Events
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The gaols in England were becoming too crowded so Governor Phillip got 11 ships and took 548 men and 188 women convicts to a place then called New Holland which is now called Australia.
What they built :
They tried to settle in Botany Bay but there was not enough fresh water there so they settled 10 miles north of there in what is now called Circular Quay. They built some buildings from wood - the convicts built shacks of wattle and daub (sticks and mud). The huts that convicts built were of mud lined walls with two rooms.
How they got their food :
They brought some supplies and they hunted kangaroos. They brought seeds with them. They planted them near the settlement but there wasn't enough water and the soil was too thin. So they moved out to Parramatta and started an extra settlement out there.The weekly ration for a male before they got extra supplies, was about 1kg of salt Pork, 2 1/2 kg of flour, 1kg of rice or 250g of pease.(Which is like porridge.) The females and children received only 2/3rds of the male ration.
The Aborigines began to fight the Europeans to get their country back and because the Europeans killed kangaroos. The Europeans thought the Aborigines were dirty and embarrassing because the Europeans thought the Aborigines didn't have any clothes. The Aborigines got angry and started fighting back.
One disasterous effect was that the English settlers brought smallpox and the Aborigines had no immunity to it - it is estimated that half the Aboriginal population of Australia died of smallpox within a few years of settlement.
By the end of 1778 the Governor had become disturbed of the absence of contact between the Aborigines and his people. They decided to capture one of the Aborigines to show them the way the English people lived and to see how the way aborigines lived.
Governor Phillip, wanted to set up his own colony while doing the least possible damage to the Aborigines. Five years later he showed compassion and generosity to them and made sure people to do the same though many people did not do this.
We think Australians learned that they needed to create a decent society not just a prison. They needed to set up all the aspects of society - schools, hospitals, churches, trading laws, courts as well as soldiers and police.
Because of the remoteness from England Australians learnt self reliance. They found they needed to control the masters (e.g. Soldiers and Captains who did some very cruel and unlawful things).
Elanora Heights Primary School Computer Co-ordinator : 
Judith Bennett
This page was last modified on 18th June, 1998
