarie, a Military man, a Scotsman, and the first of the non Admiralty governors.

Bligh's administration put in place many of the procedures and practices that Macquarie developed further, such that without both of those administrations, there would not be the records to be found by family historians interested in the Penal Colonies.

I have NSW ancestors who supported Bligh's removal, and I have NSW ancestors who supported Bligh. 

Cheers,  JM

[majm]

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bligh-william-1797

This might help re Bligh.  Seems to be fairly balanced.

Cheers,  JM

[DavidG02]

The information in the link above says that it is intended to focus more on the people and their stories rather than being historically accurate. (so a bit like Downton Abbey in that respect I am expecting)

Apparently this '' focus on not being historically accurate '' also includes , not only white teeth, but white casting.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/bbcs-banished-jimmy-mcgovern-defends-allwhite-cast-20150309-13z0fy.html

To be honest , I think its quite ridiculous to portray this time in our history and ignore the interaction between both cultures.

As noted an ABC radio today, '' could you present the Mayflower story and not include the Native American Indians?''

[majm]

So, it seems there's no script to disclose one of the more infamous characters transported to New South Wales.  This chap  transported under a sentence of an English court, arriving with the First Fleet, so he was walking around on land in January 1788, weeks before the female convicts disembarked .... He was a John Black Caesar.  He was a man of colour. and he led a very colourful life in the penal colony too.   

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/caesar-john-black-12829

http://firstfleet.uow.edu.au/s_caesar.html

Perhaps it is not the colour barrier, but rather that there's too much material available for the script writers to draw upon.

If there are female convicts depicted in this TV show, it is depicting more than the first fortnight in NSW.     

19 Jan 1788 to Botany Bay.   26 Jan Flag raised Sydney Cove   2 Feb beginning of the landings of the female convicts.   7 Feb the Colony of NSW was proclaimed.  10 Feb first marriages

Yes, I can be pedantic  but ..... they may as well call it "Non Historic founding of a Penal Colony"
..... even mentioning "Australia" is not chronologically correct.   First recorded official use was by Lachlan Macquarie and he did not even arrive until December 1809 ... 

The information in the link above says that it is intended to focus more on the people and their stories rather than being historically accurate. (so a bit like Downton Abbey in that respect I am expecting)

Apparently this '' focus on not being historically accurate '' also includes , not only white teeth, but white casting........
To be honest , I think its quite ridiculous to portray this time in our history and ignore the interaction between both cultures.

As noted an ABC radio today, '' could you present the Mayflower story and not include the Native American Indians?''

Exactly,  completely agree, quite quite ridiculous to ignore the interaction between both cultures. particularly when Governor Philip deliberately strove to interact with the locals. 

Cheers, JM

[KGarrad]

To quote an old Hollywood maxim: "Never the the facts get in the way of a good story".

I haven't watched, simply because I don't much like "faction".
Either stick to facts, or make it a fiction.

[Viktoria]

 Well you would expect Bligh to want accurate records etc, and you can imagine he was very efficient.His naval training and character would govern his attitude to everything he did.
 Where there is an honest man you can usually find other men who find that inconvenient as they cannot then  pursue their own ends.
 So it seems whether he was a martinet or not he would have been superceded, but he must have given enough reasons  and it is  sad if an honest man, -- I don`t doubt he was that-- behaved in such a way to give reasons which were not the real reasons, for his replacement.
 Sadly this would mask the ulterior motives of less honest men.
 Thanks for the information.Viktoria.

[bykerlads]

Am a bit puzzled by the apparent shortage of food and the seeming dependence on supplies from England.
A lot of the initial plot is to do with lack of food etc.
Why did they not get fish from the sea?
No hunting or foraging seems to be going on, either.
Am certain the actual transportees and the military must have been a bit more resourceful ?

[groom]

I'm not sure that they were. I remember reading that they were dependant on supplies from England and there were problems when the boats didn't arrive as they were delayed by storms or ship wrecked.

"While the natives subsisted on local plants and fish, the settlers found few of the plants to be appetising. As the settlers appear to have been poor fishermen, most of their food had to come from the supplies brought with them on the ships. This resulted in their total dependence on a shipping trade monopolized by the East India Company and non-existent as far as Sydney was concerned."

http://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/the-first-fleet/