What happened to the first fleet from UK to Australia?
Between 1788 and 1850 the English sent over 162,000 convicts to Australia in 806 ships. The first eleven of these ships are today known as the First Fleet and contained the convicts and marines that are now acknowledged as the Founders of Australia. This is their story. Before 1788, Australia was populated by about 300,000 aborigines. These nomadic people had inhabited the world’s oldest continent for more than 10,000 years. They had seen very few Europeans, but two events were to play an important part in changing their way of life forever. Captain James Cook discovered the east coast of New Holland in 1770 and named it New South Wales. He sailed the whole of the coast and reported to the British government that he thought it would make a good place for a settlement. Britain did not recognise the country as being inhabited as the natives did not cultivate the land, and were, therefore, “uncivilized”. The agrarian revolution in Britain, and the population explosion in the cities, resul
