Van Diemens Land

The true story of Australia's most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce, and his infamous escape into the beautiful yet brutal Tasmanian wilderness. In 1822, Pearce and seven other convicts escaped from the isolated Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on the wind-lashed western coast of Van Diemen's Land. This band of Irish, English and Scottish thieves were immediately hurled into chaos as their bid for freedom floundered, and they were thrust into the heart of a harsh and foreboding landscape. With little food or equipment, in a place these immigrants knew little about, they battled a merciless enemy: the unforgiving, barren land. A land where God wields an axe.