Home :: Just Tassie Books :: Convicts

New Arrivals

The Convict and the Compass – The Untold Story of Irish Political Convict and Colonial Surveyor James Meehan | Peter Bradley | 2025 [NEW – HCDJ] See details
The Convict and the Compass – The Untold Story of Irish Political Convict and Colonial Surveyor James Meehan | Peter Bradley | 2025 [NEW – HCDJ]
Added: Apr 17, 2026

James Meehan was sentenced at 26 for his role in an uprising against British rule in Ireland and arrived in Australia in 1800 as a convict servant to English explorer Charles Grimes. Through talent and persistence he rose to become Acting Surveyor General of the New South Wales colony, working under five governors from 1800 to 1822.

Our price: AUD 65.00
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 5.91 )
Quantity

Convicts

Books covering Tasmania's convict era – transportation, penal settlements such as Port Arthur and Sarah Island, convict ships and records, and the individual stories of convicts sent to Van Diemen's Land. A well-used section for family historians researching convict ancestors, as well as general readers interested in this defining chapter of Tasmania's past.

Products

The Wreck of the Neva – The Horrifying Fate of a Convict Ship and the Irish Women Aboard | Cal McCarthy & Kevin Todd | 2024 [NEW – HCDJ] See details
The Wreck of the Neva – The Horrifying Fate of a Convict Ship and the Irish Women Aboard | Cal McCarthy & Kevin Todd | 2024 [NEW – HCDJ]

On 8 January 1835 the Neva sailed from Cork carrying 241 people — mostly Irish women convicts and the wives and children of convicts already transported, travelling to join their families in New South Wales. On 13 May 1835 the ship struck a reef just north of King Island in Bass Strait and sank. Of the 241 aboard, 224 drowned — one of the worst convict ship disasters in Australian history.

Our price: AUD 39.95
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 3.63 )
Quantity
Thomas Bock - Convict Engraver, Society Portraitist See details
Thomas Bock - Convict Engraver, Society Portraitist
A 107- page illustrated catalogue to accompany an exhibition of the life and work of Thomas Bock, a convict artist in Van Diemen's Land.
Our price: AUD 15.95
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 1.45 )
Quantity
To Hell or to Hobart – The Story of an Irish Convict Couple Transported to Tasmania in the 1840s | Patrick Howard | 1993 [HCDJ] See details
To Hell or to Hobart – The Story of an Irish Convict Couple Transported to Tasmania in the 1840s | Patrick Howard | 1993 [HCDJ]

Patrick Howard's account of his great-grandparents — Stephen Howard and Ellen Lydon — both transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s and united in Hobart Town.

Our price: AUD 32.00
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 2.91 )
Quantity
To Hell or to Hobart – The Story of an Irish Convict Couple Transported to Tasmania in the 1840s | Patrick Howard | 2012 [SC] See details
To Hell or to Hobart – The Story of an Irish Convict Couple Transported to Tasmania in the 1840s | Patrick Howard | 2012 [SC]

Patrick Howard's account of his great-grandparents — Stephen Howard and Ellen Lydon — both transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s and united in Hobart Town.

Our price: AUD 34.95
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 3.18 )
Quantity
To Solitude Consigned – The Tasmanian Journal of William Smith O'Brien 1849–1853 | Richard Davis (Ed.) | 1995 | Limited First Edition 453/500 [USED – HCDJ – Very Good] See details
To Solitude Consigned – The Tasmanian Journal of William Smith O'Brien 1849–1853 | Richard Davis (Ed.) | 1995 | Limited First Edition 453/500 [USED – HCDJ – Very Good]

The Tasmanian journal of William Smith O'Brien, covering his years as a political exile in Van Diemen's Land from 1849 to 1853. Edited by Richard Davis and published in 1995 as a limited first edition of 500 numbered copies. O'Brien was one of the most prominent figures in the Young Ireland movement — a Protestant Irish nationalist and Member of the Westminster Parliament who led the failed 1848 rebellion against British rule.

Our price: AUD 125.00
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 11.36 )
Quantity
Tom Appleby – Convict Boy | Jackie French | 2004 [SC – Children's Fiction – Ages 9–13] See details
Tom Appleby – Convict Boy | Jackie French | 2004 [SC – Children's Fiction – Ages 9–13]

Eight-year-old chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to transportation — sailing with the First Fleet to Botany Bay to start a new life in a country the English barely understand and the Aboriginal people know intimately. Jackie French's novel gives children a personal, human entry point into Australian convict history.

Our price: AUD 18.99
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 1.73 )
Quantity
Transported - illustrated tales of misfortune and roguery See details
Transported - illustrated tales of misfortune and roguery
Those criminals convicted and transported to Van Diemen's Land all had lives before their convictions, but we know little of them.

Our price: AUD 19.99
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 1.82 )
Quantity
Urchin Convicts - the Point Puer Boys in Van Diemen's Land See details
Urchin Convicts - the Point Puer Boys in Van Diemen's Land

In the early 19th century, amidst public anxiety about the threat to public order and respectability posed by juvenile offenders, over 2000 boys were transported from the streets of London to the Point Puer Boys Establishment at Port Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land.

Winner of the 2026 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History.

Our price: AUD 39.99
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 3.64 )
Quantity
Van Diemen's Women - A History of Transportation to Tasmania See details
Van Diemen's Women - A History of Transportation to Tasmania
An in-depth account of what life was like for a woman transported from Ireland to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s and how a Draconian punishment for some became a life saving measure.
Our price: AUD 44.95
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 4.09 )
Quantity Out of stock
Voices from the Orphan Schools - signed See details
Voices from the Orphan Schools - signed
Nearly 6,000 children, many the children of convicts, passed through Van Diemen's Land (Tasmanian) Orphan Schools from 1828 to 1879. This book reveals some of their stories.
Our price: AUD 45.00
including GST 10.00 % ( AUD 4.09 )
Quantity