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penal colony
(redirected from Penal settlement)

   Also found in: Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.

penal colony

Distant or overseas settlement established to punish criminals with forced labour and isolation from society. Such colonies were developed mostly by the English, French, and Russians. Britain sent criminals to its American colonies until the Revolutionary War; Australia was principally a penal colony from its colonization until the mid-19th century. French Guiana, site of a French penal colony, was infamous for its inhumanity; Devil's Island was still operating during World War II. Russian penal colonies were established in Siberia under the tsars but were most widely used during the Stalin era. Notorious for their harsh punishments and underfeeding, most penal colonies have now been abolished.



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The allegorical scene represented Phillip's vision for Sydney beyond its role as a penal settlement and as a future source of imperial pride and wealth--a sentiment reflected in Darwin's poem with its images of architecture and urban expansion.
In October 1824 he accompanied Oxley north to Moreton Bay, mapping the coast around Redcliffe, the site originally selected for the new penal settlement but relinquished in favour of a site on the magnificent, newly-discovered Brisbane River.
On 20 September 1822 Alexander Pearce and seven comrades escaped from the penal settlement of Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania's remote south west.
 
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