British [[Home Secretary]] Lord Sydney appointed Phillip as captain of HMS Sirius, the flagship of the Australian [[First Fleet]], which set sail on 13 May 1787 with a fleet carrying mostly convicts, and arrived at their intended destination [[Botany Bay]], on the east coast of Australia, in January 1788. Phillip realised that the soil there was not suited to cultivation and there was a lack of fresh water, so he took the fleet a short way further north to the inlet now known as Sydney Harbour (formally [[Port Jackson]]). On 26 January 1788, the fleet landed at a place which Phillip named Sydney Cove, now in the heart of modern-day Sydney. The Australia Day public holiday now marks this occasion as Australia's national day. | British [[Home Secretary]] Lord Sydney appointed Phillip as captain of HMS Sirius, the flagship of the Australian [[First Fleet]], which set sail on 13 May 1787 with a fleet carrying mostly convicts, and arrived at their intended destination [[Botany Bay]], on the east coast of Australia, in January 1788. Phillip realised that the soil there was not suited to cultivation and there was a lack of fresh water, so he took the fleet a short way further north to the inlet now known as Sydney Harbour (formally [[Port Jackson]]). On 26 January 1788, the fleet landed at a place which Phillip named Sydney Cove, now in the heart of modern-day Sydney. The Australia Day public holiday now marks this occasion as Australia's national day. |