In 1812 a convict named James Hardy Vaux recorded a long list of ‘flash’ words that were being used in NSW around that time.
Most of the words he included had been created by criminals in London, who used them to evade and confuse the authorities.
Flash [is] the language of the thieves,
or the low Londoners…Sydney Gazette, 29 January, 1831
In the colony, too, using ‘flash’ words was a way for convicts to resist authority and conceal their intentions from those in charge – such as their assigned masters or the overseers of work gangs.
However, not all transported convicts were ‘career criminals’ familiar with this language.
Most had committed a 'petty' crime (like pickpocketing or stealing clothes) because they were poor and were trying to survive. To these convicts ‘flash’ would have probably been confusing.
Because 'flash' language was meant to be secret, if the meaning of a word was discovered by the authorities a new word might have to be used instead.
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Accessed via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofjamesha02vaux#page/152/mode/2up 18/02/2019
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Accessed via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofjamesha02vaux#page/152/mode/2up 18/02/2019
Hear some ‘flash’ language
Can you de-code what the convicts are saying?
Use the select list of ‘flash’ words below to help you.
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How did convicts make bricks?
Duration: 3:31
How did convicts make bricks?
Convict Joseph Smyth (Smith) is a master brick maker working for the government and he has a tough job ahead of him. Governor Macquarie has an ambitious building project for Sydney and thousands of bricks are needed. Joseph has to teach two newly arrived convicts how to make clay bricks as part of a brick gang.
Duration: 3:31
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How do you get into a hammock with leg-irons on?
Duration: 2:12
How do you get into a hammock with leg-irons on?
For a ‘new chum’ convict there was a lot to learn about the life at the Hyde Park Barracks. Luckily for Joe, who has just arrived at the Hyde Park Barracks, there is a more experienced convict on hand to help him learn the ropes. Including showing him how to get into his hammock while still wearing leg-irons!
Duration: 2:12
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How did transportation affect convicts?
Duration: 1:50
How did transportation affect convicts?
For convicts, transportation to NSW meant separation and loss. Joe, a convict who recently arrived in the colony, is spending his first night at the Hyde Park Barracks. His hammock mate Jim listens on as Joe enthusiastically describes how back in London he pickpocketed a wealthy gentleman. But Joe’s excitement soon fades. He realises that he will likely never see his family, friends or home in London again. Was his daring crime worth it?
Duration: 1:50

Why did Vaux write the list?
Vaux first wrote the list in 1812 for a local Newcastle magistrate called Thomas Skottowe, to help him understand what criminals might be saying.
In 1819 Vaux published it, under the title:
A new and comprehensive vocabulary of the flash language.
Most documents about convicts were written by the government and did not use slang or 'flash' words. This makes Vaux's list a valuable historical source because it documents the convict perspective
The Hyde Park Barracks opened the same year that Vaux published his list.
So it is possible that some of the convicts who stayed there would have known, and used, these words.
Botany Bay slang
Convicts came from all over the British Empire, but mostly from the United Kingdom (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.)
They also came from rural towns and industrial cities, from different social classes and would have had different levels of education.
This mix meant that over time lots of other slang words and sayings would have found their way to the NSW colony, creating a rich mix of language that changed and adapted over time.
By the 1820s the term ‘Botany Bay slang’ was being used in newspapers, to describe a certain style of language being used around the town of Sydney. Unfortunately, unlike Vaux’s list of flash words, no record of this language exists.
- bad
- a convict who cooperates with police and officials
- bellowser
- a man transported for the term of his natural life
- bit-faker
- a coiner, maker of counterfeit money
- bolter
- one who runs away or leaves a place suddenly
- boned
- taken into custody
- breech’d
- flush with money, ‘in town’
- brisket-beater
- a Roman Catholic
- bug
- nickname given to Englishmen by the Irish
- bush’d
- poor, without money
- buz cove
- a pickpocket
- buz covess
- a female pickpocket
- charley
- a watchman
- cly-faker
- a pickpocket
- cockatoo
- a convict who served a sentence on Cockatoo Island
- cracksman
- a house-breaker
- crap’d
- hanged
- croppy
- a convict (originally an Irish convict)
- darbie'd
- fettered (wearing chains or irons)
- done
- convicted
- file
- a person who has had a long course of experience in the arts of fraud
- floor'd
- so drunk as to be incapable of standing
- fly
- vigilant, cunning, not easily duped
- galloot
- a soldier
- grab'd
- taken, apprehended
- horney
- a constable
- in town
- flush with money, ‘breech’d’
- kid
- a child, but particularly a boy who begins thieving at an early age
- kinchen
- a young lad
- knuckler
- a pickpocket
- lifer
- someone transported with a life sentence
- lag
- a convict under sentence of transportation
- lagger
- a sailor
- lushy cove
- a drunken man
- lushy
- drunk, intoxicated
- mollisher
- a woman
- nibb'd
- taken into custody
- nibbler
- a pilferer or petty thief
- pall
- a partner, companion, associate or accomplice
- pebble
- a convict whose behaviour is incorrigible
- prig
- a thief
- pulled up
- taken into custody, in confinement
- queer gam’d
- bandy legged, or having otherwise deformed legs
- queer
- bad, counterfeit, false, unwell in health
- qock’d
- forgetful, absent in mind
- rump’d
- flogged or scourged
- sevener
- a convict sentenced to a term of seven years’ transportation
- scamp
- a highwayman, man who commits robbery on the highway
- scrag’d
- hanged
- scurf’d
- taken into custody
- shook
- synonymous with ‘rock’d’
- slang’d
- fettered (wearing chains or irons)
- sneaksman
- a man or boy who ‘goes upon the sneak’ (robs houses or shops)
- sharp
- a gambler, cheat or swindler
- swell
- a gentleman or any well-dressed person
- swish’d
- married
- swoddy
- a soldier
- tobyman
- a highwayman
- toddler
- an infirm elderly person
- top’d
- hanged
- ticketer
- man or woman holding a ticket of leave
- up in the stirrups
- a man who is ‘in Swell Street’, that is, having plenty of money
- vardo-gill
- waggoner