An outline, era by era

British colonization of Australia begins (1788)

Early Modern Era · ~1500 – ~1800

British colonization of Australia began in January 1788, when a fleet of eleven ships under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Botany Bay and then settled at Sydney Cove, on the south-east coast of the continent. The First Fleet carried about 1,400 to 1,500 people, of whom roughly 750 to 780 were convicts, along with marines, officers, some wives and children, and crew. The colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal settlement and claimed the eastern part of the continent for Britain.

The land was already home to Aboriginal peoples, who had lived there for at least 50,000 years in hundreds of language groups with their own laws and ties to country. The arrival of the British brought disease, violence and loss of land, and began a long history of conflict and dispossession. It also began the colonial state that grew, over the following century, into the separate colonies that later formed modern Australia.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Cook charts the east coast and claims it for Britain

    Event

    What happened

    In April 1770 James Cook, in the Endeavour, reaches the south-east coast of Australia and anchors at Botany Bay. He then sails north along the coast, charting it. On 22 August 1770, at Possession Island, he claims the eastern coast for Britain and names it New South Wales.

    The rest is history

    Cook's journals and charts gave Britain its first detailed account of the east coast, and Joseph Banks, who sailed with him, later recommended Botany Bay as a place to settle. The claim was made without any agreement with the people who lived there. Cook's reports shaped the choice of Botany Bay as the site for the 1788 settlement.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCook, James. Journal of the Endeavour, 1768-1771. Manuscript journal, National Library of Australia.
    2. BookBeaglehole, J. C. The Life of Captain James Cook. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974.

  2. The loss of the American colonies ends transportation there

    Event

    What happened

    For much of the eighteenth century Britain sends convicts to its American colonies under the Transportation Act of 1718. The American War of Independence, from 1775, stops this. After the war ends in 1783, British jails and prison hulks on the Thames fill with convicts and have nowhere to send them.

    The rest is history

    The Hulks Act of 1776 was meant as a temporary measure, but overcrowding became serious. The government tried West Africa as an alternative and then turned to New South Wales. Historians debate how far the decision was about the convict problem alone, and how far strategic and trade aims also mattered. In 1786 the government decided on a settlement at Botany Bay.

    Sources

    1. BookHughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore. London: Collins Harvill, 1987.
    2. BookChristopher, Emma. A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

  3. The Botany Bay plan of 1786

    Event

    What happened

    In August 1786 Lord Sydney, the Home Secretary, informs the Treasury that the King has decided to found a penal settlement at Botany Bay. The plan follows advice from Joseph Banks, who had visited the bay with Cook. Arthur Phillip, a naval officer, is chosen to lead the expedition and is commissioned governor in 1787.

    The rest is history

    The plan set out the aims of the settlement and the practical arrangements for ships, supplies and guards. Historians still debate how much the government hoped for trade, naval timber and flax as well as a place for convicts. The decision led directly to the sailing of the First Fleet in May 1787.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySydney, Lord. Plan for establishing a settlement at Botany Bay. Letter to the Treasury, 18 August 1786. Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1.
    2. BookFrost, Alan. Botany Bay: The Real Story. Collingwood: Black Inc., 2011.

  4. The First Fleet sails and arrives

    Event

    What happened

    The First Fleet leaves Portsmouth on 13 May 1787 with eleven ships. After stops at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and the Cape, it reaches Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January 1788. Phillip finds the bay unsuitable and moves the fleet to Port Jackson, where the British land at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.

    The rest is history

    Almost all the people aboard survived the eight-month voyage. The first years were hard: crops failed, food ran short and the colony came close to starvation until the Second Fleet and more supplies arrived in 1790. Phillip stayed as governor until 1792. The date of 26 January is now marked as Australia Day, and many Aboriginal people call it Invasion Day or Survival Day.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPhillip, Arthur. Dispatches and letters from New South Wales, 1788-1792. Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1.
    2. PrimaryTench, Watkin. A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay. London: J. Debrett, 1789.
    3. BookGillen, Mollie. The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet. Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989.

  5. Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney region

    Event

    What happened

    When the First Fleet arrives, the Sydney region is home to Aboriginal peoples including the Eora, Darug and Gundungurra. Early contact is sometimes peaceful, but in 1788 and 1789 there are clashes over land and food. In April 1789 a severe epidemic, usually described as smallpox, strikes the Aboriginal people around Sydney and kills many of them.

    The rest is history

    Both the source and the exact diagnosis of the 1789 epidemic are still debated by historians. Some argue it was smallpox, brought by the fleet or by other contact, while others suggest a different disease such as chickenpox. Phillip took the Aboriginal man Bennelong into the colony in 1789, and he later travelled to England in 1793. Loss of land and food sources, together with disease and violence, caused great harm over the following decades, and conflict spread as settlement grew beyond Sydney. The effects of that dispossession are still part of Australian public life.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCollins, David. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1798.
    2. BookKarskens, Grace. The Colony: A History of Early Sydney. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2009.

  6. The Second Fleet and the colony's near-starvation

    Event

    What happened

    By 1790 the colony in New South Wales is short of food, and rations are cut. The Second Fleet reaches Sydney in June 1790 with more convicts, many of them sick, and a high number die on the voyage. The Third Fleet follows in 1791, and by 1792 supplies improve.

    The rest is history

    The deaths aboard the Second Fleet led to changes in how contractors were paid and how convict ships were run. The colony slowly gained farms, with Rose Hill, later Parramatta, founded in 1788 as an inland farming site. By the mid-1790s settlers were also taking up land along the Hawkesbury River, and the colony was becoming more settled.

    Sources

    1. BookFlynn, Michael. The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790. Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1993.
    2. PrimaryCollins, David. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1798.

  7. The commission and instructions to Governor Phillip

    Event

    What happened

    In April 1787 Arthur Phillip receives his commission as governor of New South Wales, with instructions on how to run the colony. His orders cover the grant of land, the treatment of convicts and the need to live in peace with the native people. The territory named in the commission reaches across the eastern half of the continent.

    The rest is history

    The instructions told Phillip to open friendly contact with the Aboriginal people and to punish anyone who harmed them. Britain did not sign a treaty or buy land from the people who lived there. The legal basis of the colony was later challenged, notably in the Mabo decision of 1992, in which the High Court of Australia rejected the idea that the land had belonged to no one. That ruling recognised native title.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPhillip's Commission and Instructions, 1787. Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1, part 2.
    2. BookReynolds, Henry. The Law of the Land. Ringwood: Penguin, 1987.

  8. The French at Botany Bay

    Event

    What happened

    In late January 1788, just as the British move to Sydney Cove, two French ships under La Pérouse reach Botany Bay. They stay about six weeks, repairing their vessels and meeting the British. La Pérouse then sails on in March 1788 and is lost in the Pacific.

    The rest is history

    The meeting showed that other European powers were also interested in the Pacific. Britain's formal claim was widened over the following decades as it extended its control across the continent, and a colony was set up in Western Australia in 1829. The wrecks of La Pérouse's ships were found at Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands in 1826.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLa Pérouse, Jean-François de Galaup. The Journal of Jean-François de Galaup de la Pérouse, 1785-1788. Translated by John Dunmore. London: Hakluyt Society, 1994.
    2. BookDunmore, John. Pacific Explorer: The Life of Jean-François de La Pérouse. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1985.

  9. Australia as a land belonging to no one

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that Britain claimed Australia because the land was terra nullius, empty or belonging to no one, and that the British simply took it. In this telling the doctrine was stated openly in 1788 as the legal basis of settlement.

    The rest is history

    The Latin term terra nullius was not used in 1788 and became common in legal debate much later. British colonial law treated the land as acquired by settlement, which ignored Aboriginal ownership in practice. Historians debate how far the idea shaped official thinking at the time. In Mabo v Queensland (No 2) in 1992 the High Court rejected the idea that the land had belonged to no one and recognised native title.

    Sources

    1. BookReynolds, Henry. The Law of the Land. Ringwood: Penguin, 1987.
    2. PrimaryMabo v Queensland (No 2). High Court of Australia decision, 3 June 1992. (1992) 175 CLR 1.

  10. Australia was settled only by hardened criminals

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common belief says the convicts of the First Fleet were violent criminals and hardened villains. In this telling Australia was a nation founded by the worst people in Britain.

    The rest is history

    Most convicts had been sentenced for theft, often of small items, and many were poor and young. Records show that a large share were repeat offenders, but few had committed violent crimes. Many convicts later became free and built lives in the colony, and by the 1820s convicts and their descendants were a large part of the population. About 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868.

    Sources

    1. BookNicholas, Stephen, ed. Convict Workers: Reinterpreting Australia's Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
    2. BookHughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore. London: Collins Harvill, 1987.

  11. Cook discovered Australia

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Many people say that Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770. In this telling, the continent was unknown to the world until his voyage in the Endeavour.

    The rest is history

    Aboriginal peoples had lived on the continent for tens of thousands of years. Dutch navigators such as Willem Janszoon in 1606 had already charted parts of the coast, and Abel Tasman reached Tasmania in 1642. Cook was the first European to chart the east coast in detail. His voyage led to Britain's interest in the region and, eighteen years later, to the settlement at Sydney.

    Sources

    1. BookBeaglehole, J. C. The Life of Captain James Cook. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974.
    2. BookClendinnen, Inga. Dancing with Strangers. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2003.

  12. Australia was founded only as a prison

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that Britain settled Australia purely as a dumping ground for convicts. In this telling, no other reason played any part in the decision.

    The rest is history

    The convict problem was a main reason, but not the only one. Some historians point to naval and trade aims, including timber and flax for ships and a base in the Pacific, though how much weight these had is debated. Phillip's instructions also covered farming and government for a lasting colony. Convict transportation to New South Wales continued until 1840, and to Western Australia it ended in 1868.

    Sources

    1. BookFrost, Alan. Botany Bay: The Real Story. Collingwood: Black Inc., 2011.
    2. BookBlainey, Geoffrey. The Tyranny of Distance. Melbourne: Sun Books, 1966.

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