Forced to conceal his identity and forego his inheritance, Rufus Dawes is unjustly implicated in his father's murder, convicted of theft and sentenced to be transported to Australia, where he encounters the brutality of the penal system. First published as a serial in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872 and in a revised, shortened form as a novel in 1874, For the Term of His Natural Life is an Australian classic, a tale of inhumanity and suffering during Australia's early colonial history.
