Lost in transportation: Mumming and Australia

Transportation, the movement of prisoners from British jails and hulks to penal colonies in Australia, occurred from 1787 through 1867 when the last convict ship sailed from Britain. 1787 was also the beginning of the transportation of free men from Britain to Australia for the purposes of settlement. Both these groups faced the same problems which included a radically different climate and geography, new flora and fauna, ongoing often conflict-laden contact with indigenous peoples, shortage or absence of pertinent skills and knowledge for survival, and the problems associated with Britain being a six month one-way journey by sailing ship. While settlers were left to engage the new circumstances virtually on their own, the ability of convicts to respond to the new circumstances were constrained by naval and colonial powers that controlled both their activities and their movement on the land. Neither group, settlers or convicts, engaged in mumming in Australia although mumming was prevalent in Britain at the time. By contrast, the same population of peoples, predominantly English and Irish peasant and working class, were settling Newfoundland Canada during the same time period and did continue with mumming in their new communities. This paper addresses a number of issues which conspired to stunt the development of mumming in Australia.