Prison Islands in Australia during the Colonial Era

What is it about?

The stereotypical image of an Australian prison island is a remote island, like Norfolk Island, which held the 'worst' kind of prisoner. In fact prison islands off the coast of Australia played different roles in the colonial period. Prisoners were sent to offshore islands: (1) to colonise unclaimed territory and tap into trading routes (2) because islands were seen as more secure sites to send convicts who broke the rules ('misconducted' themselves) (3) to remove Aboriginal/Indigenous people who resisted colonisation from their homelands

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Why is it important?

This work is important because it shows that imprisonment on Australia's offshore islands was both systematic and flexible practice, that was in use across the colonial period (1788-1901) and therefore argues that we need to include islands in histories of frontier building, the convict system and dispossession of Indigenous people. It shows that the convict system and 'reservation' of Aboriginal peoples were entangled practices, that were spatially similar. Finally, it applies an 'island studies framework' to interrogate how colonial officials were drawn to islands as 'natural prisons', but struggled with the practicalities of sending convicts to isolated islands.