SEMINAR: Archaeology Seminar: Sean Winter

In the mid 1850s the officers in charge of the convict system in Western Australia engaged in a lengthy debate over the make up of the official convict ration. The debate is captured in a voluminous correspondence, leading to a wide range of documentary evidence that recorded the official convict ration as monotonous and nutritionally limited. However, archaeological research at convict sites demonstrates that convict consumption was more varied than suggested by the official reocrd.

This seminar uses archaeological evidence to assess convict consumption in the regions of Western Australia. The evidence demonstrates that, in contrast to those incarcerated at Fremantle Prison, convicts sent to the regions had greater choice about their consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco. Rather than being passively restricted by the oficial ration, the convicts in regions actively supplemented their diet through the hunting and purchase of goods.