NCJ Number
167518
Date Published
1995
Length
33 pages
Annotation
In the late 18th century, Great Britain had to find a way to deal with its growing number of convicted criminals, and the policy of sending these criminals to a penal settlement in Australia was adopted.
Abstract
After the American colonies won their independence, the British could no longer send convicts across the Atlantic. In 1786, Great Britain decided on Botany Bay as a penal settlement along the eastern coast of Australia. Convicts sent to Australia, however, were not left to their own devices. Great Britain established an administrative structure for the penal settlement, but this structure did not prevent the development of a "republic" of convicts. The economic plan for the colony was simple; convicts would grow their own food on public farms, and ex-convicts would be given small land grants so they could become self-sufficient. Even though most convicts worked for private masters, they remained the responsibility of the government. For the colony's first 30 years of existence, no convict was subject to anything approaching an institutional regime of confinement or punishment. The convicts with the most freedom and the most opportunity to abuse it were those working for the government in Sydney. Domestic service was almost the sole occupation open to female convicts. Various efforts to change and develop the penal settlement were made up to 1840 when transportation to New South Wales as a form of punishment was halted. After the British abandoned transportation, the French continued the practice in the 1850's and 1860's. References and photographs