2.TheBritishInvasionofAustralia.ConvictsExileand.PDFVIP

Lives in Migration: Rupture and Continuity 2. The British Invasion of Australia. Convicts: Exile and Dislocation Sue Ballyn Copyright©2011 Sue Ballyn. This text may be archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, provided that the author and publication are properly cited and no fee is charged. On January the 26th 1788 eleven British ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of the new colony, anchored on the east coast of Australia at i Sydney Cove and raised the British Flag. Known as the First Fleet the ships sailed from England on the 13th of May 1787. All told, the First Fleet carried 1,500 people comprised of convicts, crew and guards. As Bateson points out: The returns of the prisoners are contradictory, but the best evidence indicates that the six convict ships sailed with 568 male and 191 female prisoners – a total of 759 convicts (…) (Bateson 1985: 97). The route followed by the First Fleet can be seen on the map below:ii Following the direction of the prevailing trade winds and ocean currents, the route took the First Fleet from England to the Canary Islands, then southwards across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro to take on supplies,iii then south-eastward following the westerly winds across the Atlantic to the Cape and finally from there across the Indian and Southern Oceans to their final destination.iv Robert Hughes gives a good idea of how many of those on board must have felt as they departed from the Cape: “Before them stretched the awesome, lonely void of the Indian and Southern Oc