Students may feel more engagement with the events they are studying if called upon to write a journal as if they were a participant in the events — not a world leader or Great Person — but a regular citizen, one of those men or women who served as grunts and foot soldiers, guards, cooks, nurses, seamstresses, field hands and bottle washers.

Imagine you were a Marine serving on one of the first ships carrying convicts from Britain to Australia in 1788.

Create a journal with 20 or more entries describing your voyage, the conditions you endured and some of the events that took place.

Background information on the "First Fleet" (1788)

Images

The First Fleet and Early Settlement Documents