In 1788, the British began sending prisoners to Australia to alleviate their overcrowded prisons

and as part of their strategy to start colonizing the land.

Many of these men were not charged with serious offenses, and so after their sentence would be released and begin a new life.

Other prisoners would only continue to misbehave, and the worst of these would be sent to the remote

and brutal prison colonies in Tasmania.

And the worst of these colonies was the Sarah Island prison where the conditions and punishments

were truly horrific, so much so that prisoners would make frequent escape attempts.

But unfortunately, those who were successful were then faced with the harsh reality of the wild and uninhabited Tasmanian outback.

And the things they had to do to survive here were perhaps more horrific than the prison itself.

As always, viewer discretion is advised.

There's a long-standing and mostly inaccurate joke that all Australians are descendants of criminals.

And while it's true that the British sent many of its worst prisoners out that way,

80% of the people who immigrated to Australia in the 19th century went there by choice for a

better life in a new land. Now with that said, that does still mean that one in five of

the Europeans to set foot on Australian soil was a convicted criminal. Transportation, as

this practice was known, was basically just to step down for the death penalty. Even

though these criminals were rarely sent

away for the rest of their lives, the sentence meant being crammed into prison hulks, which were

these massive floating prisons made from a decommissioned ship. And this was how they waited

for a boat to come and take them away. The conditions on these were dirty and overcrowded with

very little food or water. Then once they were on board a proper ship on the way south,

the living conditions weren't any better. And as they made the crossing, they also had the

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