Book opens door on colonial past
Bedlam at Botany Bay
AUTHOR: James Dunk PUBLISHER: New South Publishing
RRP: $34.99 REVIEWER: Jo Marsh
THIRD lieutenant George Maxwell was aboard the Sirius, as it headed to Cape Town for provisions, when he took up the night watch in a difficult area of iceberg-strewn seas.
As strong winds lashed the ship, he made his men set more and more sail so that the ship was forced to “lay down” so far towards the sea that the captain was thrown from his hammock.
Requesting an explanation, the captain saw that Maxwell was delirious and sent him below.
Previously, Maxwell had been sternly warned for his unwarranted anger and having his men thrashed.
On his return to Sydney, he had “got so raving” that the surgeons had no difficulty diagnosing him insane.
He was admitted to the settlement’s hospital and placed in a cottage in the adjoining garden.
Bedlam at Botany Bay opens the door on our colonial past and peers into the very heart of the early days of white settlement as it lures out a forgotten, and often misunderstood, segment of our population – those who were deemed mad.
From convicts to colonists, seamen to soldiers, madness did not discriminate; some recovered, most didn’t.
Author James Dunk intersperses the historical narrative with stories of individuals, such as Maxwell’s, whose actions pushed them out of the “norm”.
With little medical knowledge to hand, it was most often left to the decision makers of the time, who tried with varying degrees of interest, to deal with the unplanned for, but inevitable, presence of mental illness.
The cold reality was that there was nowhere to house the afflicted in a young colony already grappling with a multitude of issues and struggling to maintain itself without the benefit of established infrastructure.
Dunk brings to light the difficulties and dramas experienced not only by those in power but also by the few whose plights were documented at the time.
This is a history of men and women struggling to create a society that cares for those less fortunate.
It is also a story that continues today.
‘‘ DUNK BRINGS TO LIGHT THE DIFFICULTIES AND DRAMAS EXPERIENCED NOT ONLY BY THOSE IN POWER BUT ALSO BY THE FEW WHOSE PLIGHTS WERE DOCUMENTED AT THE TIME.