Western Australia was the last Australian colony to receive convicts, the last ship the Hougoumont arrived in January 1868. Nearly 10,000 male convicts arrived over the 18-year period on forty-three ships.
This Handy Guide provides a brief history of the Swan River colony, the transformation of the free colony to a penal colony and the motives and background behind the change. The guide provides information on the daily life of the convict and the administrative regulations they lived and worked under.
Crucially, it then provides you with a step-by-step process to locate the primary and secondary sources on these convicts, with an extensive list of sources and links to further your research.