Van Diemen’s Land (2008) by Australian writer James Boyce explores the British conquest of Van Dieman’s Land before it became Tasmania.

Boyce argues that between 1803 & 1853, approximately 72,00 convicts (mostly from Britain & Ireland) were sent to Van Dieman’s Land but instead of finding it a hostile place, it was something of refuge from their previous lives.

Included in the book are some stories of children, including (in Chapter 7) accounts of Aboriginal children being taken by newcomers.

For example, Boyce talks about “lifting the bar on keeping Aboriginal children” in 1810.

He writes (p. 84):

… a number of children [were] baptised between 1810 and 1812 [who] seem to have had the names of soldiers of the 73rd regiment.”

He goes on:

“In 1810 one couple, the McCauley’s, became the guardians of an infant boy who was to become “Black Robert,” one of the first Aborigines to be engaged by George Augustus Robinson for the conciliation expedition over 20 years later.”

Boyce notes that “it is not clear how many Aboriginal children lived with the British” as many might have done so without being baptised.