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Practice dictation & shadowing on the daily life story: Australian Origins
Australian Origins
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Australian origins
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In many countries, leading families proudly trace their ancestors back to some significant group of people.
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In the USA, prominent families may boast that their family came over on the Mayflower in 1620.
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In England, ladies and gentlemen are happy to announce that their ancestors came to Britain with William the Conqueror in 1066.
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In Australia, however, many leading families are reluctant to talk about their origins.
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In fact, many years ago one Australian city burned its early records so that no one would know who their ancestors were.
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The reason for that is that Australia began its history as a British penal colony.
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In 18th century England, there was a large gap between the rich and the poor.
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To make matters worse, many farmers have been forced off their land by powerful landowners.
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These homeless people wandered to the cities, where employment was often hard to find.
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Frequent wars gave temporary employment to young men as soldiers and sailors, but when the war was over, they were no better off than before.
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As a result, theft was extremely common.
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To protect themselves, the upper class made theft punishable by hanging.
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The problem with this was that juries were often reluctant to hang someone for stealing something small and might declare the person not guilty.
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For example, if a man or woman stole a loaf of bread to feed their children, the jury might just let them go.
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To prevent this, the courts came up with a new category of punishment, exile or transportation.
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If the judge or jury was reluctant to sentence the accused to death, they would ship them far away from England across the seas.
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However, if the person was found back in England again, he or she would be hanged.
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At first, England sent its convicts to America's 13 colonies.
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However, when the United States declared its independence in 1776, this was no longer possible.
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England considered sending criminals to West Africa, but the land and climate were considered unsuitable.
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So finally Great Britain decided to use the huge, almost uninhabited country of Australia.
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At this time, not a single European was living anywhere on the continent.
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In the fall of 1786, a fleet of English ships began to take convicts on board.
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This process continued till the sailing date of May 13th 1787.
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Many British jails had been cleared of both male and female prisoners.
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Since the convicts were technically under a sentence of death, there was little concern for making them comfortable.
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At first the convicts were chained below decks, but later some were released when well out to sea.
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One man had been sentenced for theft of a winter coat, another for stealing cucumbers from a garden 1/3 for carrying off a shape among the women.
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One was guilty of stealing a large cheese, another of taking several yards of cloth.
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These ships, known as the First Fleet, carried 14142 convicts, sailors, marines and officers.
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The fleet finally arrived at Botany Bay on January 10th, 1788.
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Later that month they moved down to Sydney Harbour.
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No preparations whatsoever had been made.
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The forest came right up to the shore.
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Soon the fleet members were cutting down trees and trying to put up tents.
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It was June 1790 before further supplies arrived from England.
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Meanwhile, many convicts suffered from sickness, aggravated by the lack of good food.
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In conclusion, Australians need not be ashamed of their origins.
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In time, great things were achieved.
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In spite of the almost complete lack of help from the English government, many ex convicts became respectable settlers who began prosperous farms and businesses.
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The members of the First Fleets, whether convicts or not, deserve to be honored as the founders of Australia.