Listed here are books related to female convicts, convict history and Tasmanian history.
New Publications:
Convict Lives: Young girls transported to Van Diemen's Land.Edited by Alison Alexander |
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This book tells the stories of 28 convict girls transported at a young age to Van Diemen’s Land. These vivid stories from Convict Women’s Press continue our series of books that bring convict women to life.
Launch: May 7, 2023 Publisher: Convict Women's Press Inc. Available from selected bookshops or online at Convict Women's Press Inc. ISBN: 9-780648-401919 |
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TASMANIA v. BRITISH EMPIRETHE BATTLE TO END CONVICT TRANSPORTATION By Alison Alexander |
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The British government was determined to keep getting rid of its criminals to Tasmania; colonists had had enough of them. The Empire used all its weapons against the colonists – lying, intimidation, belittling, threatening, physical force – but in the end the colonists triumphed. Publisher: Forty South ISBN 978-0-6454382-3-9 Available at bookshops or from the author
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Author | Title | Year | Publisher | Place |
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Tasmania v. British Empire. The Battle to End Convict Transportation |
2022 | Forty South | Hobart |
Alexander, Alison | Corruption & Skullduggery: Edward Lord, Maria Riseley and Hobart's tempestuous beginnings | 2015 |
Alison Alexander |
Hobart |
Beneath the Mountain: A history of South Hobart | 2015 | Commissioned and supported by the South Hobart Progress Association Inc | Hobart | |
Alexander, Alison | Tasmania's Convicts: how felons built a free society | 2010 | Allen & Unwin | Sydney |
Alexander, Alison | The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer | 2013 | Allen & Unwin | Sydney |
Alexander, Alison (ed.) | The Companion to Tasmanian History (section on Female Convicts) | 2005 | Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania | Hobart |
Atkinson, Jeff | Mary Proctor: Convict Pioneer and Settler | 2005 | Rosenburg Publishing | Kenthurst |
Barnard, Simon | A–Z of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land (launch invite) | 2014 | Text Publishing | Melbourne |
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2019 | Text Publishing | Melbourne | |
Bartlett, Anne M (ed.) | Way Back When: People, Places and Events ... Contributed stories about the early days of settlement in northern Tasmania | 2013 | West Tamar Historical Society, Launceston Historical Society & George Town and District Historical Society |
Launceston |
Barwick, CM | Female Convict Discipline: A study of the House of Correction of Females, Hobart 1838–1844 | 1979 | B.Ed. Dissertation, Division of Teacher Education, TCAE | Hobart |
Bateson, Charles | The Convict Ships 1787–1868 | 1959 | Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd | Glasgow |
Beddoe, Deidre | Welsh Convict Women: A study of women transported from Wales to Australia, 1787–1852 | 1979 | Stewart Williams | Barry |
Bethell, Llewelyn Slingsby | The Story of Port Dalrymple: life and work in northern Tasmania | 1957 | Government Printer | Hobart |
Bonwick, James | Curious Facts of Old Colonial Days | 1870 | Sampson Low, Son & Marston | London |
Brand, Ian | The Convict Probation System: Van Diemen's Land 1839–1854 | 1990 | Blubber Head Press | Hobart |
Brown, Joan C | 'Poverty is not a Crime': The Development of Social Services in Tasmania 1803–1900 | 1972 | Tasmanian Historical Research Association | Hobart |
Casella, Eleanor Conlin | Dangerous Girls and Gentle Ladies: Archaeology and Nineteenth Century Australian Female Convicts | 1999 | PhD thesis, University of California | Berkley |
Cowley, Trudy | A Drift of 'Derwent Ducks': Lives of the 200 female Irish convicts transported on the Australasia from Dublin to Hobart in 1849 | 2005 | Research Tasmania | Hobart |
Cowley, Trudy & Dianne Snowden | Patchwork Prisoners: the Rajah Quilt and the women who made it | 2013 | Research Tasmania | Hobart |
Cuffley, Peter (ed.) | Send the Boy to Sea: The Memoirs of a Sailor on the Goldfields by James Montagu Smith | 2001 | The Five Mile Press | Noble Park |
Daniels, Kay | Convict Women | 1998 | Allen & Unwin | St Leonards |
Daniels, Kay (ed.) | So Much Hard Work: Women and Prostitution in Australian History | 1984 | Fontana Books | Sydney |
Dixson, Miriam | The Real Matilda: Woman and identity in Australia, 1788 to the present | 1976 | Penguin | Harmondsworth |
Duncombe, Geoff | A History of Campbell Town: "The Children of Erin" | 1996 | Regal Publications | Launceston |
Female Convicts Research Centre (Eds. Dianne Snowden & Jane Harrington) |
Convict Lives: Female Convicts at the New Norfolk Asylum Initially opening as an invalid hospital in 1829 at New Norfolk, the hospital was shortly renamed the New Norfolk Asylum for the Insane. It housed both convict and free men and women, and its inmates included hundreds of convict women. ISBN: 978-0-6484019-0-2 |
2021 | Convict Women's Press | Hobart |
Female Convicts Research Centre (Eds. Alison Alexander & Alice Meredith Hodgson) |
Convict Lives at the Cascades Female Factory (Volume Two) ISBN: 978-0-9943859-1-8. THE FASCINATING LIVES of 29 female convicts who spent time in the Cascades Female Factory, between 1829 and 1855, are the subject of this book. |
2018 | Convict Women's Press | Hobart |
Female Convicts Research Centre (Edited by Alison Alexander) |
Convict Lives: Young girls transported to Van Diemen's Land. This book tells the stories of 28 convict girls transported at a young age to Van Diemen’s Land. These vivid stories from Convict Women’s Press continue our series of books that bring convict women to life. |
Convict Women's Press Inc. | Hobart | |
Female Factory Research Group | Convict Lives: Women at Cascades Female Factory (2nd ed.) | 2012 | Convict Women's Press | Hobart |
Female Factory Research Group(editor Lucy Frost) | Convict Lives at the Ross Female Factory | 2011 | Convict Women's Press |
Hobart
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Female Convicts Research Centre (Editors Lucy Frost & Alice Meredith Hodgson) | Convict Lives at the Launceston Female Factory | 2013 | Convict Women's Press |
Hobart |
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editor Alison Alexander)
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Repression, Reform & Resilience: A history of the Cascades Female Factory. |
Oct. 2016 |
Convict Women's Press | Hobart |
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editor Alison Alexander) | Convict Lives at the George Town Female Factory | 2014 | Convict Women's Press |
Hobart |
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editors Lucy Frost & Colette McAlpine) |
From the Edges of Empire: Convict Women from Beyond the British Isles15 stories from 14 authors. This book tells the remarkable stories of women transported to Australia from the British Isles |
2015 | Convict Women's Press | Hobart |
Fleming, Catherine | The transportation of women from Kildare to Van Diemen's land in 1849 | 2012 | Four Courts Press | Dublin |
Flynn, Michael | The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790 | 2001 | Library of Australian History | Sydney |
Forsyth, WD | Governor Arthur's Convict System: Van Diemen's Land 1824–36 | 1970 | Sydney University Press | Sydney |
Frost, Lucy | Abandoned Women | 2012 | Allen & Unwin | Sydney |
Frost, Lucy and Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish | Chain Letters: narrating convict lives | 2001 | Melbourne University Press | Melbourne |
Frost, Lucy with Christopher Downes | Footsteps and Voices: A historical look into the Cascades Female Factory | 2004 | Female Factory Historic Site | Hobart |
Goc, Nicola | Women, Infanticide and the Press: News Narratives of Women in England and Australia 1822–1922 | 2013 | Ashgate | |
Harman, Kristy |
Cleansing the Colony: Transporting convicts from New Zealand to Van Diemen’s Land |
2017 | University of Otago | Otago, NZ |
Harrison-Lever, Brian |
Transported: Tales of Misfortune and Roguery. An illustrated collection of tales in verse. Junior readers. |
2017 |
BRIAN HARRISON-LEVER, author/illustrator |
Hobart |
Heath, Laurel May | The female convict factories of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land: A examination of their role in the control, punishment and reformation of prisoners between 1804 and 1854 | 1978 | M.A. Thesis, Australian National University | Canberra |
Hill, David | 1788 The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet: The biggest single overseas migration the world had ever seen | 2008 | Random House | North Sydney |
Hodgson, Alice Meredith |
The Convict Letter Writer | 2018 | Forty South Publishing | Hobart |
Hodgson, Alice Meredith | Miss Leake's Journal | 2014 | Research Tasmania | Hobart |
Hood, Susan | Transcribing Tasmanian Convict Records | 2003 | Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority | Port Arthur |
Howard, Patrick | To Hell or to Hobart | 1993 | Kangaroo Press | Kenthurst |
Hughes, Robert | The Fatal Shore: A History of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia 1787–1868 | 1987 | The Harvill Press | London |
Hyland, Jeanette | Maids Masters and Magistrates: Twenty Women of the Convict Ship 'New Grove': Maidservants in Van Diemen's Land | 2007 | Clan Hogarth Publishing | Blackmans Bay |
Kavanagh, Joan and Snowden, Dianne |
Van Diemen's Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania. Foreword by Mary McAleese Winner of the The Australian Historical Association Kay Daniels Award 2018. |
2015 | The History Press Ireland, 2015 | Ireland |
Keneally, Tom | The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Sydney Experiment | 2005 | Random House | Milsons Point |
King, Damian & Schroeder, Liz | Catherine McMahon: A Remarkable Convict Woman | 2012 | Rosenberg Publishing | Kenthurst |
Kippen, Rebecca | Death in Tasmania: Using civil death registers to measure nineteenth-cenury cause-specific mortality | 2002 | Ph.D. Thesis, The Australian National University | Canberra |
Leppard, Christine | The Unfortunates PROSTITUTES TRANSPORTED TO VAN DIEMEN'S LAND 1822–1843 | 2013 | ph.D. Thesis, The University of Tasmania | Hobart |
Lucas, Stephen | A Traumatic Birth: PTSD in Convicts and the Australian Psyche | 2015 | http://www.atraumaticbirth.com/ | |
MacDonald, Helen | Human Remains: Episodes in Human Dissection | 2005 | Melbourne University Press | Carlton |
Macdonald, W. Lilian
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The Convict Lassies: Forgotten Exiles? Women sentenced to transportation at the High Court of Judiciary, Perth, Scotland and sent to Van Diemen's Land. This research traces the histories of over two hundred women sentenced at the High Court in Perth, Scotland. For all but two of these women the sentence meant a life spent in exile from Scotland. |
2018 |
Sea Loch Books (APM Publishing Services) ISBN: 978-0994447463
Available for loan at Libraries Tasmania |
Blackwall, NSW |
MacFarlane, Fiona | Quirky Names in Tasmanian History | 2006 | self-published | Hobart |
Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish | Closing Hell's Gates: the death of a convict station | 2008 | Allen & Unwin | Crows Nest |
McCalman, Janet |
Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria
The engrossing tale of Tasmanian convict settlers in colonial Victoria |
2021 |
Melbourne University Publishing https://www.mup.com.au/books/vandemonians-paperback-softback |
Melbourne |
McIntyre, Perry & Rushen, Liz | Quarantined! The 1837 Lady MacnaghtenImmigrants | 2997 | Anchor Books Australia | Sydney |
McKay, Thelma | The 'Princess Royal' Girls: The First Free Female Immigration Ship to Van Diemen's Land – 1832 | 2007 | self-published | Hobart |
McKinlay, Mary |
Forgotten Tasmanians: including George Stokell (1787–1874) (entrepreneur, merchant and farmer) and, Sir John Stokell Dodds (1848–1914) (Attorney-General, Treasurer, Chief Justice, Chancellor of the University, and Lieutenant-Governor) |
2010 | Foot & Playsted | Launceston |
McMahon, Anne |
Convicts at Sea: the voyages of the Irish convict transports to Van |
2011 | ||
Meredith, Louisa Anne | My Home in Tasmania | 2003 | Glamorgan Spring Bay Historical Society | Swansea |
Mickleborough, Leonie | William Sorell in Van Diemen's Land: Lieutenant-Governor, 1817–24. A Golden Age? | 2004 | Blubber Head Press | Hobart |
Moore, James FH | The Convicts of Van Diemen's Land 1840–1853 | 1976 | Cat & Fiddle Press | Hobart |
Needham, Anne | The women transported on the 1790 'Neptune' | 1988 | self-published | Sydney |
Northcote, Maria et al | Convicts Down Under | 2012 | www.lulu.com (print-on-demand or eBook) | |
Oxley, Deborah | Convict Maids: The Forced Migration of Women to Australia | 1996 | Cambridge University Press | Cambridge |
Porter, UB (ed.) | Growing Together | 1981 | Queensberry Hill Press | |
Purtscher, Joyce | Notes from the Hobart Benevolent Society 1858–1914: compiled from the Minute Books | 2014 | self-published | Hobart |
Rayner, Tony | Female factory, female convicts | 2005 | Esperance Press | Dover |
Rayner, Tony | Historical Survey of the Ross Female Factory Site Tasmania | 1980 | National Parks and Wildlife Service | Hobart |
Rayner, Tony | Historical Survey of the Female Factory Historic Site, Cascades, Hobart | 1981 | National Parks and Wildlife Service | Hobart |
Reece, Bob (ed.) | Irish Convict Lives | 1993 | Crossing Press | Sydney |
Rees, Sian | The Floating Brothel: The extraordinary story of the Lady Julian and its cargo of female convicts bound for Botany Bay | 2001 | Hodder | Sydney |
Reid, Kirsty | Gender, crime and empire: convicts, settlers and the state in early colonial Australia | 2007 | Manchester University Press | Manchester |
Reid, Kirsty | Work, Secuality and resistance: the convict women of Van Diemen's Land, 1820–1839 | 1995 | PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh | Edinburgh |
Robinson, Portia | The Women of Botany Bay: a reinterpretation of the role of women in the origins of Australian Society | 1988 | Macquarie Library | Sydney |
Robson, LL | The convict settlers of Australia: An enquiry into the origin and character of the convicts transported to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 1787–1852 | 1965 | Melbourne University Press | Melbourne |
Rushen, Liz | Single & Free: female migration to Australia 1833–1837 | 2011 | Anchor Books Australia | Sydney |
Rushen, Liz & McIntyre, Perry | Fair Game: Australia's first immigrant women | 2010 | Anchor Books Australia | Sydney |
Kay Saunders | Deadly Australian Women: Stories of the women who broke society's greatest taboo | 2013 | Doubleday | |
Schaffer, Irene & McKay, Thelma | Exiled Three Time Over, Profiles of Norfolk Islanders 1807–1813 | 1992 | self-published | Hobart |
Scripps, Lindy &Clark, Julia | The Ross Female Factory Tasmania—A report for the Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage | 1991 | Public History Partners | Hobart |
Scripps, Lindy & Hudspeth, Audrey | The Female Factory Historic Site, Cascades: Historical Report—A report for the Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage | 1992 | ||
Shaw, AGL | Convicts and the colonies: A study of penal transportation from Great Britain and Ireland to Australia and other parts of teh British Empire | 1981 | Melbourne University Press | Melbourne |
Smith, Babette | A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson & the Convicts of the Princess Royal | 2005 | Rosenburg Publishing | Kenthurst |
Smith, Babette | Australia's Birthstain: the startling legacy of the convict era | 2008 | Allen & Unwin | Crows Nest |
Snowden, Dianne | 'A White Rag Burning': Irish women who committed arson in order to be transported to Van Diemen's Land | 2005 | Ph.D. Thesis, University of Tasmania | Hobart |
Snowden, Dianne (Kavanagh, Joan and Snowden, Dianne) |
Van Diemen's Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania. Foreword by Mary McAleese Winner of the The Australian Historical Association Kay Daniels Award 2018. Van Diemen’s Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania |
2015 | The History Press Ireland, 2015 | Ireland |
Snowden, Dianne ![]() |
White Rag Burning: Irish women committing arson to be transported Between 1841 and 1853, nearly 250 women were transported from Ireland to Van Diemen’s Land for committing arson. Many of these Irish women committed arson in order to be transported. The story of the Irish arsonists is a remarkable one, challenging the idea that Irish convict women were passive victims, particularly during the years of the Great Famine. Using original records, this study reveals the reality of convict life together with the legacy left by these women in Tasmania and beyond. |
2018 | Forth South Publishing | Hobart |
Snowden, Dianne |
Voices from the Orphan Schools. The Children’s Stories Nearly 6,000 children, many the children of convicts, passed through the Orphan Schools from 1828 to 1879. This book reveals some of their stories. |
2018 | Dianne Snowden (self-published) | Hobart |
Sjoberg, Heather | Alexander Archibald and Emily Morgan: Donnelly's Creek Gold | 2016 | Heather Sjoberg |
Darwin |
Summers, Anne | Damned whores and God's police | 1975 | Penguin | Harmondsworth |
Tardif, Phillip | Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls: Convict women in Van Diemen's Land 1803–1829 | 1990 | Angus & Robertson | North Ryde |
Tasmanian Family History Society Hobart Branch Writers Group | PROS and CONS of Transportation: A collection of convict stories | 2004 | TFHS Hobart | Hobart |
Timpson, Thomas | Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry: including a history of her labours in promoting the reformation of female prisoners, and the improvement of British seamen | 1847 | Stanford and Swords | |
Voytas, Suzanne | Elizabeth 1828 the worst and most turbulent: From Celtic Cross to Southern Cross | |||
Walton, Jack | The Last Farewell: Devon Convicts Transported to Australia 1782–1821 | 2003 | Australian Scholarly Publishing | |
Westerink, Janelle |
The life story of Martha Ford Goodman, a Convict sent to Van Diemen’s Land A Doctoral Thesis awarded by Charles Sturt University, December 2017. |
2017 | Charles Sturt University | Charles Sturt University |
Wilkie, Douglas |
The Journal of Madame Callegari: The true story behind Alexander Dumas's Journal of Madame Giovanni
The Life and Loves of Eugene Rossiet Lennon, Professeur Extraordinaire |
2015 | Historia Incognita | |
Williams, John | Ordered to the Island: Irish convicts and Van Diemen's Land | 1994 | Crossing Press | Sydney |
Woods, Christine | The Last Ladies: Female convicts on the Duchess of Northumberland, 1853 | 2004 | self-published | Hobart |
Woolley, Richie N | Above the Falls: The People and the History of the Upper Huon, 2nd ed. | 2002 | The Franklin Press | Geilston Bay |
Wright, Reg | The Forgotten Generation of Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land | 1986 | Library of Australian History | Sydney |