The late 18th century saw Britain undertake an extraordinary social experiment in its new territories in the South Pacific. An entire colony was to be turned into one vast prison camp. Australia s first white settlers came ashore from the British prison fleet in Botany Bay in 1788. Those that survived the journey, and the others that came later, were often condemned to starvation, disease and horrifying brutality yet, eighty years later, Australia had become a promised land to many. Robert Hughes s magnificent account of the transportation system and the years that saw Australia s transition from prison camp to nation is history on an epic scale, told with immense passion, panache and colour. His story of life and death on Australia s fatal shore is the finest record yet written of how 160,000 men, women and children were shipped off the face of the known world and yet began a new nation.