It was usually 450 grams of salted meat (either mutton or beef), cooked again into a stew, and some bread. By 1826, the government also had a more established cattle stock available and so the meat served to convicts was fresher and taken from better-quality cuts than before.
Convicts were to receive an equal share to men and officers—7 pounds of salt beef or four of pork, 3 pints of dried peas, 7 pounds of flour, 6 ounces of butter, half a pound of rice or, if it were not available, an extra pound of flour weekly. Answer these questions: Was the pork or beef fresh?
Convicts Food
Convicts ate bread,hardtack,salted beef or pork,peas,oatmeal,butter,cheese. They also ate rise,fruit,vegetables.
The convicts were given two meals a day – breakfast at daybreak, before marching off to wherever they had to work, returning for dinner, which was taken in the middle of the day.
Black and yellow jackets and pants were worn by convicts sentenced to chain gangs carrying out heavy manual work building roads and culverts as punishment for recidivist behaviour (reoffending) or as a result of false charges laid by unjust farmers and squatters.
The female children were provided with a brown woollen jacket, a petticoat, two shifts, a cap made of linen, a pair of stockings, a neckerchief, a pair of stockings and a pair of shoes.
Governor Arthur Phillip brought his own tea to New South Wales and it was was served at Government House. The first tea imported into the new colony occurred probably in 1794. Convicts began to enjoy a daily cuppa from 1819. Green tea is now grown in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.
Convicts were housed below decks on the prison deck and quite often further confined behind bars. In some cases they were restrained in chains and were not allowed on deck except for limited fresh air and exercise. Conditions were cramped and they slept on hammocks.
For lunch on weekdays it was two (sometimes not quite) defrosted sandwiches, with rotating fillings of corned beef, tuna, ham and cheese, chicken, schnitzel, egg, and Vegemite, he said. For weekend lunches, sandwiches were swapped out for similarly defrosted sausage rolls or pigs in a blanket (frankfurts in pastry).
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.
Prison food is the term for meals served to prisoners while incarcerated in correctional institutions. While some prisons prepare their own food, many use staff from on-site catering companies. Some prisons support the dietary requirements of specific religions, as well as vegetarianism.
Convicts were often quite comfortable. They lived in two or three roomed houses, shared with fellow convicts or with a family. They had tables and chairs, cooked dinner (like pea and ham soup) over a fireplace and ate their food on china crockery using silver cutlery!
Don't be alarmed by this! (As a note, your Convict Cichlid pair may eat their babies the first few spawns. They are new parents and are still trying to figure everything out, this is normal.)
Difficult convicts were often sentenced up to 100 lashes. Flogging instruments included the cat o' nine tails, a whip with nine knotted strands or cords, and the birch, a bundle of long birch twigs bound together by cord. Flogging was a brutal punishment that caused extreme pain and physical scarring.
Convicts played cards or games like chess or draughts that required different sorts of tokens, many of which were handmade. These might have been carved from animal bones (perhaps saved from dinner) or pieces of ceramic and wood they found, or cast in lead.
1788 The First Fleet arrived. They had flour, rice, salted meat, sugar, salt and seeds. First crops failed. Native foods were considered inedible.
Small balconies are attached to each cell, where the prisoners sit into the night, chatting with neighbours. Most are in bed by 7:30pm.
In Australia, prisons are already smoke free in five jurisdictions: the Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria.
Centrelink payments are not available while in prison. Prisoners may be eligible for a Centrelink Crisis Payment on release.
They got out of their hammocks, went downstairs and were given breakfast – a salty meat stew sometimes with a few vegetables like cabbage, onion, potato and turnip. The stew was cooked in a large pot that could hold 280 litres, and each man was served the same amount of meat, 227 grams (half a pound).
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. Exile itself was considered a catalyst for reform.
Free settlers were moving to Australia, and convicts were increasingly employed to work for them. As convicts either finished their sentence, or were pardoned, they were able to earn a living and sustain themselves through jobs and land grants.
Floggings were given to both men and women, although the flogging of women was stopped by British law in 1791.
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.
The clothes were called 'slops' because they were sloppy and often too big for the men, so some had to make belts and braces from recycled materials to hold up their trousers.