See the Profiles of Those Exiled in Convict Records of Australia
The Convict Records of Australia reflect detailed, personal records, spanning over 180 years, of the 165,000 people forced to emigrate to Australia in the 18th-19th centuries.
Butt of Ticket of Leave (19th century)UNESCO Memory of the World
The Convict Records of Australia
The Convict Records of Australia reflect the forced emigration to the continent of Australia of 165,000 people in the 180 years between 1788-1868, representing the beginning of the modern age of globalization by government agency.
Gee Dee Prisoner Number 6780 (1863-11-10) by Public Record Office VictoriaPublic Record Office Victoria (State Archives of Victoria, Australia)
Punishment of Exile
Selected by the judicial apparatus of industrializing Britain, the convicts were sentenced to the punishment of exile. Yet their forced labor ultimately resulted in the establishment of viable colonies, which became assets to the mother-country.
Convict Indent - First Fleet indent Ganges (18th - 19th centuries)UNESCO Memory of the World
What the Convict Records Contain
These records contain information relating to all aspects of convicts’ lives, including physical appearance, literacy level, trade or calling, crime and sentence, behavior in incarceration, further punishment, pardon, ticket of leave, and marriage.
William Reynolds love token William Reynolds love token (1829)National Museum of Australia
Why Are the Convict Records Important?
The forensic details about individual convicts have enabled historians to build a picture of the human capital which shaped the economy, demography, and culture of early colonial Australia.
Register of Convicts applications to marry (18th - 19th centuries)UNESCO Memory of the World
19th Century Working Class, British People
The convicts’ lives were minutely documented by a dedicated bureaucracy, generating a rare body of records of 19th century working class people, from their British roots to their Australian fates.
Pentridge Jail Sketch - Melbourne (1858) by Public Record Office Victoria and G. JoachimiPublic Record Office Victoria (State Archives of Victoria, Australia)
18th - 19th Century Penal System
Nowhere else in the world do the complete records of the inner workings of an 18th-19th century penal system exist over such an extended period. They comprise the most detailed records of its legal, philosophical, strategic and operational aspects and its consequences for human rights.
Experiments in Penal Management
The extremely distant exile induced occasional experiments in penal management with significant legal consequences for the freedom of citizens. The approaches of rehabilitation and retributive justice to crime and punishment are scrupulously documented in the convict records.
Wedgwood medallion made of clay from Sydney Cove (1789) by Josiah WedgwoodNational Museum of Australia
Commonwealth of Australia
In 1901 these colonies peacefully became an independent federation of states – the Commonwealth of Australia – just over a hundred years after the first convicts landed at Sydney Cove in 1788.
List of Tickets of Leave. Registers of Certificates of Freedom (18th - 19th centuries)UNESCO Memory of the World
One-Third of Modern Australia’s Population
In that the convicts became the ancestors of perhaps one-third of modern Australia’s population, their records are of irreplaceable social significance.
Convict Death Register (18th - 19th centuries)UNESCO Memory of the World
Sense of Australian-Ness
These rare personal records of the ordinary folk who populated early colonial Australia constitute data that shaped Australian national consciousness, enable genealogical research, and are touchstones of the contemporary sense of “Australian-ness.”
