 The island's first convict era was between 1825 and 1832 and its second - the probation station era - between 1842 and 1851.Among those held during the second era was the Irish nationalist leader William Smith O'Brien, exiled for his part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.His cottage still exists in the nearby former penal colony Port Arthur to where he was deported after his time on Maria Island.