WITHIN a few days of landing, Phillip took it upon himself to set aside that part of his Instructions which ordered him to found a settlement at Botany Bay, as that particular spot was quite unsuitable for such a purpose. An officer of the marines wrote ‘I am sorry to say the country for several miles round the bay does not afford a spot large enough for a cabbage-garden fit for cultivation.’
Phillip and Hunter set off in a cutter to examine the opening that Cook had named Port Jackson,* and there they found ‘the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail-of-the-line may ride in perfect security.’ After exploring a number of coves, they chose one (now called Circular Quay) for the site of the settlement, and named it Sydney Cove in honour of the Secretary of State.* On the 26th of January (now called Anniversary Day)* Phillip began the work of clearing the land around Sydney Cove and erecting storehouses and living-quarters.
abridged
Port Jackson is an inlet of the Tasman Sea that includes Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers. Both the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge lie within it. A cutter is a fast, single-masted auxiliary ship.
That is, Home Secretary Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (1733-1800). Two cities are named in his honour, Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada (1785), and Sydney in New South Wales, Australia (1788).
January 26th is now kept as ‘Australia Day’. Although the fleet had arrived six days earlier, it was on this day that the first settlement was begun. For more, see the timeline of history at Australia Day, by the National Australia Day Council (NADC).