Is it true Australia was established by crimminals?

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AussieGirl

Yes, that is true. Britain used Australia as a penal colony (to ease the burden on the jails in Britain and to rid the country of criminals).

The convicts came to Australia on the First Fleet, many became free and settled in Australia.

I am a direct descendent of a First Fleet convict, a young woman convicted to transportation for stealing some material.

There are so many times when I am sitting on the beach, on a lovely sunny day that I am so pleased that she was sentenced to Australia, or I would be living in Britain!

JuventAus

Sort of :-)
Convicts were sent to colonies such as Australia and those in North America by the British government to solve prison overcrowding.

Being established by them implies that they set up the government - which is not true. This is not to say that there are not criminals in government now :-)

An interesting comparison between the US and Australian culture is that Australia is friendlier and less strict because it was populated by criminals. The US was populated by religious nuts and they developed differently.

iyc1899

That's True, prisoners sent to remote place in ancient times

meiskul

auz was originally established as a penal colonie of great brittain so it was not founded by but populated by criminals but then so was the usa and many other countrys

shoe s

yes it is true

Nemesis

Yes very true it was set up as a penal colony just one more mistake on England's part. You can imagine the joy of Australians as thousands of Englishmen come here every year for holidays not to mention English migrants. The English did a lot for Australia taught us many things like cricket - rugby league and many more who knows maybe one day we will teach how to win.Aus has come a long way since the bad old days come on over and check us out.

deadkelly_1

Pretty much yep .... Criminals from England were sent here because their gaols were too full
When those criminals had finished their sentence instead of being taken "home" they were just set free ... that's mostly who settled Australia

valley_storm

Yes true, convicts who were convicted of small crimes due to poverty in England - since the English only looked after rich people, who mostly stole BREAD - Were sent to both North America, Canada and lastly Australia.

So... USA, Canada and Australia were all established by criminals. (If you want to look at it that way.. but realy if your starving you think stealing bread makes a criminal???)

But yes they did set up the government 100% because Australia was and still is a democracy so all men had the choice to stand up and vote their council in each state from the early begining of the "government".

This was also helped by the fact that there were also a large number of migrants from the UK and USA - after a pardon of the crime the "criminal" who may have only stole a loaf of bread or one tea cup! was free and could tell everyone he was anybody he wanted to be... so the "criminals" could build up a life that wasn't possible to them in the UK.

blu

Yeah pretty much. The first settlers in australia were convicts from england/eurprope. They sent them here as a way of cleaning up thier own country and establishing a new one at the same time. Then you had people coming here to live so esentially yeas it was established by criminals but not all of them were.

doofynic

well it was founded by posh pommies who brought the convicts out here, yes, but it wasn't founded by convicts as such

qldtravelguru

like america, both free setllers and convicts (convicted criminals) were sent to australia to settle the country.

The original settlement was botany bay but was latter moved to current day sydney.

The reson that convicts were sent to australia was that largly due to a harsh court system and the fact that english jails were overflowing and since the civil war in america the english could no longer send their convicts there so they needed a new place to send them, immediately they thought of the new land found by captain james cook in 1770.

The first settlement occured in 1788.

It should be noted that there are also aboriginals here in australia (meaning native to the land) who were thought to come across the land bridge that existed prior to the end of the ice age and continental drift.

Also it is widely thought that there was a small dutch colony in western australia prior to english settlement which effectively died out due to the harsh conditions they faced.

anyway I hope this to clarify your question

Maverick off Top Gun

The Australian Colony was founded by England. And yes it was set up to send convicts there due to overcrowding of england's jails.

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