In 2 weeks time we will be descending through the smog into DEL.
You finally got mrs-drron over the line! Where staying in Delhi?
Second driest, after Adelaide.
Mixed stories why it was developed. One story was that it was an intermediate stop when moving chain gangs and other prisoners from one place to another.
The area was first explored by surveyor James Meehan in 1803, the year the first settlement on the Derwent was made, at Risdon; found to be fertile and good for farming, close to Hobart. Land grants from about 1809 (settled beforehand). In general, convicts were assigned as labourers to town and rural settlers (saved the govt the cost of maintaining them, and settlers got almost free labour), plus government works such as building stuff. Became a regional hub and only much later, when the
probation convict system replaced the
assignment system, there was a probation station at nearby Jerusalem for 'chain gangs' (one of many). Before then, there was the Richmond gaol where yes, the baddies were chained.
Treatment of convicts in the early days (till abt 1840), under the assignment system, was seen in London as being 'soft on crime' so the convicts were taken away from settlers and made to work on road gangs etc, housed in probation stations ('probation system'). Was a social and economic disaster and ultimately led to the 'anti transportation movement' and the abolition of convicts being sent to VDL.