Australia
is no stranger to convicts-turned-novelists e.g. Gregory David
Roberts of Shantaram fame or scribes being threatened with conviction
e.g. Julian Assange of Wikileaks. While leafing through the pages of
Matthew Condon's book, Brisbane, I chanced upon a rather interesting
character named Thomas Dowse.
When
he was 15 years old, Dowse was presented to London's Central Criminal
Court. He was charged with stealing a coat, waistcoat, trousers, shirt and
handkerchief from his mother, Catherine. Dowse had pawned the
clothes, belonging to his minor brother, for 35 shillings. He was
found guilty and sentenced to death. Like many convicts on death row
in England, he was sent to the new penal colony in New South Wales
aboard the ship, Florentina. In New South
Wales, he was pardoned in 1839, after serving eight years as a
convict. He then made his way up to Moreton Bay (near Brisbane) in
1842, when the convict settlement was opened to free settlement.
 |
| Thomas Dowse |
Dowse
dabbled in different trades. He was an auctioneer, a landlord, a
small businessman and also the secretary of Brisbane Teetotal
Society. At
his premises in Queen Street, he sold almost anything from shirts,
frock coats, cutlery, looking-glasses, books and livestock. His
auction mart became a centre for discussion of social reform,
for perhaps no one then had a greater horror of the degrading convict
system or worked harder to end it. He was a keen
observer and prolific diarist.
After the Moreton Bay Courier was
first published in the winter of 1846, Dowse found a platform for his
witty letters. He became the first Brisbane-based correspondent for
the Sydney Morning Herald, where he wrote with the byline, Old Tom.
He wrote political commentary, historical
vignettes, character sketches and gossip. In his Brisbane Courier
series, Old Times, Dowse recorded his recollections of the early
years of the settlement. His diary is currently in the State
Library of Queensland.
No comments:
Post a Comment