Arrival of the First Fleet

Eleven ships carrying about 1,400 people, more than half of them convicts, sailed into Sydney Cove under Arthur Phillip and founded the penal colony of New South Wales. About 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia by 1868. The colony took Eora land and was followed by a smallpox epidemic; 26 January is Australia Day, and marked by many as Invasion Day.