page_title: History of Smooth Island (Tasmania)
section_title: Role in the Risdon Cove convict settlement
hierarchical_section_title: History of Smooth Island (Tasmania) / History / 1800s / Role in the Risdon Cove convict settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: Thomas Scott's map of Norfolk Bay and Frederick Henry Bay, 1824. This was cropped from the original, which may be found at: http://catalogue.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/item/?id=543587
context_page_description: The names come from the island's gently undulating topography and lush vegetation in comparison with the stony mainland. It has been privately owned since 1864.
context_section_description: In summary:
  22 April 1804: an attempted mutiny occurred at Risdon Cove convict settlement
  28 April: Bowen (the Commandant of Risdon settlement) personally took eight Irish prisoners to Smooth island using his own boat.
  Bowen then subsequently explored the Huon river for several days, on a recreational basis.
  3 May: (in Bowen's absence): Risdon was attacked by aborigines.
  6 May: The King instructed Collins to take command of Risdon settlement
  8 May: Collins gave Bowen orders to remove the convicts from Smooth Island.
  9 August: The Risdon settlement was relocated to Sullivan's Cove, whilst Bowen and the majority of the convicts were transferred back to Sydney.
  From "Early History of Tasmania", Volume 2, by Ronald Worthy Giblin:
  On April the 22nd a small mutiny occurred over the old question of mounting guard, and he also learned that there was a plot amongst the prisoners to take possession of the Risdon settlement, a movement which they hoped would be joined by others from Sullivan Cove. Strong measures were taken to deal with this menace; the mutinous soldiers were sent by Collins to Sydney in the cutter Integrity, which had succeeded in getting to Sullivan Cove from Kent's Bay, and on the 28th April Bowen went off in his boat to Norfolk Bay, taking eight of the 'daring flagitious and desperate characters,' as Collins described them, 'all Irish,' as Knopwood wrote in his journal, to place them on Smooth Island (Plate II, Vol. I). We must note the process which thus reached this climax. England shoots a lot of its refuse across the seas to 'Botany Bay.' Super-saturation having taken place there, and an equal desire having arisen to get rid of some of the worst of the rubbish, it was sent across the water to Risdon. As there are no means at Risdon of dealing with desperate characters, the picked element, that is, the worst, are put upon an island with a month's provisions. Increase the output from England and some substitute will have to be found for that island, because you cannot go on marooning desperadoes in bulk if you have no walls or stockades to contain them. And the 'refuse' was as diverse in character as were the social classes in England.(page 16)
  When Bowen had deposited his firebrands on Smooth Island, he made an excursion, presumably for pleasure, to the Huon River. His absence from his post was unfortunate, because on the 3rd May an event took place at Risdon, a collision between the Europeans there and a large body of natives, which might possibly have been handled differently and better had the Commandant been present. This was the first important clash of a long series between British and blacks on the island."(page 17)
  
  On 6 May 1804 the King requested Collins take over command of the Risdon settlement from Bowen. Upon taking over, Collins decided to relocate the Risdon settlement to Sullivan Cove, leaving Bowen in charge of Risdon until the move had completed. On 8 May Collins issued the following instructions to Bowen: 
  (..) the eight men placed by Bowen on Smooth Island were brought back and kept at work under strict supervision, and full preparations were made for the despatch to Sydney of all those people whom the Lieutenant-Governor had no wish to retain. In the end nine prisoners only, chiefly mechanics, were considered worth keeping at the Derwent. (..) The Ocean sailed for Sydney on the 9th August, taking Commandant John Bowen, (..) and the main gang of convicts. (..) The departure of the ship marked the end of Risdon Cove as a settlement, and the condition of the site was changed to one better befitting it, the peaceful solitude of farm land.(page 21)
  Collins reported to the Secretary of State, Lord Hobart, in July 1804, that he had retained only nine of the Risdon Cove prisoners, "Eight of whom had been banished...to an Island in Storm Bay, upon suspicion of harbouring some Mutinous design". Being mostly of the "class of United Irishmen" he sent them to Port Jackson "not choosing to introduce any such description of People among those I brought with me, until my Military Force shall be better 
caption: 1824: Thomas Scott's map of Norfolk Bay. Smooth Island is labelled 'Garden Island'
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