The First Fleet and the colony at Sydney Cove

In the 1780s, British prisons were overcrowded. Britain had sent convicts to its American colonies, but after the American War of Independence it could no longer do so. The British government decided to send convicts to New South Wales, the east coast Cook had charted in 1770. A colony there could also give Britain a base in the Pacific region.

The First Fleet was 11 ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, who became the first governor. It left Portsmouth, England, in May 1787 and sailed for about eight months, stopping at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town.

On board were roughly 1,400 to 1,500 people. About half were convicts, both men and women, and the rest were marines and their families, officers, sailors and officials. Historians give slightly different totals because the records are incomplete.

The fleet reached Botany Bay in January 1788. Phillip decided it was unsuitable, and on 26 January 1788 the colony was established at Sydney Cove, on the Country of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

The early years were very hard for the newcomers. Crops failed in the unfamiliar soil and climate, and food was rationed until supply ships arrived.

For the Gadigal and other Eora peoples, colonisation brought devastating change. The newcomers took land and water sources, cut down trees and fished in the harbour. In 1789 an outbreak of smallpox killed a very large number of Aboriginal people around Sydney. There was resistance and conflict as people defended their Country.

Historians learn about these events from journals, letters, drawings and official records written by the colonists, and from the knowledge, stories and perspectives of Aboriginal communities today.