A roll of paper 31 x 1067 cm in size. In 1863 it was recommended to increase the number of convicts transported to Western Australia, and the proposal was met with strident opposition from it and the other Australian colonies through a series of petitions. Reaction in Victoria was especially strong because of anxiety that its goldfields would attract many escaped or former convicts. Although it was decided in early 1864 not to expand penal transportation to Western Australia, many had hoped that it would have ceased altogether. In Oct. 1864 this petition, signed by more than 1,300 women of the shire of Ballarat, appealed for the support of women in England to have transportation finally abolished. In the following year, the government decided to end transportation within three years and the final convicts arriived in Western Australia in 1868.