Over the years Australia was a prison colony, 166,000 prisoners transported from Britain. They lived at the barracks, which is now a museum. Their punishment was unpaid labour to build the new colony. They weren’t considered prisoners and were mostly free and allowed to work for money on evenings and Saturdays. They did have a curfew when they had to be back in the barracks though. And the barracks weren’t a very nice place.
They had to wear ridiculous uniforms during the day so that they wouldn’t be confused with free people.
They were fed gruel and bread at the barracks.
They slept in hammocks, which were comfortable but crowded.
The rooms had spyholes in the walls so that the guards could make sure the residents didn’t get into any unapproved activities.
They have the stories of many of the prisoners in the museum. Some of them were murderers, but most were pretty minor crimes. One 6 year old boy was deported for stealing some boots. The length of time they laboured had nothing to do with their crimes. There were murderers pardoned after 3 years and petty thieves that were kept for life.
One man was a slave in Jamaica who participated in a revolt and was sent to Australia in 1836. Which basically means he was punished for trying to escape slavery with less severe slavery. He was pardoned in 1845 and allowed to live free in Australia.
After the prison colony closed, the building was used for immigrant women while they waited to find work or for their families to pick them up.
They probably didn’t wear socks, but Kerri was lazy.
Matt was even lazier and refused to dress up, so Kerri beat him with a cat-o-nine-tails.
He did not appreciate it.
But Kerri is mean.
Looks like the two of you are having fun on your trip! What was the first picture of? Loved the clothes!!
The first picture is a mummified rat found under the floorboards. There were hundreds of them.