Just Tassie Books

The heartbreaking stories of the early Australian colony's forgotten children, and those who succeeded against all odds as convict orphans in the Queen's Orphan Schools in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.

At least 37% of male convicts and 15% of female convicts were tattooed by the time they arrived in the Australian penal colonies — making 19th century Australia one of the most heavily tattooed English-speaking societies in the world. Simon Barnard's book draws on the convict records held by Australian archives — particularly the physical description books that colonial authorities used to record individual convicts' distinguishing marks — to document and illustrate what those tattoos actually looked like.

Convict-era Port Arthur - misery of the deepest dye - tells the fifty-year history of Port Arthur, one of the most remote and feared convict locations in colonial Australia, through the experiences of individuals who lived it. The author, David W. Cameron, draws on the words of convicts, soldiers and administrators to tell the story of Port Arthur's development, changing approaches to punishment, and eventual closure in 1877.