In April 1770, Captain James Cook had sailed along the east coast of Australia. He and his crew had landed at a place called Botany Bay and claimed the land for Britain, naming the region New South Wales.
Eighteen years later, in 1788, the first ships full of settlers arrived from Britain. These settlers were all convicts, transported from Britain for their various crimes. Under the command of Captain Arthur Philip, the convicts were set to work founding a penal colony in Botany Bay. About 300,000 Aborigines were living in Australia when the settlers first arrived from Europe. They were divided into about 500 tribal groups.
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Fact File: Convicts were to be transported to Australia and confined in prison ships like this one. By 1830 about 58,000 convicts had come to Australia. Many were more or less habitual urban thieves, some political, while substantial proportions were Irish. |
Picture Credit : Google