author
Arthur Phillip
1738–1814
A naval officer turned colonial governor, he led the First Fleet to Australia and became the first governor of New South Wales. His life sits at the center of the story of Britain’s arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in London in 1738, Arthur Phillip built his early career in the Royal Navy and later also served in the Portuguese Navy during wartime. His experience at sea, along with a reputation for discipline and practical leadership, helped win him the command of the First Fleet, the expedition sent to establish a British settlement in Australia.
Phillip arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788 and became the first governor of New South Wales. He is widely remembered for founding the settlement at Sydney Cove and for the enormous challenge of leading a fragile new colony made up largely of convicts, marines, and officials in unfamiliar conditions.
He returned to England in 1792 after years of strain and ill health, and he died in Bath in 1814. Arthur Phillip remains a major figure in Australian history, both for his role in establishing the colony and for the lasting consequences that colonization had for the land and its Indigenous peoples.