Australia: The Land of Convicts That Became a Land of Opportunity

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One day in 1789, the Juliana, a convict transport ship sailing toward the New World of Australia—far from London—was filled with female convicts. Among them was a 13-year-old girl named Mary Wade.
After a 10-month voyage, the Juliana arrived in Sydney, Australia. Although many convicts died during the journey, Mary Wade survived. She began a new life as a convict in a new land.
What was happening in Britain at the time that even young children were being loaded onto transport ships and sent to a distant New World? It was because it was an era where poverty itself was a crime. As the Industrial Revolution took place in the 18th century, many laborers flocked to London, the capital of the British Empire. However, the lives of the urban poor became increasingly harsh.
Consequently, petty crimes among the urban poor continued to rise. Various survival-based crimes, such as stealing bread or clothes, occurred frequently, and London's prisons were overflowing with convicts who had committed such crimes.
At the time, to compensate for the lack of prisons in London, ships were moored at the mouth of the Thames River to serve as floating prisons. However, even this was not enough. In this situation, Britain came up with a new alternative.
It was the newly discovered New World: Australia. After discovering Australia, Britain was in the process of developing it as a colony. Britain thought that sending numerous convicts to the vast New World would solve the prison shortage.
At the same time, it seemed like a two-for-one solution: utilizing the labor of convicts to develop the colony more quickly. Finally, in 1787, 11 ships carrying 1,420 people, including convicts, departed from Portsmouth, Britain. After a seven-month voyage, they arrived in Sydney, Australia, in 1788. These ships arrived in Australia on January 26, 1788, which is why January 26 is currently celebrated as Australia Day.
Afterward, many more convicts were loaded onto transport ships and arrived in Australia, and Mary Wade was one of them. Mary Wade had stolen a single piece of clothing, for which the British government sentenced her to death. Fortunately, the practice of transportation to Australia emerged at that time, and her sentence was commuted to exile. Mary Wade was sent to Australia alone without a guardian, which could be described as sheer luck.

Mary Wade, known as the "Mother of Australia," finally received her certificate of freedom in 1811 and was granted 24 hectares of land by the Governor. Having lived a very long life, by the time she passed away, Wade had over 300 descendants. Her descendants now number in the tens of thousands, including former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Kevin Rudd's great-great-grandparents, Thomas Rudd and Mary Cable, were also criminals. Thomas Rudd crossed over to Australia in 1801 after being convicted, and Mary Cable arrived in Australia in 1804. Their lineage continued because their youngest son, Edward Rudd, married Sarah Elizabeth, the great-granddaughter of Mary Wade.

Former Prime Minister and Australian Ambassador to the US Resigns Early After Controversial Remarks Against Trump Exposed
Daum | Dong-A Ilbo
Kevin Rudd (69), a former Australian Prime Minister and current Australian Ambassador to the United States, has expressed his intention to resign from his post approximately three months after being publicly rebuked by U.S. President Donald Trump. He is expected to step down this March, one year earlier than his scheduled term. On the 12th, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced, "Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd will complete his term in March 2026." Ambassador Rudd served from 2007 to 201
(For reference, Kevin Rudd was serving as the Australian Ambassador to the U.S. until he made anti-Trump remarks and was forced to resign in 2026.)
In fact, while the first Westerners to discover Australia were the Dutch, it was the British who began to colonize and develop it. And at the forefront of this was Captain James Cook.
James Cook was also an expert in astronomy and cartography. While exploring various islands and continents, James Cook landed on the east coast of Australia. Since the terrain of this coast was similar to southern Wales, James Cook named it New South Wales.
Britain began the process of verifying whether Australia was a place worth colonizing. However, because it appeared to be an unusual place, they initially put colonial development on hold.
Then, with the independence of the United States confirmed in 1783, Britain felt a great sense of crisis as they lost one of their important colonies. Since losing one thing makes one feel more at ease once something new is acquired, Britain finally decided to colonize Australia after much deliberation.
Britain essentially self-brainwashed themselves into believing Australia was a land of opportunity and sent convicts to Australia indiscriminately.

Thus, Australia, which has become the land of countless descendants of British people, was actually a land built by sending Britain's overflowing convicts there instead of prisons. However, as Britain declined through two World Wars, it handed influence over Australia to the United States, and Australia became more heavily influenced by the U.S.
During World War II, the United States also used Australia as a forward base. Australia played a significant geopolitical role, such as helping to block the Japanese invasion. Afterward, Australia began to pay more attention to the United States than to Britain. Consequently, in 1966, the currency was changed from the Australian pound to the Australian dollar, and in the late 1970s, Pine Gap—a joint secret military base with the U.S.—was established in the middle of the Australian desert.
Pine Gap is a satellite surveillance facility that serves as an actual U.S. eavesdropping base.
At one time, Australia promoted the "White Australia Policy," which meant pursuing a white Australia. It was a discriminatory policy that suppressed immigration from people of color under the pretext of maintaining a white nation until 1973.
However, the current image of Australia, which once only cherished white people, has changed significantly. Although Australia was born as a substitute colony for Britain, the capital from Asia, including China, currently exerts massive influence on the Australian economy. Ultimately, Australia has adopted a desperate survival strategy: holding onto the United States for security and China for the economy.