20 Jan 1788 - First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay

On this day 20 January 1788 the last of the eleven ships of the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay.

Captain Arthur Phillip's search for a more suitable site led him to Port Jackson. The rest of the fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour on 26 January. Phillip named Sydney after Lord Sydney, the British Home Secretary.

Source: The First Fleet in Botany Bay. (1888).Illustrated Sydney News (NSW: 1881 – 1894)

First Fleet Ships

First Fleet Ships

At the time of the First Fleet’s voyage there were some 12,000 British commercial and naval ships plying the world’s oceans

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Convicts

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Convict Sydney

James Hardy Vaux

Some convicts were transported more than once. Vaux was sent to the colony three times, each time arriving under a different name

St James’ Church Under Construction on Gadigal Country model
Convict Sydney

Pick of the crop

Convicts could earn good money doing private work, so many tried to conceal their skills during the initial muster to avoid being assigned to government projects

Letter containing a statement of absolute pardon for Samuel Henry Horn (more often known as  Horne), dated 1830 and signed by Governor Richard Bourke in 1832

Convict turned constable

A recently donated letter, signed by the governor of NSW in 1832, offers a tangible connection to the story of Samuel Horne, a convict who rose to the rank of district chief constable in the NSW Police