SBS podcast about AUSTRALIA’S FIRST GREEK, GEORGE MANUEL, contains errors and omissions and fails to apply SBS Code of Practice.
SBS's podcast ‘Community Starters - Greek’ described as the story of George Manuel (also known as Emanuel and Manual) is published by SBS on the internet here:
SBS has known about errors and omissions in the podcast since Wednesday 13 November 2024 when my complaint was lodged with the SBS Ombudsman. The complaint noted that the podcast failed to meet the requirements of the SBS Code of Practice clause 3.2 ‘Accuracy’. The SBS Ombudsman declined to investigate the complaint because it was outside the time limit - four (4) weeks from the date the podcast was first made available to SBS’s audience. The SBS Ombudsman referred the complaint to its News and Current Affairs division as ‘feedback’ on 14 November 2024 since when no action has been taken to correct the errors and omissions in the podcast, or to withdraw it.
Documentary evidence has indeed been found that a Greek from Corfu named George Manuel arrived in Australia some years before those considered to be Australia’s first Greeks - seven men convicted of piracy at Malta by a British naval court and transported to NSW in 1829.
However, SBS's ‘Community Starters’ podcast misleads its audience in failing to acknowledge that the evidence about the prior arrival of George Manuel was first revealed in my book 'Wild Colonial Greeks’ published on 10 December 2020:
https://scholarly.info/book/wild-colonial-greeks/
I was also the first to publish the evidence about George Manuel on the internet. This appeared in my internet blog on 6th January 2021:
https://greekaustralian.blogspot.com/2021/01/new-book-pushes-back-date-of-greek.html
The first reference in the press to George Manuel as an early Greek arrival appeared in an article about my book in The Greek Herald on 9 January 2021:
The SBS podcast ‘Community Starters - Greek’ should acknowledge these facts.
There are also significant errors and omissions in the SBS podcast, notably the following.
The SBS podcast is wrong in stating that George Manuel was imprisoned at Cockatoo island in 1863. The mistake results from confusing him with another Greek - a recently arrived sailor known as George Manwell (also Manuel or Manworth). This sailor was convicted in the Central Criminal Court in March 1863 for the felonious wounding, by stabbing, of Thomas Gibson and Anne Gough in a Sydney street - far from the “minor misdemeanour” claimed in the podcast. The false identification is revealed by the gaol entrance and description record [1] which notes that the Greek sailor George Manwell had a different place of origin to George Manuel (not Corfu but Athens), arrived in Australia many years later (1862), and was decades younger (born 1825).
The claim made in the SBS podcast that George Manuel arrived in New South Wales in 1811 is highly questionable. George Manuel was imprisoned at Newcastle in 1832 for feloniously receiving stolen tobacco. The SBS podcast relies on Manuel's Newcastle prison record [2] to establish his native place as Corfu but fails to mention that the same prison record gives Manuel's year of arrival in New South Wales as 1823, not 1811.
The SBS podcast relies on the Brig Belinda muster roll of May 1824 [3] to show that George Manuel sailed with the Belinda on a sealing expedition to the south seas. However it fails to mention a notation in the same muster roll stating that George Manuel "Came [to NSW] in the brig Courier”. This notation is important because the brig Courier arrived at Hobart (at that time part of New South Wales) not in 1811 but late in 1823, supporting the Newcastle prison record entry as to George Manuel’s year of arrival. A departing crew list for the brig Courier in April 1824 [4] supports the Belinda record in noting that George Manuel came to NSW in the brig Courier.
The SBS podcast ‘Community Starters - Greek’ misleads SBS's audience as to who first revealed the facts about the earliest documented Greek settler George Manuel. It also contains significant errors and omissions.
In continuing the podcast ‘Community Starters - Greek’ SBS breaches clause 3.2 ‘Accuracy’ of its Code of Practice. The SBS podcast ‘Community Starters - Greek’ should be withdrawn and a new podcast presented that addresses these concerns.
Sources
[1] State Records Authority New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books 1818-1930
Name: George Manwell
Place of Origin: Athens Greece
Arrival year: 1862
Birth: 1825
Religion: Greek Church
Trade: Sailor
Admitted when: Feb 11
whence: Sydney
purpose: On remand. Medical treatment.
Crime: Felonious wounding
Gaol: Parramatta
Goal location: North Parramatta, NSW.
Disposed of when: Forwarded to P.O. Sydney 18th Feb 1863
[2] State Records Authority New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930. Entrance and Description Book, Newcastle, 1829-1833. George Manual (or Manuel) 1832
Name: George Manual
Arrival ship: Carrier [Courier] Brig
Arrival year: 1823
Free or bond on arrival: Free
Free or bond on entering gaol: Free
Native place: Corfu
Religion: Roman Catholic
Trade or calling: Mariner
Admitted when: 20th November
Admitted whence: Sydney Gaol
Purpose: 12 months at hard labour
[3] State Records Authority New South Wales, Australia, Departing Crew and Passenger Lists, 1816-1825, 1898-1911. Departure 12 May 1824. Ship Belinda. Fishing voyage. George Manuel, Seaman, "Came in the Brig Courier”
[4] State Records Authority New South Wales, Australia, Departing Crew and Passenger Lists 1816-1825, 1898-1911. Departure: April, 1824, Ship: Courier. Geo Emanuel, Seaman, “Came in the Brig”
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