The "19 Crimes" refer to offenses in 18th-century Britain that carried the penalty of transportation to Australia, including petty theft (like stealing a handkerchief or food), stealing livestock or fish, bigamy, counterfeiting, and even lesser acts like impersonating an Egyptian or stealing from lodgings, with the popular wine brand celebrating these rule-breakers who built a new nation. While minor crimes were common, the list also included more serious offenses, and transportation served as an alternative to the death penalty for many, notes M/C Journal and Wikipedia.
The crimes that make up the '19 Crimes' include:
John Hudson, described as 'sometimes a chimney sweeper', was the youngest known convict to sail with the First Fleet. Voyaging on board the Friendship to NSW, the boy thief was 13 years old on arrival at Sydney Cove. He was only nine when first sentenced.
Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. Of these, about 7,000 arrived in 1833 alone. The convicts were transported as punishment for crimes committed in Britain and Ireland.
On 9 January 1868 the convict ship Hougoumont arrived at the port of Fremantle in Western Australia. On board were 279 convicts. They were the last convicts to be sent to Australia. The ship's arrival marked the end of 80 years of penal transportation to Australia.
In some cases, the theft was associated with violence. You didn't have to steal much to be exiled– even pinching a handkerchief was deemed a transportable offence. Less common reasons for being transported were the crimes of rape, manslaughter, murder, forgery and even bigamy.
The Convicts of the First Fleet were of all ages, when they were sent as punishment to Australia. Dorothy Handland, the oldest convict at over 80 years when she arrived in Port Jackson and Elizabeth Hayward who was the youngest female transported at 13 when she departed England.
Far more Australians are descended from assisted immigrants than from convicts, the majority of Colonial Era settlers being British and Irish. About 20 percent of Australians are descendants of convicts. Most of the first Australian settlers came from London, the Midlands and the North of England, and Ireland.
Governor Arthur Phillip arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 on HMS Supply. The Lady Penrhyn arrived later two days later with the second part of the fleet on the 20 January 1788, but none of the convicts left the ship.
They saw them as, at best, an often problematic source of labour and, at worst, a dangerous moral blight tainting their own and their colony's reputation. In contrast to the eastern colonies, the settlements in Western and South Australia were intended to be convict free.
Australia's most famous prisoners often stem from its convict past or notorious modern crime, with figures like bushranger Ned Kelly, notorious gangster Mark "Chopper" Read, and the infamous modern murderer Katherine Knight (first woman with no parole) standing out, alongside historical figures like the escaped convict William Buckley. The title depends on the era, but these names consistently appear due to their notoriety, impact, or unique stories.
In what was one of the longest recorded convict voyages Mary finally arrived in Sydney Cove as a 14 year old in June 1790 having spent more than 10 months at sea. At age 18, Mary gave birth to her first child, Sarah Wade, on Norfolk Island.
Samuel Terry (c. 1776 – 22 February 1838) was an English man who was transported to Australia as a criminal, where he became a wealthy landowner, merchant and philanthropist. His extreme wealth made him by far the richest man in the colony with wealth comparable to the richer people in England.
Mary Wade (17 December 1775 – 17 December 1859) was a British teenager and convict who was transported to Australia when she was 13 years old. She was the youngest convict aboard Lady Juliana, part of the Second Fleet. Her family grew to include five generations and over 300 descendants in her own lifetime.
THE CRIMES
There are 19 corks, one for each of the 19 crimes a person could commit to be sentenced to "Punishment by Transportation." The corks, which are randomly distributed with the bottles, have the name of the crime on the side.
The women would be employed in 'factories' (equivalent of the English workhouse) but often had to find their own accommodation, and would be under great pressure to pay for it with sexual services. In this way, all the women convicts tended to be regarded as prostitutes.
Twenty-nine other Dutch navigators explored the western and southern coasts in the 17th century, and dubbed the continent New Holland. Most of the explorers of this period concluded that the apparent lack of water and fertile soil made the region unsuitable for colonisation.
The standard three-part test for Aboriginality in Australia requires a person to meet three criteria: descent (biological ancestry), self-identification (identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander), and community acceptance (being recognized as such by their Indigenous community). This definition, adopted by the Commonwealth government, is used for many government programs and services, although the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) uses a simpler two-part test (descent and self-identification) for general data collection.
Australia Day is celebrated on January 26th to commemorate the raising of the British flag by Captain Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove in 1788, marking the establishment of the British colony of New South Wales, though the First Fleet had arrived in Botany Bay days earlier, according to SBS Australia and SBS Australia. This date, initially called "Anniversary Day," became a public holiday in New South Wales in 1838 and was adopted by other colonies, evolving into a national celebration of Australian identity, though it is also recognized by many First Nations people as a day of mourning, survival, and protest, known as Invasion Day or Survival Day.
The Last Convict is an historical novel based on the life of Samuel Speed, who believed himself to be – and is widely accepted as – the last transported convict to survive in Australia. He died in November 1938, on the eve of the Second World War and within the lifetime of many people still living.
The primary Australian slang for a barbecue is "barbie," used for both the event and the grill itself, often with phrases like "fire up the barbie," cooking "snags" (sausages) on it, and inviting people for a "barbie this arvo" (afternoon).
Vegemite is banned in some Australian prisons, particularly Victoria's, because inmates used its yeast to brew alcohol and smear it on drugs to confuse narcotics dogs, despite the yeast being inactive. While prisoners argue it's a cultural right and essential for wellbeing, officials cite security concerns over potential homebrew and drug interference, leading to bans under "Contraband" policies, notes The New York Times.
You are criminally responsible at age 10. This means that if you commit an offence from this age, you can be charged and, depending on the seriousness, you can get a sentence of detention. Juvenile detention in Western Australia is served at Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Canning Vale.
South Australia was an experimental British colony and the only Australian colony which did not officially take convicts. But naturally some former convicts made their way to South Australia. Men who had completed their sentences came to settle here, usually hiding their convict past if possible.