The First Fleet: The Real Story

Emeritus Professor Alan Frost (History, La Trobe University) tells the real story of The First Fleet, and the establishing of the Botany Bay settlement in Australia.

In 1787 a convoy of eleven ships, carrying about 1500 people, set out from England for Botany Bay. According to the conventional account, it was a shambolic affair: under-prepared, poorly equipped and ill-disciplined.

Alan Frost draws on previously forgotten records to debunk these persistent myths. He shows that the voyage was in fact meticulously planned – reflecting its importance to the British government’s secret ambitions for imperial expansion.

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