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Convict women in Australia were British prisoners whom the government increasingly sent out during the era of transportation (1787–1868) in order to develop the penal outpost of New South Wales (now a state of Australia) into a viable colony.
The women would be employed in 'factories' (equivalent of the English workhouse) but often had to find their own accommodation, and would be under great pressure to pay for it with sexual services. In this way, all the women convicts tended to be regarded as prostitutes. But it is a popular misconception that they had originally been convicted of prostitution, as this was not a transportable offence.