Convicts on the West Coast of Tasmania

While most physical traces of the convict era were abandoned or lost, many foundations and outlines of the buildings of the settlement can still be seen. Sarah Island was allegedly vandalised for building materials in the 1890s by mining communities. However, enough remains that guided tours of the island can still give a vivid and moving glimpse into the lives of the convicts and their keepers, and the huge amount of building and land reclamation that took place during the relatively short life of the prison. Piners also have periodically discovered convict era items during their work along the rivers and shore of Macquarie Harbour. ==Frederick==

Frederick was a merchant ship stolen in 1834 by escaping convicts from Sarah Island. It has inspired several books and a play. The Ship that Never Was, by the Round Earth Theatre Company, at the Strahan Visitor Centre, in Strahan, is a long-running play about a successful escape. It was written by Richard Davey, a descendant of Governor Davey who worked on Sarah Island as a guide and researcher. He has also written The Sarah Island Conspiracies — an account of twelve voyages to Macquarie Harbour and Sarah Island (Hobart, 2002) and two pamphlets — a narrative of the event the play was based on and "Sarah Island - The People, Ships and shipwrights — a guided tour". Collins refers to Davey in his ''Hell's Gates'' book. The Ship Thieves by Sian Rees focuses upon James Porter one of the group of convicts on Frederick, and manuscripts found in the Dixson Library in Sydney. Rees had previously written about a very different ship of convicts — Lady Juliana. ==Fiction==

• For the Term of his Natural Life, Marcus Clarke • ''Gould's Book of Fish'', Richard Flanagan ==Film==

• The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce ==See also==