Skills,Origins and Literacy: A Comparison of the Bounty Immigrants into New South Wales in 1841, With the Convicts Resident in The Colony

In 1841, some 20,000 assisted immigrants arrived in New South Wales (including the province of Port Phillip) augmenting the existing population by approximately 15 per cent. Most of the European population consisted of convicts or ex‐convicts. The characteristics of the bounty immigrants who landed in 1841 have been analysed by McDonald and Richards, while a sample of approximately 20,000 convicts transported to New South Wales have been analysed by Nicholas et al. The main purpose of this article is to construct tables that, for the first time, compare the characteristics of all participants in the two inflows on, as far as possible, a common basis. The two groups display major differences in terms of sex, age, geographical origin, literacy, religion, and occupational skills. The novelty of this article is its provision of a new set of tables and its contextual analysis of the differences between the quantifiable characteristics of these two colonial workforces.