MovieChat Forums > The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce (2009) Discussion > Australia's dirty secret?

Australia's dirty secret?

posted 14 years ago by shannonphoenix
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In "Van Diemens Land" there was a reference to the fact that it was Australia's dirty secret or some thing of the like. I don't understand that because for the most part, Australia was not technically a country so much as a colony of the British Empire. Just like the American colonies with the Indentured Servants made up of non-violent offenders, and especially the state of Georgia being a penal colony, that is what Australia was. From what I know of the penal colony and of Australia, beside being a very beautiful country/continent, it is also extremely hard and rough in what they call the "Outback." American servants and the state of Georgia had a lot better conditions than Australia. So, basically shouldn't it be called "the dirtiest secret of the British Empire?"

I do not mean any disrespect to anyone British or Australian. This happened a long time ago and I think both countries treat their prisoners better than here, or maybe the same.

"You can tell of a civilization on how they treat their prisoners." author unknown.

[–] puirt-a-beul 14 years ago

G'day shannonphoenix,
A lot of people here in Australia tend to think of things that happened prior to January 1st, 1901 as more Britain's doing, not ours. (01/01/1901 is our date of Federation, when the separate British colonies that now form our separate states were legally joined together as the one democratic country. Prior to that we were British property.) So yeah, I agree with you that it's more a "British Empire's dirty little secret". Whether the "dirtiest" or not is probably a matter of opinion -- there were a lot of grubby things happened all over the world under the regime of the Brits -- just as there were deplorable things happened in the empires of the Spanish, the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and probably every country that's ever colonised another, back to the start of history!

Not that Australia hasn't got things to be ashamed of, too. Both before and since Federation, we've treated our own native people pretty badly -- much the same as the US and Canada have treated theirs, from what I understand. Not many people get it right, I think.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] seh-7 14 years ago

It's also hardly a secret. I'm Tasmanian, and while we didn't learn all the gory details of Alexander Pearce in school, we certainly learnt quite a bit about the reality of our ancestry and the myths that have sprung up from convict times. It's quite common knowledge down here that the worst convicts were sent to Port Arthur, and the worst in Port Arthur were ditched out to Sarah Island.... where they were basically left to rot.