How the American Revolution drove Britain's colonisation of Australia

Even before the North American colonies declared independence 250 years ago this week, they refused to take Britain's convicts. After losing America, the UK turned instead to Botany Bay. That's the story many of us grew up with. But a new generation of historians argues Australia wasn't founded simply to solve a prison crisis—it was the first expression of a more ruthless British Empire after the American Revolution. Guest: Kate Fullagar, Professor of history at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University