1780

1780	2-Jul	Capt the Comte de La Pêrouse, French frigate Astrèe in company with Hermione, attacked five English ships of the line off Cape Breton Island, Canada, capturing two and putting to flight the other three.
1781	9-Jan	M. Bauche, Hydrographer of the French Navy, established the geographical position of the Solomon Islands.
1781	14-Feb	William Bligh, RN, was appointed Master of HMS Belle Poule, a French frigate captured off the Dogger Bank in the North Sea.
1781	5-Sep	William Bligh, RN, was promoted to Lieutenant and appointed to HMS Berwick.
1785	1-Aug	The French frigates Boussole and L’Astrolabe, Cdre Comte de La Pèrouse, sailed from Brest. The Commodore’s orders were to discover new lands and establish trade relations with the inhabitants. He was instructed to explore the north-west coast of America, Japan, the Solomon Islands and the coasts of Australia.
1786	12-Oct	Capt Arthur Phillip, RN, was appointed the first Governor of NSW.
1786	25-Oct	HM ships Sirius, Capt John Hunter, RN, and Supply, Lt Henry Lidgbird Ball, RN, were commissioned at Deptford, England.
1787	8-Apr	Assistant Surgeon William Balmain, RN, delivered the first baby born in the First Fleet on passage to Australia.
1787	20-Apr	The Admiralty approved the establishment of a Court of Vice Admiralty in NSW.
1787	13-May	The First Fleet transporting convicts and colonists to Australia sailed from Portsmouth, England.
1787	16-Aug	Lt William Bligh, RN, was appointed to command HMS Bounty on a voyage to Tahiti to obtain bread fruit trees for use as a food supply for slaves in the West Indies. Bounty was the former merchant vessel Bethia.
1787	10-Sep	The Comte de La Perouse received his commission as Rear Admiral. The commission was carried from Paris across Europe and Asia to Kamchatka.
1787	12-Nov	The First Fleet commanded by Capt Arthur Philip, RN, sailed from Cape Town for Australia.
1787	25-Nov	Capt Arthur Phillip, RN, transferred from HMS Sirius to HMS Supply to make a faster voyage to Port Jackson.
1787	23-Dec	HMS Bounty, armed transport, Lt William Bligh, RN, sailed from Spithead for Tahiti. The ship was originally the merchant vessel Bethia, purchased by the Admiralty for £1,950.
1788	13-Jan	French ships La Boussole and L ‘Astrolabe, RA Comte de La Perouse, arrived off Norfolk Island. He described the island as ‘only a place fit for angels and eagles to reside in.’
1788	18-Jan	HMS Sirius, Capt John Hunter, RN, arrived at Botany Bay.
1788	20-Jan	Capt Arthur Philip, RN, made his first entry into Port Jackson. The Governor and his party were conveyed in ships’ boats.
1788	21-Jan	Capt Arthur Philip, RN, reported in his journal on Port Jackson: ‘Had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect security.’
1788	24-Jan	French frigates, La Boussole and L ‘Astrolabe, RA Comte de La Perouse, arrived at Botany Bay. The ships remained in the bay until 10 March 1788. Cordial relations were maintained between the French and the British who had reached the bay on 18 January.
1788	26-Jan	Midshipman Henry Brewer, RN, HMS Sirius, was appointed Provost Marshal of the Colony of New South Wales.
1788	1-Feb	Capt John Hunter, RN, Lt William Bradley, RN, and Mr James Keltie, RN, commenced the first survey of Port Jackson. A six-oar boat from HMS Sirius was used.
1788	5-Feb	Governor Arthur Philip allocated Garden Island to HMS Sirius for use as a ship’s garden.
1788	9-Feb	Capt Clonard of the French exploration ship L ‘Astrolabe arrived in Port Jackson by boat to wait upon Capt Phillip.
1788	11-Feb	HMS Sirius landed a party on Garden Island to prepare a ship’s garden. Three sets of initials, ‘FM’, ‘IR’, and ‘WB’ were carved on a rock on the northern hill. These are now the oldest marks extant made by white men in Australia.
1788	15-Feb	Lt Philip Gidley King, RN, was commissioned as Commandant of Norfolk Island.
1788	17-Feb	Lt Henry Lidgbird Ball, RN, HMS Supply, discovered Lord Howe Island. He named it in honour of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Howe.
1788	17-Feb	Abbe L. Receveur, chaplain of RA Comte de P&ouse’s expedition, died and was buried at Botany Bay.
1788	2-Mar	Capt Arthur Philip, RN, and Lt Bradley, RN, led a party of Marines and convicts on an expedition to Broken Bay, NSW.
1788	6-Mar	Lt Philip Gidley King, RN, landed on Norfolk Island and hoisted the colours of Britain. The original colony was established with 23 people, 15 of whom were convicts. The oldest was 72 years of age and the youngest 15.
1788	11-Mar	The French ships L ‘Astrolabe and Boussole, RA Comte de La Perouse, sailed from Botany Bay into oblivion. Wreckage of the vessels was found on Vanikoro Island 40 years later.
1788	18-Apr	Lt William Dawes of the Royal Marines established the first observatory in Australia at Dawes Point, Sydney.
1788	4-Jun	HM ships Sirius and Supply dressed ship and at sunrise, one o’clock and sunset fired 21gun salutes in celebration of the King’s Birthday. The Marine Band played ‘God Save The King’, the first recorded occasion of the anthem being played in Australia.
1788	8-Aug	Lt John Shortland, RN, commanding the trans-ports Alexander, Friendship, Prince of Wales and Borrowdale, rediscovered the Solomon Islands. The island group was discovered by de Quiros in1567 and had been sought by all the great navigators. Shortland sailed his convoy through Bougainville Strait and named New Ireland.
1788	12-Aug	HM ships Sirius and Supply fired a 21-gun salute at Port Jackson to celebrate the Prince of Wales’ birthday.
1788	2-Oct	HMS Sirius, Capt John Hunter, RN, sailed from Port Jackson bound for Cape Town to obtain supplies for the colony.
1789	2-Feb	Capt John Shea, Marines, died in Sydney. Shea was the first Naval officer to die in the colony.
1789	28-Apr	The mutiny in HMS Bounty. Mutineers led by Acting Lt Fletcher Christian, RN, seized the ship and cast Lt William Bligh and loyal members of the crew adrift in the ship’s launch.
1789	9-May	HMS Sirius, Capt John Hunter, RN, arrived at Port Jackson after circumnavigating the world in a desperate bid to obtain supplies for the colony at NSW. The voyage took 219 days, of which 51 days were spent at Cape Town to allow the crew to recover from scurvy.
1789	28-May	HMS Bounty’s 7m launch arrived at the Great Barrier Reef on the voyage from Tahiti. Capt William Bligh named the island on which they landed Restoration Island.
1789	30-May	Lt William Bligh, RN, earned the resentment of the Bounty survivors when he ordered the ship’s launch to depart from Restoration Island where their strength had been restored by ‘the bounteous quantities of turtles and oysters’. Strangely, Bligh did not name the island for its providential supply of food. He recorded: ‘This being the anniversary of the restoration of King Charles II and the name not being inapplicable to our present situation...’
1789	3-Jun	Lt William Bligh, RN, HMS Bounty’s launch, experienced difficulty in naming the countless islands he discovered while passing through Torres Strait. ‘The island named on this day was called Wednesday’, Bligh recorded. He also named Thursday, Friday and Sunday islands.
1789	7-Jun	Capt Arthur Phillip, RN, Governor of NSW, explored Broken Bay and Pittwater, north of Sydney. Philip named the southern arm of the bay Pittwater in honour of the British Prime Minister William Pitt.
1789	14-Jun	Lt William Bligh, RN, arrived at Koepang in HMS Bounty’s launch after a 3,618 mile voyage from Tahiti in which a new passage through the Torres Strait was discovered.
1789	27-Sep	HMS Bounty sailed on her last voyage. Commanded by Lt Fletcher Christian, RN, and manned by a mixed crew of mutineers and natives, Bounty put out from Tahiti for Pitcairn Island, where she was scuttled. Christian selected Pitcairn Island for his final destination because it was off the normal shipping lanes of the time.
1789	5-Oct	The first boat built in the colony of NSW, the Rosehill Packet, was launched in Sydney Cove. The boat builder was R. Read, the ship’s carpenter of HMS Sirius.
1789	23-Oct	Matthew Flinders entered the RN and joined his first ship, HMS Alert. His rank was Lieutenant’s Servant.
1789	23-Dec	HMS Guardian, frigate, 44 guns, Capt Edward Riou, RN, struck an iceberg and was severely damaged while on passage from Cape Town to Port Jackson. The longboat was despatched to Cape Town for assistance under the master gunner, but Capt Riou stayed by the ship and, after effecting temporary repairs, limped back to Cape Town, where he arrived on 21 February 1790. The ship was hulked but her cargo intended for the settlement at Port Jackson was salvaged.
1789	25-Dec	Entry in New South Wales colonial diary: ‘West to south-west winds. Temperature 900. A turtle, brought in HMS Supply from Lord Howe Island, served at the Governor’s table’.