In the erly Victorian age of the U.K. anyone convicted of a felony was transported to Australia. The polcy was known as 'Transportation'.
There were thousands of people(convicts) transported under this policy. Hence Australia became a 'nation of convicts'.
If one continued to comit felonies in Australia, they were then transported to Norfolk Island, a penal colony. A very small island some 1200 miles east of the Queensland cost of Australia.
I have been there and can assure you that it is only about 2 1/2 miles long and 1 mile wide. The Europeans(Australians) , who live there are very pround of their penal past history.
They were simply called "convicts".
53 fleets were sent from Britain to Australia. these fleets transported a figure of around 162, 000 women and men convicts.
For the first fifteen years of the colony of Swan River, Western Australia, the people were all free settlers, and did not want to accept convicts. The idea was raised occasionally, mainly by people who wanted convict labour for building projects. The argument for convicts in Western Australia gained impetus in 1845 when the York Agricultural Society petitioned the Legislative Council to bring convicts out from England. Their reasons were that Western Australia's economy was at great risk due to an extreme shortage of labour. Whilst later examination of the circumstances proves that there was no such shortage of labour in the colony, the petition found its way to the British Colonial Office, which in turn agreed to send out a small number of convicts to Swan River. Following the transportation of the first convicts to WA, between 1850 and 1868, 9721 convicts were transported to Western Australia.
The last transport to bring convicts to Australia landed at Fremantle on the 10th of January, 1868. Pressure from the eastern colonies, together with the rising costs of keeping the system going, prompted the British government to announce in 1865 that after three years, no more convicts would be sent to Australia. The approximate number of convicts sent to the Australian colonies during the period of transportation has been 160,500, of whom 24,700 were women.
There are many types of convicts but the main ones are government service convicts, assigned convicts, expirees, emancipists and ticket of leave convicts.
why didnt many convicts return to England
There were no convicts in Western Australia in 1829. The first convicts in Western Australia only arrived in 1850.
The figures for how many female convicts were sent to Australia vary from between 24 700 and 24 960.
Approximately 778.
Convicts first arrived in Australia in January 1788.
Around the time of the first fleet, 1788, sentences for convicts were usually for 7 or 14 years. Severe cases were transported to Australia "for the term of their natural life" . However, many convicts stayed in Australia life as they built entirely new lives in Australia. Opportunities for pardoned convicts were very good, and many went on to become leaders in the new, young colony.
There was only one way for convicts to travel to Australia, and that was by way of wooden ships.
=apparantly there are 717 convicts 191 marines and 1 190 officers=
It seems that they they did relatively well on the First Fleet. However the same can not be said for the many convicts transported to Australia after that.
Australia.
75,000
They were simply called "convicts".