Overall assessments of the experience of transportation are difficult to make. While some prisoners ended up establishing themselves as successful landowners or business operators, others spent long unproductive years in penal stations, road and chain gangs. Some gross generalisations are possible. Those transported in the first few decades had a greater chance of long-term economic success than those transported later when labour markets were glutted and access to land was more difficult.1
Overall assessments of the experience of transportation are difficult to make. While some prisoners ended up establishing themselves as successful landowners or business operators, others spent long unproductive years in penal stations, road and chain gangs. Some gross generalisations are possible. Tho
