Australian convicts

Irish women and children were transported as convicts to Tasmania in Australia as punishment for small crimes. Australian convict transportation on the John Calvin ship in 1848. Learn their story here.

The Convict deaths register 1828-1879 records the deaths of convicts who were still serving their sentence.

IT WAS a time when Australia was one of the most tattooed nations in the world and the male female convicts arriving in the penal colonies were heavily inked with symbols that had secret meanings and codes.

The appropriation and replication of colonial tattoos in popular culture is rampant, but do they mean the same now as they did then?

A timeline showing the progression of convict colonisation in Australia.

First Fleet convict diary entries. A great way to display the children's work.

Through centuries of human suffering, one vision has sustained: a belief in a terrestrial arcadia

Love token

Haunting images of the past have emerged, showing vintage black and white portraits of women. These are the faces of convicted criminals who were put behind bars from the 1880s to 1930s.

1788:Map of Sydney Cove and Convict Ships of the First Fleet.