The Library has an unrivalled collection of original journals, logbooks, letters, paintings, prints, drawings and books that document the history of Australia from 1788.
Although these items record significant events in the colonial history of New South Wales, the Library is conscious of the impact these events have had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and of the need to critically examine and reinterpret these documents to bring a greater depth of understanding to the history we present to future generations.
The Library also recognises that the history recorded by this collection material is selective — it only represents the point of view of the colonisers.
What we now know as Australia had been inhabited by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Europeans saw the area as an unoccupied land ready for settlement and the expansion of British interests.
The arrival of the British First Fleet and establishment of the penal colony at Sydney Cove irrevocably changed the future of the country for Indigenous peoples.
The First Fleet
On 13 May 1787 a fleet of 11 ships set sail from Portsmouth, England under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. This historic convoy, which later became known as the First Fleet, carried over 1500 men, women and children to the other side of the globe. Almost half of those on board were convicts sentenced to transportation; the rest were officers, crew and marines and their families.
The fleet consisted of two Royal Navy escort ships, HMS Sirius and HMS Supply, six convict transports, the Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales and the Scarborough, and three store ships, the Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove.
From Portsmouth the First Fleet travelled via Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope, the fleet’s last port of call before striking out for Terra Australis.
The fleet arrived first in Botany Bay on 18 January. Despite a glowing recommendation from Sir Joseph Banks, it proved unsuitable for a permanent settlement, especially as it lacked a supply of fresh water.
On 26 January, the fleet made anchorage at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson. This site had everything needed for the new settlement; deep water close to the shore, shelter and fresh water. Phillip named the site Sydney Cove, after Lord Sydney the British Home Secretary.
Europeans had been searching for rich new lands in the Southern Hemisphere long before Captain James Cook arrived on the east coast of Australia in 1770. Explore the State Library's incredible maps, journals, drawings and books.
The Library’s collection offers glimpses into Sydney signwriting and decorating firm Althouse & Geiger that once boasted, 'We tell the world everything it wants to know'.
The Proclamation Board (1828-1830) is a four-strip pictogram aimed to communicate that those who committed violent crimes, be they Aboriginal Australian or colonist, would be punished.
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