How many convicts arrived in australia

Artist FH Townsend used a stereotypical image of a convict during the campaign to close hotel bars at 6 pm. The end of the Napoleonic Wars, and the Industrial Revolution, brought high levels of unemployment and poverty in their wake. This in turn led to an increased crime rate as many struggled simply to survive - as well as the small proportion of the population who were always criminally minded.

English law at the time was harsh, with more than crimes punishable by death. Prisons were overcrowded, so initially the British government made use of decommissioned naval ships as floating prisons. Later South Australia had a floating boys' reformatory, the Fitzjames.

The discovery of Australia in provided the opportunity to send criminals to the most distant land then known. A person convicted of a capital punishment a crime punishable by death could have the sentence converted to fourteen years in a penal colony. Those convicted of a non-capital offence could have the sentence converted to seven years.

However, very few convicts ever returned to Britain, and in fact usually had the opportunity for a better life in the new land. There were about convicts - mostly men - in this group. Finding Botany Bay unsuitable for a colony, the settlement moved north to Port Jackson - modern day Sydney. Subsequently other penal settlements were established at Norfolk Island and in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. These biographies were created using convict lists, musters, colonial returns and original journals from First Fleet officers, marines and convicts.

Collins was a Judge Advocate and Secretary of the Colony. Also available as an ebook. Find journals, letters, books and articles written at the time or about the First Fleet. You can also find out where these items are held and what they contain.

Use these resources to find information about the voyage to Australia and the conditions of the first settlement up until the Second Fleet. Search names of individuals who were on the First Fleet. You can also find out dates of marriages, births and deaths of convicts and members of the crew. Find a short biography of most people who sailed or was born on the First Fleet. It includes individuals that arrived in Australia as well as those who died or escaped on the way.

You can also view lists of the officials, passengers and free women and children. Find details about the treatment of female convicts during the voyage and the events that occurred in the first three months in the new colony, including comments on the behaviour of convicts and marines, encounters with Aboriginal people and the fauna and flora of the mainland.

The laws of this country will of course be introduced in New South Wales, and there is one that I would wish to take place from the moment His Majesty's forces take possession of the country: That there can be no slavery in a free land, and consequently no slaves. Phillip was an enlightened leader for his time and imagined the colony not just as a British outpost in the South Pacific, but as a place for convicts to rehabilitate themselves. Within a week the fleet left the bay as Phillip decided it was unsuitable for the establishment of a colony.

They sailed north to Sydney Cove, now Circular Quay, where the convicts and marines and administrators disembarked. It was there that Phillip established the settlement.

The first free settlers arrived in New South Wales in but convicts remained in the majority until the great influx of people lured by the gold rushes of the s. Convicts were mainly from England and Wales, with a large contingent of Irish 24 per cent and a much smaller number of Scots five per cent.

Most were sentenced in the rapidly growing cities of Britain, where displaced rural populations struggled to find work in an increasingly industrialised world. Rates of theft increased as people stole food and clothing to survive. A conviction for robbery of these small items could result in transportation for seven years. About 20 per cent of those convicted were female. A small proportion of convicts were political prisoners, including Irish home rule insurgents, the unionist Tolpuddle Martyrs, anti-industrialising Luddites, Canadian rebels and political reforming Chartists.

Convicts were sent to Australia to work. Their sentences stipulated they would work from sunrise to sunset, Monday to Saturday. Convicts lived under very strict rules and any breaking of those regulations could result in punishment such as whippings, the wearing of leg-irons or solitary confinement. Serious crimes could result in sentences to hard-labour prisons such as Port Arthur or Norfolk Island.

By the mids only six per cent of convicts were locked up. The vast majority worked for the government or free settlers and, with good behaviour, could earn a ticket of leave, conditional pardon or and even an absolute pardon. While under such orders convicts could earn their own living. The majority of convicts stayed on in Australia after their sentences were served. Once free, they could own land and, under Governor Lachlan Macquarie —21 , some were appointed to key positions in the colonial government.

In convict transportation peaked when prisoners arrived in Australia but, by this time, public support for the system was already in decline. Arthur Phillip, Australia Dictionary of Biography online. Melbourne, The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture. Defining Moments Convict transportation peaks.