To entertain themselves the men played games, told stories, recited poetry, compared tattoos or juggled. Some men mended their clothes, while others (like Thomas Bagnall, who arrived in 1838) read their Bible and recited prayers. At times, groups of men may have sung songs or ballads that reminded them of home.
Many of the convicts who lived at the Barracks were skilled tradesmen, so they were valuable to the government. Some were trained to make bricks, build walls, carve stone, cut down trees and work the timber, while others were trained to make buckets and water barrels and to make wheels.
Convicts were a source of labour to build roads, bridges, courthouses, hospitals and other public buildings, or to work on government farms, while educated convicts may have been given jobs such as record-keeping for the government administration. Female convicts, on the other hand, were generally employed as domestic ...
Convict life in Australia
Convicts lived under very strict rules and any breaking of those regulations could result in punishment such as whippings, the wearing of leg-irons or solitary confinement. Serious crimes could result in sentences to hard-labour prisons such as Port Arthur or Norfolk Island.
Convicts got up at sunrise and worked hard for up to 10 hours a day. All convicts were sentenced to hard labour as part of their punishment and could be forced to work at just about any manual task such as timber cutting, brick making or stone cutting.
Small balconies are attached to each cell, where the prisoners sit into the night, chatting with neighbours. Most are in bed by 7:30pm.
Convicts only had two meals per day; as 'dinner' was their last meal, they kept some of their bread to eat later. The Barracks had a bakery, which was always busy making bread for the convicts to eat.
At 10 years old, Mary took voyage, the youngest ever convict, aboard the Lady Juliana. Forming part of the Second Fleet, the Lady Julianna carried only women and girls. Conditions on penal ships were typically atrocious, leading to high death counts.
Convicts slept in hammocks that were folded away each morning. Each ward had a large wooden tub that served as a communal toilet. The convicts had to carefully carry these tubs outside daily to be emptied and cleaned. Each of the wards held up to 60 men.
Convict rations comprised meat, flour, sugar and tea. However, a wider variety of foods was available for home kitchens. Basically, cooks prepared local produce.
To entertain themselves the men played games, told stories, recited poetry, compared tattoos or juggled. Some men mended their clothes, while others (like Thomas Bagnall, who arrived in 1838) read their Bible and recited prayers.
All convicts, including children were expected to work. If they behaved badly, their youth did not protect them from being punished as harshly as adult convicts. Some child convicts went on to learn a trade, gain their freedom and live successful lives.
As the colonial population grew, so did the demand for female convict labour. Convict women were employed in domestic service, washing and on government farms, and were expected to find their own food and lodging. Punishment for those who transgressed was humiliating and public.
was the youngest female convict, at 13, on the First Fleet.
Girls worked as servants in free settlers' houses or farms; some worked in the female factories of Parramatta and Hobart. Boys also worked for free settlers, but some worked for the government learning trades to help build the new colony. Those who could read and write might have worked as government clerks.
Women were usually chosen as servants, wives or housekeepers to the officers with lodging. Some women became partners or wives to other convicts. Women became hut keepers to groups of convict men. Some women were sent to work as a punishment for breaking the rules.
But other factors were also at play. For a time, spirits were used in barter and convicts were part-paid in rum. In this way, rum became a currency of the colony - hence the term “a rum state”.
The superintendent would divide this up so that each day the convicts were given 450 g bread, 450 g meat, a cup of maize (corn meal), a couple of tablespoons of salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 15 g tea.
Before dawn, the convicts were woken by the ringing of the Barracks bell and breakfast was served in the mess halls, a tasteless cornmeal porridge called hominy. Marching out in their gangs to the work sites around town, the convicts ate their main meal at 1:00 PM, which consisted of a salty meat stew and bread.
Samuel Terry (c. 1776 – 22 February 1838) was transported to Australia as a criminal, where he became a wealthy landowner, merchant and philanthropist.
Mary Wade (17 December 1775 – 17 December 1859) was a British teenager and convict who was transported to Australia when she was 13 years old. She was the youngest convict aboard Lady Juliana, part of the Second Fleet. Her family grew to include five generations and over 300 descendants in her own lifetime.
Dorothy Handland (c. 1720- ), who, by 1786, was separated from her second husband and worked as 'an old clothes woman' (dealer), was estimated by Surgeon Bowes to be aged 82, and was recorded at Newgate Gaol as 60, was found guilty on 22 February 1786 at the Old Bailey, London, of perjury.
Documents from the time tell us that these convicts were given: petticoats, jackets, aprons, shifts (smocks), caps, handkerchiefs, stockings, shoes and straw bonnets. They'd be made from cheap, coarse material.
These included influenza, ulcers, tuberculosis, colds, dysentery, pneumonia, inflammation, bruises, skin rashes and back pain. At work, convicts suffered broken bones, burns and cuts.
On 9 January 1868 the convict transport Hougoumont arrived at the port of Fremantle. On board were 269 convicts, the last to be sent to Western Australia. The ship's arrival marked the end of 80 years of continuous penal transportation to the Australian continent.