The Settlement of Australia
-illustration: http://www.pictureaustralia.org/trails.html
Most of the seven states of Australia were settled by convicts sent from England. The number of convicts compared to free settlers of the census in 1828 claimed that "emigrants were only a small minority. The census in 1851 claimed that there were "about 80,000 convicts and former convicts still alive and living in Australia, or about one in five of the white population". The numbers of transported convicts rose "from decade to decade" and " In all, more than 160,00 convicted men and women--about six men for every woman--were sent to Australian colonies". Many convicts were sent to farms to help the landowner cultivate and build the value of his land. They worked as "agricultural laborers, they cleaved land, constructed bridges, made salt, produced bricks and mined coal". These convicts learned a trade that would be useful for survival when they were freed.Convicts were also responsible in helping to build and maintain the settlements for themselves as well as newcomers.
History of Australian Penal Colonies
