Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053:schedule:5:p13
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00053
Segment Type: schedule
Provision Reference: sch 5 (pt 13/42)
Character Range: 521708–524480

Government ration' to construct the convict establishment. By May, convict numbers had increased to 167. The island had ample supply of sandstone for quarrying and more permanent prisoners barracks commenced. Convicts constructed a wharf to receive essential supplies of goods and provisions, extensive terraced gardens and walling and with no fresh source of water, cut water tanks in the rock above the escarpment. In response to drought, fluctuating wheat prices and infrequent shipments of grain to the colony, Governor Gipps ordered convicts to excavate up to 20 grain silos by hand in solid rock to store grain for future use in the colony. This was later (1841) seen by British Government as an interference with free market forces and all grain was ordered to be sold.
In 1840 transportation to New South Wales was suspended, but it was to be many years before all its convicts ceased to be a burden on the British Treasury. The majority of those who had been transported to New South Wales were assigned, or had tickets of leave, but there remained about 5 000 prisoners who were still under punishment, or who through illness or disability were still maintained by the government.
Governor Gipps responded to the considerable pressure for convict accommodation by gazetting Cockatoo Island in 1841 as a place for the reception of male offenders under sentence of transportation (GAO CMP p4(2.1.6)). Transportation to New South Wales had ended, but the worst offenders were now housed much closer to the heart of the colony.
The second building phase – 1841-44
With an increasing workforce, the second phase of building construction included permanent accommodation for the military guard and a combined guard house and barracks for 56 soldiers. Two cells under the cookhouse and a range of twelve solitary cells was completed in 1843. The cells were excavated out of solid rock and accessed by ladder through a trap door from above. By 1844 all of the major penal buildings on Cockatoo Island were complete.
In 1842 there were 342 prisoners on the island. With accommodation already overcrowded it was difficult to carry out the only form of classification that had been ordered by the Governor, to keep the Norfolk Island men separate from those who had been sentenced to transportation (State Records NSW in GAO CMP 2005: p20).
The numbers decrease, and increase
Captain Alexander Maconochie's social experiment in penal reform on Norfolk Island meant that it solely received prisoners newly arrived from Britain. Those convicted in New South Wales of transportable offences were sent to Cockatoo Island. The experiment was abandoned in 1844 and all doubly convicted prisoners under sentence of transportation on Cockatoo Island were sent to Norfolk Island. As