Australia and the convicts of Britain.?

the british had very harsh laws back then, along with a high percentage of the population living in poverty, so their prisons were well over capacity. around 70% of the convicts brought over were actually Irish, not british. i don't think it was considered a death penalty, as many convicts were sent over here for relatively short sentences, and were released after only a few years. I think maybe the british government just saw another country for the taking, and saw their overflowing prison system as a source of cheap labour to create this new colony.