Thomas Pamphlett

Thomas Pamphlett (1788?–1838), sometimes Pamphlet, also known as James Groom, was a convict in colonial Australia. He is best known for his time as a castaway in the Moreton Bay area, halfway up the eastern coast of Australia, in 1823. He was marooned with two others, Richard Parsons and John Finnegan, until rescued by explorer John Oxley in Mermaid on 29 November of that year. They were the first white people to live in the area.

They led Oxley to a large river, later named the Brisbane River. Consequently, a new colony at Moreton Bay was established in 1824. Ironically, Pamphlett, an ex-convict, committed another crime and was sentenced to seven years at the new settlement. It eventually became Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Without Pamphlett and his fellow castaways, Brisbane may never have been founded.

Pamphlett became a brickmaker in Manchester, England. In 1810, he was charged with stealing a horse and five pieces of woollen cloth.The Justices of Assize sentenced him to 14 years' transportation to New South Wales.

He worked at Brickfield Hill just south of the town and lived at The Rocks. On 28 May 1814, Pamphlett was charged with two others of stealing the windows from Birch Grove House, the first and only building on the Balmain Peninsula, on 13 May. His punishment was 100 lashes at the marketplace and six months in the Sydney gaol gang in double irons.

After four months he absconded, only to be recaptured and put in the carpenter's gang, but he escaped again. Finally, on 29 March 1815, he was sent to Newcastle, a place of secondary punishment 100 miles (160 km) north of Sydney and now the second largest city in New South Wales. Within a few weeks, he disappeared once more. On recapture, Pamphlett was given 50 lashes for "absenting from government labour". In October, he received another 50 strokes for "neglect of government work".

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