Voyages of the Banyandah - Macquarie Harbour

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Macquarie Harbour
Across the Southern Ocean from Albany W.A. January 2009

On Pain and Sorrow
map of Macquarie Harbour showing Sarah Island Grummet Island lies nearby
Grummet Island c.1824 prisoners towing raft of logs with the rocky tip of Sarah coming into view

Immediately after the dingy crunched into small rock beach, stepping ashore we froze like statues gazing, our imaginations tweaked by the silence which seemed to carry the cries of lost souls, while next to our landing we envisaged the struggle of Constable Rex being forcibly held underwater by nefarious convicts. In vivid images, the words we had just read leapt into life as the young married soldier vainly fought for his life. The air still reeked of fear and sweat so much had been shed there. It drifted strongest from a cleft in the rock, and investigating, we passed through a dark opening leading into the rock’s heart. As my eyes adjusted to the poor light I fleetingly glimpsed eight women in rags chained to the walls, cringing more deeply and whimpering as I clattered forward upon the smoothly worn stones. Through vision misted by tears I saw soldiers brutalizing those helpless waifs, taking pleasure as brutes do to those unable to defend their dignity. Escaping the cavern’s close confines, I wondered if the bright sunshine had made my eyes water, or had it been the knowledge that mankind can be twisted when absolute power manifests perversity.


In the eery light, this could be Margaret Keefe, a young Irish-woman transported for shoplifting who was chained to the cave wall, and later lived with the Pilot James Hunt Lucas, bearing him four sons.	Atop Grummet lay the remnants of what once held the meagre cooking fire

First settlement in Macquarie Harbour - Worst prison in the British Empire 1822 - 1833

the island of many names Langerounerene, its Palawa name, may have been a meeting place for the woman of the Perternidic, Mimegin, Lowerin, and Ninene clans when they met to gather swans eggs in Macquarie Harbour; named Sarah Island by James Kelly after the wife of the merchant who financed his expedition; then officially known as Settlement Island during the Penal Settlement 1822 – 1833
Entranced by such peaceful ambience	Penitentiary

Remnants of Government House

The last Tasmanian Aborigines at Hobart circa 1864
Including Trugannini, seated right, who guided Robinson on his West Coast Expeditions rounding up clansmen,
and William Lanne, seated left, from the West Coast region, who was the last Tasmanian Aborgine to be captured.