It’s a pretty common stereotype and sometimes an attempted insult to us Australians to say that crime is in our DNA because Australia was settled by Convicts. But I don’t see what they’re trying to get at as I’m proud to have one in my tree! It’s Australian royalty!
For the record, not all settlers to Australia were convicts and the majority that were deported Down Under went to Tasmania or New South Wales. The Swan River colony started out as a free settlement and they tried very hard to keep it that way, but by 1850 they soon realised they were in dire need of cheap labour to build up the place. Over the next 18 years, nearly 10,000 convicts were dumped on our shores, but it allowed the WA economy to boom and prosper.
The Genetic Arborist 