The convicts were given two meals a day – breakfast at daybreak, before marching off to wherever they had to work, returning for dinner, which was taken in the middle of the day.
They got out of their hammocks, went downstairs and were given breakfast – a salty meat stew sometimes with a few vegetables like cabbage, onion, potato and turnip. The stew was cooked in a large pot that could hold 280 litres, and each man was served the same amount of meat, 227 grams (half a pound).
Convicts ate bread,hardtack,salted beef or pork,peas,oatmeal,butter,cheese. They also ate rise,fruit,vegetables. Convicts couldn't choose the stile or color of their clothes, so they had boring brown,black,grey and yellow for the color of their clothes. They couldn't even choose the food that they wanted.
Convicts were often quite comfortable. They lived in two or three roomed houses, shared with fellow convicts or with a family. They had tables and chairs, cooked dinner (like pea and ham soup) over a fireplace and ate their food on china crockery using silver cutlery!
Convicts were to receive an equal share to men and officers—7 pounds of salt beef or four of pork, 3 pints of dried peas, 7 pounds of flour, 6 ounces of butter, half a pound of rice or, if it were not available, an extra pound of flour weekly.
Before cereal, in the mid 1800s, the American breakfast was not all that different from other meals. Middle- and upper-class Americans ate eggs, pastries, and pancakes, but also oysters, boiled chickens, and beef steaks.
The convicts' mess
Their food was cooked for them in central kitchens, and they didn't get any choice about what they were given to eat. They ate in 'mess groups' of six men. One man would collect the food for their group, and then ladle it out to each man, so that everyone could see that they were getting their share.
Convicts got up at sunrise and worked hard for up to 10 hours a day. All convicts were sentenced to hard labour as part of their punishment and could be forced to work at just about any manual task such as timber cutting, brick making or stone cutting.
Convicts played cards or games like chess or draughts that required different sorts of tokens, many of which were handmade. These might have been carved from animal bones (perhaps saved from dinner) or pieces of ceramic and wood they found, or cast in lead.
Convicts were housed below decks on the prison deck and quite often further confined behind bars. In some cases they were restrained in chains and were not allowed on deck except for limited fresh air and exercise. Conditions were cramped and they slept on hammocks.
Rather than fresh bread, sailors instead consumed hardtack (also known as ship's biscuit).
Prison food is the term for meals served to prisoners while incarcerated in correctional institutions. While some prisons prepare their own food, many use staff from on-site catering companies. Some prisons support the dietary requirements of specific religions, as well as vegetarianism.
But other factors were also at play. For a time, spirits were used in barter and convicts were part-paid in rum. In this way, rum became a currency of the colony - hence the term “a rum state”.
The 'wattle and daub' method of building was basically wooden branches and clay. Building was slow, but the convicts' huts were reminiscent of their modest simple rural homes back in Britain. Look at the images, below, of 'wattle and daub' huts.
It became the centre of administration of all the convicts in New South Wales. About 50,000 convicts eventually passed through the gates. This included many boys who slept in hammocks in the sleeping wards, ate in the mess halls, attended the barracks court when they misbehaved and was sometimes punished there too.
Difficult convicts were often sentenced up to 100 lashes. Flogging instruments included the cat o' nine tails, a whip with nine knotted strands or cords, and the birch, a bundle of long birch twigs bound together by cord. Flogging was a brutal punishment that caused extreme pain and physical scarring.
Free settlers were moving to Australia, and convicts were increasingly employed to work for them. As convicts either finished their sentence, or were pardoned, they were able to earn a living and sustain themselves through jobs and land grants.
Convicts lived under very strict rules and any breaking of those regulations could result in punishment such as whippings, the wearing of leg-irons or solitary confinement. Serious crimes could result in sentences to hard-labour prisons such as Port Arthur or Norfolk Island.
Women were usually chosen as servants, wives or housekeepers to the officers with lodging. Some women became partners or wives to other convicts. Women became hut keepers to groups of convict men. Some women were sent to work as a punishment for breaking the rules.
Small balconies are attached to each cell, where the prisoners sit into the night, chatting with neighbours. Most are in bed by 7:30pm.
Mary Wade
The youngest ever convict to be transported to Australia at the age of 11. Her hideous crime was that she stole another girls clothes and for that she was sentenced to death by hanging.
1788 The First Fleet arrived. They had flour, rice, salted meat, sugar, salt and seeds. First crops failed. Native foods were considered inedible.
Salting was the most common way to preserve virtually any type of meat or fish, as it drew out the moisture and killed the bacteria. Vegetables might be preserved with dry salt, as well, though pickling was more common.
The clothes were called 'slops' because they were sloppy and often too big for the men, so some had to make belts and braces from recycled materials to hold up their trousers.