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The fenians are coming, the fenians are coming
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

The fenians are coming, the fenians are coming

G.C. Bolton
Studies in Western Australian History, (4), pp.62-67
1981
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Abstract

One of the least attractive consequences of their sense of isolation has been a tendency for Western Australians to panic at any real or imagined threat of foreign invasion. This neurosis is not a product of recent Soviet activity in the Indian Ocean, nor even of the Japanese thrust of 1942. It may be traced far back into the 19th century; even perhaps to Stirling's decision to build his capital city on the sheltered side of Mount Eliza in preference to the magnificent but exposed site of Buckland Hill. The documents in this collection trace the rise and collapse of a minor excitement in 1867 arising out of the decision by the Home government to sentence a number of convicted Fenians to transportation to Western Australia on what turned out to be the last of the convict ships, the Hougoumont...

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