Australia, Convict Index, 1788-1868

The accepted authoritative work on Australian convicts is Charles Bateson’s Convict Ships (Library of Australian History, out of print); in it, Bateson states that 160,151 total convicts were sent to Australia. Although most of the convicts were from the British Isles, some were also from various British colonies. The British Government first sent convicts to New South Wales, Australia in 1788, after the American Revolution. But NSW refused to accept convicts after 1842 because the population had grown after the success of free immigration. Convicts were first sent to Tasmania (formerly Van Diemen’s Land) in 1803. Western Australian accepted male convicts only from 1850 to 1868. [An attempt was also made to send convicts to Port Phillip (Melbourne, Victoria), but this failed.] This database is an index compiled from the convict indexes for each state, from numerous publications, and also from many Internet sites. It gives the name of the convict, his/her age or birth year, birthplace or place of trial, occupation, marital status, ship, and year of arrival. The database includes more than 48,000 names of convicts sent to Australia between 1788 and 1868.