The Little Convict 1979

An elderly artist, Rolf Harris, sits among his paintings at Luna Park in Sydney and uses them to frame a tale that blends memory with imagination. When the crowds fail to respond to his art, he speaks to his granddaughter and shares the origins behind each piece, turning color and memory into a wide, winding history lesson.

The story he tells begins far away, aboard a British convict ship named the Northern Star, which sails toward a tiny colony at Sydney Cove with sixty-four convicts on board. Among them are Toby Nelson [Sean Hinton], his sister Polly [Kerry McGuire], the sturdy Blacksmith Big George [Barry McDonald], the aging pickpocket Dipper, and the village idiot William Watts, better known as “Silly Billy” [Paul Bertram], along with Jack Doolan [Shane Porteous], a highwayman with a stubborn streak. On arrival, Colonel Lindsay Lightfoot [Gary Files]—the Lieutenant Governor in the governor’s absence—meets them, and Polly is soon taken under the wing of Augusta Lightfoot [Anne Haddy] to assist with the cookery and laundry. Meanwhile, the five men chosen for the Government farm work—Big George, Jack Doolan, Dipper, Silly Billy, and Toby—settle into a hard routine under the watchful eye of the guards, while the town’s everyday life hums around them.

Life on the settlement is a test of endurance. Toby battles the relentless heat, Dipper’s health flags, and the occasional discipline from Bully Langton, the sergeant whose harsh methods loom large over the camp. At night, Dipper reveals a cherished possession—a gentleman’s watch with a music box—that becomes a beacon of small comforts in a harsh world. With this music, Dipper lulls his companions to sleep and, in a quiet moment, saves a tiny koala he finds after Bully shoots its mother. He brings the vulnerable infant koala to Toby, turning a grim routine into a glimmer of tenderness.

Tragedy soon follows. A tree crashes down on Dipper, and with his last strength he passes the watch to Toby, entrusting him with a token of friendship and memory. As Toby mourns, he begins to notice Jack’s longing for escape and the growing tension behind the camp’s fences. The plan to leave the colony takes on a new urgency when George is harshly punished—fifty lashes and confinement in a punishment cell—while Toby, with a quick mind and a hopeful heart, starts plotting a way to help Jack reach the mountains beyond the Blue Mountains.

In the bush, Toby meets Wahroonga, a young Aboriginal boy who watches over him with a quiet loyalty. Wahroonga travels with a pet cockatoo and a dingo, and soon he reveals himself to be a steadfast ally. Gary Marika brings Wahroonga to life in the tale, guiding Toby through dry riverbeds and brush as they dodge patrols and spy signs of Jack’s escape route. The two boys eventually reunite with Jack, and the trio, along with the koala and the dingo, joins forces to free George and complete their daring plan to outwit the guards.

With the moment of action approaching, Wahroonga orchestrates a dramatic distraction: the cockatoo flits toward the guard line, scattering the soldiers, while the dingo menaces the horses and drives the mounted guards into a wild chase. Jack retrieves the keys to Big George’s cell, and Toby and Silly Billy slip to the storehouse to seize tools. They find only barrels of rum and oil, but the ruse works—the guards drink the tea laced with rum, becoming sluggish as the plan unfolds. Jack hurls oil to the ground, and the guards trip and fall as the oil spreads.

The escape accelerates when Bully—drunk on duty and furious at losing control—shoots toward the danger. A boomerang thrown by Wahroonga clips Bully, sending his rifle’s shot careening through a window in the Governor’s house and suddenly heightening the peril for Polly and Augusta, who drop a lamp and watch as flames leap through the room. The fire grows fast, the Governor’s residence is enveloped in flames, and Polly and Augusta find themselves trapped inside.

Undeterred, the four convicts—Jack, Toby, George, and Silly Billy—work together to break through the cell door, then guide Polly and Augusta toward safety. The standoff with Bully ends when he is arrested for his drunken recklessness, and the Lieutenant Governor ultimately pardons the brave convicts who saved his wife, granting them land to start their own farms.

Back in Luna Park, the old artist looks at his watch and signals that the story must end for the night. Yet the tale lingers, and the watch itself seems to sing a final tune as the paintings reveal their truth: the granddaughter peers toward a merry-go-round where the riders carry the likenesses of the story’s characters, and the elder Toby stands as a living memory within the circle of painted time.