The First Fleet

• Hannah Northey, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2017

The first fleet
In London 1877 convicts were all over the place, in London their laws were really harsh, just for stealing a loaf of bread, you could end up in jail. The jails were full so they had to think of what to do with the convicts. The first idea was to look for a new land, so Captain James Cook went to find a new land. When he found a new land there were no buildings or people, it was just green trees and grass. So he claimed it New South Wales. When he came back they started loading up the ships. Eleven ships were prepared the people were hopeful for this place, New South Wales. But the convicts were not so hopeful, some of the convicts staved during the trip they were hungry and poor. There were rats and cockroaches. When it was dinner you got the worst food ever. The worst of all is the whip or the heavy chains. They travelled for eleven weeks to get from London to Rio De Janiero where they stopped for food and supplies, and it was very hot. Six weeks later they stopped again at Cape Town, then after 10 more weeks they finally arrived at Australia. When they got there they saw strange people. But Captain Cook said New South Wales was free. Because the Aboriginals would not let them take over their land so a war came on. There wasn’t many soliders so the convicts had to fight but some of them were very young. The Aboriginals had never seen weapons like this before and couldn’t beat them. When London won the war free settlers started to build little houses. Free settlers were former convicts, the wives and families of convicts and soliders and sailors. These free settlers set up farming communities and more free settlers came from London and were also given land. And that’s how Australia came to be.