Convicts who became 'political prisoners, vigilantes' helped build Dapto

Academic and filmmaker Tony Moore is attempting to rewrite Australia's history and shine a light on the forgotten who made this country what it is today through a new online history portal.

Dapto, for example, wouldn't be the place it now is without the likes of Patrick Staunton and Joseph Marceau.

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"Forget old Sydney town, this is the convicts," Professor Moore said.

"The answer to why the colonies like NSW and Victoria get these reasonably democratic constitutions in the 1850s and 1860s - so far ahead of Britain - is the convicts resisted.

"They collectively resisted ... and it probably stopped Australia becoming a plantation society Like the southern states of the US."

He said this surge of "forced migration of free labour" was really the scaffolding for Australian colonies.

"Their resistance needs to be acknowledged as a leading contributing factor to our industrial democracy, human rights and to political democracy," Professor Moore said.

"Many of those convicts became active trade unionists and active political characters and their resistance itself lead to changes in the convict regime."

In its entirety, the Conviction Politics project will feature 120 short documentaries profiling some of the countries greatest fore-bearers, from bread thieves in the United Kingdom, to rebels fighting for the rights of the poor in Canada, to First Nations people who were trying to go about their daily lives.

Living descendants of these people were interviewed for the project, along with prominent commentators like Tim Flannery plus Indigenous Elders about the resistance by First Nation's "Freedom Fighters" of history.

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"Wollongong comes into it because that cemetery in West Dapto has a large number of political prisoners buried there," Professor Moore said.

Joseph Marceau was a French Canadian revolutionary, he said, from the uprisings in then called Upper and Lower Canada (Quebec) during the 1830s who were fighting back against the British colonisation.

He got shipped off to Australia for his supposed wrong-doing, but upon being given a pardon after years of hard labour (partly building Parramatta Road), Marceau decided to stay.

He settled in Dapto with a land grant of 25 acres and married Mary, eventually having 10 children together and many, many grandchildren (and subsequent descendants).

The pair were farmers, selling their produce in Wollongong, while Marceau became a well-known businessman affectionately known as "Honest Joe the Grocer". in May 2022 a plaque was laid at West Dapto Cemetery honouring Marceau.

Other notable convicts from the area include Patrick Staunton and Peter Larkin, both vigilantes ("Ribbon men") from Ireland who fought the rich to help the poor.

After serving time Larkin purchased land in Yallah and Staunton came to live with him for some time. Two of their respective children ended up marrying, before Staunton eventually settled in Moruya.

"We basically have partnered with the people that have all these amazing collections of the convict records," Professor Moore said of the other organisations involved in the project.

"The aim of this is rewriting the history of convict Australia. Convicts need to be understood as a forced migration of unfree labour - akin to slavery - to build the Australian colonies."

The project encompasses pictures, specially written songs and documentaries (directed by Steve Thomas, who also created the online hub).

The project led by Professor Moore at Monash University's funded by the Commonwealth Government through the Australian Research Council, and partners other than Roar Film include NSW Teachers Federation, the Trade Union Education Foundation, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum of Australia, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Trade Union Congress of UK, University of New England, UNSW, Griffith, Australian Catholic University, University College Dublin and University of South Wales.

To check out all the historical stories, videos, pictures and songs, visit: https://convictionpolitics.web.app/stories

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