I think one of the best known things about Australia's history is that we were originally an English prison colony. Actually the Federation of Australia was comprised of several of them. New South Wales is arguably the best known, but Tasmania and Western Australia were quite large as well.
Victoria, where I'm from, simply didn't. Oh, I think they tried with a few small holdings, but we had nothing on the scale of Sydney Town or Van Diemen's Land. Victoria is much better known for being a goldfield - Ballaarat (now just "Ballarat"), California and later the Yukon were the big places the gold miners went to back in the 1850s.
Yet we are all known as being convicts, and Australians on the whole are very attached to their convict heritage in that weird cultural cringing way we've developed. The rest of the world may deride us for it, but by all the Gods above we're going to be proud of it! Finding a convict ancestor in your family tree is something to be cherished and gives you bragging rights over those dirty, not-true blue enough Aussies who only have scunging Free Settlers in their background. And heavens forbid you should find a trooper in your family tree. Back to England you go, screw!
So I suppose it comes as no surprise to realise that in the Australian way of things, at least the piece of it I came from, the police aren't regarded particularly highly. The underdog rules in the Australian heart, which also leads to our infamous "Tall Poppy Syndrome". If anyone seems to be getting too big for their britches or a swelled head, there's nothing more than an Australian likes to do than cut them down and put them back in their supposed place*.
Historically, there was no one better at getting too high and mighty than the troopers. Most didn't want to go to the colony. It was a place of exile for the troopers as well as the convicts, though at least the troopers could potentially go home again after their tour was done. They were usually bachelors, and often the troopers had been thrown out of their old detatchments for misconduct and so were assigned as far away as they could get them. That meant Sydney Town. These prime pieces of dross tended to take their frustrations regarding their situations out on the convicts. They also had one main escape from the harsh realities of the colony - rum. They drank a lot of it, and pity the governor who tried to stop the manufacturing of it.**
One can only imagine some of the atrocities perpetuated by these isolated fellows. After all, tales are told of how so many female convicts on the First Fleet arrived in the fledgling colony pregnant, when they hadn't been that way when they started out.
Things didn't really get better as time went on. Even in Victoria, on the Goldfields we had horrors such as The Eureka Stockade and the infamous shoot out at Glenrowan. Neither of these events shine a particularly good light on the troopers, though in the latter case at least Ned Kelly did have a reputation as a bushranger. He and his family also have a reputation for being victims of police persecution, and amongst certain circles in Australia, he is a legend for standing up to authority and not taking it lying down.
So Australia is a prisoner island, standing at the limits of an endless ocean.*** We don't really like authority, and we don't trust our police. Even today in our newscasts, if the police have dared to shoot at someone, it's immediately reported nation-wide, usually in terms of "They don't need to do this to those poor innocent people!" The Victoria Police in particular have a reputation for shooting to kill, even though I can only think of a handful of times they actually have killed someone.
I like to think I'm a rational person, and suspect that with the restrictions they have on even drawing their weapons, those people they've shot were presenting a danger to those around them. I may be wrong - I know the Australian in me is screaming, "But they probably weren't! They just shot them because it was easier!" See? The history is telling.
Why am I writing about all this in this blog? Isn't this supposed to be about my experiences here in Canada, and not reminiscences of half remembered Australian History lessons and societal issues?
The attitude to the police is quite different here. It's quite telling that one of the most famous figures in Canadian literature is an RCMP officer. I can't see the equivalent happening in Australia. In fact given Ned Kelly's iconic status, it's the opposite.
It's a thing of pride to have a family member in the police here, while I remember the worst insult one of my brothers would throw at we younger ones would be, "You're going to be a bloody copper when you grow up, aren't ya?" We were supposed to be ashamed of that thought, and the quickly spat back, "No I'm not!" indicated just how well we had learned that lesson.
The brother who said these things wasn't really the brightest spark on the bonfire, and nor was he known for his acceptance of authority, but though he was something of an extreme case and not indicative of the whole family's experience, he is illustrative of the difference between the Canada and Australia.
Australians aren't criminals - well, no more or less so than any other Western country - but there is this underlying current of distrust and fear of the police, rather than the respect I tend to see here. I married into a Canadian family who have solid ties to the Ontario Provincial Police so perhaps we go too far the other way, but the media coverage isn't as suspicious of its law enforcement agencies as the Australian ones tend to be.
Of course there are Canadians who are distrustful of the police and their policies, but on the whole, it is one of the major ways the Australians and the Canadians are dissimilar from each other. It's been interesting to watch.
* I think that ultimately that is why Australians don't like Americans very much. The bold and brassy confidence a stereotypical "Septic" has really rubs Aussies up the wrong way. Loudness as a lifestyle really gets on an Australian's nerves. "Pull ya head in" really is the Australian way of doing things.
** Gotta love William Bligh; first his crew mutinied on the HMS Bounty, then this Rum Rebellion. It's interesting how in movies about this incident Bligh is portrayed as the high and mighty English Overlord with all the privilege and arrogance that might imply, while MacArthur was the Little Aussie Battler, just trying to make a quid in an unfair world. In reality they were probably just as heinous as each other. At least MacArthur moved on to sheep after all this.
*** From "Great Southern Land" by Icehouse, ©1982 Iva Davies. Lovely imagery, but how are there limits to an endless ocean? I love this song though, so pull ya head in. ;-b
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