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When the penal colony of Australia first formed, it was built heavily off of British ideals and needs, but it grew into something so much more. These people began to love their colony, and when it became it’s own country, these British migrants no longer considered themselves British, but as Australian. While Australia is still connected to Britain in the fact that it is a constitutional monarchy, but that is almost all of the link to England now. Especially because of the diversity that Australia welcomes from all different parts of the world, it is no longer a British colony, it is the Australian country.

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At this point, leading up to the immigration to Australia, due to the blood code, there were many convicts, too many convicts to be kept in England. To sort this out, they needed to find somewhere else to send their prisoners, and America was the perfect place for this.

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Overcrowded Jails

Poor living conditions

The Blood Code

Economic Hardships

Overpopulation

Poor Sanitisation

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At this point in England, around the 1780s and onwards, there was still a small feudal system, with around 80% of people working in agriculture in rural areas, a very similar definition to peasants. Their living conditions were horrible, and they didn’t earn enough to properly supply for themselves. This meant that they often resorted to petty crimes such as stealing. At this point, England was still using the legal system of the bloody code, where most crimes that were considered minor today were punishable by death or transportation, and many people were sent to jail. This caused overcrowding in the jails in England. This led them to start sending convicts to America, but then after the American war of independence, they could no longer do this. This is what led to the mass transportation of convicts from England into Australia. These trips over were harsh, often leading to death for the convicts, and was completely involuntary migration. Although this is the case, it often lead to a fresh start with new opportunities for the convicts.

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Fresh Opportunities

More space for the convicts to be sent.

Land Availability

Economic Advantage

Gold Rushes

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Key Event: 1770, Australia is an English Colony

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Key Event: 1770, Australia is an English Colony

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Captain James Cook lands in Australia, claims it as a British colony, naming it New South Wales. He then starts mapping the coastline. He claims that it is uninhabited, but that is obviously wrong.

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Challenge, 1775-1783, American War of Independence

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Challenge, 1775-1783, American War of Independence

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Prior to the American war of independence, America was a British colony, and it was the primary place where convicts were sent, with up to 60000 convicts being sent there. After the war, America refused the prisoners, and so Britain turned to Australia to send the convicts.

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The First Fleet was the beginning of the English settlement into Australia, with the primary goal of setting up a colony for the convicts to inhabit. Over 252 days, approximately 775 convicts were transported to Australia with this crew, containing 11 different ships. This fleet landed in Botany Bay, but they decided it wasn’t suitable for a colony, so they moved to Port Jackson, which is now Sydney today.

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1793 was the first time that free settlers actually started moving to Australia, not because of any law changes, but because the government in England were advertising it more of a new civilisation with fresh opportunities in need of help, and not a penal colony. They realised that they needed skilled workers.

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This is an actual ticket of leave given to a convict.

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In order to take stress off of the government, convicts that were well behaved could obtain freedom. They would have to provide for themselves, but still serve their sentence in Australia. They could be given land, along with well behaved free settlers.

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The gold rushes further increased migration into Australia, promising not only a fresh opportunity, but immense wealth if capitalised. In a span of 10 years, over 600000 immigrants arrived, with a large portion being from England.

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There were many systems that didn’t work at this time, mainly due to Australia seemingly being split into 6 different countries. For example, each one had their own laws with tariffs and tax, they had different railway gauges, and the tracks didn’t link up. Without Britain, Australia also had practically no defence, and they lacked a national identity.

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Australia merged into one country, making many systems interact seamlessly, such as the railways. This created a more desirable society.