The Mary Bryant story begins in the late 1800s, when she is sentenced to
seven years deportation to the Botany Bay penal colony. After the eight month
journey on board the First Fleet, Mary and her fellow convicts are given the
task of building a new world at the polar end of civilization but food supplies
quickly diminish, and starvation and disease claim the lives of many.
Desperate and hungry, a small band of convicts including Mary, her husband
Will and baby Charlotte escape to sea on the colony’s fishing boat, setting
their sights on the Dutch port of Timor. Alone in a small boat in the most
isolated part of the world, the escapees face conditions far worse than they
left behind - furious storms, harsh open sunlight, and depleted food and
supplies as they navigate the then uncharted Great Barrier Reef and the
Torres Strait. Now regarded as one of the greatest sailing voyages in history,
Mary Bryant’s escape took 66 days and over 5,000 kilometres.
