INTRODUCTION TO THE CONVICT SYSTEM


 When Australia became a penal colony, most prisoners were sent either to New South Wales or to Van Diemen's Land. They were also sent directly to destinations that include Botany Bay, Norfolk Island, Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay. As capital punishment became less popular in England, more and more prisoners faced sentences of transportation, in most cases for seven years, but sometimes for life. What generally happened was that a criminal, charged with anything from pick pocketing to murder and most likely a repeat offender, was convicted and sentenced to either a prison term, transportation, or death (which usually was commuted to transportation). Those sentenced to transportation were taken to a Hulk, where chances of actually being sent to Australia depended on previous record and behavior. In general, approximately one third of those on the hulks actually went to Australia. For the safety of the hulks, usually those guilty of the most violent crimes were actually transported. Typically, they were young, from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin, and Liverpool, and had been punished before.

Once in Australia, the convicts were assigned to either the government or to traders as labor, under the assignment system in place until 1840. Under this system, their master could not punish the convict himself but could charge him and send him to a magistrate who would hear the case and decide the punishment. After 1840, the convicts followed a probation system instead, where they were assigned to a probation station, and depending on their behavior, advanced through the different stages of probation. Usually, those sentenced to seven years could apply for a ticket-of-leave much sooner than those with life sentences, who had to serve eight years before being eligible for the ticket-of-leave.

More than 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868. About 80,000 convicts were sent to New South Wales, including a few to Port Phillip (Victoria) and Moreton Bay (Queensland) which were part of NSW until 1851. Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) received 69,000. The last convicts to land in eastern Australia were in Tasmania in 1853. Western Australia only started receiving convicts in 1850 and continued to 1868 - 9,700 convicts were sent to WA to help its very small population to build public buildings. No convicts were sent to South Australia.