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Convict Australia: Who Were the Convicts?

The late 18th century was a period of immense social and political change. France was reeling from revolution and America had just gained her independence. In Britain the industrial revolution had driven thousands of poverty-stricken country folk to the cities. As a new underclass dependent on crime emerged, the prisons were overflowing and the hangman had his work cut out dealing with the perpetrators of serious offences.

In 1787 the establishment urgently needed a new solution to the problem of the burgeoning prison population.

The botanist from Captain Cook's discovery expedition 18 years earlier eventually hit upon the idea of Botany Bay, Australia. It wasn't the ideal choice because the place had only been glimpsed once and the 15,000 mile voyage would take more than 8 months.

Nevertheless, between 1788 and 1868 165,000 British and Irish convicts made the arduous journey to an unknown land we now call Australia.

Who were the convicts?

The majority of the 165,000 convicts transported to Australia were poor and illiterate, victims of the Poor Laws and social conditions in Georgian England. Eight out of ten prisoners were convicted for larceny of some description.

However, apart from unskilled and semi-skilled labourers from Britain and Ireland, transportees came from astonishingly varied ethnic backgrounds: American, Corsican, French, Hong Kong, Chinese, West Indian, Indian, and African.

There were political prisoners and prisoners of war, as well as a motley collection of professionals such as lawyers, surgeons and teachers.

The average age of a transportee was 26, and their number included children who were either convicted of crimes or were making the journey with their mothers. Just one in six transportees was a woman.

Depending on the offence, for the first 40 years of transportation convicts were sentenced to terms of seven years, 10 years, or life.