Discover down under! Each day a different picture pertaining to Starfire's tour of Australia is featured, along with a brief explanation written by Australia enthusiasts.
2005 June 7
How many convicts were sent to Australia?
Not long after Captain Cook discovered Australia (in 1770), Britain decided to use its new outpost as a penal colony. The First Fleet of 11 ships carried about 1,500 people - half of them convicts. In all, about 160,000 men and women were brought to Australia as convicts before penal transportation ended in 1868 - just after the end of the Civil War in the United States.
(The current populations of Los Altos, Mountain View, and Palo Alto add up to about 160,000!)
The picture is of Fort Denison, which is in the middle of Sydney Harbour near the Opera House. In the early days, it was used as a prison for people who committed petty offenses. Their rations were so meager that the island got the nickname "Pinchgut." (And once in 1796, convicted murderer Francis Morgan was hanged on the island in chains and left for three years as a warning to other convicts.) Today, a large cannon is fired everyday at one o'clock AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) - to remind us to behave???.
Authors & editors:
Bob Bolles
&
Phil Bolles