Is Australia a place where criminals are exiled?

For a long time, Britain regarded Australia as a criminal colony, not a normal colony. Even in 18 10, there are only 2,804 free immigrants in the colony, and there are16,428 criminals (including those released from prison). There is a huge gap between the number of free immigrants and criminals. From the people to colonial officials, most of them have extra respect for criminals and are unwilling to have too much contact with them.

However, not all the people who were initially exiled to Australia were heinous. At that time, the industrial revolution caused a huge gap between the rich and the poor in Britain. Cities are crowded with low-level workers and refugees, and many people "steal" in order to survive-even such people may be exiled to Australia.

Of course, there were Irish people who opposed British rule, and many of them were arrested and sent to Australia. There are so many criminals here that it is difficult to simply distinguish good from evil. But the characteristic of Australian colonies is that criminals will be assigned to free immigrants to help them work. If they do their best and are not complained by their owners, they may be released early. On the contrary, if you are complained, you are likely to be beaten up. ...

Even so, criminals who were initially exiled rarely chose to escape, even if they were not taken care of at ordinary times.

The original colonial farm

The reason is also quite helpless. There are few settlements in Australian colonies. In the first few years, supplies were extremely scarce, and even Britain needed to transport food from other colonies to ensure that people here would not starve to death. Therefore, criminals know very well that they can't go anywhere without food.

Another point is that even the explorers of the colonies at that time did not know what the world was like outside the settlement. No one knows what Australia's jungles, mountains, deserts, rivers and coasts are like. If criminals want to escape, I'm afraid they can't even find their way.

Of course, there are some attempts. Those exiles from Ireland committed crimes against British rule, so they were most dissatisfied with what happened to them. Some Irish criminals chose to escape. With vague geographical knowledge, they think that as long as they keep running northwest, they may reach East Asia-yes, they don't know that there is a vast sea between them.

It is conceivable that almost all criminals died in the wilderness.

Vandimenstein (Tasmania), an important part of New South Wales, was once the most unbearable exile place for criminals.

Now, it is a famous tourist attraction, but at that time it was completely different. In this extremely desolate place, there are only a few indigenous people and the natural environment is extremely bad. The British arranged this place for felons. Unlike the previous settlements, most of the people exiled here are fierce and terrible.

By 1833, there have been 17000 criminals here, and most of them have been abused. The manager here is more cruel. Once a free immigrant complains that his criminal is dishonest, even if there is no evidence to complain, the sheriff will come to the door angrily and beat the criminal unconscious.

In addition, the criminals here are also assigned to do the heaviest physical labor. They are going to cut down the big trees in the forest and then drag them to the seaside to wait for them to be transported away. Because of the lack of materials, criminals often starve to death on rocks ravaged by storms and have been locked in chains.

The sheriff has heavily armed soldiers under his command. They often patrol around with police dogs to check the work of criminals. Many criminals are seriously ill and tortured to death because of long-term lack of clothing and food. In 2009, the Australian film Vandimenstein was translated into Hell's Gate, which tells the story of several exiles escaping from here.