Region: Oceania · Coordinates: -33.868, 151.207 · 37 events
| Year | Source | Account |
|---|---|---|
| AD 1788 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Surveys Port Jackson harbour, counting 67 canoes and 147 people, but adds that these numbers do not allow a usable population estimate |
| AD 1788 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The last two transports leave for England via Cape Horn on 19 November; the Supply is the only ship left, so the sense of isolation grows |
| AD 1788 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The captured native arrives in Sydney: about thirty years old, not tall but sturdily built, and extremely agitated (his name later turns out to be Arabanoo) |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Supply sails again for Norfolk Island; the governor rides with it as far as below the harbour, and Arabanoo boards, reluctantly and with distrust |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | A court-martial made up only of officers sentences six marines to be hanged for stealing flour, meat, liquor and tobacco from the government storehouse |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Native corpses are found in many places around the harbour; their bodies were thickly covered with pustules resembling smallpox, and the record states they could not explain why a disease unknown to the natives spread |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Sirius (Captain Hunter) returns from the Cape of Good Hope and announces its arrival at sunset on 2 May; the flour and salt it carried delay the day of famine |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Arabanoo dies on 18 May after six days' illness from smallpox; every effort of medicine and nursing was in vain |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | In October the weekly rations are cut: flour from 8 pounds to 5 pounds 5 ounces, pork from 5 pounds to 3 pounds 5 ounces, and peas from 3 pints to 2 pints |
| AD 1789 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Lieutenant Bradley seizes two native youths in a boat without resistance and puts them ashore in Sydney; later in the account they are called Bennelong and Colbee |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The governor's party, going down to the harbour, learns from Captain Ball of the Supply's boat that the Sirius was wrecked on Norfolk Island; Captain Hunter and all the crew were rescued |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Supply (Captain Ball) sets out for Batavia on 17 April to seek food |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On the night of 3 May, Bennelong, feigning illness, goes downstairs and escapes by climbing over the back-yard fence |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Lady Juliana arrives on 3 June with 225 female convicts: nearly eleven months at sea, including a stop at Plymouth in July 1789; the people on board are overwhelmed by the letters and news |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Justinian (Captain Maitland) arrives carrying only food; it left Falmouth on 20 January and covered the passage in five months, and full rations are restored at once |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Within that month three transports arrive with two companies of the New South Wales Corps and convicts; of the 1,038 aboard, 273 died during the voyage, and 486 landed sick (as totalled in the table) |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Seeing a fire on the north shore of the harbour, the party goes to find Bennelong and others, and they agree to meet again in the afternoon; landing unarmed, they give gifts of hatchets and fish |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 8 October the natives light a signal fire as promised, and several parties go with goods to meet them; Bennelong, Bungaree and others are gathered there |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Four native men are set down opposite the hospital and taken to the governor's residence; onlookers crowd in, but they walk fearlessly, and Bennelong, pleased that the governor's wound has healed, rejoices |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Supply returns from Batavia and enters port on 19 October, greeting with cheers the ship they had seen off in tears |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On a day of unusual noise with many natives gathered, Bennelong comes to the governor and says he will soon kill a woman brought from Botany Bay |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Dutch snow arrives on 17 December after a 12-week passage from Batavia; it has lost 16 crew, and the sick left on the Supply also died at Batavia |
| AD 1790 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | A Dutch letter from the Batavia shabandar, carried by the snow, informs them of the outbreak of war between England and Spain |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | After unloading the snow's cargo, the Supply is sent to Norfolk Island to bring back Hunter and the Sirius crew |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 26 February Hunter and the crew join at Sydney; on 28 March the snow sails for England, carrying them via Timor and Batavia along the northern route |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Six days before the snow's departure, the Supply sails again for Norfolk Island with Captain Hill and a detachment of the New South Wales Corps; the native orphan boy Bondel volunteers to go along |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Right after the snow departs, eleven convicts (including one woman and two children) seize the governor's cutter and sail away to sea with nets, guns, quadrant and provisions |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 2 April the weekly rations are cut again to 3 pounds each of rice, flour and pork |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 9 July the Mary Ann arrives, 4 months and 12 days after leaving the Downs on 25 February; only 3 of the 144 female convicts died |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Gorgon arrives on 21 September; the day when the marine battalion is due to return home is approaching |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Supply leaves for England on 26 November, signalling that their own departure is near |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 13 December the marine battalion boards the Gorgon, and on the 18th it sails for England |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The Britannia (Captain Melville) arrives on 14 October and reports seeing a large school of sperm whales between Van Diemen's Land and Port Jackson |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | Melville returns on 10 November after a 14-day whaling trip; he saw thousands of sperm whales and caught seven, but the rough seas meant they could not haul them aboard |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 11 November the Mary Ann returns after a 16-day whaling trip; it went down to 41° south but saw no whales, and a storm nearly swept away the try-pots |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | The William and Ann sets out on 22 November for more than three weeks and returns after putting in at Broken Bay; it claims that with good weather it would have obtained 50 tons of oil, and it was the ship that caught the whale whose shares Melville divided |
| AD 1791 | Tench, Account of the First Fleet at Port Jackson | On 5 December two ships go out again; on the 16th and 17th all the whalers return without success, blaming bad weather, and they intend to try once more before heading for the northern seas |