So, having embarked on a harrowing 87-day voyage aboard the leaky lumber ship Ivy, enduring gruelling work, severe storms, and challenging conditions, Karl sailed from Vancouver to Melbourne, Australia. Despite learning valuable seamanship skills, Karl vowed never to work on a sailing ship again after being underpaid and mistreated, marking the end of his voyage to Australia.

You’ll recall dear reader, when Karl travelled around the world, he was essentially travelling throughout the British Empire. In 1900, Queen Victoria reigned over a vast network of territories and colonies covering a quarter of the Earth’s land surface, including Australia.

But let’s go back a bit…

In the 17th century, Europeans started to explore Australia, and in 1780, Captain James Cook claimed Australia's eastern coast for Britain, naming it New South Wales. Shortly thereafter, in 1785, the British Government issued orders to create a penal colony in Australia.

This wasn’t a new form of criminal punishment; the British had been using “transportation” to new colonies as an alternative to execution since the early 17th century.

The first convicts arrived in 1788, mainly from England, Wales, and Ireland. The first convict colony was in New South Wales (1788-1840), then what was Van Diemen’s Land (later Tasmania, 1803-1853), and lastly Swan River (Western Australia, 1850-1868). Between 1788 and 1868, more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia generally for crimes that today we’d consider minor offences, like non-violent property crimes and more than half were exiled for their first offence.

There’s a register of shipping lists of convicts transported to Australia and documents including Christian Name, Surname, Age, plus the offence and sentence. The most common reason for transportation was theft, including pickpocketing, shoplifting, stealing horses and sheep, highway robbery, housebreaking, and receiving stolen goods.

Convicts were sent to work in Australia from sunrise to sunset, Monday to Saturday, and were employed according to their skills to help build the new colony. They built the roads, bridges and public buildings, but free settlers (others who chose to move to Australia) could also petition the government to assign convicts to work on their farms.

With good behaviour, convicts would earn a ticket of leave or even a pardon. Still, after serving their sentences, many stayed on to become some of the first settlers, owning land and some being appointed positions in the new Government.

In 1868, convict transportation to Australia ended. By then, more settlers were arriving when gold was discovered in 1850, leading to an influx of immigrants and an expansion of settlements. At this time, the free settlers started to outnumber convicts.

But let’s go back a bit more…

Before Australia was federated as a commonwealth, it was the Indigenous people – the Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders who first lived here and managed the land.

Indigenous Australians have lived in Australia for at least 50,000 years – cultivating the land, trading, and living in diverse and complex societies. To get a sense of the first peoples and their culture, it seemed appropriate to start my journey at one of Australia’s most iconic, recognized landmarks, Ayers Rock or Uluru, as it is known to the Anangu, the traditional Indigenous inhabitants.

Uluru stands 348 meters out of the red desert, measuring 3.6km long by 2.4km wide, with a 9.4km circumference. It’s called an “island mountain” composed of sandstone that appears red due to oxidation or rust. To the Anangu, Uluru is not a rock but a sacred, living cultural landscape created at the beginning of time. Anangu believes the local landscape, including Uluru and nearby Kata Tjuta, was created by ancestral beings. Now a World Heritage site and part of a protected National Park, Uluru has been a tourist destination since the 1930s.

The Anangu are devoted to preserving and protecting Uluru and Kata Tjuṯa at the surrounding park. The colours seem to change depending on the sun's position, with the best views at sunrise and sunset. And why, dear reader, would I choose? Please find photos from Kata Tjuta National Park at sunrise and Uluru at sunset, starting at the place where the history of Australia begins as told by its first peoples.