Foundation Day

Over two hundred and thirty years ago the First Fleet set in motion the founding of modern Australia and Norfolk Island – and on Norfolk, Foundation Day is a great way to find out all about the Fleet, the men and women who were a part of it, and just how close we were to seeing a very different history of Australia.

Norfolk Island is often associated with the mutineers of HMS Bounty and the grim history of convict transportation, but the reality of its settlement is far more colourful, complex – and intriguing.

There is archaeological evidence of ancient Polynesian habitation of the island, but when the first European settlers arrived after Captain James Cook ‘discovered’ Norfolk in 1774 these early occupants were long gone.

Celebrating Foundation Day is a colourful affair on Norfolk Island

As part of the settlement programme of Australia, the First Fleet had arrived there from Britain in January 1788, but a small party of 22 left Port Jackson (soon to be known as Sydney Harbour) for Norfolk Island immediately thereafter on 15 February – and it was on a very important mission indeed. At that time all flax and hemp for the Royal Navy’s ropes came from Russia, and the Russian Empress Catherine II had recently announced an embargo on the raw materials for that rope. The Royal Navy was a central pillar of the British empire, so to keep Britannia ruling the waves HMS Supply set sail with 15 male and female convicts and a crew of free men with orders to found a colony on lush, fertile Norfolk Island that could supply Her Majesty’s ships with flax for rope. In addition, they were to establish farms that could supply food to Port Jackson, where the settlers were struggling to grow produce.

The fleet duly arrived on 6 March, and the island they found would have looked very different to what greets visitors there today. Dense bush and forest ran down to the shoreline, wild and untamed, and so the First Fleeters – as they are popularly known on the island – had the unenviable task of carving out a colony for themselves as well as establishing farms for Port Jackson and harvesting flax. It was tough going to say the least, and the fledgling colony certainly had its ups and downs as it struggled against nature and the elements.

The most dramatic of its setbacks was undoubtedly the wreck of HMS Sirius. The flagship of the First Fleet and often referred to as the ‘guardian’ of the 10 ships in it, the Sirius had been refitted in Australia and was on a much needed supply run to Norfolk when she ran aground in bad weather in March 1790. She sank swiftly within sight of land and though there was thankfully no loss of life, the sinking was a disaster for both Norfolk Island and Port Jackson.

The sinking has been called Australia’s most devastating maritime disaster, not because lives were lost, but because it very nearly saw the end to European settlement of Australia.

The loss of HMS Sirius meant supply and communication lines were dashed, and both colonies – and the ongoing settlement of Australia – were suddenly in jeopardy; several commentators have since called the sinking of the Sirius Australia’s most devastating maritime disaster, not because lives were lost, but because it very nearly saw the end to European settlement of Australia. Another supply ship, HMS Guardian, had also recently been lost, and for a time the authorities considered abandoning the entire Australian settlement programme.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that serious exploration of the (HMS Sirius) wreck site began. Since then a virtual treasure trove of artefacts has been salvaged.

Ultimately, the programme survived, but despite the importance of the Sirius, it wasn’t until the 1980s that serious exploration of the wreck site began. Since then a virtual treasure trove of artefacts has been salvaged – most of which can be found in the collection of the Norfolk Island Museum. Everything from huge anchors and the ship’s canons to delicate furniture fittings are on display, giving an amazing glimpse into the life of those hardy first settlers – and what’s more the museum is just a five-minute walk from the site of the wreck. On a sunny day in Norfolk, it’s hard to imagine how desperate it must have seemed for the settlers to look out on the wreck and contemplate the future.

HMS Sirius’s guns and anchor in the museum

The first colony founded in the late 1780s would eventually be abandoned – only to be resettled in 1825 – but it had served its purpose and is remembered each year on Foundation Day. This celebration of the origins of modern day Norfolk Island includes a re-enactment of the landing, complete with local actors dressed as British sailors and convicts re-enacting the landing and often attended by descendants of the ‘First Fleeters’. Tents are erected and the Union Jack is raised, with narration by school children about the early lives of the settlers on the island. Thankfully there is a lot more food – and great Norfolk Island cuisine no less – to be had for modern Foundation Day celebrations than the First Fleeters had on that fateful day back in 1788!