From ‘disgrace and pollution’ to ‘pride’: how Australians came to embrace their convict family ties
Many former convicts changed their names and hid their past. But over the last 50 years, Australians have increasingly discovered – and embraced – convict relatives.
Australia's penal colonies, established between 1788 and 1868, received more than 162,000 convicts from across the British Empire. Initially, these colonies were dubbed "the dunghill of England" due to the negative connotations associated with convictism. However, over time, many convicts managed to reinvent their pasts and achieve respectability.
For example, former Parkhurst boy Henry Butler Dowie became a shop owner and was elected to Evandale's municipal council in Tasmania, where he was remembered fondly as a respected resident. By the 1920s, most Australians descended from convicts had little knowledge of their convict ancestry. This began to change in the 1960s with the emergence of social historians who explored the lives of everyday people.
Their work helped transform public understandings of Australia's convict history. The bicentenary of Australia in 1988 marked a turning point, as Australians became proud of their convict links. Schools across the country incorporated convict-themed commemorations into their curriculum. Furthermore, the availability of digitized records and the internet has made it easier for Australians to uncover and embrace their convict family histories.
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