Chain gangs and road parties
Convicts who re-offended after arriving in the colony could be assigned to punishment gangs and the hard labour of building and repairing roads and bridges. The worst offenders were sentenced to ironed gangs, who toiled in leg-irons and were locked up in portable jails each night.
Governor Darling (1825-1831) liked to describe re-offending convicts as ‘doubled distilled villains’. These men were recalcitrant and badly behaved, but many of their crimes were work related – from refusing to work or absconding to stealing and selling on materials and tools.
By 1829 almost 1000 convict men were building roads at the edge of settlement: 253 men on the road to the south. 320 on the western road from Emu Plains to Bathurst and nearly 400 on the Great North Road to the Hunter Valley.
Some of those who managed to escape from the road and bridge building gangs became bushrangers – a risky move, as the penalty for bushranging was death.
Governor Darling (1825-1831) liked to describe re-offending convicts as ‘doubled distilled villains’. These men were recalcitrant and badly behaved, but many of their crimes were work related – from refusing to work or absconding to stealing and selling on materials and tools.
By 1829 almost 1000 convict men were building roads at the edge of settlement: 253 men on the road to the south. 320 on the western road from Emu Plains to Bathurst and nearly 400 on the Great North Road to the Hunter Valley.
Some of those who managed to escape from the road and bridge building gangs became bushrangers – a risky move, as the penalty for bushranging was death.