First fleet what was life like

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No reproduction without permission. To purchase a print version visit: www. The First Fleet was the beginning of convict transportation to Australia and was followed by many other fleets of convict ships. When this ended in , over , convicts had been transported to New South Wales and other Australian colonies. Most convicts stayed in Australia after serving their sentences, and some became well-known, important people within the Australian colonies.

Convict settlement continued to have devastating effects on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the decades after Thousands died in conflicts with settlers and from diseases, and many more suffered from the loss of cultural traditions and languages.

Exile or opportunity? Year level 4 5 7 9. Learning area History Geography. Further activities. Which three images do you think are the most important for telling this story? If you could pick only one image to represent this story, which one would you choose? Can you find out? Why were they transported to Australia? National Museum of Australia. Why was a convict colony set up in Australia? Research task Research the sorts of people who travelled on the 11 ships that made up the First Fleet. Thousands of Eora people died as a result of European diseases like smallpox.

Convict love token, National Museum of Australia. A colour engraving of a family of four travelling in the Port Jackson area National Museum of Australia. Convict leg irons National Museum of Australia.

Lady Penrhyn Convict transport. Friendship Convict transport. Borrowdale Storeship. Golden Grove Storeship. HMS Sirius Naval ship.

Fishburn Storeship. HMS Supply Naval ship. Alexander Convict transport. The voyage Portsmouth, England. Release from fetters. Santa Cruz, Tenerife. Missing Port Praya. Crossing the equator. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Phillip sails ahead. Botany Bay, Australia. He should have been given enough for two years. The Fleet also took a number of animals, plants and seeds. The animals included sheep , pigs , dogs , cats , goats , turkeys , geese , ducks , chickens , pigeons , horses , and cattle.

Plants and seeds included coffee , cocoa , cotton , bananas , Oranges , lemons , tamarinds , guava , prickly pear , eugenia or pomme rose, jalap, ipecacuanha, figs , bamboo , sugar cane , esparto grass, vines , quinces , apples , pears , oranges strawberries , oaks , myrtles, rice , wheat , barley , and maize. Some of this was brought from England, and the rest from when the Fleet stopped at Rio de Janeiro and Capetown. The first ship, Supply , reached Botany Bay on 18 January Aboriginal people from the Cadigal tribe saw the First Fleet ships arrive.

Phillip soon decided that this site, picked by Sir Joseph Banks , was not suitable. It had poor soil, no safe place to leave the ships, and no drinking water. Phillip decided to go north to Port Jackson.

On 26 January the marines and convicts arrived at Sydney Cove. On the voyage 7 babies were born. It was a successful trip, as only 40 convicts had died.

The Aboriginal people from the Eora nation lived in the Sydney area. They could not understand why the British wanted to own their land and make farms with fences. The British did not understand the Aboriginal people's way of living and there was a lot of fighting and many people died. Once in Australia, convicts were ordered to build the infrastructure buildings and prisons for the new colony.

Their punishment was work. Convicts were expected to work everyday except Sunday from sunrise until sunset without a break. Male prisoners were required to do very hard labour. 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.

Many convicts were sent to work for free settlers. Free settlers were people who came to Australia to make a new life. Strict rules were enforced by prison officers. There was a shortage of food during the first few years of the colony. Crops did not grow well so people relied on supplies from Great Britain. Eventually, food. First Fleet facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles including the article images and facts can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise.