Coogee Media

Before Captain Arthur Phillip and his fleet arrived in Botany Bay, the Indigenous people lived in what is now known as the Sydney basin for many thousands of years. The area was reasonably densely populated, enough so to imagine that it was already a city. Even Phillip, entering Port Jackson, cast aspersion on the idea that it was "empty land".

First Fleet: Eleven ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip which brought the first British contingent of seamen, marines, convicts and some families, to establish a penal colony, the first European settlement on the East Coast of Australia. The Fleet sailed from Portsmouth on 12 May 1787, and the first to arrive anchored at Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 & Sydney Cove 26 January 1788.

SHIP	Captain/Master	Tonnage	Type	Arrived Botany Bay
HMS Sirius	Capt. Arthur Phillip	520	Sixth Rate Warship	20 January 1788
HMS Supply	Lieutenant H. L. Ball	170	Armed Tender	18 January 1788
Alexander	Duncan Sinclair	452	Convict Transport	19 January 1788
Lady Penrhyn	William C. Sever	333	Convict Transport	20 January 1788
Charlotte	Thomas Gilbert	335	Convict Transport	20 January 1788
Scarborough	John Marshall	430	Convict Transport	19 January 1788
Friendship	Walton	274	Convict Transport	19 January 1788
Prince of Wales	John Mason	350	Convict Transport	20 January 1788
Fishburn	R. Brown	378	Storeship	20 January 1788
Golden Grove	Sharp	375	Storeship	20 January 1788
Borrowdale	R. Hobson	275	Storeship	20 January 1788

La Perouse Expedition: Shortly after the first ships of the British First Fleet anchored at Botany Bay, the two ships of a French scientific expedition led by Jean Francois de Galaup comte de La Perouse (1741 - 1788?), were sighted. The French arrived on 24th January 1788 and could see the flags and masts of of the First Fleet ships bit bad weather prevented them from entering Botany Bay until they anchored there at about 9am on teh 26th January,, 1788 and were able to view Philip beginning to move his fleet to Port Jackson.

The French ships spent six weeks at Botany Bay before proceeding north 10th March 1788, where they perished in the Solomon Islands.

SHIP	Captain/Master	Tonnage	Type
L'Astrolabe	Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle (1744-1787)	500	Storeship reclassified as a frigate
La Boussole	La Perouse	500	Storeship reclassified as a frigate

Second Fleet: Term applied to a second group of six ships carrying convicts and supplies to the new settlement at Sydney Cove and which also carried the first detachments of the New South Wales Corps.

Ship	Type	Sailed	Arrived Sydney
Guardian	Warship converted to Storeship	Sept. 1789	Wrecked
Justinian	Supply Ship	January 1790	20th June 1790
Lady Juliana	Convict Transport	29th July 1789	3rd June 1790
Surprize	Convict Transport	December 1789	26th June 1790
Neptune	Convict Transport	December 1789	28th June 1790
Scarborough	Convict Transport	December 1789	28th June 1790

Waakzaamheid : Captain Henry Lidgbird Ball took HMS Supply to Batavia (now Jakarta) in April 1790, to acquire supplies for the Colony. He also chartered the Waakzaamheid (a Dutch 300 ton "snow", or type of brig) commanded by Captain Detme Smit to follow with with stores of rice, beef, pork, and flour. It was then tasked to take Captain John Hunter to England to face a court-martial for the loss of HMS Sirius

arrived at Port Jackson on 17 December 1790

left Port Jackson on 27 March 1791 with 125 men via Batavia and Mindanao

arrived at Portsmouth on 8 April 1792

Third Fleet: Term applied to a third group of eleven ships carrying convicts and supplies to the new settlement at Sydney Cove. Around 1800 convicts survived the trip and landed at Sydney.

Ship	Type of Ship
Queen	Convict Transport
Atlantic	Convict Transport
William and Ann	Convict Transport
Britannia	Whaler used as a Convict Transport
Matilda	Convict Transport
Salamander	Convict Transport
Albermarle	Convict Transport
Mary Anne	Whaler used as a Convict Transport
Admiral Barrington	Convict Transport
Active	Convict Transport
HMS Gorgon	Store Ship

All the ships left England in early 1791. The first to arrive in Sydney was the Mary Ann on the 9th July 1791 and the last one arrived on 17th October 1791.

The Fourth Fleet is an unofficial term for the flow of convict ships from England to Australia in 1792 used by genealogist by C.J. Smee to describe the group that followed in the months immediately after the Third Fleet. The ships are:

Pitt also carried what would become Francis, 41-ton colonial schooner that was partially constructed at the Deptford Dockyard, England, and loaded aboard Pitt in frame. It is generally regarded as the first ship built in Australia. At the time it was the only government vessel available to the governor. Completed 17 months after the arrival of Pitt, it was launched at Sydney Cove on 4 July 1793.