Anyone interested in history can learn more about the study of transportation to Australia and the penal system at a talk with two Oxford academics.

On Sunday, May 26, the Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum in Dorchester will host a talk about how big data is affecting the study of how transportation and the penal system affected ordinary people.

The talk will be delivered by Professor Deborah Oxley, Professor of Social Science History at University of Oxford, and Dr David Meredith, Associate Member of the University of Oxford’s History Faculty in economic and social history.

Professor Oxley said: “Big data is an area that economic historians have been interested in since the 1960s, the large body of data from those transported gives scientists a unique insight into the lives of ordinary 19th century working people.

“Transportation is a big topic. It will be a bit of a whirlwind tour from the role of transportation in the British penal justice system, looking at who was transported and why and then we will travel out to the colonies to think about the way convict transportation was organised and the consequences for both the transported convicts and the indigenous people of the countries they were taken to.”

The talk will examine the stories of the people transported to Australia through the penal system and England’s ‘Bloody Code’.

Many of these people were sentenced in Dorchester’s Shire Hall courtroom.

The changing ways in which historians study the topic will also be discussed.

Research into the topic involves the fields of anthropometrics and epigenetics, which studies factors including nutrition and climate and how these can be passed down generations.

In the context of this topic, this research can help understand concepts such as moving people used to UK climate and moving them to an environment as radically different as Australia.

The talk will start at 1pm, following a soup and roll lunch in the Shire Hall Café which will be served from midday.

There will also be a questions and answers session as part of the event.

Anyone wishing to book a place should visit shirehalldorset.org or call 01305 261849.