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Search this site - results will display in a new Google web page.Tasmania has a convict history?
How did convicts come to be in Tasmania?
It all started with a problem the British government had, back in the early 19th century. So many people to put behind bars, so few prisons. Or rather - prison facilities were simply inadequate.
What brilliant solution did they come up with?
You guessed it!
"Let's send them to the colonies!"
This is how penal stations came to be established in many Australian settlements which were British colonies at the time.
In 1788, the first convicts arrived in Australia (New South Wales).
In total, about 160,000 ended up coming to Australia. Over 75,000 served time in Britain's most remote penal colony of Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen's land.
(The above figures can be found at the Libraries Tasmania - Convicts website).
Convict labour was used to develop the infrastructure of the colonies - roads, bridges, public buildings and hospitals. Many convicts were also in the employment of landowners.
In 1868, the last of the transported convicts arrived in Australia. Transportation (the term used to describe the sending of convicts to colonies) had finally come to an end.
Van Diemen's land was officially renamed Tasmania, after Abel Tasman, the Dutch explorer who was the first European to sight Tasmania in 1642.
Even today we can admire convict craftmanship in the many structures designed and built by convicts.
And each and every convict life is remarkable, for example:
James Blackburn, convict and architect
Daniel Herbert, convict and stonemason
Matthew Brady, convict and bushranger
Alexander Pearce, convict and suspected cannibal
Martin Cash, convict and charmer
Ikey Solomon, convict and dealer
William Buckley, convict and interpreter
Interested in learning more about Tasmania's convict history?
Port Arthur Historic Site is considered by many to be the best place to visit to learn about the island's convict past.
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