tasmania: leave it to george the pied piper

The final solution down under in Tasmania….

George Augustus Robinson. The type who would run a reformatory for reclaimed London hookers out of Dickens’ Hard Times. He was tireless, humorless and untiring. Also uneducated, dogmatic and his bent was to redeem. This type who one can imagine running a grim and improving school for indigent children was the man to whom a baffled government, after the farce of the Black Line, turned for an alternative solution.

---William Lanne (also known as King Billy or William Laney) lived from ca. 1835 to 3 March 1869 and was the third husband of Truganini. He is best known for being the last full- blooded Tasmanian male.---click image for link...

—William Lanne (also known as King Billy or William Laney) lived from ca. 1835 to 3 March 1869 and was the third husband of Truganini. He is best known for being the last full- blooded Tasmanian male.—click image for link…

Robinson had entered the government service as an intermediary with the natives. Out he would go into the bush, with a couple of servants, his Bible pack, and a tame native woman, Black Moll, dressed up in gay ribbons to attract attention- they called her Robinson’s decoy duck. He learned the aboriginal language, and over many months of wanderings throughout the island he made contact with most of the surviving tribes and gained he confidence of many.

Robinson approached the native’s kindly, often entertaining them upon the flute and sometimes spending weeks at a time in their company, for he knew that God had called him to save them from their sinful ways and lead them toward the Truth. In fact, Robinson undertook to persuade all the surviving Tasmanians out of the bush and into government control, and almost single-handed he succeeded. ( to be continued)…

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October 2010 M  T W T F 	S 	S « Aug 	  	Nov »  	1	2	3 4	5	6	7	8	9	10 11	12	13	14	15	16	17 18	19	20	21	22	23	24 25	26	27	28	29	30	31 Translate this site     with Google tools Flickr Tasmania Pool Sorrel-Panorama sand Coles Bay, Freycinet National Park Painted stone 2 DriftWood A time and place More Photos Monthly Archives: October 2010	 Abbott family and Francis Abbott’s diary October 11, 2010 The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery has recently acquired the leatherbound journal of Francis Abbott from a Queensland collector. Abbott brought it with him from England when he was transported for obtaining watches under false pretences. After working on road gangs at Oyster Cove, Abbott became one of Hobart’s most respected citizens, gaining recognition as an astronomer, meteorologist and clockmaker, receiving a commission to make the clock at Government House. Abbott also kept weather records which were published monthly and became the standard reference. State Library of Tasmania Title: Francis Abbott [seated in doorway] Creator(s):Unknown Date: ca 1860 Description: 1 photograph : b&w copy of sepia original; 14 x 10 cm. Notes: Exact measurements 138 x 98 mm, Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand., Francis Abbott seated in a shed doorway wearing a fez and holding binoculars. Subjects:Abbott, Francis – 1799-1883 Abbott family Format: photograph Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts ADRI: AUTAS001125299883 These TV snapshots were taken from footage of an ABC News report of the TMAG’s acquistion of Abbott’s diary, broadcast October 3, 2010: EARLIER ENTRY 11/28/06 This is possibly the blue half-plate photograph referred to in Joan Kerr (1992:3) showing the Abbott garden with its workshop and pear tree in foreground. Title: Hobart Town Creator(s):Abbott, Charles, 1824-1888 Abbott, Alfred, 1838-1872 Date: 1858 Location: W.L. Crowther Library ADRI: AUTAS001124068651 The Abbotts were an enterprising family from convict beginnings in Van Diemen’s Land. This Abbott family photo is from Joan Kerr (1992:2). It is believed to be by Charles Abbott, as he is missing from the photograph. Dan Sprod comments:     “The talented Abbott family in the garden of their Murray Street home, c. 1860. Francis, senior (centre) was transported in 1844 for ‘obtaining two watches under false pretences’ but soon overcame this setback to gain wide recognition as a watchmaker, meteorologist, and astronomer. Francis, junior (right), was appointed superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. Two other sons, Alfred (left) and Charles (not present) were early amateur photographers. The women are Mrs Mary Abbott and her daughter Maria.” Dan Sprod, Victorian and Edwardian Hobart From Old Photographs (John Ferguson, Sydney 1977), Plate 170. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection: Ref: Q16505 ITEM NAME: Photograph negative: MEDIUM: Wet glass plate negative, MAKER: Charles Abbott [Artist]; TITLE: ‘Abbott family, left to right Alfred [ watchmaker, Hobart], Mary (wife of Francis Sen.), Francis (senior), Maria (married Alfred Burbury), Travers Jnr. Photograph “taken in garden of house Murray Street, now Richardson’s building” [ by Charles Abbott ? Watchmaker and optician, Hobart.] DATE: 1858 December The Census of 1867 listed fifteen Abbott residents. Francis’ senior’s sons Alfred and Charles were both remarkably good photographers (late 1850s to the early 1860s), although they were not listed by profession in 1867 – unlike professional photographers Letitia Davidson, Charles A. Woolley, Samuel Clifford and George Cherry. CENSUS: RESIDENTS OF HOBART TASMANIA 1867-1868. NAMES. OCCUPATION & ADDRESS TOWN ——————– ————————————- ———– ABBOTT Alfred 78 Murray Street Hobart ABBOTT Charles Murray Street Hobart ABBOTT Charles Orr 215 Macquarie St. Hobart ABBOTT Francis Watchmaker & Jeweller 78 Murray Street Hobart ABBOTT Francis jnr Royal Society’s Garden, Queens Park Hobart ABBOTT Frederick Wm. Survey Office Hobart ABBOTT George 44 Patrick St Hobart ABBOTT George Coach Manufacturer 175 Elizabeth St Hobart ABBOTT Henry Campbell St Hobart ABBOTT John George St, New Wharf Hobart ABBOTT John William 54 Murray Street Hobart ABBOTT Joseph New Street Hobart ABBOTT Mrs 111, Macquarie Street Hobart ABBOTT Robert 147 Colins Street Hobart ABBOTT Robert Macquarie Street Hobart etc etc Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts ADRI: AUTAS001125299883 Like this: Like Be the first to like this. Posted in Demographics, Gallery. Tagged clocks, convicts, Francis Abbott, TMAG. Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery October 9, 2010 [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] [Haughton Forrest painting TMAG] [Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery] AG2997 ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: William Duke [1815 - 1853] [Artist]; TITLE: ‘Offshore whaling with the “Aladdin” and “Jane”‘ DATE: 1849 AG5917 ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas, MAKER: W C Piguenit [1836 - 1914] [Artist]; TITLE: ‘A Mountain Top, Tasmania’ DATE: c1886 AG3180 ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas, MAKER: Haughton Forrest [1826 - 1925] [Artist]; TITLE: ‘Mount Wellington ‘ DATE: 1883 AG1286 ITEM NAME: Painting, oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: Thomas Bock (attributed) [1790 - 1855] [Artist]; TITLE: ‘Emma, daughter of Edward and Maria Lord’---click image for source....

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ITEM NAME: Painting, oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: Thomas Bock (attributed) [1790 - 1855] [Artist]; TITLE: ‘Emma, daughter of Edward and Maria Lord’—click image for source…. 


ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)…Lanne was captured along with his family in 1842 and taken to the Aboriginal camp at Wybalennaby George Augustus Robinson. In 1847 he was among the survivors of Wybalenna to be moved to Oyster Cove. He did not stay there long but was sent to an orphanage in Hobart in 1851. In 1855 he joined a whaling ship to become a professional sailor. As such he was away from Tasmania for extened periods but he visited Oyster Cove when he had shore leave.

Lanne died on 3 March 1869 from a combination of cholera and dysentery in Tasmania. His body suffered amongst the worst indignities inflicted by scientists on any Tasmanian. It is one of the reasons why modern Tasmanian groups are extremely suspicious of the movtives of modern scientists, This is regrettable – but om view of the grisly facts, understandable. The subsequent events have been described as follows (from David Davies, 1973″The last of the Tasmanians”, Frederick Muller, London. 235-6):

Dr. Crowther of the hospital vainly applied to the Government for permission to send the skeleton to the Royal College of Surgeons in London. However, a rather macabre note was struck at Lanne’s funeral, for it was found that the head of the corpse was missing. During the night aft


he burial the rest of the body was dug up and several parts removed. Crowther was blamed for the removal of the head and his honorary appointment as surgeon at the Colonial Hospital terminated, but it is interesting to note that the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons awarded him during 1869 a gold medal and a Fellowship of the College, the first instance of an Australian having been given this honour.

The missing skull was never found. Read More:http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter52/3-Tasmania-destruction/destruction.htm

 

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