Founding a new society
Each of the 11 Australian convict sites on the World Heritage List has a fascinating and complex history. Tales of criminals transported and swept into servitude in cruel and distant places are told against a backdrop of stirring architecture, brutal institutions and unforgiving landscapes. Collectively they tell an epic human story about the mass migration of unwilling labour across the globe, and show how convict society and culture underpinned colonial expansion.
The transportation of convicts in the late 18th century was part of a common push by European nations to set up colonial outposts and military strongholds in far-flung regions. Britain's plan for it Australian territories, however, was somewhat different. It intended a new society to grow from these penal outposts, so transported a larger number of convicts over a longer period and scattered them more widely across the land of their exile, than did any other European nation.
During Australia's first 80 years of settlement there was heated public debate both in Britain and its colonies about criminality and the value of convict transportation. In line with changing ideas on the treatment of prisoners, the Action system and penal institutions were alternately brutal systems of exile and terror and more enlightened regimes based on reform and social integration.
The transportation of convicts in the late 18th century was part of a common push by European nations to set up colonial outposts and military strongholds in far-flung regions. Britain's plan for it Australian territories, however, was somewhat different. It intended a new society to grow from these penal outposts, so transported a larger number of convicts over a longer period and scattered them more widely across the land of their exile, than did any other European nation.
During Australia's first 80 years of settlement there was heated public debate both in Britain and its colonies about criminality and the value of convict transportation. In line with changing ideas on the treatment of prisoners, the Action system and penal institutions were alternately brutal systems of exile and terror and more enlightened regimes based on reform and social integration.