SEALED SOULS exposes the darker side of the early colonial history of Southern Oceania, spanning half a century from the establishment of the Colony of Sydney in 1788.

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It explores and explains ALLIANCES formed in desperate times by desperate people and exposes the cruelty hapless people endured by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, in an era when bondage was just another word for SLAVERY.

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ABANDONMENT was a common practice inflicted by unscrupulous masters and incompetent operators on these luckless people.

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It was a lawless time, with ROBBERIES perpetrated at every level of colonial society.  MURDERS were committed and went unresolved, along with mysterious DISAPPEARANCES of people and whole boats. 

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ALIASES hid peoples’ unscrupulous pasts and recent sins, allowing them to avoid repercussions from the Authorities who were governed from the other side of the world.

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A must read by anyone who is interested in early colonial maritime history.  A colony with a desperate beginning, on a lawless frontier of uncontrolled exploitation and oppressive expansion across the vast continent of AUSTRALIA and beyond.

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SEALED SOULS is more than a history of Australia; it delves deeper into the lives of multiple players over many decades that encapsulates this narrative.  Studiously researched over 25 years, this story shines a light on what really happened, what life was like for those early pioneers, and why the young colony turned out the way it did.

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Every player was in it for themselves; from top bureaucrats to lowly escaped convicts and everyone in between - survival and exploitation was the roguery of the day.