The convict system in New South Wales, where transportation lasted from 1788-1840, was marked by complex and shifting intentions, ideologies and practices. Spread over the colony’s vast landscape, it resulted in a physicality and archaeological legacy that is challenging to understand. James Semple Kerr explained it best when he described the convicts as being on a conceptual ‘ladder’. They entered into government service on arrival at the ladder’s mid-point. From here good conduct could see them work their way up the rungs, working in rural or urban settings to eventually earn a Ticket-of-Leave, followed by a Conditional and sometimes Full Pardon. In contrast, perceived patterns of re-offending would see a descent to a world of ganged labour, penal stations and punishment.

Work stations and labour camps made their appearance from the earliest days of settlement. By the 1830s there was a network of ‘stockades’ of greater or lesser permanence, spread along the major road networks of the colony to undertake road and public works. From the 1820s onwards women might also be also detained in ‘female factories’ (a house of correction) where they would work at various tasks. Serious recidivist men could be removed to one of the ‘secondary’ punishment settlements such as Newcastle, Port Macquarie or Moreton Bay.

We have undertaken numerous projects on the convict system of New South Wales. Below you will find links to our work on mapping convict places, as well as analysis of Parramatta’s early colonial social landscape.