Adventures in The Colony: Big Brother Meets Survivor in Period Costume

It is 40 degrees in the shade during a November heat wave and I am dressed in ill-fitting leather buckled shoes, long woolen stockings, canvas breeches, a linen shirt, a rather too tight red woolen soldier's 'coatee' (jacket), a neck 'stock' and a felted wool 'shako' (hat). I am carrying a wooden canteen and a backpack with all my food, blankets, tent and equipment for a few days in the bush. And of course, as a Redcoat soldier from 1804, I am lumbered with a flintlock musket and bayonet. I feel hot, tired and sore as my uncomfortable (and strangely named) 'softpack' pack digs deep into my shoulders.

Yet despite all this discomfort bordering on exhaustion, I feel excited and nervous. I am about to enter The Colony—a village of several families living as if they were new settlers at the edge of the Colony of New South Wales around the early 1800s. They have been isolated from 'civilization' for several weeks now and apparently things have been fairly intense, and tense. And now I am 'intruding' into this recreated world—as a Redcoat bent on a mission to arrest some of the inhabitants for sedition!

Perhaps rare for an historian, I conduct a 'history events' business that specialises in coordinating the services and skills of re-enactors for film and television. I have been involved in several productions as an historical consultant, coordinator of re-enactors, props and costume hire and consultancy, and scripting. My company, Historica, was contacted well after filming of this the 'first Australian reality history television production', had begun. We received a phone call asking if we could provide 'a redcoat'. Was that 'a red coat, or a Redcoat?' I asked. Not sure, was the reply. There is a big difference, I suggested, in providing a costume and providing an historical re-enactor who comes complete with costume, props, historical knowledge and the ability to act 'as if' they were a person from the past.

Eventually, Historica was called upon to provide some soldiers and a costume for an actor. The actor was to read out a proclamation arresting one of the participants in the colony for sedition. (In this first 'intrusion' into 'The Colony', re-enactors were not to be entrusted with 'acting'). Apparently an Irish flag and an Aboriginal flag had been raised in 'The Colony' as a form of protest—and we were tasked with tearing them down.

So our little company of Redcoats met up and costumed the rather nervous actor. He quickly realised he had no idea of how a corporal in the British Army of 1804 was meant to act—let alone march or give historically correct orders. We calmed his nerves with some quick explanations, some historical commands, and told him not to worry as we would whisper to him what he had to say.

He was also nervous because, as we were soon to find out, 'The Colony' was on a knife-edge. After eight weeks of surviving the hardships and depredations of '1804 life', there was tension and outright hatred between some of the families. The word was that the appearance of some Redcoats might lead to things getting completely out of hand. As we drove out to the 'secret location' in a secluded valley west of Sydney, we all talked about what might occur and how we—as soldiers from 1804—might respond, and exactly how we would have responded back then. It was rapidly becoming clear to us that the historical circumstances of such sedition as raising an Irish flag in Sydney in 1804 could never be re-created. We could never really assert the authority of the British Military by burning houses or musket-butting people. What would we do if the colonists confronted us? What if they called our bluff as modern day people concerned with occupational health and safety and potential lawsuits?

As re-enactors, we were all very intrigued with the possibilities of re-creating an isolated settlement—of using only the tools, eating only the food and wearing only the clothes from...