Learning module:
Colonial Australia Defining Moments, 1788–1900
Investigation 1: What made us who we are today? Significant events in Australian history in the 1800s
1.2 Convicts sent to Australia: ‘When prisoners walked the land’
Urgh1962 / CC BY-SA creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0; source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fremantle_Prison_gate.jpg
Imagine that…
You have suddenly been sent to a totally new place. You do not know anybody else. You do not know what you need to do to live in this place. The land is strange, the seasons are different, you are not free.
- What do you think would be the key things that would make you more or less successful in this new land?
Discuss this question, then see how something like this really did happen in Australia.
Your task is to go through each evidence file and answer the questions.
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Evidence file A |
Evidence file B |
Evidence file C |
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Evidence file D |
Evidence file E |
Evidence file F |
Evidence file A
Meet the convicts
Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 men, women and child convicts were transported to the colonies of Australia from Britain.
Most of these people were English. About 25 per cent were Irish.
About 75 per cent of the convicts were male and about 25 per cent female.
Most were transported because they were found guilty of stealing.
Many children were also transported as convicts.
1. Check your understanding of this evidence by completing these statements.
Evidence file B
Where were they sent?
Most were sent to New South Wales. Some were also sent to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.
2. Check your understanding of this evidence by selecting true or false for these statements.
Evidence file C
What happened to them in Australia?
Most of the convicts were not locked up when they reached Australia. They had to find a place to live. Every day they would have to work for the government, such as by building roads, or on government farms. They might also be sent to work as labourers for settlers. They could also hire themselves out as workers for part of the time.
If convicts committed another crime in Australia, they could be locked up in a prison. They were often treated very harshly. However, most did not commit new crimes after their arrival in Australia. Most stayed in Australia after the end of their sentences (usually 7 or 14 years), living successful lives as settlers.
3. Check your understanding of this evidence by selecting true or false for these statements.
Evidence file D
Convict attitudes
Most of the early settlers were convicts who did not choose to be in this new place. How did they feel about being sent to a new place halfway across the world from their homes and families?
4. Here are four objects in the National Museum of Australia. They are ‘convict tokens’ — coins that were engraved by a convict and given to a family member or friend. Choose the correct wording under each token.
5. List four feelings that these tokens tell us the convicts had.
The National Museum of Australia is lucky to have this rare collection of tokens. Do you think we need to keep objects from the past in museums? Why?
Evidence file E
Transportation is opposed
As more free settlers arrived in Australia, they wanted jobs. These free settlers found that employers preferred to have convicts as workers, as they were cheap to hire. So people started trying to make the British government stop transporting convicts to Australia.
Some people also wanted to stop transportation because they did not want Australia, their new home, to have the bad reputation of being a convict colony, full of criminals.
7. Check your understanding of this evidence by completing these statements.
Evidence file F
The end of transportation
The system of transportation to New South Wales was ended in 1840, and to Tasmania in 1853.
In 1850 Western Australia needed more workers, so the British government started sending convicts there. This ended in 1869.
8. Check your understanding of this evidence by selecting true or false for these statements.
Conclusion
9. What is your answer now: Why was this event significant or important in Australian history?
10. How is this event still part of life in Australia today?
11. The National Museum of Australia has many objects on display. These objects are associated with the story of a person, place, event or idea, and help us understand more about that story.
Suggest three possible objects relating to convicts that could be in a museum.
Watch this short Defining Moments: Castle Hill Rebellion animation to find out what happened when a group of convicts rebelled against their jailers in 1803 at Castle Hill, near Parramatta, New South Wales.
12. If you could choose an object to put on display in the National Museum of Australia about the convict outbreak, what would it be? Make a choice, and write a short caption for it.
Finding out more
To find out more go to
(i) 1788 Exile or Opportunity? — The First Fleet arrives at Sydney Cove;
(ii) 1833 A prison continent — Convict transportation peaks;
