It's the day we celebrate the arrival from Great Britain of the First Fleet under the command of Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove on the 26 th January , 1788..
Actually the First Fleet arrived a few days earlier into Botany Bay, following on from Capt James Cook in 1770. Arthur Phillip found it was unsuitable for settlement, one reason was lack of sufficient fresh water for a new colony, so he set sail slightly north to what is actually called Sydney Cove, better know today as Sydney Harbour. A scouting party went ashore and discovered the Tank Stream (still exists under Sydney streets) which became the colony's first water supply. After a couple of days sitting at anchor in the harbour, on 26 January 1788 at 8am (gotta love the British Navy and their insistence on perfect record keeping) Arthur Phillip landed and essentially began the colony, which is now Sydney.
Very little is said about the aboriginal people of the time, especially as Australia was known as Terra Nullius (basically saying nobody lived there) very little is known of the mobs around the area at that time. I myself have heard a number of aboriginal stories of that time, and one of those stories refer to the first settlers as "ghost men" due to the white skin.
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It's the day we celebrate the arrival from Great Britain of the First Fleet under the command of Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove on the 26 th January , 1788..
Actually the First Fleet arrived a few days earlier into Botany Bay, following on from Capt James Cook in 1770. Arthur Phillip found it was unsuitable for settlement, one reason was lack of sufficient fresh water for a new colony, so he set sail slightly north to what is actually called Sydney Cove, better know today as Sydney Harbour. A scouting party went ashore and discovered the Tank Stream (still exists under Sydney streets) which became the colony's first water supply. After a couple of days sitting at anchor in the harbour, on 26 January 1788 at 8am (gotta love the British Navy and their insistence on perfect record keeping) Arthur Phillip landed and essentially began the colony, which is now Sydney.
Very little is said about the aboriginal people of the time, especially as Australia was known as Terra Nullius (basically saying nobody lived there) very little is known of the mobs around the area at that time. I myself have heard a number of aboriginal stories of that time, and one of those stories refer to the first settlers as "ghost men" due to the white skin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Day