The story of modern Australia begins in eighteenth-century Britain where people were hanged for petty offences but crime was rife & the gaols were bursting. From this situation was born the Sydney experiment with criminals perceived to be damaging British society transported to Sydney an 'open air prison with walls 14 000 miles thick'. Eleven ships were dispatched in 1781 & arrived in Australia after eight hellish months at sea. Tom Keneally describes the first four years of the 'thief colony' & how despite the escapes the floggings the murders & the rebellions it survived against the odds to create a culture which would never have been tolerated in its homeland but which in Australia became part of the identity of a new & audacious nation. By the author of Schindler's Ark since made into the internationally acclaimed film Schindler's List.