Conviction & Exile

The American Revolution of 1776 and the subsequent loss of control of England’s American colonies along the Atlantic coast, forced England to use Captain James Cook’s newly discovered east coast of Australia as the depository for its criminals.

The solution was in effect, a form of slavery, despite the view of some writers. The story of Convict Son is arguably a story of the final throw of transportation as it came to be known. The authors great, great grandfather was a transported convict to Western Australia and in reviewing his life and what he had endured in his earlier time in East Anglia, a view could be taken that it was the most fortunate event of his life.

Transportation: To rid Britain of her criminal class, the convicts were taken to the opposite side of the world to eastern Australia, in effect, exile. They were required to pay for their transportation and any chance they could earn sufficient money to pay for that and a return fare was a remote hope. In reality, it was exile for life.

The initial locations around eastern Australia were McQuarie harbour, and later Port Arthur on the island of Tasmania. These were subsidiary to the Sydney and other bases which formed the settlements that became cities around the eastern coastline. The convicts were put to work and to encourage rehabilitation, which had become the objective of early 19^thcentury rather than penal servitude, so they would populate as free citizens a colony to act as Britains remote gaol. This was abandoned as the colonies matured until in 1850, the young settlement of Western Australia at the Swan River, was close to failure due to a lack of labour.

As the first ‘free’ settlement of Australia, the original labour force became settlers and needed labourers to work their increasing holdings. The colonial governor, at the request of the settlers, sought the transportation of the 7 – 10 year convicted criminals for their labour force. The result was unexpected. On arrival, many were given a ‘ticket-of-leave’ entitling them to work outside the penal system and within a few years, a pardon. A total of 18,000 convicts were transported to Western Australia and ended in 1868.

The approach of the penal system of rehabilitation and not punishment, proved a blessing to the young colony. Only 3% of convicts re-offended and Benjamin Newman was a typical life for a transported convict. At the end of his life of 88 years he had married, enjoyed a family, owned property and, he could VOTE! If he had remained in Britain, his life expectancy would have been around 40 years and he would not have escaped from the stain of convicted criminal. He was indeed, a fortunate man.