Well there's a myth
Hi TSLU
No convict was ever "dumped" and survived.
Australia was a government "colony" from the very first, and most of the first convicts expected to either go home or settle, but none of that became possible without the Colonial Administration.
Free Settlers eventually came, but all the first farmers etc. were Government sponsored and assisted. Like the Western USA, Australia really surged ahead when gold and other metals were discovered in relative abundance in the late 1840s. But that didn't happen without the Colonials.
Adam