Model of HMS SIRIUS

HMS SIRIUS was the lead ship for the First Fleet of eleven ships setting out from Britain on the voyage to establish the first settlement in Australia. They landed at Botany Bay on the 18th January 1788 and soon after established the settlement at Port Jackson.

The ship sailed under the command of Captain John Hunter and carried Captain Arthur Philip, the first Governor. Within a few weeks of their arrival at Botany Bay, a small group of convicts under the command of Philip Gidley King had set sail to establish another settlement at Norfolk Island, a rocky outcrop 1,500 kilometres north east of Port Jackson. It was on this small isolated island that HMS SIRIUS was lost on March 19, 1790.

Displacement: 511 tonnes
Overall Length: 110ft 10ins