Extraordinary documents related to the hanging of convicts from the yardarm of a ship for the deadly attack, above, on Victoria's brutal top colonial prison official have become the subject of a special project by Melbourne activist, editor , media commentator , former ALP politician and collector, Pete Steedman .
They came to light while sorting out his extensive files , large book collection , ephemera , even grubby memorabilia from his childhood, built up over nearly 70 years . Many surprising and unusual items surfaced .
By Peter Simon
Of particular interest were death certificates specifically relating to four of the seven convicts hanged for the murder of the Victorian Inspector General of Penal Establishments , John Giles Price , on March 27, 1857. The fourth son of Cornish baronet Sir Rose Price,he was said to have inspired the cruel commandant Maurice Frere in the Marcus Clarke l885 novel For the Term of his Natural Life .
Price had been the former commandant of the Norfolk Island penal settlement from 1846-1853 . Before that , in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania ), he had been muster master of convicts and assistant police magistrate . It was said he went about at night disguised as a constable , looking for miscreants .
Soon after he went to Norfolk Island , he arranged for trials which resulted in the hanging of 17 convicts. After a spell back in Tasmania , he was appointed the head of penal institutions in Victoria during the wild goldrush period , gaining a reputation of being hard, brutal and sadistic.
He was set upon by a chain gang armed with stone and rock breaking tools at Williamstown while investigating complaints about the cruel treatment of convicts and the deplorable conditions aboard rotting prison hulks, one for Aborigines , in which they were jammed .
It was reported that during the attack Price was called a bloody tyrant and a bloody wretch.
Convicts confined on one vessel , President, said to be the "worst prisoners", cheered loudly when they heard Price had been attacked and died the next day from extensive injuries, his body covered in a Union Jack .
The frenzied attack on Price , in one account said to have involved 35 men , followed another deadly attack in October 1856 in which a convict work gang being towed back to the hulk Success , was blown against the towing boat , manned by rowers , and a young warden , Owen Owens was killed .
In typical Steedman fashion , he immersed himself in research into Price , the penal settlements of Norfolk Island , Tasmania and the five early Victorian prison hulks off Williamstown .
Several bushrangers did time in the hulks ,including Ned Kelly, he aboard one named Sacramento .
The men named in the historic documents Steedman discovered were Henry Smith , alias Brennan , Thomas Maloney ,John Chisley and Thomas Williams . In the case of Williams , it seems he may have been involved in a gang which rowed out to a ship , about to set sail for overseas, with a large amount of gold from the goldfields , intent on robbing those onboard. Later on , he had been involved in highway robbery and placed aboard Success .
It was surprising to learn that the Barkly Highway in the Northern Territory is named after him . Not only that, but a swag of pubs, some still operating, one the Sir Henry Barkly , at Heidenberg , where Pete hangs out .
Aware of the importance of the hanging certificates, Steedman, at considerable expense , had them treated by a specialist used to handling old documents . They were then boxed in striking leather Steedman bought when he spent time on Lake Dal , Kashmir, during a grand adventure he had ,starting in Melbourne in l969 and ending in London. It took him to Indonesia, India , Kashmir, Afghanistan (where he bought some flintlock pistols ) and Teheran. Details of this incredible journey, which he was lucky to survive, were run in Little Darwin .
Included in the Kashmir leather package is a copy of The Life and Death of John Price : A study of the exercise of naked power, by Sir John Vincent Barry (1903-1969). There are explanatory pages about the event and the death certificates are in sealed individual sections .
It is Steedman's intention to present the unusual collection to a worthy institution some time before a hulk transports him across the Styx , along with his favourite collection of Greek classics to read on the other side.
UPCOMING: More books and items of interest from Steedman's collection.
