Convict History in Australia for Kids Quiz

Answer: England

In the 1700s in England, its jails were packed full of criminals. These were known as convicts or prisoners. Prior to this period in history, most criminals were hanged for their crimes, but, by the 1700s, lesser crimes such as stealing meant going to jail for 7 to 14 years instead.

The problem with that, was that England's jails and prisons became very crowded. For a time the government there used old rotten ships on the Thames river in which to keep excess prisoners, but the people of London complained so much about these eyesores that it was decided to send convicts overseas to other countries instead.

Answer: America

About fifty thousand convicts were sent to America from England during the early days of America. However, following the American War of Independence from England, which began in 1776, America would no longer accept any more prisoners when that war ended in 1783. Around this time in history, the east coast of Australia had recently been explored by Captain Cook, and claimed in the name of England - and so, in 1785, England's government decided to send England's excess convicts there instead.

Answer: Sailing ships

Of course you knew I was tricking you by giving you a choice of submarines and aeroplanes, didn't you? Neither had been invented at that time in history - and hot air balloons, recently just invented, were way too small to hold a lot of people. So, the convicts were transported by sometimes very rickety sailing ships to that new land thousands of miles away. This was called the First Fleet. It consisted of the following:

Two Royal Navy ships filled with crew to protect the Fleet from any attack.

Six transport ships filled with 750-780 convicts, and some 550 soldiers and a few free settlers and their families.

Three supply ships filled with food and other goods necessary to set up a new settlement.

Answer: None had been built

Although the native indigenous people - known as aborigines - had lived in Australia for over forty thousand years, this was a country that had never been settled by European people before. The aboriginal people lived by roaming the land, fishing, and eating native plants.

They always moved to a new area of land when the native foods were used up. This was to give the used land time to regenerate. For the Europeans, then, this new country had no buildings anywhere, no roads, no farms, no schools, no crops growing, nothing at all. Most of all, there were no jails in which to hold any convicts. So, after being let off their transport ships, the convicts just roamed the new settlement aimlessly, sometimes supervised by guards, sometimes not.

Answer: They did not know where to go

Dense bush surrounded the colony on all sides, there were no roads anywhere, and the nearest country was thousands of miles away. There was nowhere to go. So almost all convicts remained where they were, waiting to be told what to do, and how to do it, to survive in this new and frightening land.

It must have been so disorienting. A few prisoners did indeed try to escape, however. They thought that if they walked north far enough, they'd end up in China. Australia, though, is a very large land surrounded by oceans on all sides. If anyone tried to walk to China from there, that person would drown. Most of those convicts who tried to run away returned, tired and hungry.

Some were never heard of again. They probably died, lost and starving, in the great lonely Australian bush.

Answer: To develop the colony as quickly as possible

How amazing was that for a convict? Pardoned as soon as they arrived, given a parcel of land, seeds, tools and other equipment, and encouraged to start their own small farm. The authorities were not being nice, however. They wanted the colony to develop and become self-sustaining - and to act as a base in the South Pacific for the mother country of England. Both Russia and France were a threat to England at that time, particularly to their trading sites in India.

A country populated by England in the Pacific meant extra security for the British.

Answer: Not to start with

Not at first, most definitely not. Indeed, many of the colonists, so far away from England, almost starved to death in those first few years in the new country. The soil was completely different from that in England, and crops that grew so readily back there, were small and stunted in Australia, and sometimes failed to grow at all.

The climate was also very unreliable, with either a lack of rain, or way too much. And it was terribly hot at that time of the year when the colony was first settled - in the middle of the Australian summer.

The biggest problem of all though, was that the authorities back in England, in their selection of young, healthy convicts to send out to Australia, had failed to check whether any of them had any farming experience. Only a very small handful had.

Answer: Yes

Because England wanted Australia (known then as the colony of New South Wales) to develop as a base for the English in the southern oceans, new convicts were encouraged in every way to bring this about. As most of them had been sent out there for petty crimes such as theft (stealing a loaf of bread, for example), the majority were not considered dangerous. And if they genuinely tried to make a go of life in this new country, they were well treated and encouraged in many ways. Indeed, quite a few of those early convicts set up the country's first successful businesses in one way or another. A lot of them were not really motivated though, and were content to work as little as possible when they were placed as servants to help free settlers open up the land. Some weren't motivated at all. They just saw the work the governor and the free settlers offered them as hard labour, and so, as soon as they had served out their jail sentences, they reverted to the criminal life.

As the new colony grew, however, with free settlers gradually increasing, and new governors taking over, the treatment of the convicts deteriorated badly. Their benefits disappeared, and punishments became very brutal. It wasn't until the ninth governor of the new settlement took over that he placed restrictions on the amount of lashes, and other punishments, that convicts could be given.

Answer: Yes

Yes indeed, female prisoners were transported to Australia - and for the same reason as the granting of land and pardons. England wanted the new colony to be populated as soon as possible, and initially this was to be by the convicts themselves. Some 101 females were sent out on the First Fleet, about one female for every seven males.

These were either selected to be wives for the convicts upon landing, or they voluntarily offered themselves up for marriage. It was a big, lonely and very strange new land, and at that time, a woman needed male protection. So they married as quickly as possible.

By the time new and free settlers began pouring in, however, the idea of populating this new land with convict blood wasn't quite so desirable. The convicts, in other words, were used as early breeding stock. And it worked. Within 30 years of first settlement, the population in the new land had grown to over 10,000 people. And it grew dramatically from that time.

Answer: Free settlers running the colonies refused to take any more

Altogether, some 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia before this practice ceased. By 1848, the colony of New South Wales had grown and developed with thousands of free settlers coming to the land to make new lives for their families. Convicts were no longer considered necessary for its development.

Instead, they were considered to be competition for employment by the free settlers. By that time as well, the colonists were fast developing a sense of self-identity as pioneers, proud of their new land, proud of their achievements, and proud to call themselves free men and women. Claiming a convict as a family member was a disgrace.

The settlers wanted them gone. Transportation ceased on the east coast by 1848, and, by 1868, all transportation to Australia ceased altogether. No more convicts, the initial founders of the nation, arrived on Australia's shores ever again.

The country though, will forever owe them a mighty debt. They were the first pioneers.