Journeys of Transportation

Journeys of convict transportation are stories linked to colonisation. When the First Fleet set out to colonise Australia, several of those involved carried agreements to publish accounts that would relate what they found to those at home. The First Fleet journals of Tench, White and others are first-hand accounts of these journeys. They document the events of the journeys and the new lands experienced, the geographical features there, Indigenous peoples encountered, and the flora and fauna witnessed. In fictional works, transportation was usually a finality or ending rather than the main story. Some, however, such as Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life, attempted to describe the experience of convicts in greater depth.