During the 18th century, England sought out remote locations to house prisoners as a solution to its overcrowded jails. In ...

A British fleet of 11 ships established a penal colony in Australia in 1788. It was the first step towards claiming Australia as a British territory. For the indigenous population, the arrival of ...

Apparently, just like astronauts arriving on a new planet, the first settlers would be confronted with “a different and strange world, full of danger, adventure and potential”, she said.

Captain Arthur Phillip RN was commander of the First Fleet of 11 ships that sailed into Botany Bay, New South Wales, in January 1788. Work on the site he chose for a convict settlement at nearby ...

Of the roughly 760 convicts who arrived in Sydney in 1788 on the First Fleet, at least 15 were black. Between 1788 and 1842, about 80,000 male and female convicts were transported to NSW, of whom ...

Characters from a First Fleet-themed board game that look like actors John C. Reilly, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jonah Hill. Billed as “historically accurate” (we’ll let readers make up their own ...

In 1788, the First Fleet was launched under the command of Governor Phillip, transporting 759 convicts, 13 children, as well as seamen, merchants, officials and livestock to create Botany Bay.

“He did his job – and he did it remarkably well,” Haynes says. “I do admire him because he got the first fleet of 11 ships, and 777 convicts and five or 600 administrators and soldiers and ...

On this day in 1788, Norfolk Island was settled by convicts and overseers, having been sent there by the British to grow flax. It was one of the penal colonies founded by the First Fleet, a fleet ...

Historian and curator Dr Stephen Gapps says the first fleet was an “experimental voyage” for the British. Dr Gapps spoke to Sky News Australia about how conditions for convicts deteriorated ...