1788Primary sourceWell documented
Botany Bay and the Founding of Australia
On the timeline · around 1788 ·
What happened
In 1788, less than two decades after James Cook charted its east coast, Britain established its first penal colony in Australia. A fleet of eleven ships landed at Botany Bay and settled at Sydney Cove, beginning European settlement of the continent. Over the following 80 years more than 150,000 convicts were transported there from Britain and Ireland.
Why it matters
The settlement of Australia opened a whole new continent to the British Empire and created one of its enduring 'settler dominions' — at devastating cost to the Aboriginal peoples who had lived there for tens of thousands of years.
Sources
- The National Archives (UK). The Search for 'Terra Australis' · Primary source