Penal settlements were places of incarceration and punishment for convicts who committed serious offences after reaching New South Wales.
The Moreton Bay penal colony, on traditional Turrbal and Yuggera land, operated from 1824 to 1842 as a place of secondary punishment for convicts who committed serious offences. In 1842 it was declared open for free settlement. It became the city of Brisbane.
As well as being a penal establishment, one of the primary reasons for establishing the first settlement at Norfolk Island was economic: the Colonial Government had hoped to utilise the flax and pine trees on Norfolk Island.
