Genealogy Australia

Macquarie Harbour was known in its time as an 'Earthly Hell', as it was located far away from any of the settled areas, and surrounded by forest. Also no maps existed for the area. The labour on which most of the convicts were employed was exhausting (dawn til dusk, six days a week), and use of the lash was frequent. This is a brief history of the people who once lived upon Sarah and Grummet Islands, worked around the harbour and up the Gordon River from 1822-1833.

Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgements
Transportation
The Van Diemen's Land Convict System
History of the Settlement
The Prisoners
The Officers and Military
The Women and Children
Religion and Education
Punishment
Murders and the Settlement
Cannibalism
Escapes by Land and Sea
Visit of Sir John and Lady Franklin, 1842
Second Settlement, 1846-1847