a convict coaching village

[thédechine]

What is a 'convict coaching village'?

It is the 1920s in Australia.

An old convict coaching villagefallen on hard times and out of memory, it now survivedas a railway siding, a handful of crumbling Georgian buildings and scattered verandah-browed wooden cottages, shelterfor those who had endured a century of exile and loss.





Source: The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan

 

[entangledbank]

'Convict' means it was founded in the era when Britain still sent out convicts to Australia. That was 1788 to, I think, around about 1840. A 'coaching' village is one that was basically founded as a stopping place for coaches: with an inn where they could change horses and get something to eat and drink.

It is not, as its grammar might suggest, a village for training convicts, though that's a nice image.

 

[thédechine]

'Convict' means it was founded in the era when Britain still sent out convicts to Australia. That was 1788 to, I think, around about 1840. A 'coaching' village is one that was basically founded as a stopping place for coaches: with an inn where they could change horses and get something to eat and drink.

Thank you very much entangledbank