Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Seeking to pre-empt the French colonial empire from expanding into the region, Britain chose Australia as the site of a penal colony, and in 1787, the First Fleet of eleven convict ships set sail for Botany Bay, arriving on 20 January 1788 to found Sydney, New South Wales, the first European settlement on the continent.
The use of convict ships to New South Wales began on 18 August 1786, when the decision was made to send a colonisation party of convicts, military, and civilian personnel to Botany Bay. Transportation to the Colony of New South Wales was finally officially abolished on 1 October 1850. [ 1 ]
The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early British colonial period of Australia's history. This started with the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson on the lands of the Eora, and the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales as part of the British Empire.
On 13 May 1787, the ships, with over 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials and free settlers onboard, left Portsmouth and travelled over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days before arriving in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788.
The Second Fleet was a convoy of six ships carrying settlers, convicts and supplies to Sydney Cove, Australia in 1790.It followed the First Fleet which established European settlement in Australia on 26 January 1788.
A map of the County of Cumberland in the Colony of New South Wales 1840–1860 by William Henry Wells The colony in 1799. Macquarie served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social and economic development of Sydney which saw it transition from a penal colony to a budding free ...
The ships that make up each fleet, however, are decided from the viewpoint of the settlers in Sydney Cove. For them, the second set of ships arrived in 1790 (June), and the third set of ships arrived in 1791 (July–October). The Mary Ann was a 1791 arrival. The next ship to arrive just over three weeks later, on 1 August 1791, was Matilda.
South Australia was founded as a "free province"—it was never a penal colony. [33] Victoria and Western Australia were also founded "free", but later accepted transported convicts. [34] [35] A campaign by the settlers of New South Wales led to the end of convict transportation to that colony; the last convict ship arrived in 1848. [36]