Australia's Bushrangers - Essay Example

A little over a century ago, Mark Twain remarked that "Australian history does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies" (cited in Gerster, 2001). The elevation of bushrangers, such as Ned Kelly, to the status of mythical heroes and national legends, incited that remark. Australian history, as opposed to legend, sentimental national memory and selective or revisionist recollections of the past, incontrovertibly establish the criminality of the nineteenth century bushrangers. They were murderers, thieves and outlaws and even their staunchest supporters have been unable to defend them against these claims (Seal, 1980). Within the parameters of the stated, the more fundamental question pertains to the evolution of criminals into figures of heroic legend and, more precisely, the secret of the appeal of bushrangers like Ned Kelly to the Australian national memory. In response to the questions raised, the argument shall illustrate that the bushrangers became figures of heroic legend and assumed mythical proportions within national memory as an immediate outcome of the nation's historical circumstances, its status vis--vis Britain and, most importantly, consequent to the fact that the bushrangers' defiance of the law, withstood retelling as rebellion against British domination, and their capacity to survive in the country's harsh and expansive outback lend to the myth of the formation of nation, through the taming of the wild. The very formation of Australia, insofar as many of its "founding fathers" were the outcasts and victims of British society and justice, significantly contributed to the later evolution of the bushman as hero (Jupp, 2001, p. 16). In his overview of the demographical characteristics of the nineteenth century Irish and British convicts who were transported to Australia, James Jupp (2001) , observes that the majority were poor and marginalised. Not withstanding or denying the fact that they had a criminal background and were convicted felons, the fact was that a significant percentage were first-time felons and that he majority were guilty of non-violent crimes such as larceny and theft. In other words, studies and historical records indicate that the British and Irish convicts, transported to Australia for their crimes, were not the dangerous criminals they have often been depicted as but, more often than not, poor and marginalised members of the lower classes, whose crimes did not warrant transportation to a penal colony (Jupp, 2001). Within the context of the mentioned, one begins to realise that the country was gradually being peopled with settlers whose very circumstances, whether the experience of social marginalisation or harsh/blind justice predetermined, not only the evolution of an outlaw culture but, support for outlaw-ism insofar as it withstood interpretation as rebellion against the British and against injustice. The status of Australia vis--vis Britain further contributed to the readiness to elevate the bushmen into national icons and heroes, rather than simply dismiss them as outlaws and criminals. As may be inferred from David Neal's (1987) account of the emergence of Australian nationhood, Australia was perceived of as a convict society and penal colony. Irrespective of the validity of this perception, the fact remains that the stated coloured societal relationships and the distribution of power therein. Quite simply stated, society was consequently comprised of a free class, which wielded both wealth and power, and the convict and slave classes (Neal, 1987). As may be inferred from Neal's (1987) analysis, it was a society characterised by inequality and insofar as a significant proportion of its members were not free, not to mention the status of the country itself as a penal colony, as opposed to a sovereign and independent nation, Australia and Australians were not free. Instead, the country was subject to British domination, on the one hand and, the majority of society was under the domination of the minority, on the other (Evans and Thorpe). It is within this context that one need approach the figure of the Australian bushman if we are to attain an understanding of the elevation of criminals into figures of legendary heroism. Given the contextual parameters of both the characteristics of the British and Irish convicts and the status of Australia as a quasi-penal colony, the Australian bushman was destined to become a national icon. As Evans and Thorpe outline, the bushman, viewed as convicts and criminals, bore the brunt of the law's harsh cruelty. Jack Bushman, a convict at Moreton Bay, was sentenced to 100 lashes on eight different occasions, ultimately receiving a little in excessive of 1,000 lashes. While the authorities sought to justify and defend such punishments, arguing that they were judiciously exercised, the fact remains that they were both cruel and dehumanising, ultimately aiming towards the breaking of these men, whether on the physical or psychological levels. The busmen, however, or those of them that entered into the national consciousness and memory, survived that cruelty and refused to bend, responding instead through outright rebellion (Evans and Thorpe). Were one to momentarily consider the implications of resistance within such circumstances, not to mention the tenacity to survive and sustain a resistant spirit, one would realise that the transformation of the bushmen from criminals to heroes was effectively predetermined by the stated. The bushmen survived the harshest forms of physical abuse and this, in itself, did not just incite later national sympathies but effectively sustained the equation of the bushmen's plight with that of Australia, a young nation struggling to survive and attain freedom against the might of its British masters. In arguing a literal interrelationship between the bushmen and the young Australia, Huggan (2002). Both were oppressed by the British and both were denied their freedom but the bushmen, refused to surrender. They defied the authorities, representing the British, and they refused to accept the fact that they were convicts living in a penal colony. In questing for their freedom and in defying the restrictions imposed upon them by their criminal status, they were effectively struggling for the independence and freedom of Australia and defying the restrictions imposed upon her as a nation by her status, not only as a British colony, but as a penal colony (Rose, 1994; Huggan, 2002). The bushmen, being identified with Australia and their struggle becoming interrelated with that f the young nation, naturally entered "cultural memory" as national heroes and figures of legendary iconic proportions (Huggan, 2002, p. 142). As such, the fact that they were actually little more than common criminals is rendered completely irrelevant. Not only were the historical, political and social circumstances of the age, as illustrated in the above, perfectly suited for the subsequent transformation of the bushmen from criminals to national icons but they fact that they survived in the harsh Australian Outback and effectively conquered it, further contributed to the bushmen legend and incited later day national respect and attraction. As Palmer (2003) notes, the Outback in Australian national memory is the West in American national memory and just as the taming and he conquering of the former elevated the American cowboy into a national symbol, the very fact that they survived within, and lived by the harsh rules of the Outback, elevated the bushmen not only into figures of national heroism but into founders of the Australian nation (Palmer, 2003). The Outback was, even more so than imaginable today, harsh, rugged, bare and alien to human life and, as such, stood as this vast obstacle to the unification of Australia as a sovereign nation; as a nation which extended its authority over every inch of its land. By learning the rules of the Outback and by proving that survival within was possible, the bushmen metaphorically removed that obstacle (Palmer, 2003). As such, they were destined to become national heroes and the very stuff of Australian legend. In the final analysis, the criminality of the bushmen is irrelevant within the tapestry of Australian history and national memory. They were judged as criminals and dehumanised by Britain; a country which ha effectively done the same to Australia insofar as it had deprived her of sovereignty an relegated her to the status of a penal colony. The busmen's resistance was Australia's resistance against the British; their struggle for freedom was Australia's struggle for independence and self-government; and their survival was Australia's survival as a young and emerging nation. It is as such that the bushmen are national heroes. Bibliography Gerster, R. (2001). The Ned Kelly myth and Australian identity.' Lancet, 357(9253). Retrieved 8 March, 2006 from EbscoHost. Huggan, G. (2002). Cultural memory in postcolonial fiction: The uses and abuses of Ned Kelly.' Australian Literary Studies, 20(3), 142-154. Retrieved 8 March, 2006 from EbscoHost. Palmer, L. (2003). How the Outback was won.' Canter Magazine, 2(1), 18-21. Retrieved 8 March, 2006 from EbscoHost. Rose, D.B. (1994). Ned Kelly dies for our sins.' Oceania 65(12), 175-186. Retrieved 8 March, 2006 from EbscoHost. Seal, G. (1980). Ned Kelly: The genesis of a national hero.' History Today, 30(11), 9-15. Retrieved 8 March, 2006 from EbscoHost. Read More