3. Convict kids
Convict love token from J. Fletcher. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Australia.
Why did kids get transported from Britain to Australia?
What were their crimes? Did they miss their families?
What was life like as a convict in Van Dieman’s Land, an open air prison on Palawa land?
Students from Princes Street Primary School in Hobart tell us what they know about convict kids.
Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Marcelle Mangan tell the story of transportation, convict tattoos and tokens, and convict life at the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart.
They answer kids’ questions and reflect on what the evidence can and can’t tell us about the convicts.
Episode outline with timecodes
A quick overview of the episode in sections, the duration in minutes and seconds, and a short description of each section.
eg Host reflection on crime and punishment 8:27 - 9:23
Host Axel reflects on how strange some historical crimes seem today and introduces the concept of the age of criminal responsibility.
Download Convict Kids episode outline as Word
Download Convict Kids episode outline as PDF
Transcript
Voices
Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a specialist in convict history and is at the University of New England.
Marcelle Mangan is a tour guide at the Cascades Female Factory, Hobart.
Thanks to all the students whose voices you hear in this series, and their schools and teachers:
Princes Street Primary school, Marrickville West Primary School, Westbourne Grammar School,
Preshil Primary School, La Perouse Primary School, and Yirrkala Bilingual School.
How to use this episode in your classroom
Play all the way through (31 minutes) or play half the episode (15 minutes) and pause.
We'll tell you when you've reached halfway, and recap the episode.
Get the Curriculum guide and Scope and Sequence for your state or the Australian Curriculum.
Download the 4 page Learning Materials worksheet PDF for your class.
More learning resources
National Museum of Australia
Digital Classroom ‘When prisoners walked the land’ evidence file
Museums of History NSW
ABC Education
State Library of NSW
Music
Less Jaunty and Apollo Diedre by Blue Dot Sessions.
Convict Maid sung by Blazey Clark. Guitar by Tom Clark.
How to cite this episode:
Clark, A., Curtis, J., Wright, C., & Jorgensen, B. (2024, June 11). ‘Convict kids’. Hey History! (Season 1). UTS Impact Studios. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11557916