How brutal were the British penal colonies in Australia?

a reply to: TheRepublicOfCanada

Well, it was not the Butlins experience for sure even if the weather was somewhat warmer, that's a given.

Keep in mind that the UK pretty much reinvented our notion of what constitutes concentration camps via the Boer War escapade.

So i dont imagine the criminals and transportees we sent off to the colonies would have faired much better even if it was a few hundred years earlier, especially in the penal system.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: TheRepublicOfCanada
In a proper History thread, you would do some preliminary work on your own account and tell us.
On the evidence you've given so far, not brutal at all.

Certainly not as brutal as your post 🤣

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: TheRepublicOfCanada
In a proper History thread, you would do some preliminary work on your own account and tell us.
On the evidence you've given so far, not brutal at all.

Aww, cmon, I've learned so much about colonial Australia from reading this informational and well constructed thread i feel as though my life has changed for the better.

What an asset to the community. Bravo OP!

a reply to: gallop

Great choice of tunes! I hope y'all never ran into Mick Taylor...

a reply to: gallop

What is a kiwi bucket and what is a Westie, that is not local slang from Perth

a reply to: andy06shake

There were no concerntration camps. Australia was a prison island, once over here the convicts lived and worked in the community, went to prison if you broke the law,

a reply to: kingparrot
It's all about improving the content of ATS, and I practise what I preach;
The battle of Hullabaloo- The Littleport riots of 1816

originally posted by: TheRepublicOfCanada
In the late 1700s, up to 200,000 convicts were shipped off to British penal colonies around Australia.

It is also said that one in five Australians are direct descendants of convicts who were shipped to Australia to serve their sentence.

How brutal were these colonies?

there is a good series about this topic called Banished. It's pretty interesting / entertaining.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Clive Woodward when england rugby coach when going through aussie airport was asked if he had any criminal convictions. Apparently his reply was that he hadn't but didn' t know it was compulsory anymore.

Shocking display against georgia by the way. Not a very convincing win.

a reply to: Raggedyman

Aye, a veritable paradise i suppose.

Were there work camps on this concentration island continent?

Coz if so.

Personally i dinna fancy the upheaval nor indentured servitude myself.

A hell of a lot of people received the sentence of transportation to the colonies, that were simply undesirable, or committed the most simple of crimes, what we would consider to be a mere misdemeanor.

The dirty bastards ethnically cleansed a good part of the highlands and Ireland with all their transportation malarkey and that was with the law no less.

One step up from slavery, make no mistake.

I think it must of seemed like hell on earth to some of the British convicts that first arrived... I mean, the stinging heat and dry air that was thick with flies and other insects, then the spiders and notoriously deadly snakes that would have been way more numerous than they are today. Plus, when compared to Britain, it never rained, but when it did, it just absolutely poured.

Then also, none of the seeds they brought over would have grown very well in the nutrient deficient soil, using the same farming techniques they did in Britain.

Don't forget the English weren't the first to discover the great southern land, even though their credited for it in most of the history books. The English were just the first to decide Australia was of any kind of value to them... and even that was just as a prison colony island.

Kind of ironic in hindsight. Since in the modern era, Australia is well known for its high standard of living and its major cities always top the most livable cities in the world lists... But originally, it was just considered a useless baron waste land by the explores who arrived here.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Dunny spiders, sharks, snakes, salt water crocs and various and numerous beasties that want to kill you.
Blimey.
Crikey!

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

I think it must of seemed like hell on earth to some of the British convicts that first arrived... I mean, the stinging heat and dry air that was thick with flies and other insects, then the spiders and notoriously deadly snakes that would have been way more numerous than they are today. Plus, when compared to Britain, it never rained, but when it did, it just absolutely poured.

Yes, that is how that series I mentioned portrayed it. They might as well have put them on the moon.

The most horrible part, they were starving. Natural food was all around them, but they did not know how to identify or process it. They were too scared of the natives and too used to the ways of home. Even though they were prisoners, I think it parallels a lot of the pilgrims and settlers in America.

Well, to be "brutally" honest, the people who came across the vast oceans, with their pale skin and their own culture, and invaded a land already inhabited by peoples of varying different cultures, are EXACTLY the same people who invaded North America, which is now known as the USA and Canada.
The only real difference being, they weren't such Religious psychos!!.

When ignorant ones talk of "Australia" as a whole, they dont understand that the land mass of Australia is about the same size as the USA, so when there is talk of "Australia" the Penal Colony, we are talking about 2 main specific TINY areas.....Botany Bay (ie Sydney) and Port Arthur, Van Diemens Land (Tasmania).
There are still parts of the land called Australia, that white people haven't even travelled to, nor would want to.
My English and Prussian ancestors came to the free (non Penal Colony) state of South Australia.....who knows why. (other than the wars and religious persecution in Germany).
They could have just as easily have put a Tick on the form to go to the USA or Canada.......fate sent them here, it is what it is.

BTW, those shoes are Rossi Desert Boots, made right here in Adelaide since the 60s, and still are. We call them "Ripples"....obviously because of the soul......yeah man....lotz a Soul....

a reply to: andy06shake

Yes there were work camps, criminals were effectively slaves
They worked their sentence down

But in all fairness, it was a different time and culture.
Not justifying what happened and how people were treated
It did open up a country

Poor reflection on this modern generation, me included

a reply to: Raggedyman

A different time indeed.

Essentially the people who were sentenced to be transported to the Americas and Australia were sold to the ship captains.

Who made the journey to the new continent and then ether employed them for a period of time, as sailors or there contract/sentence was sold on again to the landed gentry as indentured servants as soon as they hit port so they could work the land.

It opened up access and created the infostructure and trade routes to two new continents if truth be told.

As to the treatment, that would depend on your station in life, unfortunately.

The price of progress is rather great and generally paid in other peoples blood.

originally posted by: CthruU

originally posted by: TheRepublicOfCanada
In the late 1700s, up to 200,000 convicts were shipped off to British penal colonies around Australia.

It is also said that one in five Australians are direct descendants of convicts who were shipped to Australia to serve their sentence.

How brutal were these colonies?

Ohhh, that would explain why Aussies are such bogans with bad attitudes then.

Now i get it.

This is thr first time I ever saw the word bogan (ohh thats how u spell it) written down after hearing it several times but only from one person in my life...Ja'mie King. Thats all i wanted to say. Ughh....i dont wanna sound like a beetch but you all are like...really boring. J'kno'whad'i mean?

Port Arther in Tasmania has a bad reputation, rough place. Norfolk Island in Queensland is another one that received a lot of condemnation. Some of the cells there would flood with the tides.

About 90-95% of the first fleet died within the first year or two. Britain considered it a huge success that some survived and sent more.

Lot of brutal stories around the country, Aboriginals getting rounded up and killed, Kanaks used for slave labor. The convicts that done their time got land and the cities grew.

a reply to: TheRepublicOfCanada

Compared to the conditions that they would have faced in an English prison of the time, and living in the slums after their release, many of these convicts actually had a better life because of being transported. At that time England was desperately poor and disease ridden. The cities were essentially open sewers, and death through starvation and exposure was common.

It wasnt a good life uinless you had money, which most of those who were transported didn't.

Austalia was far from perfect, and it was no holiday camp but a lot of people came out of it better off.

a reply to: AaarghZombies

You do realize you are essentially promoting ethnic cleansing of another name?

The people of Scotland and Ireland might somewhat disagree!

Auschwitz had an art museum, a library, and a swimming pool, guess that means the inmates had it better than some?

What do you imagine the conditions on the ships on the way over were like?

A significant proportion of transportees died down to danger and disease long before they ever reached the shore.