The First Fleet

In 1786 the British government decided to ship convicts to Botany Bay to establish a British colony there.

Retired naval officer Arthur Phillip was put in command of the First Fleet. On 13 May 1787 eleven sailing vessels and more than thirteen hundred people, including seven hundred and fifty prisoners, set sail from Portsmouth Harbour. It was an horrendous voyage, lasting for more than eight months, but it was the beginning of Australian settlement as we know it today.