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Recently we celebrated Australia day on the 26th of January. But why do we mark it on
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that day in particular? To answer that question, Sarah will take you back in time to 1788,
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to meet some kids who came to Australia on the First Fleet.
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My name is Elizabeth Haywood and I'm 13 years old. I was apprenticed to a clog maker in
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London, but I was paid so little, so I stole some clothes and tried to sell them.
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For the theft of one linen gown, value 4 shillings, a silk bonnet value 2 shillings, and a cloak,
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value 1 shilling. You are found guilty!
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My name is John Hudson and I'm nine years old. I've been an orphan ever since I can
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remember. I made a living by chimney sweeping. It was horrible work and dangerous too.
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In the summertime there's no need for sweeping so I took to thieving to survive.
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For the theft of one pistol, value 5 shillings, and two aprons, value 2 shillings. You are
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found guilty!
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[Dreary violin music]
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In London in the 1700s, gaols were full of people like Elizabeth and John; poor, hungry,
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unwanted. People who stole to survive. The city's population had exploded and mass poverty
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had led to a rise in crime.
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You are sentenced to death by hanging.
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England's laws were really, really harsh. Stealing something could land you with a death
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sentence. But they couldn't hang everyone. And with the gaols full there was the problem
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of what to do with all the criminals.
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One solution was transportation. Britain had colonies in Africa and America where it sent
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criminals. But then Americans rose up against the English so that was no longer an option.
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So the government decided to set up a new penal colony in a land called New South Wales;
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claimed for England by Captain Cook in 1770.
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John Hudson, you are sentenced to transportation across the seas for a period of seven years.
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Eleven ships were prepared for the voyage to New South Wales. Six would transport convicts:
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The Alexander, the Friendship, the Charlotte, the Lady Penryn, the Prince of Wales and Scarborough.
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Then there were two navy ships and three ships full of the supplies they'd need to build
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a new colony.
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Captain Arthur Phillip was chosen to lead that colony. He knew it was an important job
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and that one day, New South Wales could be great.
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The sanguine might form expectations of extraordinary consequences, and be justified, in some degree,
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by the reflection, that from smaller, and not more respectable beginnings, powerful
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empires have frequently arisen.
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The convicts probably weren't so hopeful. More than 700 were packed onto the crowded
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ships, including around 17 children. Many were sick and malnourished when they boarded.
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Around 20 wouldn't survive the journey.
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The ships sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787. As they sailed through the
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tropics the weather was hot and humid. There were rats, cockroaches and other pests and
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water had to be rationed. On the 5th of August they arrived in Rio De Janiero and took on
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food and water. Then they sailed to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.
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On the 19th of January the first ships arrived in Botany Bay. Seven days later they found
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a place to anchor and Arthur Philip planted a British flag in a place he called Sydney
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Cove.
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The land had been home to Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years but, to the
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convicts it was new, strange and harsh.
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I never thought I'd end up in a place like this; so far away from home. But I've survived
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this far and I'll keep on surviving.
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We'll make the best of what we have and maybe some day build a better future here
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in New South Wales.