| Summary: | This thesis devises and tests an approach to understanding archaeological sites of convict labour in an Australian context. It is centred upon a seemingly simple question: was convict labour motivated more by punishment or profit? Focussing on those places where the government retained direct control of convict labour, this thesis proposes an analytical framework that can form the foundation of discussions into the role and residues of convict labour in Australia. Such a framework is required, with research into the convict past marked by a growing disconnect between the archaeological and historical disciplines. The model presented for discussion posits that there are two main analytical elements that should be discussed when engaging with landscapes of convict labour: the setting and process. The latter, in particular, presents a multi-faceted way of examining these landscapes, encouraging their analysis through a tripartite filter: organisation (how the convict labour was managed and deployed), supervision (how the labour was directed and controlled) and production (the economic basis of the convict labour). This thesis tests the model by applying it to five case study sites. These were established by the government to exploit Van Diemen's Land's (Tasmania) coal resource through the deployment of convict labour between ca.1822 and 1848. By drawing upon the archaeological and historical record, this research analytically deconstructs these places using the devised model. Focus is placed upon the role of penological aims in their formation and development, in particular the tension engendered between the motives of punishment and profit. It finds that these places were formed and developed in response to complex multi-scalar influences and the transformative effects of the power dynamics which were played out within them. Importantly, this thesis observes that these places of convict labour are marked by an ambiguity that resulted in a melded landscape where the formative motivators of punishment and profit co-existed, the disentanglement of which requires the application of archaeological and historical methodology
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