Convicts & Colonials: Fashion

Do you have photographs of your ancestors in Ipswich from 1827 to 1859? Help our collection of fashion for this period to grow by contributing historical photographs from your families precious memories. Historical photographs show us how fashion has evolved over the years but also gives us a glimpse into the lives of people and their position in society. The class system of England was reflected in the newly formed settlements in New South Wales.

What the convicts wore
Convicts were not readily identifiable by clothing when the convict settlements and outposts were first established in Australia and it was not until the mid-1820s that the clothing with broad arrows was worn by convicts to distinguish them from free settlers. A female convict wore stockings, a petticoat, shift, jacket, cap or hat and shoes. While the male convict wore woolen drawers (underpants), stockings, shirt, waistcoat, jacket, breeches (pants), shoes and a hat.

Convicts at Moreton Bay generally wore loose shirts and simple trousers. They also wore an unusual cap made of leather. Convicts who were wearing leg irons had to wear trousers with buttons right up the sides. The buttons were circles of stiff leather with tow holes in them. Tom Petrie described how the leg irons were put on:

The leg irons for prisoners were made in the lumber yard (in Brisbane) by a blacksmith prisoner there ... The rings which went round the man's ankle were made in two half circles the size of the leg, the ends flattened having holes punched in them for rivets. One end was riveted loosely so that is would act as a hinge, then the man standing near a small anvil put out his foot and the blacksmith fitted the iron on and riveted the other end. When both legs were fixed up, a piece of leather, made round like the top of a boot, was put in between the iron and the man's leg so that the skin would  not be so readily chaffed...

 

The chains were some two feet long between the legs and in the middle of each was a small ring with a string through it, which, being connected to the prisoner's belt, kept the irons from dragging on the ground.

What the soldiers wore
Captain Logan and his soldiers were members of the 57th or West Middlesex Foot Regiment which served in Australia from 1826 to 1831. Logan wore a double-breasted coat of red wool with collar and cuffs in lemon-yellow. The coat was ornamented with gold lace and gold buttons and fringed gold epaulettes. His trousers were called overalls because they were worn over his boots like modern trousers, not tucked into boots. On his head, he wore a shako or hat which had a metal plate at the front bearing the regimental number. 

What the colonial settlers wore
In the 1850s, a fashionable woman who could afford to wear nice clothing was attired in a long dress with long sleeves, a high neckline, ruffles at the neck and wrists, a full skirt, perhaps finished with a decorative scarf. The fashionable man wore a suit comprised of long pants, shirt, vest, jacket and a bowtie. Many men of this period were sporting a beard and moustache.

Mrs. Panton dressed for dinner, Christmas Eve 1859
Illustration by Nanette Dingle