CONVICT LABOUR TICKET OF LEAVE PASSPORT AND CERTIFICATE OF FREEDOM
It is well known and documented that Australia was built on the foundations of a penal colony, with a mere 859 people stepping ashore terra firma from that fateful first fleet.
Australia’s population was 190,408 by 1840 when the transportation of convicts to New South Wales was paused, by which time some 150,000 convicts had been sent to the colonies, with the last convict ship arriving in NSW in 1850 when the general population had reached 405,356.
In 1850 the Australasian Anti-Transportation League was formed to lobby for the permanent cessation of transportation, its aims being furthered by the commencement of the Australian gold rushes the following year, which led the British Government to discontinue transportation, because it was seen as an incentive for criminals to be transported to eastern Australia.
