in the new year i’m cannibalising any non aussie who makes a “australia was founded by criminals” joke who can’t tell me what year the convict system started and ended and what percentage of those people were below the age of 18
”australia was founded by criminals”
- australia is host to the world’s oldest surviving cultures, who were here long before australia was “founded”
- the criminals didn’t find australia. colonists and explorers from the british upper class did
- the criminals were penal slaves. and 80% of them received this fate for petty crimes. 33,000 of them were below the age of 20. children were forced to travel with their convict parents on disease ridden boats, torn from their parents and institutionalised into orphanages upon arrival
- there were literally people already here
