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First fleet arrival
On 18 January 1788 the First Fleet2 arrived at Botany Bay3, which Joseph Banks had declared suitable for a penal colony after he returned from a journey there in 1770. -
Second fleet arrival
Two more convict fleets arrived in 1790 and 1791, and the first free settlers arrived in 1793. From 1788 to 1823, the Colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprised mainly of convicts, soldiers and the wives of soldiers. -
Third Fleet
In 1791 the Third Fleet arrived in NSW. -
Employment roles
Governor Philip (1788-1792) founded a system of labour in which people, whatever their crime, were employed according to their skills - as brick makers, carpenters, nurses, servants, cattlemen, shepherds and farmers. -
Risdon Settlement
The first settlement was made at Risdon on 11th of September 1803 when Lieutenant John Bowen landed with about 50 settlers, crew, soldiers and convicts. The site was unsuitable and was abandoned in August 1804. -
Settlement in Hobart
Lieutenant-Col David Collins established a successful settlement in Hobart in February 1804. He had a party of approximately 260 people, including 178 convicts. -
Convict Slavery
From 1810, convicts were seen as a source of labour to advance and develop the British colony. Convict labour was used to develop the public facilities of the colonies - roads, causeways, bridges, courthouses and hospitals. Convicts also worked for free settlers and small land holders. -
Transportation (England to Tasmania)
Convict ships were sent from England directly to the colony from 1812-1853 and over the 50 years from 1803-1853 around 67,000 convicts were transported to Tasmania. About 14,492 were Irish but many of them had been sentenced in English and Scottish courts. Some were tried locally in other Australian colonies. -
population
Convicts formed the majority of the colony's population for the first few decades, and by 1821 there was a growing number of freed convicts who were appointed to positions of trust and responsibility as well as being granted land. -
Van Diemen's Land established
On the 1st of January Van Diemans's Land was officially changed to Tasmania. -
Women in the fleet
Twenty per cent of these first convicts were women. The majority of women convicts, and many free women seeking employment, were sent to the 'female factories' as unassigned women. The female factories were originally profit-making textile factories. The Parramatta Factory grew as an enclave for pregnant women and also served as an orphanage from the 1830s. -
lock-up
In the mid-1830s only around six per cent of the convict population were 'locked up', the majority working for free settlers and the authorities around the nation. Even so, convicts were often subject to cruelties such as leg-irons and the lash. Places like Port Arthur or Norfolk Island were well known for this. Convicts sometimes shared deplorable conditions. One convict described the working thus: -
South Australia
South Australia was never a British convict colony and between 1836-1840 about 13,400 immigrants arrived in the area. 24,900 more arrived between 1841-1850. -
First Free Settlers
The first free settlers moved to the Queensland district in 1838 and others followed in 1840. -
First Immigrant ships
The first immigrant ships arrived at Port Phillip in 1839. -
jail sentences
By 1852, about 1,800 of the convicts had been sentenced in Wales. Many who were sent there could only speak Welsh, so as well as being exiled to a strange country they were unable to speak with most of their fellow convicts. -
End of transportation
When the last shipment of convicts left Western Australia in 1868, the total number of transported convicts stood at around 162,000 men and women. They were transported here on 806 ships.