Editing Van Diemen's Land (section)

=== Penal colony ===
From the early 1800s to the 1853 abolition of [[penal transportation]] (known simply as "transportation"), Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia. Following the suspension of transportation to New South Wales, all transported convicts were sent to Van Diemen's Land. In total, some 73,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land or about 40% of all convicts sent to Australia.<ref>Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish. "The state, convicts and longitudinal analysis." Australian Historical Studies 47, no. 3 (2016): 414-429.</ref>

Male convicts served their sentences as assigned labour to free settlers or in gangs assigned to public works. Only the most difficult convicts (mostly re-offenders) were sent to the [[Tasman Peninsula]] prison known as [[Port Arthur, Tasmania|Port Arthur]]. Female convicts were assigned as servants in free settler households or sent to a [[female factory]] (women's workhouse prison). There were five female factories in Van Diemen's Land.

Convicts completing their sentences or earning their [[ticket-of-leave]] often promptly left Van Diemen's Land. Many settled in the new free colony of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], to the dismay of the free settlers in towns such as [[Melbourne]].

On 6 August 1829, the [[brig]] {{ship||Cyprus|1816 ship|2}}, a government-owned vessel used to transport goods, people, and convicts, set sail from Hobart Town for Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on a routine voyage carrying supplies and convicts. While the ship was becalmed in [[Recherche Bay]], convicts allowed on deck [[Cyprus mutiny|attacked their guards and took control of the brig]]. The mutineers marooned officers, soldiers, and convicts who did not join the mutiny without supplies. The convicts then sailed the ''Cyprus'' to [[Guangzhou|Canton]], China, where they scuttled her and claimed to be castaways from another vessel. On the way, ''Cyprus'' visited Japan during the height of the period of [[Sakoku|severe Japanese restrictions]] on the entry of foreigners, the first Australian ship to do so.

Tensions sometimes ran high between the settlers and the "Vandemonians" as they were termed, particularly during the [[Victorian gold rush]] when a flood of settlers from Van Diemen's Land rushed to the Victorian goldfields.

Complaints from Victorians about recently released convicts from Van Diemen's Land re-offending in Victoria was one of the contributing reasons for the eventual abolition of transportation to Van Diemen's Land in 1853.<ref>Fletcher, B. H. (1994). 1770–1850. In S. Bambrick (Ed.), ''The Cambridge encyclopedia of Australia'' (pp. 86–94). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref>