Sarah Island, Tasmania (Location)

?, ID3648
Last Edited1 Nov 2020
Note     Macquarie Harbour Penal Station was established on Sarah Island, Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1821 and operated from 1822. William Sorell, then Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, said it was for 'ultra banishment and punishment' for the worst convicts, including those who had escaped from other settlements or had committed secondary crimes in the colony. It achieved a reputation as one of the harshest penal settlements in the Australian colonies.
     Sarah Island, 8 hectares in size, was ideally suited for its purpose. It was separated from the mainland by treacherous seas, surrounded by a mountainous wilderness and was hundreds of miles from the colony's other settled areas. The only seaward access was through a treacherous narrow channel known as Hell's Gates. Strong tidal currents resulted in the deaths of many convicts before they even reached the settlement owing to ships foundering in the narrow rocky channel. The surveyor who mapped Sarah Island concluded that the chances of escape were "next to impossible".
     Governor Sorell wanted the new penal colony to be economically viable, so the British government could be reimbursed for the expense of its establishment. The Huon pine native to the area was an excellent shipbuilding material -- convicts felled the trees and rafted them downriver to Sarah Island which, for a short period, was the largest shipbuilding operation in the Australian colonies.
     Initial soldiers (incl. Waddy) and convicts >>>>>>
     Closed down >>>>>>




Many books have been written about Sarah Island or include mentions of it, most notably:
* Clarke, Marcus (1892) For the Term of His Natural Life -- p. 472
* Hughes, Robert (1987) The Fatal Shore: a history of the transportation of convicts to Australia, 1787-1868 -- p. 688
* Flanagan, Richard (2001) Gould's Book of Fish: a novel in twelve fish -- p. 403
* Brennan, Craig (2011) Bound to Sarah -- historical fiction.
* Grose, Peter (2020) Ten Rogues: The Unlikely Story of Convict Schemers, a Stolen Brig and an Escape from Van Diemen's Land to Chile -- primarily the story of Jimmy Porter and 9 other convicts who, in January 1834 (after the effective closure of Sarah Island late in 1833 and the departure of almost all civilians, convicts and soldiers) had commandeered the just-completed 140-ton brig Frederick and sailed it across the Pacific to Chile with neither a map nor a chronometer. 
(Location) AddressOldfr Dec 1821 - 1824George Waddy, Jane Cuthbert; Penal Settlement, Sarah Island, Macquarie Harbour, TAS; >
Parents and 3 children (although it seems unlikely that the mother and children would have been there for the full period, especially during the early months).1 

Citations

  1. Honour C. Burcher, Pioneers and their Better Halves; Seven Generations of Women in Australia (Published by Boolarong Publications, Brisbane, QLD, 1985); hereafter called Burcher, Pioneers and their Better Halves; copy in Researcher's Library. Page 58: Date1. Page 64: Date2 inferred estimate.