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Western Australia - Event

Transportation of Convicts (1849 - 1868)

From
1 May 1849
To
1868

The Crown Colony of Western Australia was not established as a penal colony. However, juveniles from Parkhurst Prison who were meant to provide a cheap source of agricultural labour came as early as 1842. Farmers and successful merchants lobbied for the wider introduction of convicts, with a similar desire to boost the supply of available, cheap labour. A British Order in Council granted penal colony status on 1 May 1849. By this time, the eastern colonies had either stopped or were refusing to cooperate with transportation. Objections to transportation from the larger colonies meant that the practice stopped entirely in 1868.

Western Australia 's convict system differed from the eastern seaboard's schemes. WA refused to take female convicts and there was a lot more institutionalisation and less private assignment of convicts in the west. There was also a requirement to send younger convicts, with some being as young as 15 years and most no older than 24 years on arrival.

Details

Historians dispute the exact numbers of convicts transported to Western Australia but the following list (from Chate) gives a fair indication of the extent of the practice in the years 1850 to 1868 when transportation ended:

  • 1850 - 175 convicts arrive
  • 1851 - 806 convicts arrive
  • 1852 - 491 convicts arrive
  • 1853 - 1,129 convicts arrive
  • 1854 - 596 convicts arrive
  • 1855 - 491 convicts arrive
  • 1856 - 498 convicts arrive
  • 1857 - 266 convicts arrive
  • 1858 - 832 convicts arrive
  • 1859 - 225 convicts arrive
  • 1861 - 296 convicts arrive
  • 1862 - 896 convicts arrive
  • 1863 - 782 convicts arrive
  • 1864 - 561 convicts arrive
  • 1865 - 560 convicts arrive
  • 1866 - 583 convicts arrive
  • 1867 - 254 convicts arrive
  • 1868 - the final 229 convicts arrive

Related Events

Publications

Books

  • Chate, A.H.; Graham, Bruce; Oakley, Glenda, Date it!: a Western Australian chronology to 1929, Friends of the Battye Library (Inc.), Northbridge, Western Australia, 1991. Details

Book Sections

  • Millett, P.R., 'Convicts', in Gregory, Jenny and Jan Gothard [editors] (eds), Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, W.A., 2009. Details

Sources used to compile this entry: Chate, A.H; Graham, Bruce; Oakley, Glenda, Date it!: a Western Australian chronology to 1929, Friends of the Battye Library (Inc.), Northbridge, Western Australia, 1991; Millett, P.R., 'Convicts', in Gregory, Jenny and Jan Gothard [editors] (eds), Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, W.A., 2009.

Prepared by: Debra Rosser