Pat Ritter. Books

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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 39:

The lock on the cell door opened and Constable Thomas held a tray with food and a pannikin of tea, ‘here’s your meal, enjoy. Next meal is morning.’ He left the tray of food, relocked the cell and left Joe to eat his meal.

A fortnight after a train journey from Charleville to Rockhampton Joe appeared at Rockhampton District Court before Judge George Harding, who presided over the hearing of 13 leaders of ‘The Great Shearers Strike of 1891’, 12 charged with conspiracy whilst Joe charged alone with rioting.
After a lengthy court hearing each prisoner found ‘guilty’. Judge Harding sentenced each person to three years hard labour at St Helena Island. Joe collapsed when he heard the Judge pass the sentence. Another prisoner shackled to Joe tried to hold him from falling to the floor, ‘come on mate’; he whispered and held onto Joe’s shoulders.
Uproar erupted through the court room, unlike the 13 Eureka stockaders whose acquittal on the charge of treason in a Melbourne court; these 13 leaders of the shearers strike condemned to prison with hard labour. Where was justice?
Poet Henry Lawson showed his disgust with the manner in which these leaders treated by the courts and penned a poem:

‘Freedom on the
Wallaby’
published in
The Worker
(16 May 1891)

So we must fly a rebel flag,
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus.
We’ll make the tyrants feel the sting
O’ those that they would throttle;
They needn’t say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle!
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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 40:

Chapter 5

With Joe’s future set in stone for the next three years. Why did I take his place? Joe repeated over and over in his mind slowly recovered from his fainting spell. Too late to admit he’d changed places with the true Joe Ryan. Who would believe him especially after what happened. Who would believe his story. He couldn’t prove anything because he handed his identity to Joe before taking his place? His world turned upside down. How could a rash decision of changing places bring him to this point in his life?
With the other twelve convicted men each pleaded their innocence to no avail, judgement passed and each prisoner knew their next three years locked up in the harshest prison in the land to be their destiny. Would they survive? Joe realised at that moment he needed to survive to end this hideous experience.
Together with the other twelve prisoners shackled together they were quickly escorted from the court room, taken directly to the docks and boarded the Otter, a small government boat with the captain waiting to cast off. Soon as the prisoners were safely on deck the captain cast off from the dock reaching the open sea. The Otter tossed like a cork in rough seas. Each time the boat nose-dived into a wave the sea washed over the deck swamping the prisoners. Being tossed through the seas, especially after they left Keppel Island, the weather grew worse. The captain anchored at Burnett Heads until the weather improved. Each prisoner still chained to one another, each slept on the floor with a couple of straw pillows shared among all of them.
‘Can’t we have these shackles taken off?’ One of the prisoners asked the police escort.
‘You’ll be right!’ He blasted just as the captain of the boat walked by.
‘Take them off constable. If this weather gets rougher, we could all be sent overboard. I’m not taking responsibility for these men drowning because they’re shackled together. Would be suicide. Take them off!’ The Captain shouted to the constable above the roar of the ocean who leaned down to unshackle each prisoner.
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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 41:

Relief flowed through Joe’s body when the shackles were removed. He felt the pain release from his wrists and ankles slowly soothing them with his hands to create enough blood flow, if I had the strength and a good swimmer, I’d jump off this bucket to try and make it to land. There must be plenty of islands where I could hide and no one would find me, he pondered before sitting on the deck, held on tight waiting for another enormous wave to swamp them. The sea eventually calmed, his head fell against straw and soon his eyes closed and sleep overtook him. His body exhausted and weak.
Joe awoke before daylight, silence; they sailed all night to arrive at St Helena Island. Each prisoner was given coffee which would be their final time for the next three years to taste the golden liquid. Whispers from different ones around the boat carried the reason why they were taken directly to St Helena Island because the authorities were in fear of a demonstration from union members. Word had quickly spread about the thirteen leaders being sentenced to three years hard labour on St Helena Island.
Before leaving the Otter their escorting officer said to the thirteen prisoners whilst he shackled each one. ‘You fellows want to stick together because St Helena Island holds seventeen murderers, twenty-seven men convicted of manslaughter, twenty-six convicted of stabbings and shootings, and countless individuals responsible for assaults, rapes and similar violent crimes. I wish you luck.’ They couldn't tell if he was kidding or to place the fear of God into them.
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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 42:

With each prisoner again shackled to form a dog-chain linking each together, a guard of honour with more prison guards awaited the prisoners when they departed from the Otter. A tramline connected the jetty to the stockade. On the shore end of the jetty an elevated sentry box or watch tower, in which a warden with a rifle stood on lookout.
Joe hobbled with his fellow prisoners, walked the plank from the deck of the boat to a waiting wagon being drawn by six horses. A huge cage on top of the wagon held the prisoners. Slowly the wagon load of prisoners followed the tramline from the jetty to the stockade, a distance of about quarter of a mile uphill. Not before the gates to the stockade were secured, each prisoner unloaded from the wagon and the shackles removed.
They were escorted from the inner circle of the stockade and placed in a cell, half the size of a police cell. This would be their living quarters for the next three years. Six prisoners to each cell, their sleeping beds being hammocks fastened to each wall, one on the bottom, one in the middle and the other on top, three hammocks on either side of the cells.
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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 43:

Joe waited to be examined by a doctor. At the doctor’s examination mention of shaving arose before photographs of each prisoner taken for a ‘Rogues Gallery’. His beard a mess, similar to his hair although salt water washed his clothes now stiff. After his examination by the prison doctor Joe was escorted to an exercise yard to mix with other prisoners. A prisoner standing beside Joe said, ‘you know the beard is gone as well as your hair,’ he told Joe.
Joe whispered, ‘I don’t want to be shaved. I want to keep my beard to fight the bastards’. Joe jeered.
‘I’d think about the consequences if I were you. Another prisoner didn’t want his beard shaved or his hair cut, they spread-eagled him, bound his hands and feet before the prison barber could do his job’ the prisoner whispered to Joe which made Joe think about the consequences of bucking authority.
Tom Hutcheson, a fellow prisoner sentenced with Joe walked up and whispered, ‘stick with me mate’, he joined Joe and the other prisoners in the exercise yard after being checked by the prison doctor.
Joe’s mind filled with fear, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ he whispered.
‘We’ll do it together. Don’t worry about anyone else,’ his companion whispered back. A flash of cord struck Tom across his back.
‘Enough whispering,’ a harsh voice yelled.
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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 44:

Tom whimpered under the blow from the prison guard. Nothing more was said between the two prisoners. This is how it’s going to be, Joe thought when his mind returned to what Judge Harding raised before passing sentence, ‘I sentence you to three years on each count’. Hearing the sentence Joe fainted and failed to hear the remainder of the judge’s comments. His next recollection of events was being dragged onto the Otter with his fellow prisoners.
Each prisoner took their turn at being shaved by the prison barber, shaved beards fell to the ground, and head hair joined the pile of beard hair. A fresh set of clothes provided by the prison with sugar and tobacco for a week’s rations handed to each prisoner.
An authoritative voice called to the prisoners standing in the exercise yard. ‘I’m the Superintendent of this prison. Each Saturday you will be issued with a clean suit and rations for the following week. First Sunday of each month there is a general muster when all prisoners will attend and stand at attention. I will inspect each prisoner and point out which ones need a haircut or similar attention. Is that clear?’ He commanded.
The Superintendent stood in front of Julian Stuart, a fellow prisoner sentenced with Joe who stood next to him. The Superintendent was shorter than Julian only coming to his shoulders. When the Superintendent yelled his command Julian gazed above the Superintendent’s head, ‘remove this prisoner to the punishment cell for treating me with contempt’. He starred at Julian. Guards escorted Julian to the punishment cell until sunset. Joe instantly realised this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. Sorrow filled his heart for his fellow prisoner Julian but little he could do but obey the rules and do his time.
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'Click Go The Shears' - Page 45:

St Helena Island was cold, grey and miserable. Whilst the stockade housed cells, a high wall covered its perimeter. Enclosed within the walls, an exercise yard where prisoners walked and gathered, this opportunity gave these thirteen prisoners - leaders from ‘The Great Shearers Strike of 1891’ an opportunity to gather and discuss their future and plans for survival. Sunday morning being the right time to catch up with everyone.
Different prisoners went into ‘gangs’. Big Bill Hamilton, over six feet and weighed more than 15 stone went into the ‘housemaids’ gang. He needed to go down on his knees to pipeclay the steps and climb ladders to clean windows. He often complained about ‘housemaid knees’ which everyone ed at his comment.
Julian Stuart went to the pig pens to clean out the sties and make a granolithic floor for the high-class grunters. They were bred, feed and fattened there, but alas, the prisoners never tasted their hard work of caring for the pigs. Joe assigned to the vegetable gardens to tend the soil, sow the seeds to feed the prison. Initially he found the work different because he’d never grown anything in his life prior to being in prison. A prison guard carrying his rifle walked up and down the aisles to keep an eye on the work.
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