During the 18th century, England sought out remote locations to house prisoners as a solution to its overcrowded jails. In ...

The first fleet enters Botany Bay, 18 January 1788 . Credit: Mary Evans Picture Library An academic paper, Convict Ancestry: a neglected aspect of Australian Identity, published in 2003 in the ...

The arrival records of the First Fleet, and some of our most famous convicts, are now available on the web. Records of the earliest convict arrivals to Australia have been made available online, to ...

On February 6th 1788, 188 female convicts were unloaded from the ships they'd spent the past nine months on, and stepped foot on their new home, Sydney Cove, for the first time.

A SHIPLOAD OF WOMEN. In 1788, the First Fleet was launched under the command of Governor Phillip, transporting 759 convicts, 13 children, as well as seamen, merchants, officials and livestock to ...

Convicts’ first Christmas in Australia marred by crime. Eleven months after the First Fleet landed, Christmas was “observed with proper ceremony” according to a report from the time.

In January 1788, the First Fleet of 11 ships carrying convicts arrived in Sydney Cove to start a new penal colony. Learn about John and Elizabeth: two of the child convicts who were on board.

When the Lady Juliana arrived in Sydney in the winter of 1790, it was 11 months since the ship departed England.

Starting with the First Fleet in 1788, the British government transported some 160,000 convicts 12,000 miles to Australia on the other side of the world, until the practice ended in 1868.

Convicts’ first Christmas in Australia marred by crime. Eleven months after the First Fleet landed, Christmas was “observed with proper ceremony” according to a report from the time.

Eleven months after the First Fleet landed, Christmas was “observed with proper ceremony” according to a report from the time. But not all the convicts were prepared to make do with their ...