Penal Colony, a settlement to which convicts are banished or in which they are confined. In the late 18th and the early 19th century, Great Britain transported thousands of convicts to many settlements in Australia. Norfolk Island in the South Pacific was another British penal colony. Devil's Island off French Guiana, South America, was a French penal colony until after World War II. France also used the South Pacific island of New Caledonia for this purpose from 1863 to 1897. Portugal formerly sent convicts to Angola in Africa. In Russia both the czarist regime and the Communists have had penal settlements in Siberia.