Arriving At Botany Bay

Rerun: ‘The First Fleet’ - the eleven ships carrying around 1400 people from Britain, most of whom were convicted criminals - landed in New South Wales on 18th January, 1788. Australia had been home to indigenous people for at least 50,000 years - but was a barren and shocking destination for 'the poms', who’d endured an epic 252-day voyage to get there; a journey about which Robert Hughes wrote: “before them stretched the awesome lonely void of the Indian and Southern oceans, and beyond that lay nothing they could imagine.” In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explore how Captain Arthur Phillip motivated his prisoners to build a new settlement; unpick what Captain Cook got wrong about Botany Bay; and explain why the descendants of convicts in modern-day Oz maintain a certain swagger…  Further Reading: • ‘From Captain Cook to the First Fleet: how Botany Bay was chosen over Africa as a new British penal colony’ (The Conversation, 2020): https://theconversation.com/from-captain-cook-to-the-first-fleet-how-botany-bay-was-chosen-over-africa-as-a-new-british-penal-colony-128002 • ‘Australian Penal Colonies’ (Simple History, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS1072MshS0 • ‘Australian Genocide: How It Happened And How It Haunts Us To This Day’ (All That’s Interesting, 2016): https://allthatsinteresting.com/australia-genocide  ‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Every Thursday is 'Throwback Thursday' on Today in History with the Retrospectors: running one repeat per week means we can keep up the quality of our independent podcast. Daily shows like this require a lot of work! But as ever we'll have something new for you tomorrow, so follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors Love the show? Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY! Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast. Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks! The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices