Australian History from the First Colony.

Convicts and the penal system.
who were the convicts?
• The majority of the 165,000 convicts transported to Australia were poor and illiterate, victims of the Poor Laws and social conditions in Georgian England.
• Eight out of ten prisoners were convicted for larceny of some description.
• However, apart from unskilled and semi-skilled labourers from Britain and Ireland, transportees came from astonishingly varied ethnic backgrounds: American, Corsican, French, Hong Kong, Chinese, West Indian, Indian, and African.
• There were political prisoners and prisoners of war, as well as a motley collection of professionals such as lawyers, surgeons and teachers.
• The average age of a transportee was 26, and their number included children who were either convicted of crimes or were making the journey with their mothers.
• Just one in six transportees was a woman.

What was the penal system really like?
• Convicts were treated in a inhumanity way.
• Not feed on a regular basis.
• Women convicts sent to work as domestic house servants.
• Reoffenders were taken to Van Diemen’s Land were some convicts where physically abused.
• Male convicts were entitled to a ration of meat. If they were fortunate, they might receive their meat ration in fresh meat but often it was anything but fresh.
• Female convicts were entitled to two-thirds of the male rations.
• Convicts were given a set a new clothing idea twice a year.
• Many employed convicts were lucky enough to receive their annual wage of £10 per year.

Backgroud.
Transportation and sentencing.
• Between 18th and 19th century large numbers of convicts were transported to different Australian penal colonies by the British government.
• In 1778, Botany Bay was the first stop having Captain Arthur Phillip the leading the first arrival.
• The last convict ship arrived in western Australian in 1868.
• Female convicts were sent directly to female factories in Parramatta or were employed to become... [continues]

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