Tom Appleby convict boy. Jackie French. 2004.

At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As he sails out with the First Fleet, Tom sadly realises that he will never set foot again on English ground.

Tom faces the challenges of the new land: how to build a hut, farm the soil and learn from the Aboriginal Eora people how to harvest the land’s wealth. But too many convicts and marines are unwilling to even grow their food. Tools are wearing out, supplies are low, and with no news from England, the marines’ discontent is growing. And then plague strikes the Eora people…..

Can the desperate colony survive?