HUMBLE ADVENTURER, THE : The Life and Times of James Ruse, Convict and Farmer.

James Ruse, forced by hardship and deprivation into an act of burglary in 1782, was imprisoned in a hulk for six years before being selected to accompany the First Fleet to the new penal colony of New South Wales. Once having worked off his sentence, he was chosen by Captain Arthur Phillip to undertake an experiment to see how quickly a man, provided with bare essentials, could become self-sufficent in the harsh environment of Australia. Ruse accomplished this feat with only an acre of land in a little over a year. As a reward, he was given a grant of thirty acres – Land Grant No.1 of New South Wales – a parcel of land which would become known as Experiment Farm.