Australia's not a very old country. Sure, there are Aboriginies and stuff, but on the whole, the first people to come over here to settle were convicts, sent down from the motherland. (That's the UK, not Russia). Yesterday, as Rachel was busy studying and we needed to get out of her hair, Colette and I went to visit one of the oldest towns in Australia. We crossed the oldest bridge in Australia, walked around the oldest prison in Australia and saw the oldest church in Australia. The fact that all three things were built in the 1820s shows how young a country Oz really is. My house is nearly doubly as old!
We wandered around the prison of Richmond, where English convicts, who were tried for such trivial matters as "stealing a loaf of bread", "insolence" and "suspected of stealing a shirt" and sent on a boat Down Under would be locked up. My favourite crime committed which warranted punishment was an Irish gentleman, who was arrested in Dublin for "being drunk in church". He was sentenced to being sent to Australia, and serving 6 months digging roads. If this law was applied thoroughly in Ireland, there wouldn't be many freemen left, but they would have great transport links.
After doing all of the prisony stuff (trying on handcuffs, locking ourselves to the wall, shutting ourselves in solitary confinement for a few minutes) and reading all of the signs around the prison, we left Richmond Gaol (I don't know why they spelt it like that either). Normally I'm not a big fan of museums and that (yes, I did History A level), but I found this really interesting. There's another (much bigger) convict prison in nearby Port Arthur which we'll be visiting soon, so you can await that blog with trepidation!
Richmond's a small little village with not a great deal going on, but we walked under Australia's oldest bridge and had a little picnic of a sandwich, a peach and some grapes. Colette and I had a great chat - unsurprising as I haven't seen her in the past four years and a lot has changed in her life since then. As well as the picnic, many pictures of me were taken. Colette, with her very flashy camera, has been in Japanese tourist mode with me around, and has been taking pictures of me at every possible situation. Will in solitary confinement. Will in handcuffs. Will in the stocks. (These weren't at the prison, she's not a very kind host). Mostly, however, she takes pictures 'naturally', which means sneaking up on me when I'm not expecting it, and taking random pictures of me. This means she now has loads of pictures of me scratching my arse and picking my nose. But, whatever.
TTFN for now! Will
Sounds like a good day out - you made me laugh "If this law was applied thoroughly in Ireland, there wouldn't be many freemen left, but they would have great transport links."
ReplyDeleteGlad that you can spend some good chatting time with Colette - we had a real hoot growing up, playing badminton, riding our bikes up and down Polworth Road and singing to guitars on Belgium and Dutch Ferries..... get her to tell you about those tales !
Mum xxx