Parramatta - Convict and Convict Labour

On 24^th April 1788 Governor Phillip chose the site of Rose Hill.  First wheat crop harvested at Rose Hill in 1789. 1st burial in St John’s Cemetery Parramatta was in 1970. Rose Hill renamed Parramatta in 1791.

Convict is a person found guilty of an offence against the law and is sentenced to imprisonment.

Majority of the convicts to Australia were English and Welsh (70%), Irish (24%) or Scottish (5%), the convict population had a multicultural flavour (1%) - some convicts sent from various British outposts such as India and Canada.

Good behaviour - convicts rarely served their full term and could qualify for a Ticket of Leave. This allowed convicts to earn their own living and live independently. However, for the period of their sentence they were still subject to surveillance and the ticket could be withdrawn for misbehaviour.

Governor Philip (1788-1792) founded a system of labour in which people, whatever their crime, were employed according to their skills - as brick makers, carpenters, nurses, servants, cattlemen, shepherds and farmers.

Educated convicts were set to the relatively easy work of record-keeping for the convict administration. Women convicts were assumed to be most useful as wives and mothers.

James Ruse was one of the convicts settled in Parramatta in 1789. He was given 30 acres of land for farming.

Samuel Gilbert was also a convict from England lived in Parramatta with his wife Mary and 12 children.

Elizabeth Farm was built using the convict labour in 1793 by John Macarthur

Parramatta Gaol and Parramatta Road was built by convicts.