Inspired by the experiences of Elizabeth Hayward, the youngest female convict with
the First Fleet, and the journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth,
the surgeon and artist from
the Lady Penrhyn.
Beth is a child convict, caught stealing on the streets of London and sent to Australia
on the First Fleet. Through her story, we discover the unbearable hardships those
first convicts suffered, not only on the long journey to Sydney Cove but also in the
two years of near-famine following their arrival.
The story also explores the new
arrivals' relationship with the Indigenous population, the devastation that the
Europeans brought with them, and the sense of hope that many in the new
colony held for the future, how they survived and, in some cases, thrived.
Mark Wilson. 32-pp softcover. Middle/Upper Primary.