The British colony of Australia began in 1788 with the establishment of a penal settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales. Overcrowding in British prisons led the government to send convicts to Australia to establish prison colonies where they would provide labor. From the 1810s onward, convict transportation increased and convicts built up Australia's infrastructure and worked for settlers. The most notorious prison was Port Arthur in Tasmania, which housed the hardest criminals from 1833 to the 1850s. Gold discoveries in the 1850s attracted many new settlers and accelerated Australia's growth toward independence from Britain.