History Main / SentencedToDownUnder

* ''Series/YoureSkittingMe'' has a recurring sketch featuring two prisoners in stocks discussing their transportation and what they thought of their new life in Australia.

* In AnneMcCaffrey's ''{{Literature/Catteni}}'' series, the planet used as a relocation camp is named "Botany" by its population, which includes many Australians.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Space Seed", Khan Noonien Singh's ship was the SS ''Botany Bay'', specifically as an allusion to this.

* ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'': Richard Sharpe is twice threatened with being sent to command penal battalions in Australia during the series for getting in the way of various powerful interests. First in "Sharpe's Regiment" and again in "Sharpe's Justice".

* ''Zu neun Ufern'' (a.k.a. ''To New Shores'' and ''To a Distant Shore'') is a 1937 German film about a singer in Victorian London who takes the blame for her aristocratic lover's forging of cheques and who is sentenced to be transported to Australia. It is largely a propoganda piece designed to attack the British aristocracy.

When the British colonized a South Pacific continent of UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} in the 18th century, they established it as a dumping ground for their overcrowded prisons. Traitors, arsonists, grave robbers, petty thieves, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking debtors]], and anyone else who found himself convicted by the (in)justice system of the time were sentenced ''en masse'' to the LandDownUnder simply to clear backlogs. Men, women, and children of all ages found out the hard way that it was very easy to score a one-way ticket beyond the seas. This was possibly the original source for the term "KangarooCourt".

* This seems to be a common stock fate for characters in the novels of Creator/CharlesDickens; in fact, it almost happens to Kit in ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' thanks to the machinations of Mr. Quilp, but Dick Swiveller manages to prove his innocence in the nick of time.

* ''{{Literature/Kydd}}'': In ''Command'' Kydd captains a transport ship full of convicts to {{UsefulNotes/Australia}} during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amiens Peace of Amiens]].
* In AnneMcCaffrey's {{Literature/Catteni}} series, the planet used as a relocation camp is named "Botany" by its population, which includes many Australians.

* ''Victoria'': Early in the series, when Queen Victoria hears some rabblerousers are to be hanged, drawn and quartered, she's quick to order their sentences commuted to transportation.

* Before this convicts were transported to the American colonies. Unfortunately those [[UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution impertinent colonials rebelled against the British Crown]], necessitating the search for another dumping ground.[[note]]And we do mean a search; there was literally nowhere else in the empire deemed suitable for "transportation". Canada was out of the question for reasons both practical (it couldn't really support much of a prison colony) and political (what land hadn't been promised to the incipient Québécois had been promised to Loyalist refugees from the former Thirteen Colonies). A similar dynamic prevailed in the Cape Colony, except without the Loyalists and replacing the incipient Québécois with the incipient Afrikaners. And the rest of the empire was not subject to settler colonialism--except perhaps Ireland, depending on your definition of the term, but that was no good because (1) Ireland was nearby and (2) a large number of the convicts were ''from'' Ireland. Hence the need to found a totally new colony.[[/note]] The rest is history.

* Before this convicts were transported to the American colonies. Unfortunately those [[UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution impertinent colonials rebelled against the British Crown]], necessitating the search for another dumping ground. The rest is history.

* Before even ''that'', tens of thousands of imprisoned Irish (some of whom were kidnapped) were sent to UsefulNotes/{{Barbados}} by the British, which was called getting "barbadosed."

* In the ''Series/InspectorMorse'' episode "The Wench Is Dead, Part 2", Morse is forced to go on sick leave and busies himself by reinvestigating a murder case from Oxford during the 1860s, which he suspects resulted in three wrongful convictions. The men were sentenced to hang, but one found religion in prison and became a model inmate. For this his sentence was commuted at the last minute to transportation (presumably to Australia given the time period).

* The '70s Irish song "The Fields of Athenry" is about a young man being sent to Australia.

* Music/{{U2}}'s song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJYj82ToDXs "Van Diemen's Land"]] (after the original Dutch name for Tasmania) is about the Irish freedom fighters who were transported. It's specifically dedicated to the poet John Boyle O'Reilly, who was deported to Western Australia in 1868 for rebel activities as a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

* ''Series/{{Bligh}} was an Australian SitCom about William Bligh's time as colonial governor as New South Wales. It naturally featured a number of characters who had been sentenced to transportation to Australia.

* ''Great Expections: The Untold Story'' was 1987 telemovie which follows the adventures of Abel Magwitch (from ''Literature/GreatExpectations''), the escaped convict who forced the young Pip to hide and steal for him in the first part of the story. Then it settles to Magwitch's wonderings through Europe and his journey to Australia where it shows the means he used to become a wealthy gentleman and the reasons he decided to become Pip's benefactor.

* There's another song called "Van Diemen's Land", this one about a poacher who's entire gang gets transported. As a folk song, it has numerous variants: in the Music/SteeleyeSpan version the singer is [[TheCoverChangesTheGender a female poacher]]; in some other versions there is a female poacher (or possibly a prostitute) who isn't the singer. In all versions the female character gains her freedom through marriage.

* ''Zu neun Ufern'' (a.k.a. ''To New Shores and To a Distant Shore'') is a 1937 German film about a singer in Victorian London who takes the blame for her aristocratic lover's forging of cheques and who is sentenced to be transported to Australia. It is largely a propoganda piece designed to attack the British aristocracy.

* Several medieval folk songs are about being sent to Australia, such as "The Black Velvet Band".

-->"Let me get this straight: You keep the shitty weather and shitty food, while we get the Great Barrier Reef and lobsters the size of canoes? ...I'm JackTheRipper."

* There's another song called "Van Diemen's Land", this one about a poacher who's entire gang gets transported. As a folk song, it has numerous varients; in the Music/SteeleyeSpan version the singer is [[CoverChangesTheGender a female poacher]].