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Punishment of sending convicted persons to overseas territories to serve
their sentences. It was introduced in England towards the end of the 17th century and
although it was abolished 1857 after many thousands had been transported, mostly to
Australia, sentences of penal servitude continued to be partly carried out in Western
Australia up until 1867. Transportation was used for punishment of criminals by France
until 1938. The first British convict ship to reach Austrlia arrived at Sydney Cove, New South
Wales, Jan 1788 with 736 convicts surviving the journey. The last convict ship to arrive
in Australia was the Hougoumont which brought 279 prisoners to Fremantle, Western
Australia, 1868. In all, about 137,000 male and 25,000 female convicts were transported to
Australia. Most convicts went into private service under the assignment system. Misbehaviour was
punished by flogging, working in government chain gangs, usually on road building, or by
confinement in a special penal settlement such as was set up at Newcastle, later moved to
Moreton Bay, Norfolk Island, and Port Arthur. Many convicts managed to escape to the bush,
some becoming bushrangers. Criticism of the convict system on various grounds, including its leniency and
inefficiency in deterring crime in England, led to an inquiry by a select committee of the
House of Commons 1837 after which the British government decided to abolish assignment and
stop transportation to New South Wales. In the 1850s transportation to all the colonies (South Australia was never a convict
settlement) ceased except in Western Australia which became the last Australian colony to
receive convicts.
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Last updated 30 Jun 2004 22:25:27 |
