Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Sentenced to transportation to Australia                                                               

Find when your acnestors arrived in Australia, who they were, where they were from.

The First Fleet

The First Fleet comprising 11 ships departed from Portsmouth on 13 May 1787 heading for New South Wales. On board were Captain Arthur Phillip, who was to be the first Governor of New South Wales, bringing with them the first 717 convicts to be sentenced to transportation to the new colony in Australia. Some of the convicts died at sea.

A list of convicts on the First Fleet

Ships of the First Fleet

First Fleet Fellowship

The First Fleet Database

THE FIRST FLEET 1787 - 1788 - The Voyage

The Second Fleet

The Second Fleet arrived in Sydney in June 1790

The ships making up the Second Fleet were Guardian, Justinian, Lady Juliana, Surprize, Neptune, Scarborough, but Guardian was unable to complete the voyage.

Australia;s Second Fleet

The Third Fleet

The Third Fleet was made up of 11 ships: Mary Ann, Matilda, Atlantic, Salamander, William & Ann, HMS Horgon, Active, Queen, Albermarle, Britannia, and Admiral Barrington. In total, they carried 2047 convicts. They arrived at various dates between 7 July and 16 October.

Australia's Third Fleet

Third Fleet

1792. 3 ships, Pitt, Royal Admiral and Kitty. The total number of convicts they carried was 798.

PENAL SETTLEMENTS

Eventually a number of penal settlements were established away from Port Jackson. Some of the main ones were Port Arthur in Tasmania (originally called Van Dieman's Land),

Norfolk Island.

St Helena Island

In 1825 the site of the present-day Brisbane was chosen for a penal settlement for the more intractable convicts. The Brisbane penal settlement officially closed in 1839 and the land sold to free settlers.

Port Arthur, Van Dieman's Land

Immigrant Ships

• British Imperial Convicts Transported to Western Australia from 1850 to 1868
• Convict ships
• Australian Family History Compendium
• Australians in the Boer War
• Women Convicts Featured in Govenor Hunter's Assignment Report 1798
• Australia Genealogy Links
• The Ship List
• Irish convicts to Australia
• Links to Ships and Immigration Centers
• Convict Connections
• Passenger Lists
• Immigration Information Links
• Emigrant and Other Related Sites
• UK Census Information
• INDEX OF PASSENGER LISTS - ARRIVALS IN AMERICA / USA
• Genealogy Links
• PASSENGER SHIPS - transportation details, few passengers
• The Irish Ancestral Research association
• New South Wales-State Records
• Convicts to Australia
• The National Archives of Ireland-Transportation Records Database