Why Blackburn’s whip is a shocking reminder of Australia's history | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Mon, 28/01/2019 - 6:10am

The whip is the only surviving documented wooden artefact from the first fleet’s encounter with Aboriginal people

If a single item could encapsulate the clash of Indigenous and European cultures and laws that began with the arrival of the first fleet, it is almost certainly one held in the collection of the South Australian Museum.

Blackburn’s whip comprises a sturdy piece of fashioned wood, bulbous at one end, attached with four knotted strands of rope at its tapered extremity. It is, for all intents and purposes, a late 18^th century cat o’ nine tails, an instrument of punishment in the navy – where one in five English sailors was said to meet with the lash – and Imperial penal system.