Madness stalked the colony of New South Wales and tracing its wild path
changes the way we look at our colonial history. What happened when
people went mad in the fledgling colony of New South Wales? In this
important new history, we find out through the tireless correspondence
of governors and colonial secretaries, the delicate descriptions of
judges and doctors, the brazen words of firebrand politicians, and the
heartbreaking letters of siblings, parents and friends. We also hear
from the mad themselves. Legal and social distinctions faded as delusion
and disorder took root - in convicts exiled from their homes and living
under the weight of imperial justice, in ex-convicts and small settlers
as they grappled with the country they had taken from its Indigenous
inhabitants, and in government officers and wealthy colonists who sought
to guide the course of European history in Australia. These stories of
madness are woven together into a narrative about freedom and
possibilities, unravelling and collapse. Bedlam at Botany Bay looks at
people who found themselves not only at the edge of the world, but at
the edge of sanity. It shows their worlds colliding.
