Legislation, ideology and personal agency in the Western Australian penal colony

Abstract

The archaeology of British convict transportation has typically been interpreted using concepts of penal ideology and human agency, but with limited reference to the law that governed the process. Transportation was defined by numerous pieces of legislation that changed over time and encompassed an ideological shift from the banishment of criminals to their reform in penitentiaries. The use of legislation as an interpretative framework is assessed with reference to the Western Australian penal colony in operation between 1850 and 1875. This case study suggests that only some aspects of the convict system can be explained with reference to law and that archaeological data are best interpreted with reference to legislation, penal ideology and human agency.

Keywords:

• Convicts
• transportation
• legislation
• penitentiary
• Western Australia

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sean Winter

Sean Winter recently received his PhD from the University of Western Australia. He is the Short Reports Editor for the journal Australian Archaeology and has research interests in Western Australian colonial archaeology, Australian indigenous archaeology and the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt.