“Hurrah for the noble Leaguers”, rang out the cry in Hobart on the 10th August, 1853. The 50th anniversary of the first British settlement in Tasmania was marked with an unofficial holiday, declared to celebrate the end of convict transportation to the colony. This concluded a decade of growing opposition to ‘the hated stain’ – Tasmania had received more than 73,500 convicts in a 50-year period.

The forced transportation of convicts from the bulging prisons of Britain had established a large British population in Hobart by the 1840s, but the colony was looking forward – not back. The Anti-Transportation League led the charge, convening meetings, holding demonstrations, publishing pamphlets and distributing petitions to demand self-government for the colony and promote the name of Tasmania to counter the convict associations of Van Diemen’s Land.

In 1851, anti-transportation supporters in all colonies (except Western Australia) confederated to form the Australasian Anti-Transportation League, and a public declaration of war on convict transportation was made. Members pledged not to employ convicts and to use all constitutional means to resist further transports. By late 1852, Queen Victoria had made a speech questioning transportation and, in February 1853, the Colonial Secretary promised to send no more convicts to Van Diemen’s Land.

The Cessation of Transportation medal was struck to commemorate the end of transportation and the jubilee of the colony’s establishment. Designed and produced in England, the medals arrived in Tasmania in August 1855. Nine thousand white metal medals, such as the one here, were distributed – many to children who had enjoyed a piece of ‘jubilee cake’ two years earlier. One hundred bronze medals were awarded for service ‘rendered in the anti-transportation cause’.