How a transportation sentence became a one-way colonial future

How could someone receive what was effectively a one-way sentence to Australia?

A judge could impose transportation after a serious conviction, including a death sentence or a finding of habitual offending, and the cost of returning made the move effectively permanent for many.

Transportation could follow a severe judicial sentence, including a death sentence or a judgment that someone was an habitual offender. Terms commonly lasted seven or fourteen years, and although a convict could become free afterward, paying for passage back to Britain made the move effectively permanent for many. The state paid for the outward voyage and was expected to provide food and clothing, while useful skills were in high demand in the colony. Poachers and other people with practical skills may have been more likely to receive transportation because those abilities would help establish a settlement, although no figures are supplied for that proposed pattern. Transportation remained coerced punishment, yet an impoverished prisoner could find opportunities in a society where many people shared a convict past.