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Letter of convict John Slater sentenced to transportation for life in 1817
On the arrival of a ship of prisoners, the Governor's Secretary goes on board, accompanied by the principal Superintendents of convicts, and the tradesmen in the service of government, for instance, carpenters, bricklayers &c. are selected for the several branches they pretend to. Servants also, of certain descriptions, are appropriated to such gentlemen as may want them, and what remain unengaged, are then sent to the different outposts to supply the settlers who may seek for their aid. It is no uncommon matter to see a jeweller, a clerk, or a tailor, with a reaping-hook in his hand cutting grain, or with an axe falling a tree. Hard work and hard fare is generally the lot of a settler's man, but I am fortunate and remain at Sydney...
(M. Dugan & J. Szware, Australia's Migrant Experience, Edward Arnold. 1987, p.8. Courtesy Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs.)
Modern Australian History
| The beginning of Immigration to Australia | Convicts in Australia | Letter from a convict |
Immigration
| immigration background | Attitudes towards European immigration | Postwar immigration | Extracts - Immigration Restriction Act 1901 | Refugee's story |
Chronology of key events from:
| 1848-1890 leading upto Gold | 1892-1945 | 1945-73 | 1973-92 |