Cat-o’-nine-tails

1840s

One of the most common forms of convict punishment was flogging (whipping) with a ‘cat-o’-nine-tails’, a whip named for the way it scratched the skin like the claws of a cat. Made up of nine lengths of knotted cord attached to a handle, it would lash the back of the offender, tearing the skin and causing intense pain. The number of lashes, 25, 50, 75 or 100 or more was determined by a magistrate or court, and dependent on the seriousness of the convict’s offence. In 1833, Ernest Slade, Deputy Superintendent of Hyde Park Barracks introduced a new cat-o’-nine-tails that he boasted could draw the blood after only four lashes. All convicts present at Hyde Park Barracks were ordered to watch the floggings. Contrary to popular belief, not all the convicts experienced multiple floggings; two thirds of all convicts experienced only one or no flogging during their sentence.

As I passed along the road about eleven o’clock in the morning there issued out of the prisoners’ barracks a party consisting of four men, who bore on their shoulders (two supporting the head and two the feet) a miserable convict, writhing in agony of pain – his voice piercing the air with terrific screams. … I... was told it was “only a prisoner who had been flogged, and who was on his way to the hospital!

Roger Therry, Reminiscences of thirty years’ residence in New South Wales and Victoria, London, Sampson Low, Son, and Co., 1863, 2nd ed, 41-42.

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Convict Sydney, Level 1, Hyde Park Barracks Museum
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Objects

These convict-era objects and archaeological artefacts found at Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint (Rum Hospital) are among the rarest and most personal artefacts to have survived from Australia’s early convict period

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Convict Sydney

Leg Irons, bar link

Known as darbies or slangs in the convict ‘flash’ slang language, leg irons came in various shapes and sizes

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Leg irons, standard

Standard leg irons, like those pictured here, weighed seven pounds (3.2 kilograms)

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Convict Sydney

Leg irons, heavy

Known as darbies or slangs in the convict ‘flash’ slang language, leg irons came in various shapes and sizes

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Convict Sydney

Ball and chain

1820s–1840s: Known as darbies or slangs in the convict ‘flash’ language, leg irons came in various shapes and sizes

'Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. 1788' / W. Bradley
Convict Sydney

Molesworth report

The findings of the 1837 Molesworth inquiry brought about the end of convict transportation to New South Wales

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Convict Sydney

Iron Gang chain

Convicts who re-offended after arriving in the colony could be assigned to do hard labour in an iron gang

 Leather leg iron ankle protector, excavated from beneath the floorboards of Hyde Park Barracks
Convict Sydney

Leg iron guard

A stunning example of an improvised handicraft, this leather ankle guard or ‘gaiter’ was made to protect a convict’s ankle from leg irons

Ovalled leg irons
Convict Sydney

Leg irons, ovalled

Leg irons chafed the ankles, made loud clinking noises with every movement, and made working difficult and tiring

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Branding iron

Branding irons like this one were used to brand government-owned property livestock as well as items made from timber

Port Arthur Historic Site
Convict Sydney

Port Arthur

A notorious penal station made up of more than 30 convict-built structures and substantial ruins located in evocative, largely uncleared bushland on the end of the Tasman Peninsula