Book: Exiled The Port Arthur Convict Photographs (Edwin Barnard)

[Michael Wong]

The Port Arthur convict photographs are a truly remarkable survival from Australia's colonial past. Taken shortly before the infamous Tsmanian penal settlement closed for good, these images record the faces of men sent to Australia on convict ships between the 1820s and the 1850s, and were taken in the 1870s. 

This study tells the stories of 65 individuals whose images are held in the National Library and the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston.Using transportation records, trial documents, prison files and eyewitness accounts, the author has pieced together biographies of some of the men - and their female partners - who found themselves transported to the colonies. Perhaps your ancestors are among the men pictured in this book?

On a more controversial note, disputing some of the facts in the book can be found in this blog here. You can be the judge!

Either way, if the book is of interest, try and search for it on the Amazon link on the right.