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Portraits of Aborigines


Port Jackson Painter
(fl.1788—1792)
Five Half-length Portraits of Aborigines c.1790
gouache; 38.5 x 55 cm
T2129 NK144/C

1788
January
18-20 The First Fleet (eleven ships) arrive at Botany Bay under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, carrying male convicts

22 Following a brief exploration of Port Jackson, Phillip and Captain John Hunter find it to be a more suitable site for settlement

23 The French frigates La Boussole and L'Astrolabe, under the command of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Perouse, arrive off Botany Bay

26 Phillip establishes a settlement at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson The first white child is born in Australia to Sergeant Thomas Whittle of the marines and his wife

February
6
The first female convicts arrive at Port Jackson. Rioting and debauchery follow

7 The colony of New South Wales is formally proclaimed. Phillip is sworn in as Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief

10 The first marriages are solemnised in Australia

11 The Court of Criminal Jurisdiction sits for the first time

17 A number of Aboriginal people are fired upon by a party under the command of La Perouse

27 A seventeen year old convict, Thomas Barrett, receives the first death sentence in the colony. A farm is established at Farm Cove under the direction of Henry Dodd

March
6 Lieutenant Philip Gidley King takes formal possession of Norfolk Island. He takes convicts and marines to set up the settlement

10 La Boussole and L'Astrolabe leave Botany Bay, and are never seen again. The ships are wrecked at Vanikoro (Vanuatu) with no survivors

April
15 Governor Phillip explores northwards to Manly and sights the Blue Mountains

23 Phillip explores the site of Parramatta

May
29 Two convicts are killed by Aboriginal people at Rushcutters Bay

June
5 All cattle, transported with the First Fleet from Cape Town, stray from the settlement. They are found seven years later

July
1 The Court of Civil Jurisdiction sits for the first time September Sydney's first road is completed

October
2 Hunter sails for Cape Town in the Sirius for provisions

November
2 A settlement is established at Rose Hill. On 2 June 1791 the settlement is renamed Parramatta

December
30 Governor Phillip has an Aboriginal man Arabanoo captured so that he may act as an interpreter

Other
The indigenous population of Australia is estimated at 750,000