Shipping Prisoners to Australia and Population Health-Responding to Health Care Reform (Population Health‪)‬

During the 18th century, the British government hired captains of large shipping vessels to transport prisoners to Australia. As many as one third of the male prisoners died before reaching Australia because of malnutrition, starvation and brutal physical treatment from the ship's crew. Prior to leaving port in England, the captains were paid by the British government by the "head." That is, they were paid by the number of prisoners that were being transported and they were supplied with adequate rations for the journey. Unfortunately, the prisoners were not fed during the journey so that food could be sold in Australia for additional profit by the captains.