G'day ChrisE,

Van Dieman's Land, now Tasmania, was the furthest place Britain could send her most undesirable convicts. Botany Bay, the first settlement, these days a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, was first sentence. Tasmania was for worse (more anti-British) types or second offenders.

A lot of Irish were recalcitant enough to spend a lot of time in Tasmania. 'Frank the Poet' - Francis MacNamara, a member of a Protestant anti-British "secret society" was sentenced to (?) 7 years originally and served 17 years with extra sentences. He was last recorded leaving Tasmania with some pungent verse on the subject.

When I first went to Cygnet, south of Hobart, in 1966 the population was 90% of (some degree of) Irish descent (compared to 40% for Australia generally). There I found traces of one of Franks poems from the 1830s, still remembered as a song - celebrating the escape from second (third?) sentence to the hell hole of Macquarie Harbour of several (mostly Irish convicts who seized the brig "Cyprus" when the soldier's guard was down and sailed away, hoping to reach Japan and freedom.

I hope some of this helps. Look for "Cyprus Brig" in the DT.

Regards,

Bob Bolton