ON THIS DAY

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May 13, 1787

First Fleet sails for Australia

The First Fleet was 11 British ships which transported convicts and a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia.

It consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three storeships and six convict transports under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. 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.

Governor Arthur Phillip rejected Botany Bay for a settlement.. The bay was open and unprotected, the water was too shallow to allow the ships to anchor close to the shore, fresh water was scarce, and the soil was poor.

Choosing instead Port Jackson, to the north as the site for the new colony; they arrived there on 26 January 1788, establishing the colony of New South Wales, as a penal colony which would become the first British settlement in Australia.

BTW:

John Limeburner was a convict on the First Fleet ship Charlotte. He was convicted on 9 July 1785 at New Sarum, Wiltshire of theft of a waistcoat, a shirt and stockings. He married Elizabeth Ireland in 1790 at Rosehill and together they established a 50-acre farm at Prospect. He died at Ashfield (the suburb where I used to live and where my office is still located) on 4 September 1847 and is buried at St John's, Ashfield, death reg. as Linburner aged 104.

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