To the frustration of authorities, convicts were known to use their own slang, a secret language of colourful terms and expressions with its origins in London’s underworld. ‘Flash’, as it was known, was used to share information under the noses of overseers, officials and masters. In 1819, convict James Hardy Vaux published a list of convict slang in his ‘Vocabulary of the flash language’. Many terms, such as ‘grub’ (food), ‘mate’ (friend) and ‘kid’ (to deceive), remain in everyday use in Australia today. Convicts also spoke a bewildering number of dialects and native languages. A quarter of convicts were Irish, and many spoke Gaelic.

‘Flash’ terms

conk – nose
crabshells – shoes
darbies or slangs – leg-irons
fleshbag – shirt
gaffin’ – gambling
high toby – highway robbery
kickseys – trousers
knuckler – pickpocket
lagg’d – transported
lamps – eyes
nabb’d – arrested
nibbler – petty thief
patter’d – tried
steamer – tobacco pipe
weed – tobacco