WESTERN AUSTRALIA was established when a small British settlement was established at King George's Sound (Albany) by Major Edmund Lockyer who was to provide a deterrent to the French presence in the area. On 18.06.1829 the new Swan River Colony was officially proclaimed with Captain James Stirling as the first Governor. Except for the settlement at King George's Sound, the colony was never really a part of NSW. King George's Sound was handed over in 1831.
In 1849 the colony was proclaimed a British penal settlement and the first convicts arrived in 1850. Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, became the colony's convict settlement in 1838 and was used for local colonial offenders. Around 9,720 British convicts were sent directly to the colony in 43 ships between 1850-1868. The convicts were sought by local settlers because of the shortage of labour needed to develop the region. On January 9, 1868, Australia's last convict ship, the "Hougoumont" brought its final cargo of 269 convicts. Convicts sent to Western Australia were sentenced to terms of 6, 7, 10, 14 and 15 years and some reports suggest that their literacy rate was around 75% as opposed to 50% for those sent to NSW and Tasmania. About a third of the convicts left the Swan River Colony after serving their time. (Western Australian Convicts 1850-1868)
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Western Australia began its life as a free colony in 1829 and it was not until its 21st birthday in 1850 that the convict labour it sought to bolster its flagging economy finally arrived. The 18 year history of its convict past between 1850 and 1868 may be given most attention by historians, but it is important to note that its first taste of convict life was really in 1827 when a small party of soldiers and convicts arrived from Sydney to establish a British presence in the region amidst fears of French occupation. It is even possible that some of the New South Wales convicts found themselves further north in the Swan River Settlement in the years that followed.
As with Tasmania, New Zealand and Victoria, Western Australia also received a number of convict boys from Parkhurst Prison during the 1840s. They had been rehabilitated in England and arrived as free settlers destined for apprenticeships with local settlers and their convict past is often forgotten.
Rottnest Island to the west of Fremantle, had been used for local colonial offenders since 1838, but 1850 marked a major change in policy when the first 75 convicts arrived from England aboard the Scindian. In all, around 9,720 British convicts were sent directly to the colony in 43 ships between 1850-1868. Thirty seven of the voyages carried large numbers of prisoners from England, although one voyage actually collected her load in Bermuda. The remaining six ships brought smaller cargoes of military prisoners from amongst the ranks of British troops serving in India.
Modern historians are now putting forward alternative theories, but the traditional reason why Western Australia elected to change its status from a free colony to a penal colony was that local settlers needed a supply of cheap labour to help develop the region. The decision also came at a time when the eastern states were shutting down their penal settlements and once again Britain found herself without an offshore dumping ground for her convicts, just as had happened 65 years earlier after the American War of Independence.
Interestingly though, and possibly out of necessity, Britain was also re-assessing her criminal system and beginning to keep more of her lesser offenders at home. That being the case, it is not surprising to find that many of Western Australia's convicts were the more hardened criminals who were convicted for more serious crimes than stealing sheep and picking pockets, especially as the Western Australian chapter drew to a close. Western Australia's convicts were sentenced to terms of 6, 7, 10, 14 and 15 years and some reports suggest that their literacy rate was around 75% as opposed to 50% for those sent to the eastern states. About a third of the convicts left the Swan River Colony after serving their time but many were also re-convicted locally for later offences. There are also four instances of prisoners escaping and being sent out again after being re-captured. Western Australia – Settlement and Convicts. (extracted from Convicts To Australia website etc.)