Convict penal settlements

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

Overview

Penal colonies provided the:

'most severe "secondary" punishment (short of execution) to be inflicted on convicts'.

(Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th ed., vol. 3, p.49).

Governor Brisbane also viewed their establishment as 'the best means of paving the way for the introduction of free population ....'. (HRA vol. 11, p.604).

During the 1820s penal settlements were used as a means of making transportation more of a deterrent. They came under the control of 'military detachments which had no interest in penal discipline and firmly wished themselves elsewhere'. (Hirst, Convict Society, p.92). Governor Darling introduced detailed regulations for their management and tightened up conditions considerably. (Fletcher, Ralph Darling, pp.103-7). This was particularly the case on Norfolk Island, which, under his administration and even more so under Governor Bourke, acquired a reputation for extreme harshness and severity. Women were forbidden to go there and stories of brutality abounded.

Iron’d gangs

'Considerably fewer than 10 per cent of prisoners transported ever saw the inside of a penal settlement and many who did so were there only for short periods'.

(Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th ed., vol. 3, p.49).

Darling believed that many of those sent to these settlements would be more productively employed elsewhere. He placed large numbers of secondary offenders in the iron'd gangs which he used to construct roads leading from Sydney. A.G.L. Shaw estimated that in 1836, '8 percent of male convicts in New South Wales were in a chain gang or on Norfolk Island'. (Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies, p.216). The gangs were used to prevent convicts from escaping. Despite their use a number did escape, some becoming bushrangers

Other settlements

The short-lived settlements of Melville Island (Fort Dundas), 1824-1829; Western Port, 1826-1828, and King George's Sound Settlement, 1826-31 were each established for strategic reasons but were reliant on convict labour while in operation. For Moreton Bay, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land see the Guide to Convicts and Convict Administration.

Indexes to the records

• Index to the Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788–1825
• Joan Reese's NSW Colonial Secretary's In Letters Index to convicts and others, 1826–95, available in the Reading Room
• Index to letters sent re convicts, 1826–May 1855, compiled by Joan Reese and available in the Reading Room
• NRS-922 Colonial Secretary's Indexes and Registers, 1826–1900, available in the Reading Room

A list of record series

General

See also the under various settlements below.

Cockatoo Island Penal Establishment

In 1839 owing to orders to discontinue transportation from New South Wales to Norfolk Island, and Lieutenant Governor Franklin's refusal to receive the transportees in Van Diemen's Land, Governor Gipps formed an establishment on Cockatoo Island for the reception of prisoners removed from Norfolk Island. (HRA vol. 20, p.217). The deep waters surrounding the island made it secure and it was sufficiently close to Sydney for the authorities to maintain a watchful eye. Convicts recently sentenced in the colony were separated from those who had returned from Norfolk Island, by placing them in separate wards at night. (Kerr, Design for convicts, pp.75-6).

Initially the convicts on Cockatoo Island constructed grain silos built from the solid sandstone bedrock on the Island. Construction of a dry dock began in 1851 and convict labour was used to service visiting vessels of the Royal Navy. In the early years the dockyard was administered by the prison Superintendent, who reported to the Governor through the Colonial Secretary. After responsible government was granted in 1856, the Superintendent reported to the Legislative Council and the Premier.

Report and recommendations into administration of Cockatoo Island

Following complaints about the administration of the Island a Board of Inquiry looked into the management of Cockatoo Island. Its report issued in 1858 concluded that the Island was not satisfactorily combining its twin objectives of acting as a place of punishment and a means of employment for convicts.

The report also recommended that Superintendent, Thomas Ormsby, be replaced, as he had disregarded regulations, and had made improper use of convict labour. (Votes and Proceedings of NSW Legislative Assembly 1858, vol. 2, p.243). As a result Gother Kerr Mann, who was the Civil Engineer at Cockatoo Island, was appointed Engineer-in-Chief, and Superintendent of Cockatoo Island. By 1865 only those convicts sentenced to the roads or public works were imprisoned on the Island.

Closure of Cockatoo Island penal settlement, 1869

In July 1869 the Executive Council approved the breaking up of the penal and engineering establishment on Cockatoo Island and the transfer of the prisoners to Darlinghurst Gaol. On 21 October 1869 all the prisoners remaining on Cockatoo Island were removed to the gaol.

Closure of Cockatoo Island penal settlement, 1869

Fort Wellington (Raffles Bay) Settlement

The settlement was established 18 June 1827 in what is now the Northern Territory and was abandoned in August 1829. It suffered the usual problems of the early northern settlements such as difficulties in supplying provisions, 'unhealthy' climate and disappointing trading opportunities with the Malays. (HRA Vol 14, pp410-411).

King George's Sound Settlement

The settlement was established 30 December 1826. It was transferred to the Swan River when James Stirling, as Lieutenant Governor, founded the colony of Western Australia in June 1829.

Melville Island (Fort Dundas) Settlement

The settlement was established in 1824 on the north coast of Australia and abandoned in 1829.

Newcastle Penal Settlement

In 1801 Governor King established, at Coal River, a small settlement of soldiers and convicts to mine coal. It was abandoned in 1802, but in March 1804 Newcastle was opened as a place of punishment for 34 Irish convicts who had taken part in the Castle Hill rebellion and was placed under the command of Lieutenant Menzies. (HRA vol. 4, p.597). Newcastle became the principal place of secondary punishment from 1804 to 1824 and the convicts sent there were employed in coal mining, cedar getting and lime burning.

A free settlement in 1823

In 1820, after the discovery of land routes from the Hawkesbury increased the likelihood of convicts escaping and free settlers arriving, Macquarie proposed to remove the penal settlement and open the district to private settlement. (HRA vol. 10, p.43). It was not until 1823, after Governor Brisbane had arrived, that the convicts were sent to Port Macquarie and Newcastle was proclaimed a free settlement. (Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th ed., vol. 3, p.122). Convicts continued to be employed in the mines for some time.

Guide to the location of shipping lists of convicts sent to Newcastle, 1811–22, 1825

Port Macquarie Penal Settlement

Ideally isolated

In 1820 Governor Macquarie had written to London explaining that if many more convicts were transported he would find it difficult to employ them. He explained that the government gangs 'cannot with due regard to their care and superintendence be much more increased'. Under these circumstances a new penal settlement was necessary. He favoured Port Macquarie, which had been reported on favourably by the Surveyor General, and was sufficiently isolated to make it ideal as a place of punishment for convicts of the worst character. (HRA vol. 10, p.366).

In March 1821 Francis Allman was appointed commandant of the new penal establishment. (HRA vol. 10, p.480). The Governor informed him that the principal object was to 'secure a secondary place of punishment for the worst description of convicts, especially those convicted of crimes after their arrival in the colony'. (HRA vol. 10, p.480).

By October 1821 there were 92 convicts at Port Macquarie. (HRA vol. 10, p.575). Most were employed on government projects or by officials under supposed orders. Convicts were grouped according to the level of their skill and the severity of their punishment. Those assigned to hard labour were placed in chain gangs, or employed in agriculture and public works. By 1825 the number of convicts had increased to 1500. However, Governor Brisbane had decided that Port Macquarie was no longer suitable for penal purposes now that pastoralists were moving into the region.

Penal settlement closed to make way for free settlers

In 1828 Governor Darling informed the Colonial Office that only 530 convicts remained at Port Macquarie, and that by 1829 only 290 convicts would remain. (HRA vol. 18, p.522). The Governor believed that Port Macquarie should be opened to free settlers and that the penal establishment should be abolished. In November 1828 he was authorised to close the establishment and on 15 August 1830 a proclamation was issued inviting free settlers into the area. (Fletcher, Ralph Darling, p.103).

Port Macquarie remained a convict outpost after it was opened to free people and was maintained as a centre for invalids, specials, and lunatics throughout the 1830s and 1840s. Following the cessation of the transportation of convicts from Britain to New South Wales in 1840, the military detachment was removed from Port Macquarie in 1847 and the invalids and lunatics were removed to the Liverpool Asylum.

Guide to the location of the shipping lists of convicts sent to and from Port Macquarie, 1821-37