For the Term of His Natural Life
Duration: 1 ½ hours
Age group: upper primary Years 4-7
No of students: 30+
Location: Nolan Gallery eaves, West Gallery, East Gallery
Materials:

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heshin/ canvas/ calico fabric
scissors, crayons
glue gun and glue sticks
tables - five
display cabinets - Neville Locker material (isolation mask; warder’s cutlass, facsimile
leg irons, cat o’nine tails, leather lash, gaol keys)
East Gallery - For the Term of His Natural Life
other artworks in Foundation Collection - Kelly series, Eliza Fraser (unlikely to utilise)
laminates - Hampstead Heath, convict uniform with government symbol, Israeli
punishment methods, convict boat, images of Eliza Frazer story
Program: approximately 1½ hours
Purpose:






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introduce artists Sidney Nolan and
author Marcus Clarke, and
book and drawings entitled For the Term of His Natural Life.
raise awareness of creative responses to historical material
demonstrate what happened to people in nineteenth century crime, punishment,
authority and justice, by way of source material from Neville Locker, selected works
from Foundation Collection, and Term of His Natural Life.
demonstrate examples of convict life and experience in Australia’s penal colonies;
provide a pointed contrast to the experience of convicts at Lanyon
Themes: isolation, punishment, oppression, Nolan’s response through a series
New words: series, epic, cat o’nine tails, triangle, pastiche,
Intro:
5+ mins, leave bags under the eaves, split groups into two (only if more than 25)
Part 1: For the Term of His Natural Life
40 mins Group 1 (then 2)
Part 2: Convicts in Foundation Collection/ Making Isolation mask
40 mins Group 2 (then 1)
Regroup/ cleanup/ conclusion:
5+ mins Groups 1 & 2
N.B:
Group may be going to lunch and then Lanyon Convict Role Play, or have just had lunch
Bold type in the program guide indicates words which may require explanation to
students. The story For the Term of His Natural Life has been simplified and does not
include names of certain characters, or events or locations.
PROGRAM GUIDE
INTRO (5-10 mins)
Ask students to leave bags under the eaves
Gather students under the eaves in two groups
Explain what they will do:
 Today we are learning about convicts, and about crime and punishment in
early Australia. This place is called the Nolan gallery. What do we normally
see in a gallery?
 We will also be making some artwork. Today we are looking at a story and
artwork about convicts by a famous Australian artist.
 We’ll be looking at the work of Sidney Nolan - who has heard of Sidney
Nolan?
 Nolan - Australian artist, produced work from the 40s to the 80s, opened this
gallery with his work in it in 1980.
 Sidney Nolan was interested in depicting the story of Australians who lived in
the past, such as convicts
 What do I mean by the word convict?
 What do we know about convicts? convicts at Lanyon?
 What kind of people were convicts?
 Inside this gallery we are going to see examples of the type of people who
became convicts, and what happened to them when they travelled to
Australia. I want you to think about how it might contrast with your experience
of being a convict at Lanyon.
 I want (group 1) to follow (Nolan guide) to the front of the gallery on my left
(Foundation Gallery), and (group 2) to follow me to the front of the gallery on
my right (East Gallery).
PART ONE: FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL
LIFE (40-45 mins)
Artist Sidney Nolan loved to read. Both literature (stories) and history were
important sources of exploration and inspiration for his artwork.
This series of drawings by Sidney Nolan is based on the story For the Term of
His Natural Life, by the Australian author Marcus Clarke.
This is one artist’s response to the work of another.
Like Sidney Nolan, Marcus Clarke was also very interested in history, and used
historic records as a major source of exploration for his writing.
Marcus Clarke thought he had something in common with the convicts
Outside front
door of gallery
Movement to
respective
parts of the
program.
transported for hard labour: he was also an unwilling exile from England. What
is an exile?
After the death of his mother when he was a child, Marcus Clarke was raised by
his wealthy father (lawyer), and expected to become a Victorian ‘gentleman’.
His father became mentally ill and lost all his money. Clarke was sent to live with
various relatives as a teenager before being shipped off to Australia.
This was a typical fate for many colonials: the ‘transportation’ from England was
a traumatic and painful experience for Marcus Clarke, the bitterness of his
departure and stayed with him.
Clarke adapted to new possibilities in Australia. Clarke had financial difficulties in
the new country, but survived as a journalist in Melbourne. The novel For the
Term of His Natural Life began its life as a serial in The Australian Journal over
two years (1870-72).
In For the Term of His Natural Life (revised for publication as a book in 1874),
Clarke :

Sought to depict the dismal condition of a convict during his term of
transportation from England.
 Demonstrates what the English system of transportation was like, and the
kinds of problems it could cause.
 Problems such as:
1.
Putting a large group of offenders against the law together.
2.
Putting these offenders in remote locations (away from the public eye or
opinion)
3.
Offenders submitted to discipline and punishment which depended on the
personal character of their gaolers (pleasant/ unpleasant)
Students
gather around
the first
drawings:
A novel about oppression and the bonds that people forge against it.
The events in the novel are true historical events which occurred during the
time convicts were transported to Australia.
The characters in this story however, are convicts of fiction, and these particular
events did not happen to them.
Were the convicts at Lanyon fictitious or factual?
Lets find out about the convicts depicted by Marcus Clarke.
The story begins in a place called in Hampstead Heath, London, England, in
1827. The people who live here a very rich.
What do you think is happening in this picture?
A rich young man called Richard Devine has just stumbled across a body by the
side of the road. Beside him is a whip stained with blood, and his diary reveals
that this man’s name is Lord Bellasis. Richard Devine has only recently
discovered that this man is his father.
Lord Bellasis has a fractured skull from a blow to the head, and dies in Richard’s
arms. Richard realises his father Lord Bellasis has been murdered by someone
Laminate
Hampstead
Heath
Death of Lord
Bellasis
else .
Very soon other people arrive at the scene, and accuse Richard of murdering
Lord Bellasis. Nobody else knows that this man is Richard’s father except for
Richard’s mother.
Richard is taken to the police and decides not to tell them that Lord Bellasis was
his father, to save his mother’s reputation.
Why do think Richard’s mother’s reputation might be affected?
(child out of wedlock, she was married to another man, Victorian values)
To hide his identity and protect his mother’s reputation, Richard Devine tells the
police his name is Rufus Dawes. Rufus is wrongly charged with murder and
robbery, and sentenced to travel on a prison ship to Australia, as a convict for
the term of his natural life.
How long is the term of your natural life?
Rufus Dawes travelled to Tasmania on the prison ship Malabar.
Do you think it looks comfortable and spacious? Why? How has Sidney Nolan
conveyed the amount of space available to convicts?
Prison ships were the only way to move convicts out to Australia, and often
convicts lived on board ships in the harbours of England for very long periods of
time. Here is a picture of convicts going aboard a prison ship in England.
The Prison
Ship Malabar
laminate
Prison Ship
York in
Portsmouth
Harbour
Who would we find on a convict ship?
convicts
captain
sailors/ soldiers/ naval officers
lieutenant
Rufus Dawes was innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted. Most of
the other convicts weren’t. How do you think he would have related to the other
convicts?
This is a picture of a man called Maurice Frere. Lieutenant Maurice Frere was
also travelling on the same ship to Australia, and was a very cruel man, often
enforcing the convict’s punishment.
Maurice Frere
What is a lieutenant?
(Maurice Frere came from the same rich family as Richard Devine, who is now
disguised as Rufus Dawes. Richard Devine was to inherit all his father’s money, with
none of it to go to Maurice Frere). Lt Frere takes an instant dislike to Rufus, the
convict who ‘thinks’ he is innocent. Rufus Dawes and Maurice Frere do not like
each other at all, (and Rufus never tells Maurice his true identity, because he will
punish him even more).
Here Rufus is picking up the ball dropped by a little girl onboard the ship. Her
name is Sylvia Parsons, the daughter of the ship’s captain. He befriends Sylvia,
and over the years falls in love with her. Sylvia becomes a symbol of hope for
Rufus. Maurice Frere becomes a symbol of cruelty and violence.
Rufus Dawes
picking up
Sylvia’s ball
The journey to Australia is very monotonous. Many convicts including Rufus
Dawes get sick with fever.
How long do you think it would take to sail to Australia in 1827?
students are
motioned
around to face
‘Mutiny’
drawing
Because the convicts were are so unhappy with their treatment by Maurice Frere Mutiny
they plan a mutiny.
Who knows what a mutiny is?
This convicts name is Gabbett. What do you think is happening in this drawing?
Gabbett was the convict who organised the mutiny. Gabbett tore a cutlass from
a soldier, and bounded up the ladder. Gabbett hated the way he was treated by
Maurice Frere and tried to strangle him to death. He nearly overpowered the
lieutenant because he was so big, but there were too many sailors to restore
order to the ship.
Rufus Dawes didn’t think of himself as a convict because he was innocent of
murder. Rufus Dawes had overheard the convict Gabbett’s plans for a mutiny
whilst he was lying sick with fever, and informed the prison ship guards about
what was to happen, in the hope that his sentence would be repealed. The
mutineers were caught in a trap, Gabbett’s mutiny failed.
The convict Vetch guessed the mutiny plot had been revealed by Rufus Dawes,
and he decided to place the blame on Rufus Dawes. With the other ringleaders including Gabbett and Vetch - Rufus Dawes was sentenced to death. Their
sentences were commuted to six years at the penal settlement of Macquarie
Harbour.
The bloodiest, the most brutal, the most feared in British colonial history! Well,
that’s the reputation of Macquarie Harbour. Settled to provide a slave labour
force to gather the very valuable ship building timbers from around the river and
basin. It was also settled as a death camp - “if you do not knuckle down and
behave convict, this is where you will be banished”. Only the worst of all bad
convicts were sent to Macquarie Harbour. It was the convict labour which
constructed Macquarie Harbour and Sarah Island with roads, jetty, docks, guardhouse and of course a gaol, plus an industrial shipyard.
So Dawes and Gabbett amongst others were sent to Macquarie Harbour, and
the cruel Lieutenant Freres was their commander. This bloody slave labour
camp - Macquarie Harbour - existed in the middle of nowhere, desolate and
isolated at the end of the world. For convicts sent here, there was no escape
except death. Many convicts chose to kill themselves rather than live any longer
under Lieutenant Frere’s cruel command, or tried to escape through the ‘desert
of scrub, heath, and swamp which lay between prison and settled districts’.
Rufus Dawes did try to escape but was ‘lamed’ by the heavy leg irons he wore,
and was for a time condemned to solitude on a lonely island in the harbour
which we see in this drawing. This man is Rufus Dawes.
What is Rufus Dawes wearing?
A typical convict uniform….
This Solitary
man was
Rufus Dawes
laminate
convict
uniform
Dawes is in the striped shirt of a convict and around his ankles are two leg irons,
connected by a short and heavy chain. The leg irons cut into his ankles, and
makes walking difficult.
Here is an example of the leg irons which Rufus Dawes had to wear. I want you
to pass them around in a group and then hand them back to me. As you handle
them feel their weight/ texture/ length of the chain/ size of leghole…..
Facsimile
- leg irons
students pass
around the leg
iron
Do you think it was difficult to walk around with them?
Could you have run very fast? Would you like to work with these on?
Where was Rufus Dawes living? Would it be easy to escape?
For convicts who did not behave there were other forms of punishment, such as
flogging. Flogging involved using a leather lash or whip to strike against the
bare back of a convict.
Flogging
The kind of lash used to whip that Gabbett used to whip Dawes was called a cat
o’nine tails. A cat o’nine tails was a whip which had nine knotted cords fastened
to a handle. In this drawing we can see the nine ‘cats’ used to flog offenders.
This drawing shows a flogging triangle. Three wooden poles, 7-feet high (a
little taller than a person), were fastened together in the form of a triangle. To
this structure the convict - such as Rufus Dawes- was bound.
Dawes’ feet were fastened to the base of the triangle; his wrists, bound above
his head, at the apex (top of the triangle). His white back was exposed to be
flogged.
The Flogging
Triangle
Often, warders (an official having charge of prisoners in a gaol) would make
other convicts to flog each other. One time Dawes was flogged by the convict
Gabbett, who was a very violent and bloodthirsty criminal. He claimed he could
flog a man to death. Some convicts did die on the flogging triangle.
On the first flog, Dawes’ felt like his back was cut in half, and his back was
instantly striped with six crimson bars. On the second flog he began to bleed
from the cuts. On the third his skin began to change colour to a bruised purple.
He stifled crying and yelling until it became unbearable. Dawes had been lashed
before, and this time he received 100 lashes.
In this display cabinet we have an example of:
 cat o’ nine tails - how many ‘cat’ tails can you count?
why do you think this whip has so many knotted chords attached
why do you think this was effective?
 leather lash - used to flog women - not as harsh as a cat o’nine tails
 warder’s cutlass (and sheath) - a short, heavy, slightly curved sword, used
especially at sea. The cutlass sheath had a button to release the sword
which could only be pressed by the person wearing the cutlass.
 gaol keys - including the gaol master key
The brutality of the treatment of convicts led many to desperation - to risk death
by escaping or to kill oneself.
Students are
motioned to
stand around
the
display cabinet
Convict Boys
commit suicide
Students are
What do you think is happening in this picture?
There is something hanging on a little tree.
Well, eventually Gabbett and five other convicts do escape into the dense prickly
scrub. Sticking to the coastline, they have no supplies except an axe.
They travel for nine days without food, shade or shelter. “I am so weak that I
could eat a piece of a man” cries Vetch, one of the convicts. The other convicts
were secretly thinking the same thing. But Gabbett was especially hungry, and
bloodthirsty. That night when everyone was asleep, an horrific cry rang out. In
the morning, the carcass of one convict was divided amongst four others.
By the twelfth day, the convicts food provisions are running short.
motioned
around
Giant Convict
Eating Others
Giant Convict
Eating Others
Gabbett the
Canniball
On the fourteenth day, the four convicts can scarcely crawl. Greenhill is the
weakest convict and thinks he will be next. When Vetch goes off to get wood for
the fire, he hears a crash and groan. He returns to find Gabbett wearing
Greenhill’s shoes, which are much better. The three convicts decide to rest a
day or so, now they have food provisions!
After two more days, Gabbett, Vetch and the other convict Sanders have run out
of food. Time to eat another convict! Vetch and Sanders try to make a run for it,
but Gabbett strikes Sanders on the forehead with his axe.
Escaped
Convicts in the
Bush
How many convicts are left alive?
What are their names?
How many convicts have been eaten?
After two more days, Vetch and Gabbett have run out of convict to eat. Gabbett
was the stronger and hungrier, but Vetch had the axe. For two days they haven’t
spoken to each other, or slept.
Why wouldn’t they want to go to sleep?
Eventually Vetch falls asleep. What do you think happens?
A skin and bones Gabbett finally reached Hobart, in blood-stained rags, carrying
an axe and a bundle over his shoulder. What do think was in his bag? The
authorities decided he was insane and locked him away.
Frere and the convicts have now been moved to another brutal convict
settlement on Norfolk Island. It is equally desolate and isolated as Macquarie
Harbour.
The year is 1838, Rufus Dawes & Maurice Frere left England eleven years
previously. Rufus Dawes is 33, and the Malabar ship captain’s daughter Sylvia
Vickers is now 25. Rufus cherished and loved the memory of Sylvia, and
secretly loves her.
Sylvia has now married the cruel Lieutenant Maurice Frere. She does not love
him. (She loves the Reverend North).
Why would this young girl marry the lieutenant?
What other kind of men did she have to choose from?
Murdered
Convict and
Axe
laminate
map of
Australia showing
Macquarie
Harbour and
Norfolk Island
Bridle
Lieutenant Frere has discovered new tortures for the convicts, including the
bridle - which went over a convict’s face and prevented them from breathing.
One day Rufus Dawes picked a rose for Sylvia, and it was discovered by Frere.
Frere’s revenge was to sentence Rufus Dawes to the ‘spread eagle’ and the
‘stretcher’. Dawes was bound on a horizontal iron frame with iron slats placed
crosswise, with his neck projecting out over the end. If he allowed his head to
hang, the blood rushed to his brain and suffocated him, while the effort to keep
his head raised strained every muscle to agony pitch. His face was purple and
he foamed at the mouth.
The Torture of
Rufus Dawes
laminate
stretcher
The Rose
What do you think is happening in this picture?
Sylvia discovers what her husband is doing to Rufus when she visits the gaol,
and insists that the warders “loose him… this is no punishment; it’s murder!” She
gets on her knees and begins to untie his ropes.
Sylvia saves Rufus Dawes’ body, which has been on the stretcher for nine
hours. (Reverend North arrives to save Rufus Dawes’ soul). Sylvia learns that her
husband Maurice is responsible for the cruel punishments which Rufus Dawes
has endured. Maurice Frere’s acts of violence finally result in Sylvia insisting on
their departure from Norfolk Island. Frere promises to change his cruel ways.
Epilogue
Frere and his wife Sylvia depart on a schooner soon after. Rufus Dawes stows
away on the boat, disguised as the priest Reverend North, who was supposed to leave
Norfolk Island on the same boat.
Soon into its journey, the schooner is capsized in a cyclone. Rufus Dawes
rescues Sylvia from the sinking ship, and she begins to remember her love for
him as a child. The next morning their motionless bodies can be seen drifting
out to sea together on a floating piece of shipwreck.
Who do you think the two bodies were?
Why are the people of the floating shipwreck motionless?
Do you think this was a happy ending to the story (for Rufus and Sylvia)?
What do you think happened to Maurice Frere?
Do you think Rufus Dawes would have ever escaped, or was his fate to be a
convict forever? What was his escape in the end?
Macquarie Harbour, Port Arthur and Norfolk Island were especially hard prisons
for the worst convicts. But if a convict was well-behaved and productive, they
could often earn tickets of leave. Not all the stories and fates of convicts were as
bad as that of Rufus Dawes.
End of program…. That’s the end of our story lets head outside to pick up our
isolation masks.
Go to Part Two of Program, Option Two - the preferred option.
Now we are going to have a look at another form of punishment used on
convicts which didn’t involve cutting or whipping or stretching or bleeding….
move to the
cabinet with
the isolation
mask
PART TWO: CONVICTS IN THE FOUNDATION
COLLECTION & ISOLATION MASK - MAKING
(40 - 45 mins)
Option One (least likely): Go to practical activity, via convicts in the
foundation collection
Spiel not yet done, because there probably won’t be time for students to look at
Ned Kelly’s father and family’s subsequent treatment, as well as the convict who
rescued Eliza Frazer.
Option Two is to start with the isolation mask in cabinet and then commence
practical activity.
Option Two (most likely): Go to practical activity, via Isolation mask
Macquarie Harbour, (and Port Arthur) in Tasmania and Norfolk Island were
especially hard prisons for the worst convicts. But if a convict was well-behaved
and productive, they could often earn tickets of leave. Not all the stories and
fates of convicts were as bad as that of Rufus Dawes.
Laminate
Sidney Nolan
first Kelly
painting
Eliza Frazer
painting
Frazer series
laminate
Practical
activity
making an
isolation mask
What do you think this mask might have been worn for?
Eventually, after the time of Lt. Maurice Frere, the British system of punishment
abolished forms of torture such as the cat o’nine tails, the bridle and the
stretcher.
At the edge of the civilised world, isolation could be a form of punishment.
Convicts who continued to offend were separated and kept in isolation from
other convicts. A death sentence, for example, meant being isolated for exactly
one year.
These prisoners were kept in complete isolation and silence. They said nothing,
and nothing was said to them. They had to wear slippers so that their feet made
no noise when they walked. They had to wear masks like this which prevented
them being identified by other convicts.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be separated from everyone you know
for a year … no talking for a year? Nobody can tell it’s you under the mask.
Similar kinds of punishment are still in use today. Show laminated images of
contemporary use of mask and leg chains in Israeli torture.
Well, now we are going to go outside to the tables to make our own isolation
mask. Maybe your teachers can use them back at school!
Our group is just going to use these two tables, because the other group’s work
is on these tables.
Explain process and the materials used, as well as why these materials are to
be used. Make sure attention focussed on speaker as all instructions are given.
On our tables we have some
 calico to use for our masks.
 scissors to cut out our head shapes and to cut out a shape for our eyes
 velcro dots to stick on three places to hold the top of the head shape
laminate
Israeli torture
Students wait
for the cue and
then move
outside to the
eaves for
practical
instruction.
Each of the
two divided
groups of
students has
two trestle
tables each,
with materials
set up.




together
hot glue gun to glue the front cover flap of your mask on, and glue together
the gaps between the velcro dots.
araldite glue to attach the fastening string to the back of your mask
string/ shoelace to tie up the back of the mask
crayon to mark out eyeholes on calico
We have to
1. use scissors to cut out the two halves which will make the top of your mask
2. using three velcros evenly spaced, to stick the top of these halves together
3. select string/ shoelace to tie up the back
4. come out the front and we will araldite the string to the back of your mask.
This glue will dry quickly
5. back at your table, you need to cut out the front face flap of the mask
6. use a crayon to mark out your holes for the eyes
7. fold calico in order to cut out holes for the eyes on this front flap
8. come out the front and we will use the hot glue gun to glue the front face flap
of your mask to the top (head) part of your mask. We can also use the hot glue
gun to glue any open spaces between the velcro dots on the top of your mask
9. when your glue has dried you can try your mask on. If the string at the back is
firmly attached, you can tie your mask up at the back.
10. Put your name on the inside of your mask using the crayon.
11. No talking remember! See if you can recognise someone else in their
isolation mask. Don’t give your identity away!
Other practical activities:
If you have finished making your mask and are waiting for it to dry. I want you to
start doing some drawing. We have:
a box of clipboards with paper
tins of pencils and crayons
We can do some drawings about:
 what you could see through your isolation mask
 what you think it might have been like to have been a convict at Macquarie
Harbour, or isolated wearing this mask
 what happened to you during convict role play at Lanyon, or what you think
will happen
 think of the symbols and drawings used by Sidney Nolan (have images from
the Term series available if students have not seen the exhibition yet) such
as the skeleton, the axe, triangle, whip, and Sylvia. Tell the story of convict
life using some of these images.
Go to End of program:
When you have finished making your masks, place all the mask material back in
neat piles on your tables, and then we’ll wait for the other group to finish so we
can go to lunch/ to the bus.
Go to Part One of program:
When you have finished making your masks, place all the mask material back in
neat piles on your tables, and then we’ll wait for the other group to finish so we
can go into the drawing exhibition.
Before people had to wear isolation masks as punishment, there were many
more cruel punishments in store for convicts who were transported to Australia.
This activity
should take
approximately
half an hour
plus.
Alternative
practical
activity
drawing their
ideas/
experiences of
‘convict role
play’
Students
collect masks
and drawings,
and line up to
be moved to
bus etc
Students wait
for the cue and
then are
moved into the
exhibition For
The Term of
His Natural
Life.
Now we are going to here the story For the Term of His Natural Life, by the
Australian author Marcus Clarke. It tells the story of convicts who travelled out to
Tasmania in the 1820s. We are going to look at the response by another artist,
Sidney Nolan, in a series of drawings.
CONCLUSION & EXIT
I hope you enjoyed your time at the Nolan Gallery, thankyou for coming, etc.
For the Term of His Natural Life was just one series of drawings by Sidney
Nolan about characters from Australian history and Australian stories.
Who was Marcus Clarke?
Students are
hopefully
gathered
under eaves or
lined up
outside with
their bags,
masks, and
perhaps
drawings.
Awaiting to go
on bus, or off
for lunch, or to
Lanyon for
subsequent
program.
Were the characters in For the Term of His Natural Life real people?
What did you think of the drawings by Sidney Nolan? Did they look very
detailed? Do you think you could do similar drawings?
When you go back to school, you might like to do your own drawings about what
you think it might be like to be a convict.
Students
depart.
Thankyou for coming, hope to see you again sometime.
FLOW OF PROGRAM
(25 students or less)
FLOW OF PROGRAM
(25 students or more)
INTRO (5-10 mins)
INTRO (5-10 mins)
Exhibition: For The Term Of His
Natural Life (40 - 45 mins)
Exhibition: For The
Term Of His Natural
Life (40-45 mins)
Practical: making
Isolation Mask
(40-45 mins)
Practical: making Isolation Mask
(40- 45 mins)
Practical: making
Isolation Mask
(40-45 mins)
Exhibition: For The
Term Of His Natural
Life (40-45 mins)
CONCLUSION & EXIT
(5 mins)
CONCLUSION & EXIT
(5 mins)