The First Fleet arrives, founding the colony of Australia
On this day · 26 January 1788
Eleven British ships sailed into Port Jackson and raised a flag at Sydney Cove, a moment still marked, and contested, every January.
On January 26, 1788, the First Fleet of 11 ships, commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, sailed into Port Jackson and established a convict settlement at Sydney Cove. The fleet had left Portsmouth months earlier and first reached Botany Bay, but Phillip judged its soil poor and water scarce, and moved north to the deep, sheltered harbor he named after a British official.
The ships carried roughly 1,400 people, including more than 700 convicts alongside marines, sailors, and officials. With a flag raised on the shore, Britain claimed the foundation of the colony of New South Wales.
The arrival forever changed the lives of the Eora people, the land’s traditional owners.
That date is now observed annually as Australia Day, though many, especially Indigenous Australians, mark it instead as a day of mourning and call it Invasion Day. A single landing in a quiet cove launched a nation, and a debate that endures.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
