Sex Work in Colonial Australia
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From the first fleet of convict ships arriving in Australia in 1788, sex work was a central part of the new society British colonialists were building.
What was the reality for women when they arrived? What records are there of sex workers from this time? And how has sex work shaped modern Australia?
Today, Kate's joined by the fantastic Rae Frances, author of Selling Sex: A Hidden History of Prostitution, to find out more about sex work in early Australia.
This episode is edited by Tom Delargy. The producer is Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer is Charlotte Long.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Where can you hear about the history of a lifetime? |
| 0:04.0 | The Times has a new podcast about the lives that define the age we live in. |
| 0:09.0 | Each week through the Overt's pages of the Times, |
| 0:12.0 | we bring you the stories of scientists, politicians, pop stars, |
| 0:16.5 | athletes and many more, what they did in their lives, why they did it and how they did it. |
| 0:25.2 | Your history, available wherever you find your podcasts. |
| 0:29.2 | Hello my lovely of loveliest betwixters it's me Kate Lister I am here once more as I hope to be for the |
| 0:40.1 | foreseeable future but before we can get going I have to make sure you're |
| 0:44.4 | actually the lawyers have to make sure that you're okay so here we go this is an |
| 0:49.9 | adult podcast, |
| 0:53.0 | by adults to other adults about adult things in adult way, covering a range of adult subjects and you should be an adult too. |
| 0:57.0 | I think that should keep everyone happy, right? |
| 1:00.0 | On with the show. Well I hope you've got your sea legs betwixters. |
| 1:11.3 | The year is 1788 and we are on board one of the first |
| 1:14.4 | fleet of ships carrying convicts towards Botany Bay and we're at the end of a |
| 1:18.9 | grueling eight-month journey. 11 ships set out from Portsmouth carrying just under 2,000 people on |
| 1:27.2 | board and within that number there was some 193 female convicts. Life on board has been crap to say the least. |
| 1:37.0 | There's rats, lice, cockroaches, there's not enough food, you haven't just shit in a bucket, it's just a nightmare. |
| 1:45.0 | And it's especially been awful for the women who are completely outnumbered |
| 1:49.0 | and have no idea what awaits them once they get off the boat. |
| 1:52.0 | What was in store for these women in this foreign land? |
| 1:55.0 | And how does sex work play an essential part in many of their stories? |
... |
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