The property includes a selection of eleven penal sites, among the thousands established by the British Empire on Australian soil in the 18th and 19th centuries. The sites are spread across Australia, from Fremantle in Western Australia to Kingston and Arthur's Vale on Norfolk Island in the east; and from areas around Sydney in New South Wales in the north, to sites located in Tasmania in the south. Around 166,000 men, women and children were sent to Australia over 80 years between 1787 and 1868, condemned by British justice to transportation to the convict colonies. Each of the sites had a specific purpose, in terms both of punitive imprisonment and of rehabilitation through forced labour to help build the colony. The Australian Convict Sites presents the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts.
The Australian Convict Sites are a World Heritage Site that consists of eleven penal sites associated with convict transportation to Australia. The sites were constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries, a period during which around 166,000 people were transported to Australia. Convicts were sent to Australia for a range of offences, including committing petty crimes and supporting particular political causes. Convicts were subjected to forced labour, which was used as a means of deterrence and rehabilitation, and as a way of developing the Australian colonies. Several thousand sites, including prisons and labour facilities, were established across Australia to support the convict system. The eleven designated sites served varied functions, including development of the colony's land and exploitation of its natural resources, deterrence of crime through secondary punishment, and rehabilitation of convicts.
Read more on Wikipedia →Summary excerpted from the Wikipedia article Australian Convict Sites, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text may be clipped or paraphrased to fit this page.