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First Fleet

British  

noun

  1. the fleet of convict ships that arrived at Port Jackson in 1788

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Australia Day - a national holiday on 26 January - marks the 1788 landing of Britain's First Fleet in Sydney Cove and the start of colonisation.

From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026

In 1788, the so-called First Fleet of 11 ships, with hundreds of convicts aboard, arrived in Australia to establish a British colony.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2022

Coal mining in the Hunter Valley began with convicts, just a few years after the First Fleet landed in 1788.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2021

Aborigines inhabited Australia more than 50,000 years before the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay near Sydney in 1788 after the country had been declared ‘terra nullius’, or unoccupied.

From Reuters ● Apr. 4, 2018

Many have perhaps read a little about him, and know the story of his surprising appearance in this harbour six days after the arrival of Governor Phillip with the First Fleet.

From Laperouse by Ernest Scott

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