Not quite, Australia wasnt an independent country at the time. It only gained independence in 1901. The last prisoner was shipped to the penal colony around 1870. So there was no Australian state to sign any agreement with. UK was until very recently in the EU with Greece. Might even get the prisoners superior conditions, some of UKs jails are Victorian in construction and very overcrowded.

> Australia wasnt an independent country at the time

It had been occupied for 65000 years by people that might have argued otherwise though!

Unfortunately for those people, they hadn’t formed a state or anything approaching one, and were still busy fighting each other along tribal lines. I suppose the colonists could have tried a deal with the largest tribe at the time, who could have then imposed their agreement on the other tribes by force.

I think that was viewed as a move towards leniency at the time, because often the crimes would previously have carried the death penalty.

Or being put on a prison hulk with up to 30% yearly death rates.

Also at least in Britain the number of capital crimes increased almost exponentially in the late 17th and the 18th centuries. So I’m not sure that’s quite right.