What happened
In January 1788 the First Fleet of eleven ships, under Governor Arthur Phillip, reached Botany Bay and settled at the better harbour to the north, Sydney Cove (Port Jackson). Many of its roughly 1,400 people were convicts.
Background
Britain had lost its penal destinations with American independence, which lay behind this colony on so distant a continent. The landing of 26 January is today commemorated as Australia Day.
Consequences
The colony suffered severe food shortages at first but eventually took hold. For the Indigenous peoples who had lived there for tens of thousands of years, the settlement was also the beginning of dispossession.