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Find your Convict - The British Convict Transportation Register dataset contains details of convicts transported to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries including the name of the convict, place of trial, term of years, name of ship and date of departure, and place of arrivalLates Pages
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1788
Arrival in Australia of the First Fleet

1790
Arrival in Australia of the Second Fleet

1791
Remarkable escape from the colony of convicts William and Mary Bryant

1797
Lieut. Shortland Discovered the Hunter River while in pursuit of escaped convicts
1801
Expedition to the Hunter River undertaken by Lieut. William Paterson, James Grant, Ensign Barrallier and George Caley

1802
First Settlement and coal mines were established at Newcastle under Corporal Wixstead
1804
A Convict uprising at Castle Hill in March 1804. Some of the convicts involved to be sent to Newcastle

1804
In March 1804 a Settlement was established at Newcastle under Lieut. Charles Menzies
1808
Lime burning had commenced as early as 1808 at Limburner's Bay near Newcastle where there was an immense deposit of oyster shells
1810
Lieut. John Purcell of the 73rd Regiment was appointed commandant at Newcastle penal settlement in February 1810

1811
Convict James Hardy Vaux compiled Australia's first Dictionary - The Vocabulary of the Flash Language while serving a sentence at Newcastle in 1811
1814
Lieut. Thomas Thompson was commandant at Newcastle when four convicts made a daring escape on the sloop Speedwell

1816
A school was established at Newcastle under convict schoolmaster Henry Wrensford
1818
Newcastle gaol was constructed in 1816 - 1818 on a site overlooking the ocean during Lieutenant James Wallis's tenure as Commandant

1819
Arrival in Sydney of Commissioner John Thomas Bigge - appointed to conduct an enquiry relating to Transportation, Disembarkation and Servitude
1823
By 1823 Newcastle had been closed as a penal settlement and most convicts, excepting those working on the breakwall, were removed to Port Macquarie.

1823
A survey of the township had been completed by Henry Dangar by 1823 and the district was thrown open for settlement
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