Australia islanders say they are modern convicts

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - Australians in the island state of Tasmania, a former colonial penal colony, believe they are modern convicts, imprisoned by steep transport costs.

In a petition to national lawmakers, a group of locals in the southern state, famous for its convict past and native wildlife including Tasmanian devils, said they were unable to travel to Australia's mainland except at crippling expense.

"Is this the story of the convicts and their descendents? Is this the story of control and suppression or the maintaining of isolation of the nation's island state?" the group said in the petition which was submitted on Thursday.

The plea called on the government to increase subsidies on sea transport to the mainland, with ferry journeys costing more than $2,100 ($1,960) for an average family, almost four times the price of interstate road travel.

Known as Van Diemen's Land in colonial times, Tasmania was settled in 1803 and home to notoriously harsh convict communities including Port Arthur, where a gunman shot and killed 35 tourists and local residents in 1996. Its 493,000 residents have lower wages than many of their countrymen.

($1=A$1.07)

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Miral Fahmy)