Book Review: The Trials of Billy Freeman: Alan F. Atkinson, The Trials of Billy Freeman, Green Hili Publishing, Port Adelaide, 2023, pp.189, rrp. $29.95 (pb).

The myth of South Australian 'exceptionalism' emphasises that the state was never a 'convict colony'. Indeed, transportation was anathema to the Wakefieldian project, and the prospect of a convict-free South Australia was one of the many attractions of the infant colony for would-be migrants. However, common sense - and, more importantly, the historical record - tells us that in fact many convicts and ex-convicts did find their way to South Australia, sometimes by sea but most especially through the colony's porous overland borders. This was especially so as South Australia's economic links with neighbouring colonies expanded and diversified.