For The Term Of His Natural Life — Marcus Clarke

Seven classes of criminals were established in 1826 when the new barracks for prisoners at Hobart Town were finished The first class were allowed to sleep out of barracks and to work for themselves on Saturday the second had only the lastnamed indulgence the third were only allowed Saturday afternoon the fourth and fifth were refractory and disorderly characters to work in irons the sixth were men of the most degraded and incorrigible character to be worked in irons and kept entirely separate from the other prisoners while the seventh were the refuse of this refuse the murderers bandits and villains whom neither chain nor lash could tame They were regarded as socially dead and shipped to Hell s Gates or Maria Island Hells Gates was the most dreaded of all these houses of bondage The discipline at the place was so severe and the life so terrible that prisoners would risk all to escape from it In one year of eighty five deaths there only thirty were from natural causes of the remaining dead twenty seven were drowned eight killed accidentally three shot by the soldiers and twelve murdered by their comrades

Seven classes of criminals were established in 1826 when the new barracks for prisoners at Hobart Town were finished The first class were allowed to sleep out of barracks and to work for themselves on Saturday the second had only the lastnamed indulgence the third were only allowed Saturday afternoon the fourth and fifth were ldquo refractory and disorderly characters to work in irons rdquo the sixth were ldquo men of the most degraded and incorrigible character to be worked in irons and kept entirely separate from the other prisoners rdquo while the seventh were the refuse of this refuse the murderers bandits and villains whom neither chain nor lash could tame They were regarded as socially dead and shipped to Hells Gates or Maria Island Hells Gates was the most dreaded of all these houses of bondage The discipline at the place was so severe and the life so terrible that prisoners would risk all to escape from it In one year of eighty five deaths there only thirty were from natural causes of the remaining dead twenty seven were drowned eight killed accidentally three shot by the soldiers and twelve murdered by their comrades