FOOD
They had to find their own food . Some of the men thought they could set up farms. But none of them were farmers. They didn’t know how to get the soil ready for planting. Therefore it was difficult to start. Every week, each person was given an amount of food. The provision store supplied their food.
Here's a list of the food they ate.
COOKING:
Cooking was done in their homes. Food was cooked on an open fire using cauldrons. Food was also cooked in bake houses. They put a lump of dry cow poo on the fire. The smell kept the mosquitos away! They cooked mutton [meat from a sheep] and damper and tea.
LAWS
When the first white people came to Australia laws of the land were so hard. Those who disobeyed the law received a horrible punishment. The main punishment was to be whipped . Men were whipped for lots of things. Examples of things that were punishable were stealing cheese and stealing someone's shirt. Law breakers were beaten until they cried out in pain. A lot of convicts in the early days were made to work laying the colony’s roads or putting up buildings. The man in charge of the convicts' work groups was called an overseer.
WHERE THEY LIVED
The white settlers arrived in Botany Bay. They brought tents, but they wanted better protection from the weather and a lot more privacy and security for precious food and clothing.
Some homes were built with just little stick pegs and old material. Others were built out of old hollow trees and when it rained ,all of the water would rush through the holes. The people in the house would get wet. Then the soil floors would become muddy.
The first houses that had rooves were made of grass. The walls were made of sticks.
The next houses had slabs of timber for the walls and the rooves were made of shingles split from oak trees. Sometimes the rooves were made of bark. Fences had to be built to keep animals in
. 
SCHOOLS
Those who went to school were the children of convicts or poor free settlers. Learning was a tool to help them to a better life than their parents. Most children went to school for two or three years.
Children who did not go to school usually ended up with a gang that hung around the water front with little future.
The smelly outside toilets were just holes in the ground . They were not very private.
The schools were run by husband and wives, the husband teaching the boys and the wife teaching the girls. Boys learnt things like English, Maths (Arithmetic) History and Geography. Girls learnt things like sewing, cooking and music.
Some games they played at lunchtime were marbles, cricket and pretending to flog a convict.
They didn't have much equipment like books, sewing needles, paper or pens. Slates were used instead of paper. They were re-usable. They used feather pens dipped in ink. They had to read the bible.
Clothing
The young boys wore the same clothes as the girls which were frocks! When the boys were around the age of five, they were given there first shirt and long trousers. When the boys went swimming they stripped off their clothes and went in naked. At night -time they wore a night shirt. If the boys family was rich they would have boots and woollen socks. e n
Girls wore clothes that were basically the same as their mothers. Girls later wore a junior corset. When they were older their corsets were laced up tighter to give their body a fashionable figure. When they went to school sometimes the teacher strapped them to a board to make the girls have a straight back. When they went to parties they wore white dresses.
Babies wore binders to make their body straight.
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