The Australian Convict Sites are a World Heritage Site that consists of eleven penal sites associated with convict transportation to Australia. The sites were constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries, a period during which around 166,000 people were transported to Australia. Convicts were sent to Australia for a range of offences, including committing petty crimes and supporting particular political causes. Convicts were subjected to forced labour, which was used as a means of deterrence and rehabilitation, and as a way of developing the Australian colonies. Several thousand sites, including prisons and labour facilities, were established across Australia to support the convict system. The eleven designated sites served varied functions, including development of the colony's land and exploitation of its natural resources, deterrence of crime through secondary punishment, and rehabilitation of convicts.
The Australian government began preparing a World Heritage nomination of a series of sites associated with convict transportation in 1995. In 2000, the government of John Howard announced a shortlist of eight sites, which were added to Australia's tentative list. In 2007, the Australian government announced a refined shortlist of eleven convict sites. The eleven sites are spread across Australia, with one site located on Norfolk Island, one in Western Australia, four in New South Wales, and the remaining five in Tasmania. The Australian Convict Sites nomination was submitted to UNESCO in January 2008.
The Australian Convict sites were inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 34th Session of the World Heritage Committee in 2010. They were described as representing the "best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts". The sites were deemed to meet criteria 4 (illustrating a significant stage in human history) and 6 (being directly associated with events of outstanding universal significance) of the selection criteria for cultural sites.