EARLY SETTLEMENT

What are the factors that cause people to leave a country?

What are the factors that attract people to a new country?

• War • Famine • Unemployment• Repressive government• Better life

• Job opportunities• Lifestyle• Employment

Why did people leave Britain and come to Australia?

Life in Britain was very hard. As new machines were invented, people were no longer needed to do farming jobs so they moved to the cities

Extreme poverty was a fact of life for many, and desperate people resorted to crimes such as theft, robbery and forgery in order to survive. If caught and convicted, they faced a harsh and complicated criminal code.

Imprisonment was only one of a range of sentences that judges could inflict and, with no national prison system and few purpose-built prisons, it was often not their first choice. Instead, most criminal offences were punishable by death, public humiliation in the form of branding, whipping, hair cutting, the stocks or the imposition of a fine, or transportation overseas.

Why did people leave Britain and come to Australia?

• British authorities had used the transportation of criminals overseas as a form of punishment since the early 17th century, particularly to provide labour in the American colonies. When in the 18th century, the death penalty came to be regarded as too severe a punishment for offences such as theft , transportation to North America became an even more popular form of sentence.

• In 1783 the American War of Independence ended. America refused to accept any more convicts so England had to find somewhere else to send their prisoners. Transportation to New South Wales was the solution.

What was the first fleet??

The first eleven ships which carried convicts to Australia are called

the First Fleet

It left Portsmouth, England, on 13 May

1787

It arrived at Botany Bay (Sydney) on 18

January 1788

ROUTE OF THE FIRST FLEET

Who sailed in the first fleet?

• 15 Officials and passengers• 323 sailors • 247 Marines & 46 of their wives

and children• 582 Male convicts & 193 female

convicts &14 children of convicts

1420 people left

Portsmouth. This

included:-

Who arrived in the first fleet?

• 1373 people arrived in Botany Bay

SO, what happened?

• 22 babies were born on board• 69 people died, were discharged, or deserted

• What does this tell you about the conditions?

THEME: HARDSHIP • The early European settlers faced many challenges, difficulties and struggles

in a land which was completely foreign to them. The next three classes will focus on the following three ideas:

• LIFE IN THE NEW SETTLEMENT • LIFE OF A CONVICT

• FIRST CONTACT

LIFE IN THE NEW SETTLEMENT It was an uncertain beginning forthe settlement, thesoil around Port Jackson proved asunsuitable for planting as Botany Bay,and the first crops withered and died.

In the first two years the settlers atSydney Cove grew desperately shortof food. Rations were reduced to stretch food supplies, and a supplyship that was sent from Englandfailed to arrive.

For Captain Phillip,now the governor of New SouthWales, failure, once again, seemed a real threat. Some measure of relief came in mid 1790 with the arrival of the Second Fleet. With it came fresh supplies, but more than a quarter of the convicts on board had died on the terrible journey and most of the survivors were too weak to work.

At last fertile soil was found andcultivated at Parramatta on the edge of the settlement, and the crops successfully grown there finally guaranteed the long-term survival of the colony.

LIFE OF A CONVICT • A convict’s life depended on who they worked for, where they worked and the

kind of skills they had to offer.

• Convicts were expected to work from sunrise to sunset. In hot weather they had an hour off in the middle of the day. Male convicts generally did hard physical labour such as making bricks, constructing buildings, gardening, and building roads.

• Female convicts often worked as household servants, cooking, cleaning and sometimes taking care of children. Some of the convicts had special skills and did work such as keeping records, printing, making pottery and keeping the town clocks.

CONVICT PUNISHMENTS

The penal settlement at Sydney Cove was isolated from other European settlements and, as a result, made a unique open air prison. Surrounded by an endless, alien and menacingwilderness, chains and walls were scarcely needed.

Nonetheless convict punishment was brutal.

Punishments included whippings, confinement for several days, being forced to wear heavy leg-irons for at least six months or sent to distant penal settlementsWatch the following

video and answer the related questions:

http://dl.nfsa.gov.au/module/1614/

EURO

PEAN

AN

D A

BORI

GIN

AL R

ELAT

ION

S What was the relationship between Europeans and Aborigines in the early years of settlement like?

The relationship was based on fear. The Europeans were vastly outnumbered.

The two groups were from two opposite cultures which led to misunderstandings

The Europeans viewed the Aborigines as inferior and referred to them as savages.

TASK 1: DIFFERENCE

Read the following passage from the novel “The Secret River”• Create a Venn diagram and write down the

differences between Europeans and Aborigines based on the passage of “The Secret River”

TASK 2: Writing from a different perspective

Rewrite the passage from ‘The Secret River’ from the Aboriginal man’s perspective. Things to include:

• Physical description of Thornhill, use metaphors to describe him.

• Describe how you are feeling as you approach Thornhill. Eg Fear, curious, uncertain. Remember to use “show don’t tell”