The Convict Probation System – Van Diemen's Land 1839–1854 | Ian Brand & Michael Sprod | 1990 [USED – HCDJ – Good]

Ian Brand and Michael Sprod's history of the probation system — the major experiment in convict management that replaced the assignment system in Van Diemen's Land from 1839 and shaped the colony's labour system, landscape and penal administration for the following fifteen years.

The probation system divided convicts into classes based on conduct, moving them through a series of stages — from gang labour at probation stations to ticket of leave — with the theory that earned privilege would reform character. In practice it was overwhelmed by the scale of transportation, underfunded, and eventually abandoned as a failure. The probation stations it built — at Port Arthur, Maria Island, the Tasman Peninsula and across the island — are among the most significant surviving convict-era structures in Tasmania.

The book includes contemporary reports on the system's operation alongside Brand and Sprod's historical analysis — making it both a narrative history and a primary source collection.

At 284 indexed pages, published by Blubber Head Press in 1990, this is the standard scholarly treatment of the probation system.

BOOK DETAILS

• Hardcover with dust jacket.
• 284 pages, indexed.
• Published 1990 by Blubber Head Press, Hobart.
• Out of print.

CONDITION

Used, generally good condition with some light creasing to the dust jacket.

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