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Around the station the land was heavily timbered, but as the soil was
good some had been cleared for agriculture.
In 1847 there were sixteen
acres sown in wheat and seven and a half in potatoes yielding a good
return .
At that time there were one hundred and thirty eight prisoners,
thirty of whom were constructing the road three miles towards Westbury
whilst the rest completed the bridge over the Meander River- under the
supervision of an overseer paid by the settlers, who were also responsible
for the cost of iron and cartage.
As yet nothing had been done on the
road from Deloraine to the West, for the Government had decided to break
the station up as soon as the bridge and the road to Westbury were
completed, there being better places for concentrating prisoners where
good building stone was plentiful and the land more suited to cultivation.
The two stations under Hall's medical care were a marked contrast in
management :
Deloraine was considered by the Comptroller-General to be
one of the best-managed in the state, whilst Westbury was one of the
worst. 7
In Nine Years in Van Diemen's Land Syme agreed:
At Westbury there is a hiring depot of Crown prisoners who have
served their periods of probation, or second or further
punishments . This party is exercised likewise in making
roads and clearing land, but these are notoriously and perversely
inclined to idleness . A further notice of the gross mismanagement
in waste and misappropriation of labour, the reprehensible laxity
of all discipline, the unproductiveness of this gang and
inefficient superintendence, accompanied with the occasional
out-breakings of this depot will be hereafter submitted in my
account of Probationism as a sample of the general administration
of this notoriously mal·administered and morally destructive
system to which these felons are unhappily subjected to in the
oversight of persons in too many instances utterly incompetent
for such a task. 8
was quietj
In contrast to Bothwell, Hall's time in Westbury and Deloraine
probably he was preoccupied with convict duties and the care
of the hospital at Westbury.
As a result of a rumour that prisoners
were practising widespread homosexuality, Colonial Assistant Surgeons
were instructed to examine prisoners regularly to detect any signs of
nunnatural crimen .
Once a month , or more frequently, Hall inspected
each man in the nude, but like other surgeons , with one exception, he
-found no basis for the rumour .
On October 22, 1847 , he wrote
In reply to your circular of the 19th instant, I am happy to
inform you, that anxiously as I have directed my attention
to this painful subject, I have found no sign . . .. 9
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G.O. 33/60 p. 1656.
J. Syme, Nine Years in Van Diemen's Land, p. 40 .
, G .0. 33/60 p. 1847 .