Convict women of the First Fleet

Stage 2
Topic: 
First Contacts

Convict women of the First Fleet

Students research convict women’s backgrounds, crimes and life onboard the First Fleet by examining shipboard journals, paintings, artefacts and first-hand accounts.
Key inquiry question #1: 
Why did Europeans settle in Australia?

Learning intention

Students are learning to:

  • Analyse journal entries as historical sources.
  • Interpret historical events through drama, art and written sources.

Success criteria

Students will be successful when they can:

  • Identify the reasons why convict women committed crimes.
  • Explain the challenges of a female convict transported on a First Fleet ship.

Student Activities

Activity 1

Setting the Scene

The shipboard journey of the First Fleet female convicts is examined through primary source analysis.

Number of set tasks: 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Convict Identity: My Story

Students analyse journal entries to uncover more details about the lives of convict women on the First Fleet.  

Number of set tasks: 1

Activity 4

Shipboard Life

Students discover information about the convict women’s eventful journey onboard ship as part of the First Fleet. 

Number of set tasks: 1

Activity 5

A Letter Home

Students write a letter home from a convict woman’s perspective as they identify some of the emotional aspects of the journey. 

Number of set tasks: 1

Activity 6

Arrival

Students imagine convict women’s feeling and conversations on the day of arrival at Port Jackson in the context of the traditional owners of the land. 

Number of set tasks: 1
Views of Port Jackson, 1788 / possibly by William Bradley

NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum History K-10

Outcomes

A student:

  • HT2-3 describes people, events and actions related to world exploration and its effects
  • HT2-4 describes and explains effects of British colonisation in Australia
  • HT2-5 applies skills of historical inquiry and communication

Content

Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to Australia, and their experiences following arrival (ACHHK079)

Students:

  • identify reasons for the voyage of the First Fleet and explain why various groups were passengers
  • describe the establishment of the British colony at Port Jackson
  • using a range of sources, investigate the everyday life of ONE of the following who sailed on the First Fleet and lived in the early colony: a soldier, convict, ex-convict, official

Historical skills

Comprehension: chronology, terms and concepts:

  • respond, read and write, to show understanding of historical matters
  • use historical terms

Analysis and use of sources:

  • locate relevant information from sources provided 

Perspectives and interpretations:

  • identify different points of view within an historical context

Empathetic understanding:

  • explain how and why people in the past may have lived and behaved differently from today

Research:

  • pose a range of questions about the past
  • plan an historical inquiry

Explanation and communication:

  • develop texts, particularly narratives
  • use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital technologies

Historical concepts

Continuity and change: changes and continuities due to British colonisation of Australia.

Cause and effect: reasons for a particular historical development

Perspectives: different points of view within an historical context

Empathetic understanding: how and why people in the past may have lived and behaved differently from today.

Significance: the importance and meaning of national commemorations and celebrations, and the importance of a person or event.

Contestability: historical events or issues may be interpreted differently by historians, eg British 'invasion' or 'settlement' of Australia.

LAC

General capabilities:

  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Ethical understanding
  • Intercultural understanding
  • Literacy

Updated Australian curriculum outcomes

Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to Australia, and their experiences following arrival (ACHASSK085)

  • investigating reasons for the First Fleet journey, including an examination of the wide range of crimes punishable by transportation, and looking at the groups who were transported
  • investigating attitudes to the poor, the treatment of prisoners at that time, and the social standing of those who travelled to Australia on the First Fleet, including families, children and convict guards

Additional information

The following information supports the above activities. Read the activities first. 

Activity 6 Information

After your students have written the convict dialogue, consider rewriting it using convict language. Called ‘flash language’ these unique words and phrases were spoken in London and brought out to NSW by with the people who were now convicts. For information on how convicts spoke to one another, see the Talkin’ Like a Convict learning activity.

Source list for image details in student activities

A Letter Home

Image 1: Arthur Bowes Smyth, Detail from Collection 01: Arthur Bowes-Smyth, illustrated journal, 1787-1789. Titled `A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China in the Lady Penrhyn, Merchantman William Cropton Sever, Commander by Arthur Bowes-Smyth, Surgeon - 1787-1788-1789'; being a fair copy compiled ca 1790, 22 March 1787-12 August 1789, compiled ca. 1790

Image 2: Arthur Bowes Smyth, Detail from Collection 01: Arthur Bowes-Smyth, illustrated journal, 1787-1789. Titled `A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China in the Lady Penrhyn, Merchantman William Cropton Sever, Commander by Arthur Bowes-Smyth, Surgeon - 1787-1788-1789'; being a fair copy compiled ca 1790, 22 March 1787-12 August 1789, compiled ca. 1790

Arrival

Image 1: Arthur Bowes Smyth, Detail from Collection 01: Arthur Bowes-Smyth, illustrated journal, 1787-1789. Titled `A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China in the Lady Penrhyn, Merchantman William Cropton Sever, Commander by Arthur Bowes-Smyth, Surgeon - 1787-1788-1789'; being a fair copy compiled ca 1790, 22 March 1787-12 August 1789, compiled ca. 1790

Related content

First Fleet learning activities

A unit of work examining the First Fleet – the journey, arrival, challenges, daily life and interactions with Aboriginal people.