Damon Mcknight
The colonization of Australia by the British in the 19th century was a direct response to the increasing crime rate in England at the time. The British government's solution was to transport criminals to a faraway land, and Australia became that destination. The first penal colony in Australia was established in 1788 in Sydney, Port Jackson, also known as Botany Bay. Over 150 years, approximately 50,000 convicts were transported to the colonies, including women and children. The end of transportation to Australia came in the mid-1800s as the colonies' population grew and the need for convict labour declined. By 1868, transportation to the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land had been officially abolished.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Year transportation of convicts to Australia began | 1787 |
| Year transportation of convicts to Australia ended | 1868 |
| Total number of convicts transported to Australia | 50,000 |
| Number of convicts in the first fleet | 736 |
| Number of male convicts in the first fleet | 548 |
| Number of female convicts in the first fleet | 188 |
| Percentage of convicts transported who were women | 15% |
| Year public schools were established in Australia | 1800s |
| Year the first gold was discovered in Australia | 1851 |
| Year Victoria became its own colony | 1851 |
| Year the first iron-hulled steam ships made the journey to Australia | 1852 |
| Year the Orient steamship was launched | 1879 |
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What You'll Learn
The youngest convicts sent to Australia
The transportation of convicts to Australia was a direct result of the increasing crime rate in 19th-century England, which greatly frightened the upper and middle classes. The failure of public hangings to deter crime and the cry for prison reform led the government to seek a solution that would put the problems of increased crime out of sight: transportation to a distant land.
The initial idea of transporting criminals lay in a law of 1597, entitled "An Acte for Punyshment of Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars", which stated that "obdurate idlers" should be "banished out of this Realm". The first penal colony was established in Botany Bay, at Sydney on Port Jackson. The first fleet of ships carrying convicts departed for Australia in 1787, arriving at Port Jackson, Botany Bay, in 1788.
Among the convicts transported to Australia were several children. Mary Wade, for instance, was just 13 years old when she was transported. She went on to have 21 children and, at the time of her death, had over 300 living descendants. Another girl, Constance Couronne, was even younger—just 10 years old when she was transported, making her the youngest known convict sent to Australia. An 11-year-old boy named Ned Kelly also became famous for being sent away from his family for stealing another girl's clothes.
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The First Fleet
On 13 May 1787, the First Fleet left Portsmouth, England and travelled over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles) and over 250 days before arriving in Botany Bay, New South Wales, on 18 January 1788. However, Governor Arthur Phillip rejected Botany Bay as the site for the new colony, choosing instead Port Jackson to the north. The fleet arrived at Port Jackson on 26 January 1788, establishing the colony of New South Wales as a penal colony—the first British settlement in Australia.
The number of convicts transported in the First Fleet is unclear, with different sources providing different figures. One source states that there were 736 convicts, 548 male and 188 female, while another source gives a range of 750 to 780 convicts. In addition to the convicts, there were also around 550 crew, soldiers, and family members on board. The chief surgeon for the First Fleet, John White, reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage, including the deaths of one marine, one marine's wife, one marine's child, 36 male convicts, four female convicts, and five children of convicts.
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Why were convicts sent to Australia?
The British government believed that Australia would be an ideal place to send their convicts because of its distance from Britain. The transportation of convicts was a solution to the increasing crime rates in Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries, largely due to the lack of an established police force. The most common crimes were theft and robbery, with other reasons including rape, manslaughter, murder, forgery, and even bigamy. The British also believed that the Australian climate would be better for the convicts' health.
The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by Thomas Townshend, the 1st Viscount Sydney. This was due to two reasons: the ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution, and the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion. The British also believed that the land was empty, or 'terra nullius' in Latin, despite the presence of the First Nations peoples, as they did not have a civilized' system of law or land ownership.
The first fleet of convicts arrived in Botany Bay, Australia, on January 18, 1788, but the site was deemed unsuitable for a penal colony. A few days later, the fleet arrived in Sydney Cove, now known as Sydney Harbour. The penal colony was under the charge of Arthur Phillip, who later became the first governor of New South Wales. The convicts were immediately put to work, building houses, farms, roads, and other infrastructure.
The transportation of convicts to Australia ended in the mid-year of 1868, with the colonies' population at around one million, up from 30,000 in 1821. By the mid-1800s, there were enough people living and working in the colonies, and the convicts had served their purpose. Many Australians and Englishmen also believed that transportation to Australia was an inappropriate punishment.
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The end of convict transportation to Australia
As the population grew, so did the opposition to convict transportation. Many Australians and Englishmen believed that transportation was not a harsh enough punishment and did not fit the crimes committed. They also felt that the convicts were a dangerous moral blight on their society and a colony's reputation. This sentiment was particularly strong in the eastern colonies, with opposition gathering in New South Wales from the 1830s. The most influential spokesmen against transportation were often members of the Independent Congregational Church, such as John Fairfax in Sydney and the Reverend John West in Launceston.
The Australasian Anti-Transportation League was formed in 1850 to lobby for the permanent cessation of transportation. The discovery of gold in 1851 and the subsequent gold rushes further bolstered their cause, as people now came to Australia by choice, attracted by the booming economy. The last convict ship to be sent from England, the St. Vincent, arrived in 1853, marking the official end of transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
However, transportation continued in small numbers to Western Australia. In 1849, Western Australia was converted to a penal colony, and the arrival of adult male convicts provided a significant economic impact on the struggling colony. They constructed essential infrastructure and many heritage sites that still stand today. The last convict ship, Hougoumont, left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868, bringing an end to convict transportation to the continent.
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The impact of convict transportation on Aboriginal people
The colonisation of Australia by the British and the transportation of convicts to the continent had a devastating impact on Aboriginal people. Between 1788 and 1868, about 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia, with the first fleet of 11 convict ships arriving in Botany Bay in January 1788, carrying 736 convicts. This marked the beginning of a process that would see the dispossession and displacement of Australia's First Peoples, and the alteration of their lands.
The British viewed the land as uninhabited and uncivilised, disregarding the Aboriginal people living there. This led to violent conflict and the disruption of their cultures as the convicts and colonists encroached on their traditional lands. The introduction of foreign livestock and European agriculture destroyed the cultivated landscapes of the Aboriginal nations, causing a sudden and catastrophic impact on their way of life. The Aboriginal people also suffered from catastrophic introduced diseases, which further decimated their population.
Aboriginal resistance to the British encroachment often led to brutal reprisals from the colonists, including massacres. However, some Aboriginal people sought an accommodation with the settlers, establishing viable communities on small areas of their traditional lands, where they maintained many aspects of their culture.
The convicts themselves often held negative attitudes towards the Aboriginal people, and clashes over resources were common. Convicts were also recruited into Native Police forces that were responsible for 'dispersing' Aboriginal people, with estimates of state-sponsored frontier killings in Queensland alone tallying over 65,000 people. The treatment of Aboriginal people varied depending on their economic value, with violence constrained in places where their labour was utilised, such as stockmen or domestic servants.
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Frequently asked questions
The colonization of Australia was a direct result of the increasing crime rate in England during the 19th century. The failure of public hangings to deter crime and the cry for prison reform led the government to look for a solution to the growing criminal population.
Approximately 50,000 convicts are estimated to have been transported to the colonies over 150 years.
The British government sent a fleet to colonize Australia in 1787, during the 28th year of the reign of King George III.
Transportation to the colony of New South Wales was officially abolished on 1 October 1850, and in 1853 the order to abolish transportation to Van Diemen’s Land was formally announced.
Healthy young workers without dependants were favoured for assisted migration, especially those with experience as agricultural labourers or domestic workers.
