The Fatal Shore

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding by Robert Hughes, Vintage, 1988. 

Transportation

The increase in the urban population due to the Industrial Revolution, and the presence of many unemployed poor people caused the crime rate to rise. In the 18th century, Britain dealt with its criminal element not by imprisoning them, but by transporting them to its colonies. The authorities wanted to remove the criminal element, so that they would not pollute the morals of the working and law-abiding poor. Transportation  was the process by which Australia was colonized by Europeans. 

Undesirable Elements

The crime did not need to be large to result in transportation. Poor people were often transported for stealing small amounts of food or clothing. Those transported included not only criminals, but also gypsies, scavengers, and the Irish.

Australia

After the American revolution, Britain could no longer ship its unwanted criminal element to America. It looked for a new place. New Zealand was not a good choice, because its Maori warriors were too dangerous. Australia, on the other hand, was sparsely populated and its indigenous people were not dangerous. The transported prisoners were sent mainly to the southeast part of Australia, to what are now Queensland and New South Wales.

Irish and Welsh

Irish political prisoners, patriots who had rebelled against English rule, were often transported to Australia. The Welsh were also transported to Australia. In fact, they even got a province named after them, New South Wales. 

Indigenous Australians

The indigenous black people of Australia satisfied an important psychological need for the transported criminals: someone to feel superior to. The indigenous people covered themselves in fish oil to protect themselves from mosquitos. They had excellent teeth, because there was little sugar or starch in their diet. The land was important to them, because it held the tribes collective memory.

Bushrangers

When convicts escaped to the outback, the indigenous people would often capture them and bring them back to their jailers for a reward. Those convicts who were not captured became the bushrangers of legend. There was one major rebellion: by the Irish at Castle Hill in New South Wales in 1804. 

Tasmania

Tasmania was originally called Van Diemen's Land. Bass Strait separated Australia from Tasmania. There were 3-4 thousand indigenous Tasmanians when the Europeans arrived. Almost all were killed by disease, gunshots or poison. Many of the Tasmanian women were kidnapped and kept chained as sexual slaves. 

The Rule of Law

Those transported were treated very harshly. But the British Empire, even in far away Australia, was dominated by the rule of law.