The transportation of 73,000 prisoners from throughout the British Empire had a measurable and sustained impact upon the landscape of Van Diemen’s Land. This impact can be today be traced in the buildings, bridges and roads that still remain, as well as the very pattern of settlement. The direct influence of transportation on the landscape extended well beyond the arrival of the last transport in 1854, with Britain involved in the administration of places like Port Arthur until 1871.

The map below demonstrates both the spatial and temporal depth of the system. As you move back and forward through time, note the initial north-to-south spread of convict places. This mirrored the expansion of settlement along the Midlands corridor between the two main settlements of Launceston (Port Dalrymple) and Hobart. Here were primarily situated convict road stations, hubs from which convict labour could be deployed in the vital task of transport infrastructure creation. Note also the outliers of Macquarie Harbour, Maria Island and – from 1830 – Port Arthur. All were penal stations, their isolation part of their design.

Plan of the Rocky Hills Probation Station, one of the few actually built as intended (Tasmanian Archives)

As the map shows, the 1840s saw the convict population dramatically increase, caused by the introduction of the Probation System and the cessation of transportation to New South Wales, (see the related project Probation in Paradise). This triggered the footprint of the convict system to greatly expand. Stations were built across the colony, in settled and ‘unsettled’ districts. A fine example is shown in the plan at left, located at Rocky Hills on Tasmania’s East Coast.

In the map below, note the concentration of stations on the Tasman Peninsula. From the 1840s it became a hub of the Convict Department. Note also the system’s relatively rapid decline from the 1850s, as stations were closed until they were only concentrated on the Tasman Peninsula and Hobart.