Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Today Sydney stands on the site where, on January 26, 1788 (celebrated as Australia Day), Captain Arthur Phillip proclaimed the settlement of the colony of New South Wales." [Furtado: 1001 Days]
"The first British convicts were sent to penal settlements in Australia in 1788, transported there to relieve overcrowding in British prisons. The first colony was at Sydney Cove in New South Wales, but soon more were established at Norfolk Island (1788), Newcastle (1801), Hobart (1804), and Brisbane (1824). Free settlers did not appear until after 1813 when access to the interior had been won. When transportation ended in 1868, some 25,000 women and 137,000 men had been taken to Australia." [DK Timelines, p. 335]