First Fleet

The 11 British ships that carried convicts, marines, and other passengers to establish the first European settlement in New South Wales in 1788.

Arthur Phillip: The British naval officer who led the First Fleet and became the first governor of New South Wales. He commanded the expedition and chose the site for its initial settlement.
American Revolutionary War: The 1775–1783 conflict in which Britain’s North American colonies won independence. The loss of American colonies ended Britain’s principal destination for transported convicts.
Watkin Tench: A British marine officer whose published accounts described the First Fleet voyage and early New South Wales colony. His eyewitness writing documents the expedition and its first years.
Colonization of Australia: The process by which European powers, especially Britain, occupied and governed parts of Australia. The First Fleet inaugurated sustained British colonization on the continent’s east coast.
HMS Sirius: The Royal Navy flagship of the First Fleet, wrecked at Norfolk Island in 1790. As flagship, it carried Phillip and directed the fleet’s voyage.
Penal colony: A settlement established to confine and exploit people sent there as punishment. New South Wales was founded as a British penal colony.
Mary Bryant: A Cornish convict transported to New South Wales who escaped with her family and others in 1791. Her life shows the agency and risks of convict women in the new colony.
Sydney: The capital of New South Wales, founded as a British settlement at Port Jackson in 1788. The fleet’s camp became the city of Sydney.
Port Jackson: The natural harbor in Sydney where the First Fleet established its principal settlement in 1788. Phillip moved the colony here after finding Botany Bay unsuitable.
James Cook: The British naval explorer who charted Australia’s east coast in 1770 and claimed it for Britain. His voyage helped make the east coast a destination for British settlement.

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