John Price was a feared convict enforcer, but his death should be no surprise
He ran Norfolk Island with unforgiving violence and zero tolerance, and his iron-fisted approach continued when he moved to Melbourne to deal with the ballooning prison population. But Price’s death should be no surprise.
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To some he was an iron-fisted convict administrator who kept order where nobody else could, to others he was a sadist tyrant who tortured and humiliated his subjects. Either way, the violent demise of John Giles Price is something he should have seen coming.
When gold was discovered in Victoria, the floodgates opened and the young colony of Victoria ballooned.
Trade in everything from pick axes to brothels on the goldfields became suddenly and immensely profitable.
But mining wasn’t the only way to get rich in booming Victoria.
The influx also attracted hoards of criminals, some running from violent pasts in Britain and Europe.
Some took up the life of bushrangers, making cash by shaking it off the countless carriages ferrying between Melbourne and the rural towns.
The rise in crime meant the old prisons, previously meant to hold a few inmates at a time, were totally overwhelmed.
The race was on the find a solution to the overcrowded prisons, the stress on the justice process; and to find the right hard-nosed governor to take the job on.
THE DEVIL OF NORFOLK ISLAND
John Giles Price, a civilian from Hobart, had been made commandant of the Norfolk Island penal colony in 1846.
His first piece of business had been to clean up the mess in which his predecessor departed - an uprising among the prisoners.
Price made sure it would not happen again.
The perpetrators were rounded up and hanged - 17 of them.
A sharp dresser who was often armed, and who stunned contemporaries with his knowledge and use of underworld slang, Price had an uncanny understanding of the criminal mind.
Accounts written in letters by a Christian minister who was present on the island during Price’s rule were scathing of the brutal methods Price used to subdue the criminals.
Although clever, brave and a born leader, Price had a mean streak.
Alarmingly mean. And it became meaner on the remote island.
The floggings administered to prisoners were so bad, and so professionally delivered to maximise damage, it nearly killed them.
In many instances, according to some reports, they were not permitted to dress their wounds afterwards.
The thought of a flogging under Price was enough to straighten the intentions of even the worst criminal. And even the slightest misdemeanour could earn the punishment.
By the end of Price’s barbaric stint in the island, the prisoner population was broken and weak.
And his next assignment was in Melbourne.
THE PRISON HULKS
After returning briefly to Hobart, Price came to Melbourne in 1854 to oversee the languishing prison system.
To ease overpopulation in the jails, a strategy was employed that had been used in Britain before convicts were shipped to Australia.
Decommissioned ships were stripped out and turned into floating prison hulks to be moored on rivers.
Such a hulk was kept at Hobson’s Bay, and conditions were so bad they were often fatal.
It was even worse under the characteristically brutal reign of Price.
Prisoners forced to work on public building projects at Williamstown were beaten and, according to some accounts, tortured and starved.
The provision of bread unfit to eat was a particular sticking point among the convicts, who successfully petitioned to have their grievances heard.
MURDER
It came to a head one day in March 1857.
Price, who relished in meeting his downtrodden subjects, went to Williamstown and, accompanied by guards, saw the men face-to-face.
The guards had been cruel, but Price was the one they wanted to see.
Before he knew it, Price was surrounded as the discussion deteriorated.
Knowing they would certainly face the noose for what they were about to do, several men put a crude plan into action.
It is unclear what was thrown first. It might have been a stone, a clump of dirt, or a tool used by one of the prisoners.
Price started to move off. Slowly at first, then quickly. But the prisoners kept coming.
Soon everything was flying through the air. Anything the convicts were working with, anything they could pick up.
A hail of metal and stone came down on Price, who was struck in the back and lay writhing on the ground.
The condemned men descended, beating him so badly he was hardly recognisable.
It was a miracle he survived until the next day, before succumbing to his injuries.
The prisoners involved in the murder knew what was next.
Although it was hard to determine who had planned the attack and who had simply joined in, seven were found guilty and hanged.
MORE NEWS: THE RISE AND FALL OF RICHMOND’S MR DEATH
Price was remembered publicly as a sound and honourable administrator, who professionally executed his duty.
But questions remain about the duplicity of his character and his cruel methods, which brought on his own murder.
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