The Australasian Anti-Transportation League was a body established to oppose penal transportation to Australia.C. H. Currey
"Denison, Sir William Thomas (18041871)"
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 17 September 2011. Beginning in

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

(

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

) in the late 1840s, it had branches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Canterbury (New Zealand). The

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

abandoned transportation to eastern Australia in 1852.John Hirst, "Anti-transportation" in Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre, (eds)''The Oxford Companion to Australian History'', (Oxford University Press, 2001), via Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 17 September 2011.

Development

Transportation to New South Wales (then, the colony covering the eastern Australian mainland, modern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

) had ceased in 1840 and the number transported to Van Diemen's Land increased sharply. A two-year suspension of the transportation of male convicts to Van Diemen's Land was implemented in May 1846. It was the intention to resume transportation under new arrangements but that decision was conveyed to the local colonial administrator,

William Denison Sir William Thomas Denison (3 May 1804 – 19 January 1871) was Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1847 to 1855, Governor of New South Wales from 1855 to 1861, and Governor of Madras from 1861 to 1866. According to Percival S ...

in the following terms: "it is not the intention that transportation should be resumed at the expiration of the two years"; the words "under the present system" were omitted. The dispatch, taken to mean what it said on its face, was made public before the imperial authorities corrected their error. By 1851, it had developed into the Australasian League for the Abolition of Transportation with branches on the mainland. In Tasmania's first partially elective Legislative Council, its supporters won all 16 seats up for election. The Legislative Council subsequently voted 16 to 4 to request

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

to revoke the Order in Council, permitting transportation to Tasmania and Norfolk Island in spite of the strong opposition of Lieutenant Governor

. The

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...

, commencing in the same year, led the British Government to discontinue transportation, because it was seen as an incentive for criminals to be transported to eastern Australia, and the last convict ship to be sent from England, the ''St. Vincent'', arrived in Tasmania in 1853.

Flag

The League had its own flag, the Union Jack with the Southern Cross which was created before 1851 by John West, a Launceston congregational minister, author and newspaper editor.Alex Druce, "Flag flown high as origins are remembered"
''The Examiner Newspaper''
(Launceston, Australia), 4 September 2011, p 8, via factiva accessed 17 September 2011. "recognised as the precursor to the Australian national flag, which was designed and flown for the first time in 1901."

2010 – 12 research project

The Australian Research Council has funded a research project, ''Liberty, Anti-transportation and the Empire of Morality'' by Professor Hilary Carey, The University of Newcastle with Professor David Roberts, The University of New England.Julian Burgess, "Rewrite for newspaper man West's legacy"
''The Examiner Newspaper''
(Launceston, Australia), 8 July 2011, p 12 via factiva accessed 23 September 2011. Outputs include Carey's ''Empire of Hell'', published by Cambridge University Press in 2019.

Development

Flag

2010 – 12 research project

References

Further reading