The Red Post - Botany Bay Farm, A31, Nr Bloxworth, Dorset, UK
Posted by: 
Dragontree
N 50° 46.380 W 002° 09.994
30U E 558766 N 5624913
This is one of the famous Red Posts on the route the first convicts took to Dorchester before leaving to be transported to Botany Bay in Australia.
Waymark Code: WMD9MV
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/10/2011
Views: 6
Its bright colour has been greatly restored and it remains a stark sight instantly recognisable as you drive along the A31. The Red Posts are said to mark the route the convicts were taken along before being transported to Australia. Another theory is that they marked the locations of gibbets; many convicts were hanged before transportation if they were struggling along the way.
Wikipedia describes the various locations of Red Posts in Britain:
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'The most well-known are the small number of Red Posts which are found in some of the southern English counties, including four in Dorset, including one on the A31 trunk road at Anderson, between Bere Regis and Wimborne Minster. The others are located at Benville Bridge, Hewood Corner and near Poyntington. Various theories have been put forward as to their colour, including being to mark routes used by prisoners on their way to port for transportation to Australia, or the site of a gibbet.'
There are some interesting points in this Daily Echo article:
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'The brightly painted post has a much darker history; among stories about it is one that it was at the site of a former gibbet with the post red for obvious reasons.
But factual evidence indicates that the post was a marker or reference point for illiterate guards who were escorting prisoners from Dorchester prison to Portsmouth from where they were transported to Botany Bay, Australia.
Mr Figg said: "Being unable to read, the guards used the distinctive sign as an indicator to nearby Botany Bay Farm where prisoners were held overnight in a barn, now largely destroyed."
The substantially built barn was used as a cell for the prisoners when they were held on their first overnight stop.
Only the base of the barn walls remains now after the building burned down in the 1930s.'
More history on the first fleet and further transportation to Australia can be seen here: visit link