Tasmania
British settlement in Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) began in 1803 at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River. For the first ten years a small population of convicts, soldiers and settlers farmed, cut timber, dug coal and hunted seals for their skins and oil. By 1820, 70% of the population were convicts and most had arrived directly from England.
Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, like those in New South Wales, worked initially under minimal restraint, constructing buildings, roads and bridges for the government. Female prisoners typically worked as domestic servants unless they were pregnant, in which case they were assigned to factories.
By the mid-1820s the favoured system of employing convicts was under private assignment, mostly on larger estates. A network of notorious outstations like Sarah Island, Maria Isand Port Arthur operated to terrorise secondary offenders. A few convicts were kept in town in useful trades or as labour for government works.
After 1840, progressive ideas on the treatment of prisoners saw new penal systems and institutions established. New arrivals were placed in regimented probation stations scattered across the island, with strict routines of work, religious instruction and classification (according to crime). However, these probation stations were of limited success and the British abolished transportation to Van Diemen’s Land in 1853.
Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, like those in New South Wales, worked initially under minimal restraint, constructing buildings, roads and bridges for the government. Female prisoners typically worked as domestic servants unless they were pregnant, in which case they were assigned to factories.
By the mid-1820s the favoured system of employing convicts was under private assignment, mostly on larger estates. A network of notorious outstations like Sarah Island, Maria Isand Port Arthur operated to terrorise secondary offenders. A few convicts were kept in town in useful trades or as labour for government works.
After 1840, progressive ideas on the treatment of prisoners saw new penal systems and institutions established. New arrivals were placed in regimented probation stations scattered across the island, with strict routines of work, religious instruction and classification (according to crime). However, these probation stations were of limited success and the British abolished transportation to Van Diemen’s Land in 1853.