 TIP: Books with this icon are
good starting points for beginners. |
This list is by no means exhaustive. A search of library catalogues will unearth many more relevant titles. Included here are books which have been recommended by other researchers. We welcome your suggestions for additions to the Bibliography.
Anderson, C.L. Lincolnshire convicts to Australia, Bermuda and Gibraltar: a study of two thousand convicts. Dunholme, Lincoln: Laece Books, 1993.
Bateson, Charles. The convict ships, 1787-1868. 2nd ed. Sydney [etc.] ; London : A.H. and A.W. Reed, 1974.
Brand, Ian. Penal peninsula : Port Arthur and its outstations, 1827-1898. Rev. ed. Launceston, Tas. : Regal, [1989]. ISBN 0909640084.
Buddee, Paul (Paul Edgar), 1913- Fate of the artful dodger : Parkhurst boys transported to Australia and New Zealand 1842-1852. Perth, W.A. : St. George Books, 1984. ISBN 0867780177.
Cash, Martin, 1810-1877. Martin Cash : the bushranger of Van Diemen's Land in 1843-4 : a personal narrative of his exploits in the bush and his experiences at Port Arthur and Norfolk Island. 9th ed. Hobart : J. Walch & Sons, 1972.
Clarke, Keith M. Convicts of the Port Phillip District. Waramanga, A.C.T. : K.M. & G. Clarke, 1999. ISBN 0958753334.
Clarke, Marcus Andrew Hislop, 1846-1881. For the term of his natural life. [First published in 1874. Cover subtitle: The grim and tragic story of life in an Australian penal colony.] Full text online.
Clarke, Peter, 1927- . Hell and paradise : the Norfolk, Bounty, Pitcairn saga / Peter Clarke. Ringwood, Vic. : Viking, 1986. ISBN 0670815217.
Convict love tokens : the leaden hearts the convicts left behind / edited by Michele Field and Timothy Millett. Kent Town, S. Aust. : Wakefield Press, 1998. ISBN 1862544344.
Convict workers : reinterpreting Australia's past / edited by Stephen Nicholas. Cambridge ; Melbourne : Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN 0521361265.
Costello, Con. Botany Bay : the story of the convicts transported from Ireland to Australia, 1791-1853. Cork : Mercier, c.1987. ISBN 0853428085 (pbk.)
Cumes, J. W. C. (James William C.), 1922- Their chastity was not too rigid : leisure times in early Australia. Melbourne : Longman Cheshire ; Terry Hills, N.S.W. : Reed, 1979. ISBN 0582714567.
Damousi, Joy, 1961- Depraved and disorderly : female convicts, sexuality and gender in colonial Australia. Cambridge (England) : Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0521583233.
Daniels, Kay. Convict Women. Allen & Unwin, 1998. ISBN: 1864486775.
De Vries-Evans, Susanna. Strength of spirit : pioneering women of achievement from First Fleet to Federation. Alexandria, N.S.W. : Millennium Books, 1995. ISBN 1864290382.
Donohoe, James Hugh, 1941- . The Catholics of New South Wales, 1788-1820 and their families. Sydney : Archives Authority of New South Wales, 1988. ISBN 0724079742.
Donohoe, James Hugh, 1941- . Convicts and exiles transported from Ireland, 1791-1820. Spit Junction, N.S.W. : J.S. North Pub., 1997, c1990. ISBN 0958754586.
Dunn, Cathy. Ladies of the Royal Admiral 1792. [Milton, N.S.W.] : Cathy Dunn, c1996. ISBN 0958758603 (prepublication).
Dunn, Cathy. Governor Hunter's assignment report : women convicts, 1798. Milton, N.S.W. : C. Dunn, 1995. ISBN 095878611.
Dunn, Cathy. The convicts & pioneer labourers of Murramarang & Ulladulla. Milton, N.S.W. : C. Dunn, 1994. ISBN 0646202243.
Egan, Jack, 1941- Buried alive : Sydney 1788-1792 : eyewitness accounts of the making of a nation. St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1999. ISBN 1865081388.
Erickson, Rica and O'Mara, Gillian. The Bicentennial dictionary of Western Australians. V. 9. Convicts in Western Australia, 1850-1887. Nedlands, W.A. : University of Western Australia, 1987-[1997]. ISBN 1875560440. [Revision of Dictionary of Western Australians Vol. 2 Bond 1850-1868. Alphabetical listing of convicts and short biography of each]
Exiles from Erin : convict lives in Ireland and Australia. Edited by Bob Reece ; foreword by A. J. F. O'Reilly. Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1991. ISBN 0333564375 (pbk.), 0333564367.
Fox, Norman E. Berkshire to Botany Bay : the 1830 labourers' revolt in Berkshire : its causes and consequences. Newbury, England : Littlefield, 1995. ISBN 0952666103.
Free passengers and crew on convict ships into Sydney, 1830-40 / compiled by Nola M. Mackey. [Grafton, NSW] : Grafton Family History Centre, 1998. ISBN 1875840451.
Frost, Alan. Botany Bay mirages : illusions of Australia's convict beginnings. Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 1994. ISBN 0522844979.
Gill, Andrew. Forced labour for the West : Parkhurst convicts "apprenticed" in Western Australia 1842-1851. 2nd ed. Maylands, W.A. : Blatellae Books, 1997. ISBN 0959347259.
Gill, Andrew (comp.). A register of employers of Parkhurst convicts 'apprenticed' in Western Australia 1842-1851. Maylands, WA: Andrew Gill, 1993.
Hasluck, Alexandra. Unwilling emigrants : a study of the convict period in Western Australia. Melbourne : Oxford University Press, 1959. ISBN 0195505743.
Hawkings, David T. Bound for Australia. North Sydney, N.S.W : Library of Australian History, c1987. ISBN 0908120664.
Hirst, Warwick. Great escapes by convicts in colonial Australia. East Roseville, N.S.W. : Simon & Schuster, 1999. ISBN 0731808150.
Holden, Robert. Orphans of history : the forgotten children of the First Fleet. Melbourne : Text Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1875847081.
Hughes, Robert, 1938-. The fatal shore : a history of the transportation of convicts to Australia, 1787-1868. London : Collins Harvill, 1987, c1986. ISBN 0002173611.
Irish convict lives / edited by Bob Reece. Sydney : Crossing Press, 1993. ISBN 0646150138.
Irish women in colonial Australia / edited by Trevor McClaughlin. St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1998. ISBN 1864487151.
Johnson, W. Branch. The English prison hulks. Revised ed. Chichester: Phillimore, 1970. ISBN: 0900592036.
Jones, M. (Marie). From places now forgotten : an index of convicts whose places of trial were outside the U.K. & Ireland. Cardiff, N.S.W. : M. Jones, c1996. ISBN 0646247654.
Keneally, Thomas, 1935- The great shame : a story of the Irish in the Old World and the New. Milsons Point, N.S.W. : Random House, 1998. ISBN 0091837367
Levi, John S., 1934- Australian genesis : Jewish convicts and settlers, 1788-1850 / J. S. Levi, G. F. J. Bergman. Adelaide : Rigby, 1974. ISBN 0851798101.
Levi, J. S. (John Simon), 1934- The forefathers : a dictionary of biography of the Jews of Australia 1788-1830. [Sydney] : Australian Jewish Historical Society, 1976. ISBN 0959995919.
Macfarlane, Margaret. The Scottish radicals : tried and transported to Australia for treason in 1820 / by Margaret and Alastair Macfarlane. Rev. ed. Stevenage, Hertfordshire : Spa Books, 1981.
Maconochie, Alexander, 1787-1860. Thoughts on convict management : and other subjects connected with the Australian penal colonies. Hobart Town : J.C. Macdougall, 1838.
McLachlan, Iaen. Place of banishment : Port Macquarie 1818 to 1832. Sydney : Hale & Iremonger, c1988. ISBN 0868063169.
O'Farrell, Patrick, 1933- The Irish in Australia. Rev. ed. Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press, 1993. ISBN 0868401811.
O'Mara, Gillian. Convict records of Western Australia: a research guide. Perth: Friends of Battye Inc, 1990. ISBN 064602213X.
Oxley, Deborah. Convict maids; the forced migration of women to Australia. Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 0521441315.
Perkins, Harold. The convict priests. Rosanna [Vic.] : H. Perkins, [1984]. ISBN 0959140700.
Reakes, Janet, 1952-. A convict's life. Bass Hill, NSW : Genealogy Research Service Centre, 1985. ISBN 0959009302.
Reakes, Janet, 1952-. How to trace your convict ancestors : their lives, times, & records. Sydney, N.S.W. : Hale & Iremonger, c1987, 1999. ISBN 0868066575.
Rees, Siân. The floating brothel : the extraordinary story of the Lady Julian and its cargo of female convicts bound for Botany Bay. Sydney : Hodder Headline Australia, 2001. ISBN 0733613047 (pbk.)
Robinson, Portia. The women of Botany Bay : a reinterpretation of the role of women in the origins of Australian society. Rev. ed. Ringwood, Vic. : Penguin, 1993. ISBN 0140146989 (pbk.)
Robson, L. L. (Leslie Lloyd), 1931-1990. 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. Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 1994, c1965. ISBN: 0522845851.
Salt, A. These Outcast Women - The Parramatta Female Factory 1821-1848. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger 1984. ISBN 0868060089.
Smith, Babette, 1942- A cargo of women : Susannah Watson and the convicts of the Princess Royal. Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press, 1988. ISBN 086840067X.
Sweetman, John, 1935- . The military establishment and penal settlement at King George Sound (Frederickstown), 25th December 1826-19th March 1831. Carlisle, W.A. : Hesperian Press, 1989. ISBN 085905022X.
Tardif, Phillip, 1958- . Notorious strumpets and dangerous girls : convict women in Van Diemen's Land, 1803-1829. North Ryde, N.S.W. : Angus & Robertson, 1990. ISBN 0207157987.
Tipping, Marjorie, 1917-. Convicts unbound : the story of the Calcutta convicts and their settlement in Australia. South Yarra, Vic : Viking O'Neil, 1988.
Vine Hall, Nick. Tracing your family history in Australia: a guide to sources. 2nd ed. Albert Park, Vic. : N.V. Hall, c1994. 1864040718.
The voice of our exiles : or, Stray leaves from a convict ship. Ed. by Daniel Ritchie. Edinburgh : John Menzies, 1854. [Notes: Essays by convicts, collected and issued as the Pestonjee Bomanjee Journal, April 25, 1852 to July 28, 1852.]
Weidenhofer, Maggie, 1941- The convict years : transportation and the penal system, 1788-1868. Melbourne : Lansdowne, 1973. ISBN 0701802480.
Written on the body : the tattoo in European and American history / edited by Jane Caplan. London : Reaktion, 2000. ISBN 1861890621.
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