One of my ancestors off my mums side of the family arrived in Australia (then known as the colony of New South Wales) on the first fleet. He was a convict who was convicted of stealing a judges law books at the age of 15 and was sentenced to 7 years transportation. Eventually he became a free man and set up a large farm in Parramatta (now a suburb of Sydney), where he survived being speared twice by Aboriginal people, survived severe floods and he even became one of the first cops in the colony. What made his story even more interesting was that the judge he stole from ended up arriving in Australia, forgave him for stealing and helped him set up the farm. He also married a lady from the second fleet and would go on to have 14 children I think.