Beyond 'Birthstain': Further Research into Anti-Transportation Campaign in Australia

Our understanding of the campaign against transportation in Australia has been largely based on how the anti-transportationists themselves described it. In the 1980s, John Hirst and Michael Sturma detected that the antis were 'creating' history, and my own work explores the extent to which Australians' understanding of the past was shaped by their version. Traditionally the anti-transportation campaign has been interpreted as a liberal movement concerned with constitutional issues, originating in New South Wales (NSW). However, discussions in the 1830s about ending transportation to NSW as a precursor to self-government must be disentangled from the full-blown anti-transportation campaign that began in the 1840s. The former was seen as a positive achievement, advocated by local people who identified with its constitutional progress to a free society. The latter was a campaign against the 'degradation and evil' of convictism by mainly new arrivals whose opinions had been formed in Britain. Religious belief was a motivator and clergy, supported by devout laymen, were proactive leaders of the movement, which originated in Van Diemen's Land.