Botany Bay in the context of "Henry Lidgbird Ball"

Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west, and about 80 km (50 mi) from Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Hawkesbury River in the north and north-west, to the Royal National Park and Macarthur in the south and south-west. Greater Sydney consists of 658 suburbs, spread across 33 local government areas. Residents of the city are colloquially known as "Sydneysiders". The estimated population in June 2024 was 5,557,233, which is about 66% of the state's population. The city's nicknames include the Emerald City and the Harbour City.

There is evidence that Aboriginal Australians inhabited the Greater Sydney region at least 30,000 years ago, and their engravings and cultural sites are common. The traditional custodians of the land on which modern Sydney stands are the clans of the Darug, Dharawal and Eora. During his first Pacific voyage in 1770, James Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia, making landfall at Botany Bay. In 1788, the First Fleet of convicts, led by Arthur Phillip, founded Sydney as a British penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. After World War II, Sydney experienced mass migration and by 2021 over 40 per cent of the population was born overseas. Foreign countries of birth with the greatest representation are mainland China, India, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three storeships and six convict transports under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. On 13 May 1787, the ships, with over 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials and free settlers onboard, left Portsmouth and travelled over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi; 13,000 nmi) and over 250 days before arriving in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Governor Arthur Phillip rejected Botany Bay choosing instead Port Jackson, to the north, as the site for the new colony; they arrived there on 26 January 1788, establishing the colony of New South Wales, as a penal colony which would become the first British settlement in Australia.

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. The aims were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from Tahiti and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "undiscovered southern land". It was the first of three voyages of which James Cook was the commander.

The voyage was commissioned by King George III and commanded by James Cook, promoted from master to lieutenant so that he could take command of Endeavour. Cook had good skills in cartography and mathematics. Departing from Plymouth Dockyard in August 1768, the expedition crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in April 1769, before the expected transit on 3 June. After the observation, Cook stopped at the nearby islands of Huahine, Borabora and Raiatea to claim them for Great Britain before sailing into the largely uncharted ocean to the south and west. In October, the expedition reached New Zealand; Cook was only the second European to visit there, following the first voyage of Abel Tasman 127 years earlier. Cook and his crew spent the following six months charting the New Zealand coast, before resuming their voyage westward across open sea. In April 1770 they became the first known Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia, making landfall near present-day Point Hicks, and then proceeding north to Botany Bay.

Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia.

The British Government began transporting convicts overseas to American colonies in the early 18th century. After trans-Atlantic transportation ended with the start of the American Revolution, authorities sought an alternative destination to relieve further overcrowding of British prisons and hulks. Earlier in 1770, James Cook had charted and claimed possession of the east coast of Australia for Great Britain. Seeking to pre-empt the French colonial empire from expanding into the region, Great Britain chose Australia as the site of a penal colony, and in 1787, the First Fleet of eleven convict ships set sail for Botany Bay, arriving on 20 January 1788 to found Sydney, New South Wales, the first European settlement on the continent. Other penal colonies were later established in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in 1803 and Queensland in 1824. Western Australia – established as the Swan River Colony in 1829 – initially was intended solely for free settlers, but commenced receiving convicts in 1850. South Australia and Victoria, established in 1836 and 1850 respectively, officially remained free colonies. However, a population that included thousands of convicts already resided in the area that became known as Victoria.

Lord Howe Island (/haʊ/; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies 600 km (370 mi; 320 nmi) directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, 780 km (480 mi; 420 nmi) northeast of Sydney, and about 900 km (560 mi; 490 nmi) southwest of Norfolk Island. It is about 10 km (6.2 mi) long and between 0.3 and 2.0 km (0.19 and 1.24 mi) wide with an area of 14.55 km (3,600 acres), though just 3.98 km (980 acres) of that comprise the low-lying developed part of the island. The island is named after Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe.Along the west coast is a sandy semi-enclosed sheltered coral reef lagoon. Most of the population lives in the north, while the south is dominated by forested hills rising to the highest point on the island, Mount Gower (875 m, 2,871 ft). The Lord Howe Island Group comprises 28 islands, islets, and rocks. Apart from Lord Howe Island itself, the most notable of these is the volcanic and uninhabited Ball's Pyramid about 23 km (14 mi; 12 nmi) to the southeast of Howe. To the north lies the Admiralty Group, a cluster of seven uninhabited islets.

The first reported sighting of Lord Howe Island took place on 17 February 1788, when Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, commander of the Armed Tender HMS Supply, was en route from Botany Bay to found a penal settlement on Norfolk Island. On the return journey, Ball sent a party ashore on Lord Howe Island to claim it as a British possession. It subsequently became a provisioning port for the whaling industry, and was permanently settled in June 1834. When whaling declined, the 1880s saw the beginning of the worldwide export of the endemic kentia palms, which remains a key component of the island's economy. The other continuing industry, tourism, began after World War II ended in 1945.

Penal transportation (or simply transportation) was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home.

Sutherland Shire is a local government area (LGA) in the southern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sutherland Shire is located approximately 26 kilometres (16 mi) south-southwest of the Sydney CBD, and comprises an area of 370 square kilometres (140 sq mi). As at the 2021 census, Sutherland Shire has an estimated population of 230,211. The area is colloquially known as "The Shire", and has featured in several reality television series.

Geographically, it is the area directly to the south of Botany Bay and the Georges River. Sutherland Shire is 26 kilometres (16 mi) south-southwest of the Sydney CBD, and is bordered by the Bayside Council, City of Canterbury-Bankstown, Georges River Council and the City of Wollongong local government areas.

Pemulwuy (/pɛməlwɔɪ/ PEM-əl-woy; c. 1750 – c. 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal warrior of the Dharug Nation, an Aboriginal Australian people from New South Wales. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is noted for his resistance to British colonisation which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788.

Pemulwuy lived near Botany Bay, known as Kamay in the Dharug language. He is considered to have been a carradhy (cleverman), a Dharug spiritual healer and culture keeper. In 1790, Pemulwuy began a twelve-year guerrilla war against the colonists, which continued until his killing and beheading in 1802.

The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, that is located in Sydney, Australia. The Georges River is located south and south-west from the Sydney central business district, with the mouth of the river being at Botany Bay.

The river travels for approximately 96 kilometres (60 mi) in a north and then easterly direction to its mouth at Botany Bay, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the Tasman Sea. The Georges River is the main tributary of Botany Bay; with the Cooks River being a secondary tributary.