Starring Brian Nankervis, Mick Thomas, Tim Rogers, Jeff Lang, Ben Salter, Sal Kimber, Darren Hanlon, Shelley Short, Van Walker and introducing Claire Anne Taylor backed by an all-star band featuring Weddings Parties Anything’s Jen Anderson, Mark Wallace, and Michael Barclay with Craig Pilkington.

For only the fourth time in twelve years have this stellar cast been gathered together to perform the acclaimed theatrical piece that presents an extraordinary musical journey based on dramatic true stories from Tasmania’s convict past. It was a centrepiece of the inaugural DARK MOFO festival in Hobart in 2013, last played at Port Fairy Folk Festival in 2019 and is the subject of a concert album and feature film.

The discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 gave rise to an amazing exodus from Van Diemen’s Land. Convicts and ex-convicts crossed Bass Strait in their thousands. Many of the ‘Vandemonians’ fell to crime and quickly they became hated and feared on the goldfields. In 1852 the Victorian Government passed the Convicts Prevention Act with the express aim of preventing any further introduction of the prison population to the booming colony. Needless to say, the act was a complete failure!