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| Convicts who endured to become Australians. |
This new jail, or officially a “detention centre” will be at Pontville near Hobart, while the English convicts were first sent to Sarah Island in Macquarie Habour on Tasmania’s remote west coast and then later to Port Arthur, also near Hobart.
The difference is large or little depending on your view – the convicts didn’t want to come here and nor did they know where it was they were going; the asylum seekers, wanted just that and what they have got is jail – they knew where they were going and wanted to come here.
Interestingly, from the chaos that was the early dumping grounds for convicts has emerged a nation that has respect of and has gained traction in the international community.
The wounds, however, have been deep and in many instances continue to weep, troubling many, particularly our indigenous people who, outside some, have found the white fellas’ way mysterious and fundamentally opposed to working in concert with nature to build a good life.
That said, and again I note it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and still often isn’t, for indigenous people, we have cobbled together a pretty good structure from somewhat troublesome foundations.
Those original convicts came with considerable baggage, some warranted and some not, but beyond anything else the dislocation they experienced was sufficient to make anyone somewhat bitter and twisted. Despite that, the nation survived and subsequently burgeoned.
Since the arrival of the first convicts in 1788, the idea of a “fair go” took root and its legacy now demands we extend that same generousity to those arriving here as asylum seekers.
Rather than jail them, we need to treat them with respect and always assume they came with good intentions and so work at assimilation, rather than simply jailing them.
Tasmania’s early history is pock-marked with troubles, so let’s make its contemporary history refreshingly better.
