Australia was, for many decades, the open-air prison of Britain's criminals. Most were convicted of petty offenses. A quick perusal through the records finds convicts transported for stealing a coat, ...

Life in Australia’s 19th-century penal colonies was harsh and unforgiving. Isolation, punishment, and forced labor drove many convicts to attempt escape. Some plans were ingenious, others reckless.

I first read John Hirst (1942-2016) as an undergraduate in the late 1990s as part of a subject on 19th-century Australian history. We discussed convict history and explored contrasting views about its ...