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On 18 January 1788 the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay, which Joseph Banks had declared suitable for a penal colony after he returned from a journey there in 1770.
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The fleet then relocated to Port Jackson
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Phillip raises the British flag at Sydney Cove.
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The Colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprised mainly of convicts, soldiers and the wives of soldiers.
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Governor Philip (1788-1792) founded a system of labour in which people, whatever their crime, were employed according to their skills - as brick makers, carpenters, nurses, servants, cattlemen, shepherds and farmers.
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Governor King22 (1800-1804) first issued tickets of leave to any convicts who seemed able to support themselves, in order to save on providing them with food from the government store.
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In the 50 years from 1803-1853 around 75,000 convicts were transported to Tasmania.
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From 1810, convicts were seen as a source of labour to advance and develop the British colony. Convict labour was used to develop the public facilities of the colonies - roads, causeways, bridges, courthouses and hospitals. Convicts also worked for free settlers and small land holders.
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Gentlemen convicts were issued with tickets on their arrival in the colony although Governor Macquarie (1810-1821) later ordered that a convict had to serve at least three years before being eligible.
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Also telling of convicts' experiences were convict love tokens, mainly produced in the 1820s and 1830s by transported convicts as a farewell to their loved ones.
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Governor Brisbane (1821-1825) finally set down regulations for eligibility. Convicts normally sentenced to seven year terms could qualify for a Ticket of Leave after four years, while those serving 14 years could expect to serve between six to eight years.
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In 1824, the penal colony at Redcliffe was established by Lieutenant John Oxley.
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The main inhabitants of 'Brisbane Town', as it was known, were the convicts of the Moreton Bay Penal Station until it was closed in 1839. Around 2,280 convicts were sent to the settlement in those fifteen years.
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The colony of Van Diemen's Land was established in its own right in 1825
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Western Australia was established in 1827
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Twenty per cent of these first convicts were women. The majority of women convicts, and many free women seeking employment, were sent to the 'female factories' as unassigned women. The female factories were originally profit-making textile factories. The Parramatta Factory grew as an enclave for pregnant women and also served as an orphanage from the 1830s.
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By 1835 there were over 800 convicts working in chain-gangs at the infamous Port Arthur penal station, which operated between 1830 and 1877.
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In the mid-1830s only around six per cent of the convict population were 'locked up', the majority working for free settlers and the authorities around the nation. Even so, convicts were often subject to cruelties such as leg-irons and the lash. Places like Port Arthur or Norfolk Island were well known for this. Convicts sometimes shared deplorable conditions. One convict described the working thus:
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Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, became the colony's convict settlement in 1838 and was used for local colonial offenders.
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Apart from the early attempts at settlement, the only convicts sent directly to Victoria from Britain were about 1,750 convicts known as the 'Exiles'. They arrived between 1844 and 1849.
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Western Australia proclaimed as British penal settlement in 1849
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The early convicts were all sent to the colony, but by the mid-1800s they were also being sent directly to destinations such as Norfolk Island, Van Diemen's Land, Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay.
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Western Australia the first convicts arriving in 1850
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Just under 10,000 British convicts were sent directly to the colony in the 18 years to 1868. They were used by local settlers as labour to develop the region.
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Transportation to the colony of New South Wales was officially abolished on 1 October 1850
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In 1851 Victoria (Port Phillip District) separated from New South Wales.
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1853 the order to abolish transportation to Van Diemen's Land was formally announced.
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Van Diemens Land officially becames known as Tasmania in 1856.
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In 1859 Queensland separated from New South Wales.
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On January 9, 1868, Australia's last convict ship, the Hougoumont unloaded the final 269 convicts.
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When the last shipment of convicts disembarked in Western Australia in 1868, the total number of transported convicts stood at around 162,000 men and women. They were transported here on 806 ships.
