It depends strongly on what type of prisoner you were. I will go through a few examples. These all come from the book The Commonwealth of Thieves which is an excellent book going into detail onto the founding of Sydney.

The basic schedule was like this.

7 am to 3 pm you work for the government. Monday to Friday On Saturday you would get a half day. In your spare time you would be expected to tend to a garden of your own or preform other useful tasks during the off periods.

The first work parties on the colony began on the 30th of January when convicts began tilling earth and planting crops for the new farms of the colony. It was this kind of labour that was common for most of the convicts since they had no real skills.

However what happened if you did have a skill?

Convicts with skills that the colony could use were set tasks that related to their previous occupations. For example if you were a fisherman like William Byrant was then you would be tasked with fishing and the same applied to those who had knowledge of construction, farming and gardening.

There was one other major group of convicts who did not have to perform those tasks. If you were well liked by Arthur Phillip and other senior officers then you would be tasked with supervising the other convicts. This was because whilst Phillip had thought the marine officers would perform this task of encouraging work the officers thought that dealing with convicts on a day to day basis was below their station. This is what happened to Henry Kable who was also the first person to file a civil lawsuit in Australia and win despite been a convict. His story is also a fascinating one. Arrested for robbery and sentenced to 14 years transportation he ran the first pub in Australia and would also become the chief constable of Sydney for a time.

Now woman had slightly different jobs. Most of them would end up as servants to the officers and freemen of the colony. Those that were left over or not of the temperament to be house servants would be tasked with building roads. At least until 1810 when the Parramatta Female factory was built where women were either employed sewing or spinning wool, or tasked with more physically demanding work outside.

So the answer is it depends on what type of prisoner you were

Did people from the UK commit crime to get transported, because they knew they might be a chance of a better life in Australia?

More can be said here, but we do have an FAQ section on this topic which can get you started!