The Australasia sailed from Dublin in May 1849 carrying 200 female convicts, many from the western counties of Ireland where the effects of the Great Famine were still being felt, and anchored in the Derwent River on 28 September 1849. Rather than landing immediately, the women typically spent a further six months moored on the river under the probation system, before being hired out into service across the colony.
Dr Trudy Mae Cowley draws on convict records — charges, sentences, family details, tickets of leave, conditional pardons — and a wide range of other sources to trace each woman's life from Ireland through the voyage, the institutions of the probation system, and on to marriage, children and life in the colony.
The book is structured in detail: the crimes and previous offences that led to transportation; the voyage itself; the women's colonial employers; the institutions they passed through, including penitentiaries, probation stations, hiring depots, female factories, gaols, nurseries and orphanages, hospitals and invalid depots; their Irish and colonial families and marriages; and a statistical study of the convicts themselves — age, height, religion, native place, literacy, trade, friendships, freedom and death. A closing chapter, "The Facts," gives details of every one of the Australasia's convicts by name, with appendices covering name variants, abbreviations, a glossary, trial places, court offence classes, and marriage witnesses and baptism sponsors.
This copy does NOT include the accompanying Chapter 7 CD of individual fact sheets for each of the 200 women.
See Related Products below for more on Irish convict women and Van Diemen's Land's female convict history — order two or more titles together and we'll combine postage into one parcel. Many more of our Tasmanian titles are yet to be listed online — see our full catalogues at justtassiebooks.com/catalogues.html.
BOOK DETAILS
- Softcover book (book only)
- Published 2005
- 396-pages, indexed
- Approximate size 15cm x 21cm
CONDITION
This is an out-of-print book. It is in clearly used but generaly okay condition with some wear to the edges, slightly damaged back cover, marks on the outer edge of the page block. Owner's details written in the front.
DELIVERY & IN-STORE PICKUP
- Combined Shipping: Sourcing multiple titles for your Tasmanian history library? The Book Cellar offers combined flat-rate parcel delivery across Australia. Secure your books using our online checkout, or phone the bookshop directly on 03 6381 1545 to coordinate multi-volume shipping.
- Free Instore Pickup: Located in Tasmania or travelling the Midland Highway? Select "Instore Pickup" at checkout to pay no postage and collect your items directly from the counter at The Book Cellar, underneath Foxhunters Return in Campbell Town.
|