Australasian Anti-Transportation League
The Australasian Anti-Transportation League was a group that wanted to end penal transportation to Australia. It started in Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) in the late 1840s and soon grew with branches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Canterbury in New Zealand.
At the time, transportation to eastern Australia’s colonies had been cut off in 1852, but dozens of convicts were still sent to Van Diemen’s Land. In 1846 there was a two-year pause on sending male convicts there. Officials announced they did not plan to resume transportation, but a wording mistake caused the public to think it would never resume.
By 1851 the movement had become the Australasian League for the Abolition of Transportation, with branches across Australia and New Zealand. In Van Diemen’s Land, supporters won all 16 seats in the first partly elective Legislative Council. The council then voted to ask Queen Victoria to revoke the order allowing transportation to Van Diemen’s Land and Norfolk Island, despite the local governor’s strong opposition.
The Victorian gold rush of 1851 influenced the decision to end transportation to eastern Australia sooner, as it was seen as encouraging crime. Transportation was officially abolished in 1852, and the last convict ship, the St Vincent, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1853.
The League even had its own flag — the Union Jack with the Southern Cross — created before 1851 by John West.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:31 (CET).