Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Deployment of Convicts
Aboriginal resistance was not the only threat to the survival of this most isolated outpost of
the British Empire. The arid countryside, the loneliness and the cost of transport also took
their toll. When tough men of capital could make a fortune in the east, there were few good
reasons to struggle against the frustrations of the west, and most of the early settlers left.
Two decades on, there were just 5000 Europeans holding out on the western edge of the
continent. Some of the capitalists who had stayed began to rethink their aversion to using
cheap prison labour.
In 1850 - just as the practice of sending British convicts to eastern Australia ended -
shiploads of male convicts started to arrive in Fremantle harbour.
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