Numbers
of Convicts (1788 - 1868)
More
than 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and
1868.
About 80,000 convicts were sent
to New South Wales (NSW), including a few to Port Phillip (future
Melbourne) and Moreton Bay (future Brisbane) which were part of NSW
until 1851.
Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)
received 69,000. The last convicts to land in eastern Australia were
in Tasmania in 1852.
However,
Western Australia (WA) only started receiving convicts in 1850 and
continued to 1868. 9,700 convicts were sent to WA to help its very
small population to build public buildings. There were no female prisoners
transported to Western Australia. No convicts were sent to
South Australia (SA).
Some 1040 ships carried convicts
from England and Ireland and other places to Australia.
It is thought that about 165,000 departed from the ports of
embarkation, and 3,000 died en route (some of the numbers were taken
from Southern
Cross Genealogy).
- Image: Fremantle
prison, built by convicts
-
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The
reasons for transportation to Australia
Life
in 18th century England
In
the eighteenth century (sometimes called the 1700s), the gap between
rich and poor was huge. In England,
King George III (cf. image on the left) lived in his palace
on the rich side of London, while in
the east of the city most people were poor and hungry.
People began
their working lives at the age of six, labouring long hours in
factories for small wages.
Men had to live
close to their workplaces, so hundreds of families would be crowded
into just a few streets near butcher’s shops and tanneries, where
leather was made. The waste from these places,
as well as sewerage from the houses,
often ran openly in the street. Disease was very common in these
slums. Nobody thought that life would get any
better, so men and women tried to
forget their troubles by getting drunk on cheap alcohol.
Crime
London’s
population doubled between 1750 and 1770. This rapidly rising
birth-rate meant that suddenly England
had a workforce made up of very young people
who had no hope for the future. There weren’t enough jobs to go
round, and the only way people could
survive was to steal.
More and more
people were turning to crime, and there seemed to be no way to
stop them.
Capital punishment
The government began
sentencing criminals to death for almost any offence.
They hoped that
capital punishment would frighten people enough to make them
think twice before committing a crime. A murderer, a thief, or
someone who cut down another person’s
shrubbery, could all get the same sentence.
Thousands of
people were hanged for crimes that would only get them a fine
today.
It was too expensive to build more
jails, and the English upper class didn’t want to have to see
people suffering in chain gangs. Everyone wanted to get rid of the
problem. The best idea seemed to be to take the prisoners to another
country where England owned land, and leave them there. This was
called transportation.
Transportation
Transportation had been used since
the beginning of the eighteenth century to rid the English of their
prisoners. Usually, convicts were taken to the British colony of
America, but the American War of Independence (1775–1783) changed
all that forever. The Americans no longer wanted to be a part of the
British Empire, and were willing to fight for the right to govern
themselves.
America won the war, and its new
government told Britain not to send any more white convicts. The
Americans preferred to use black African slaves to do the work.
The prison hulks
England
had to do something soon about the overcrowded jails. A short-term
solution was found. There were some old, disused ships known as
hulks moored in the Thames River that flows through London, and at
sea-ports on the south coast of England. It was decided that these
would become floating jails. Convicts would eat and sleep on the
hulks, and be taken to work on the land every day.
While the hulks steadily filled with
prisoners, the government tried to decide which of Britain’s
colonies could support a penal settlement, which is an
isolatedcommunity of convicts set up especially for the purpose of
punishment.
The west coast of Africa was a
possibility. So was Australia: the great southernland that no one
knew very much about. West Africa was the favourite option. Because
it was closer to England it would be cheaper to transport people
there. The site was explored, but it was found to be unsuitable.
By 1785, living conditions on board
the hulks were getting worse. Almost a thousand more convicts were
being added to the floating jails each year. In 1786 there was a
rebellion on one prison hulk — eight convicts were shot dead and
46 wounded. Lord Sydney, the Home Office Secretary, made the final
decision. A penal colony would be established at Botany Bay.
The
convicts' lives and crimes
What kind of criminal
came to Australia?
The First Fleet
carried 736 criminals. They were all thieves. Over a hundred had
used violence in carrying out their crimes (there were 31 muggers
and 71 highway robbers on board), but none was transported for a
violent crime, like murder. These first
convicts were not naturally dangerous or violent. There was
no Social Security in England at this time, and unemployment was
even
Convicts
