Skilled Workers at the Port Arthur Penal Settlement, 1830-1836

Abstract

In 1988 the 'Convict Workers' project demonstrated that the convicts transported to New South Wales (NSW) between 1817 and 1840 were ordinary English and Irish workers whose labour was efficiently and productively employed in the colonies. Further, that cross-section of the British working class included 'an upper stratum' of skilled workers who were efficiently matched to positions which utilised their skills and so 'did well out of the penal system'. 'Convict Workers' paved the way for a raft of more nuanced investigations of the management and experience of skilled convict labour. However, we wonder how skilled workers fared at the penal settlements of NSW and Van Diemen's Land (VDL). Those 'colonial gulags', being 'zones of extra punishment' intended to buttress 'the preservation of law and discipline in the convict colony', bred workplace situations that were exceptional and distinct from other sections of the colonial economy.