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This book is a biographical history of Rottnest Island, a small carceral island offshore from Western Australia. Rottnest is also known as Wadjemup, or "the place across the water where the spirits are", by Noongar, the Indigenous people of south-western Australia.
Through a series of biographical case studies of the diverse individuals connected to the island, the book argues that their particular histories lend Rottnest Island a unique heritage in which ¿Indigenous, maritime, imperial, colonial, penal, and military histories intersect with histories of leisure and recreation. Tracing the way in which Wadjemup/Rottnest Island has been continually re-imagined and re-purposed throughout its history, the text explores the island's carceral history, which has left behind it a painful community memory.
Today it is best known as a beach holiday destination, a reputation bolstered by the "quokka selfie" trend, the online posting of photographs taken with the island's cute native marsupial. This book will appeal to academic readers with an interest in Australian history, Aboriginal history, and the history of the British Empire, especially those interested in the burgeoning scholarship on the concept of "carceral archipelagos" and island prisons.
List of contents
Introduction
1. Willem de Vlamingh: Explorer, 1696–1697
2. Henry Vincent and Louisa Vincent: Prison Superintendent and Prison Matron, 1839–1845
3. Jane Elizabeth Green: Female Prisoner, 1840–1842
4. Henry Vincent and Louisa Vincent: The Later Years, 1846–1866
5. Lady Mary Anne Barker: The Governor’s Wife, 1883–1884
6. Benjamin, Bob Thomas, Brandy, Yadthee, Harry, Jumbo, and Weeti Weeti: The Commission of Inquiry Attestants, 1881–1887
7. Karl Lehmann and Martin Trojan: Civilian Internees, 1914–1915
8. Herman August Kuring: Commandant, 1940–1941
9. Fay Sullivan: Nurse and Host to Holidaymakers, 1960–1984
Epilogue
About the author
Ann Curthoys is an honorary professor at the University of Sydney,
and was previously Manning Clark Professor of History at ANU.
She has written about many aspects of Australian history, and on
questions of historical theory and historical writing. In the 1980s she
co-edited two books on Australia's Cold War and another on Australian
history since 1945. More recently Ann has been working on
Paul Robeson's visit to Australia in 1960, exploring the connections
between Cold War politics and the changing nature of race relations
in Australian society. She is author of Freedom Ride: A freedom rider
remembers (2002); with John Docker, Is History Fiction? (2005); and
with Ann McGrath, How to Write History that People Want to Read
(2009).
Summary
This book is a biographical history of Rottnest Island, a small carceral island offshore from Western Australia. Rottnest is also known as Wadjemup, or ‘the place across the water where the spirits are’, by Noongar, the Indigenous people of south-western Australia.
