Penal System in Australia

By loz
  • Period: to

    Penal System in Australia

  • Transportation and Penitentiaries Act authorised transportation

    Authorised transportation to a British Colony yet to be selected. New South Wales was chosen for this purpose in 1786.

  • First Fleet arrived in Bottany Bay

    Joseph Banks had declared Bottany Bay suitable for a penal colony after he returned from a journey there in 1770. Captain Arthur Phillip was the first governor of the colony of New South Wales.

  • Settlement Established on Norfolk Island

    The day after the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay, Lieutenant Philip Gidley King began selecting the handful of men and women whose fate it would be to colonise Norfolk Island.

  • Flogging of women and children abolished

  • Sarah Island Established

    Sarah Island (or Settlement Island) is found in the far south west corner of Macquarie Harbour, on the west coast of Tasmania, within sight of the world renown Gordon River. This isolated island was a Penal Settlement between 1822 and 1833, established, before the more well-known Port Arthur, as a place of 'secondary' punishment, an attempt to control the uncontrollable.

  • Maria Island Settlements Established

    1825 saw the first settlements on Maria Island. A convict penal station was established to take the pressure off the overflowing penal colony at Macquarie Harbour. The settlement was named Darlington after the Governor of NSW, Sir Ralph Darlington. Convicts provided the labour required to construct the buildings as well as tending to agricultural duties. The settlement was abandoned in 1832 due to the creation of Port Arthur in 1830.

  • Captain J Welsh reported a good supply of timber available on the Tasman Peninsula

    Lt Governor Arthur asked the Surveyer General in December 1827 to report on the suitability of Stewarts Harbour and Wedge Bay for a timber establishment. Initially, there was no intention to establish the penal colony there at Hobart town.

  • Hobart Female Factory Established

    The Hobart Female Factory was established in 1828 and operated until 1856. It's intent was to remove the convict womens influence from society. The factory, also known as Cascades, was built in a swamp area and had very poor sanitation. Disease and poor health was common with many deaths.

  • Port Arthur Penal Settlement as a small timber station

    The Port Arthur penal settlement began life as a small timber station in 1830. The settlement was originally designed as a replacement for the recently closed timber camp at Birches Bay. Port Arthur quickly grew in importance within the penal system of the colonies.

  • Maria Island settlement abandoned

    However, two buildings still remain. The Penitentiary (prisoner barracks) and the Commissariat store.

  • Abolition of transportation to New South Wales

  • Port Arthur Established

    In 1848 the first stone was laid for the Separate Prison. Port Arthur also expanded geographically as the convicts pushed further into the encircling hills to extract the valuable timber.

  • Ross Female Factory

    Ross Female Factory was established in March 1848, towards the end of the transportation period. It operated to January 1855 as a factory, hiring depot, hospital, nursery and overnight station for those travelling between settlements.

  • Victoria and NSW had separated

    Transportation to eastern Australia ceased.

  • Ross Female Factory ceased operation

  • Hobart Female Factory shut down

  • Last Hanging in Australia

    Last hanging in Australia. The person was Ronald Ryan at Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.