Penal settlement

Convict penal settlements

Penal settlements were places of incarceration and punishment for convicts who committed serious offences after reaching New South Wales

Moreton Bay Penal Settlement

The Moreton Bay penal colony, on traditional Turrbal and Yuggera land, operated from 1824 to 1842 as a place of secondary punishment for convicts who committed serious offences

Norfolk Island guide

As well as being a penal establishment, one of the primary reasons for the first settlement at Norfolk Island was economic: the Colonial Government hoped to utilise the flax and pine trees on Norfolk Island

Brazilian coasting vessels, Edmund Pink, c1824

Runaways and returned transports: a tale of ten men

The history of convict transportation to Australia is peppered with tales of escape. An unknown number simply disappeared; some were captured and re-transported

Port Arthur Historic Site
Convict Sydney

Port Arthur

A notorious penal station made up of more than 30 convict-built structures and substantial ruins located in evocative, largely uncleared bushland on the end of the Tasman Peninsula

LON10_ACS_006.jpg
Convict Sydney

Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island was an infamous island prison established in Sydney Harbour from 1839 to 1869 for reoffending convicts and hardened criminals

EPU10_CONSYD_001_0.jpg
Convict Sydney

Convict Sydney

From a struggling convict encampment to a thriving Pacific seaport, a city takes shape

28_ViewOfKingston.JPG
Convict Sydney

Norfolk Island

A hellish prison outpost was established in two phases on Norfolk Island between 1788 and 1855

Convict life on Norfolk Island

Convict life on Norfolk Island was severe and often brutal. Below is a snapshot of one convict, John Walsh, who spent ten years on Norfolk Island from 1834 to 1844