Prison — Australia, men, migration & culture

Colonial Australia was established as a prison in 1788. Britain had been sending its unwanted to North America, but revolution put a stop to it. Over the next 80 years Britain ‘transported’ about 162,000 people, about 1% of its population, to more than 14 locations in what later became Australian territory. (More than: there were some failed attempts.) For about 40 years convicts outnumbered free settlers.

Only one in five of these British rejects were women. This asymmetry affected ‘choice’ variously. More than 200 years later about 20% of Australians have convict ancestry.

Aboriginal Australians were killed in large numbers, by accident (disease) & design (murder & warfare). Even now, their numbers have not recovered to pre-invasion levels. Of these, an unknown but substantial fraction are of mixed descent.

As convict transportation declined, the Irish potato famine killed about one million people & expelled that number of refugees. British policy continued to determine North American & Australian population trends. Gold rushes added a ‘pull-factor’.

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Australian states federated in 1901, moving immediately to reject & even expel non-British people. Surviving Aboriginals were largely confined to ‘missions’ & expected to die. Colonies established to keep…