Australian history, post European settlement, would be nothing without crime. But in one part of the nation they like to keep their crimes secret. South Australia was founded as a nineteenth century middle-class utopia, free of the convict contagion which tainted other Australian colonies. But between 1880 and 1891 this 'enlightened' society implemented a barbaric penal solution - incarcerating 'delinquent' boys aged 6 to 16 on a prison ship moored off the South Australian coast.

The Hulk is the story of those boys living on the hulk Fitzjames, whose voices have been hidden from history. Simon Robb delves back into the historical sources and uses contemporary interviews to make the boys speak again, uncovering the terrible stories of a truly Australian secret history