History Main / SentencedToDownUnder

* ''Literature/ForTheTermOfHisNaturalLife'' by Marcus Clarke (originally serialised between 1870 and 1872) is a classic Australian novel on the subject. The story follows the fortunes of Rufus Dawes, a young man transported for a murder that he did not commit. The book clearly conveys the harsh and inhumane treatment meted out to the convicts, some of whom were transported for relatively minor crimes, and graphically describes the conditions the convicts experienced.

* In the ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series, [[DragonRider Laurence]] and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Temeraire]] get booted to Australia at the end of the fifth book. Not bad, considering that they started that book under death and breeding-ground sentences respectively for treason.

* 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 the idea of "transportation" was to send the convicts far away 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.

SubTrope of PenalColony. Compare TradingBarsForStripes, where the prisoner is put into the military instead, and ReassignedToAntarctica, when it's not a prison sentence but the effect is the same. Also compare TheExile and PersonaNonGrata, where you aren't sent anywhere specific, but can't come back ''in'' to your country.

* In a rare American occurrence, a scene in ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' has Stephen summarily sentence Django to servitude in an Australian (or at least Australian-run) mining company, where he'll be worked literally to death and then buried in a mass grave, [[spoiler:for the crime of shooting up [[SouthernGentleman Calvin Candie]]'s plantation. Fortunately for Django, these particular Australians are more gullible than Stephen had anticipated, and he deals with them before returning to the plantation to pick up where he had left off during his RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].
* ''Zu neuen 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 propaganda piece designed to attack the British aristocracy.

* This is the Artful Dodger's final fate in ''Literature/OliverTwist''.

* The ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'' novel ''Windchaser'' starts with the wreck of a prison ship heading to Australia. One main character was a prisoner from the ship and one was the son of the ship's doctor.
* ''For the Term of His Natural Life'' by Marcus Clarke (originally serialised between 1870 and 1872) is a classic Australian novel on the subject. The story follows the fortunes of Rufus Dawes, a young man transported for a murder that he did not commit. The book clearly conveys the harsh and inhumane treatment meted out to the convicts, some of whom were transported for relatively minor crimes, and graphically describes the conditions the convicts experienced.
* This practice was referenced during a BatDeduction by Vizzini in ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' and its film adaptation, who mentions that Australia is entirely populated by criminals.
* This is what happened to an embezzler in Literature/SherlockHolmes story "The Adventure of the ''Gloria Scott''". However, he and his fellow convicts rebel and seize control of the ship before they reach Australia.
* ''{{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 Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''{{Literature/Catteni}}'' series, the planet used as a relocation camp is named "Botany" by its population, which includes many Australians.
* In "Riding the Rays", a nonfiction piece by Creator/DouglasAdams collected in ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt'', Douglas's wife tells him that according to her guidebook Brisbane was a penal colony for people who'd committed crimes ''after being transported'', and Douglas looks out over the Great Barrier Reef and realises why Australians are always smiling at British people as though the Brits have missed the joke.

* On ''Series/TheYoungOnes'', one bit scene featured two convicts on a ship bound for Australia. While one was irate about his sentence, the other was rather pleased to go where his son and daughter-in-law had been sent years earlier.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed}} Space Seed]]", Khan Noonien Singh's ship was the SS ''Botany Bay'', specifically as an allusion to this.

* ''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 wanderings 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.
* ''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.
* ''Series/YoureSkittingMe'' has a recurring sketch featuring two prisoners [[StockPunishment in stocks]] discussing their transportation and what they thought of their new life in Australia.
* ''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 ''[[Recap/SharpeS4E1SharpesRegiment Sharpe's Regiment]]'' and again in ''[[Recap/SharpeS5E2SharpesJustice Sharpe's Justice]]''.

* The second song on Music/{{U2}}'s ''Music/RattleAndHum'', [[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.
* Similarly, "Kitty" by Music/ThePogues.
-->Hush ''mo mhuirnín'', the police are watching\\
And you know that I must go, ''a stor''\\
So good night and God guard you forever\\
And write to me won't you, goodbye

* There's another song called "Van Diemen's Land", this one about a poacher whose 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.
* In the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQNuQ-3FtE "10,000 Miles Away"]], the singer's sweetheart has been transported "with a government band around each hand and another one around her leg" and he is stating his intention to go join her.

* The play ''Our Country's Good'' is about a bunch of people sentenced to Australia.

* In ''Film/TheNightingale'' the protagonist is a young Irishwoman convicted for a petty theft and deported to Tasmania.

** [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore Some actual Australian customs officers are rather tired of jokes like this.]]

* ''WebAnimation/HumanKindOf'': Subverted. In the episode "Aliens Anonymous." Judy is urged to attend a support group for Earth-dwelling extraterrestrials, only to realize that absolutely all of them hate the planet and wouldn't be there if they had any other choice. Horrified, asks if Earth is an outright prison planet. When told it isn't, she then asks if it's this trope, but is promptly corrected and told that it's more like Nebraska; so unremarkable that it's the best place to hide out and avoid ''actual'' imprisonment.

* ''WebAnimation/HumanKindOf'': Subverted. In the episode "Aliens Anonymous." Judy, sometime after learning she's half-alien, is urged to attend a support group for Earth-dwelling extraterrestrials, only to realize that absolutely all of them hate the planet and wouldn't be there if they had any other choice. Horrified, asks if Earth is an outright prison planet. When told it isn't, she then asks if it's like Australia, but is promptly corrected and told that it's more like Nebraska; so unremarkable that it's the best place to hide out and avoid ''actual'' imprisonment.

* The whole premise of the series ''Series/{{Banished}}''

** In 1824 the New South Wales penal colony instituted it's own version of the trope by sending convicts to Norfolk Island. Those who had been "double convicted", having been transported to New South Wales and then committed ''another'' major crime were sent there. The island had already been abandoned once after 26 years settlement. The second attempt lasted 32 years, until in 1856 it was abandoned and descendants of Film/TheBounty mutineers took over the island, subsequently becoming integrated with the New South Wales colony, and Australia upon Federation.

** In 1824 the New South Wales penal colony instituted it's own version of the trope by sending convicts to Norfolk Island. Those who had been "double convicted", having been transported to New South Wales and then committed ''another'' major crime were sent there. The island had already been abandoned once after 26 years settlement. The second attempt lasted 32 years, until in 1856 it was abandoned and descendants of the Film/TheBounty mutineers took over the island, subsequently becoming integrated with the New South Wales colony, and Australia upon Federation.

** In 1824 the New South Wales penal colony instituted it's own version of the trope by sending convicts to Norfolk Island. Those who had been "double convicted", having been transported to New South Wales and then committed ''another'' major crime were sent there. The island had already been abandoned once after 26 years settlement. The second attempt lasted 32 years, until in 1856 it was abandoned and descendants of the HMSBounty mutineers took over the island, subsequently becoming integrated with the New South Wales colony, and Australia upon Federation.

Oh, Maggie, Maggie May, they've taken you away
They've sent you to Van Diemen's cruel shore.[[/folder]]

* In a rare American occurrence, a scene in ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' has Stephen summarily sentence Django to servitude in an Australian mining company, where he'll be worked literally to death and then buried in a mass grave, [[spoiler:for the crime of shooting up [[SouthernGentleman Calvin Candie]]'s plantation. Fortunately for Django, these particular Australians are more gullible than Stephen had anticipated, and he deals with them before returning to the plantation to pick up where he had left off during his RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/BleakExpectations:'' Part of the reason series BigBad Mr. Benevolent's childhood was so lonely was because his first step-father would occasionally take part when Benevolent and his friends played Cops & Robbers, and got a little ''too'' into it, sending who he caught to Australia.
[[/folder]]

SubTrope of PenalColony. Compare TradingBarsForStripes, where the prisoner is put into the military instead, and ReassignedToAntarctica, when it's not a prison sentence but the effect is the same.

* In a rare American occurrence, a scene in ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' has Stephen summarily sentence Django to servitude in an Australian mining company, where he'll be worked literally to death and then buried in a mass grave, just for shooting up his recently deceased master's plantation. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, these particular Australians are more gullible than Stephen had anticipated, and Django deals with them before returning to the plantation to pick up where he had left off during his RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''Zu neuen 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.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Creator/BillHicks thought being sent to Australia from Britain wasn't much of a punishment.
-->"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 UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper."

[[folder: Theatre]]
* In ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', this happened to Benjamin Barker, the man who would become Sweeney, who was transported for life fifteen years ago because the corrupt Judge Turpin wanted his wife Lucy for himself.
* The play ''Our Country's Good'' is about a bunch of people sentenced to Australia.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''Black-Eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth Taking Leave of Their Lovers who are Going to Botany Bay'', 1792]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''Black-Eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth taking Leave of Their Lovers who are Going to Botany Bay'', 1792]]