REGULAR FEATURES
EPISODE 4 - A By: Al Finegan
I
n July 1790, convict Mary Ann Wade, not yet thirteen years old, had been working till she dropped, seven days a week since her arrival six weeks previously, tending to the sick and dying in the crude hospital in the burgeoning colony of Sydney. She had no idea what her future would be, or where she would be sent. Then finally, towards the end of the month, she was told that she was one of the women to be sent to Norfolk Island. Governor Phillip had demanded one ship of the Second Fleet be contracted to transport the women and their children to the Island. Surprise was made available, and Justina, the store ship, would accompany her with much needed supplies. Just as Sydney had been, Norfolk Island was in the grip of starvation. On 31st July 1790 Mary Wade boarded the Surprise and sailed out of Sydney Harbour along with 149 women with their children, the great majority of them still unspoken for and many pregnant.
BIG FAMILY
After the First Fleet had arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788, Phillip ordered Lieutenant Philip Gidley King to lead a party of 15 convicts and seven free men to take control of Norfolk Island and prepare it for its commercial development. They arrived on 6th March 1788. During the first year of the settlement, more convicts and soldiers were sent to the island from NSW including the first female convicts. Immediately on their arrival Commandant Gidley King had first choice of the women and selected Ann Inett to be his housekeeper. Ann, who later ran a successful business was described as an attractive woman, small framed, dark haired, industrious, and with a neat and clean appearance. On 8th January 1789, she delivered the first child to be born on the island who was named Norfolk King. A year later Ann had a second child. Several years later, Gidley King arranged for his sons to be sent to England to be educated, and both went on to become distinguished Royal Navy officers.
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The Bribie Islander
The birth of the settlement on Norfolk Island was not a happy one. The Island suffered from the lack of any suitable cove for ships to anchor and discharge their cargoes. It was surrounded by a coral reef, and out from the reef, it was a sheer drop to the deep ocean floor making it impossible for ships to anchor safely. Over the years, this led to many disasters causing loss of life and stores. The previous March, HMS Sirius had been wrecked on a reef losing all its stores and stranding its entire crew on the Island, leaving the colony desperately short of food, further exacerbated by the doubling of the population.
she observed the boat that had just landed her, while returning with the next group, capsize in the heavy surf. She watched on helplessly as seven of her friends struggled in the waves, then drowned, while the boat was smashed to pieces.
The Surprise death rate during the Second Fleet voyage was high, and the general conditions aboard were so bad the vessel became known as one of the “Hell Ships” of the Second Fleet. The weeklong trip across to Norfolk Island was not pleasant, yet Mary made the trip without complaint. It was Mary's introduction to Norfolk Island that was to be her most frightening experience when
Mary continued working six days a week during all daylight hours for her soldier for the next year as the colony struggled to feed itself. At one stage a plague of caterpillars invaded the gardens of the island and for about a month, she spent every daylight hour plucking them off her plants and stomping on them.
No special provisions had been made to house female convicts. They were all immediately assigned to non-convict men, ostensibly as house servants, but in reality, as mistresses. Gardens for the growing of vegetables had been established to help the serious food position that had developed. Mary, assigned to a soldier as a house servant was soon hard at work in his garden.
A year later, two men arrived on Norfolk who were to have a
