Thief or Prostitute? Questioning the evidence against women transported to Australia

Accounts of women in Australia during the convict period are dominated by assumptions that many of the convict women had worked as prostitutes in Britain and continued to carry on their trade in the colony. 1 From the boarding of the women on the First Fleet, their landing at Sydney and their circumstances once in the colony, discussions of their sexuality dominate accounts. The crimes that led to their transportation are overlooked or are assumed to involve prostitution. This paper investigates British sources about their crimes to understand the extent to which these crimes were associated with prostitution.