JONATHAN KING, a descendant of Philip Gidley King, the third governor of the Australian Colony (1800-1806), opened the introduction to his book, The First Fleet: The Convict Voyage that Founded Australia 1787-1788, with this claim:
“The founding of the Australian nation by the First Fleet is one of the greatest stories of mankind. Thirteen hundred and fifty people, crammed into eleven tiny ships, sailed halfway around the world to transplant European civilization, and on a voyage that took eight months and one week … It was an epic achievement of navigation, use of the wind, ocean currents, and organisation—yet it is a story little known within, or outside, Australia.”
‘No sober judgment of the facts could be at odds with this assessment. Some have compared the First Fleet voyage with the feat of landing a man on the moon. Despite the magnitude of the achievement, most Australians would have no idea that “the journals and diaries of at least eleven scribes have survived from the First Fleet along with reports and logbooks of others.” Those journals included that of author King’s ancestor Second Lieutenant Philip Gidley King RN on the fleet’s flagship HMS Sirius. [The Sirius was 27 metres long and 10 metres wide.] Australians of all ancestries have at their disposal firsthand reports of that incredible sea voyage that, against the odds, with never a navigational falter, led eleven ships into Botany Bay between the 18 and 20 January 1788, after 15,000 miles and 252 days.’
These were the opening paragraphs of chapter 13 of my book PRISON HULK TO REDEMPTION
So astounding was the scientific and technological achievement of the First Fleet that sailed through uncharted waters below the 44th parallel that it is difficult to think the analogy with the moon landing is overstated.
Sussan Ley, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, went a trifle further and compared the First Fleet voyage with an expedition to settle Mars. It was a golden chance for the Labor Party to show their ignorance and political dilettantism.
Labor minister Katy Gallagher, Labor’s minister for man-hatred, reacted in character. She ‘labelled Sussan Ley’s comparison of the arrival of the First Fleet to Elon Musk’s SpaceX mission to reach Mars as “nuts”.’ We can’t expect anything better from useless Gallagher whose mind cannot cope with the intellectual content of a simple analogy and must at once go to mockery. Gallagher should be a target of the Liberal Party’s at the coming federal election. As a man, you would have to have a death wish to vote for her.
Prime Minister Albanese was milder in his reaction. He claimed, ‘it was a very strange analogy to draw, pointing out that Australia was populated when Captain Arthur Phillip landed, while Mars … is devoid of life.’
The question of population does not alter the analogy. The analogy is about the astounding achievement of the First Fleet. A later reported remark from the PM was something to the effect that the comparison was hurtful. Poor Anthony, that’s another case of the PM giving into his emotions. Whether the analogy is hurtful or not does not affect the analogy which is about scientific, technological, and navigational achievement.
As for population, estimates of the native population range from 300,000 to 800,000 on that vast mass of land that came to be known as Australia. Apart from that sparse population of primitive natives who spent their time in murderous conflicts over territory, there was nothing there, just land waiting for its riches to be won by a competent civilization of people.
I made a video of the First Fleet’s voyage.
Part 2 two of the presentation is about the settlement: