Known as darbies or slangs in the convict ‘flash’ slang language, leg irons were used widely as a way of punishing convicts who had committed crimes and misdemeanors after arriving in the colony. Standard leg irons, like those pictured here, weighed seven pounds (3.2 kilograms). The basils (rings) were fitted around the convict’s ankles and then hot rivets were put in place by a blacksmith, so the irons could not be removed.
Leg irons chafed the ankles, made loud clinking noises with every movement, and made working difficult and tiring. Running at any speed in irons was almost impossible - unless of course the convict could find a way to remove them.
I wore leg-irons like all the others, which weighed about seven pounds, and at first they made me feel rather curious… our convict life had begun... my leg-irons the tell-tale to recall me if ever I went back again in thought…
Convict Jack Bushman remembering 1818, in 'Passages from the Life of a Lifer', Chapter II, Moreton Bay Courier, vol XIII, no 741, 9 April 1859.
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
Convicts could earn good money doing private work, so many tried to conceal their skills during the initial muster to avoid being assigned to government projects
A recently donated letter, signed by the governor of NSW in 1832, offers a tangible connection to the story of Samuel Horne, a convict who rose to the rank of district chief constable in the NSW Police