1788

I can't believe I went through my whole schooling without reading this book. What a wonderful insight into life in the colony. I'll never look at the shores of Sydney in the same light again.

This is pretty amazing stuff. An account of the very first arrival and settler activities at Sydney. And an account of some very interesting early encounters and relations with the Australian aborigines. I am extremely grateful to this publisher for re-releasing this text that has been out of print for almost 200 years.The text does get fairly tedious in it's detailing of the early agricultural efforts and failures. There a few other tedious details about getting settled as well. But this is fairly down-to-earth book and it aims to be as accurate and useful as possible to those back in England who were interesting in the prospects of settling in Australia. So you can't really fault Tench for be level-headed and down-to-earth.What really gets cloying is Tench's 18th-century upper-class style of writing. It's so highfalutin, so nuanced and precious. About 50 pages from the end of this I was just so sick of Tench and his voice but I forced myself to finish it.I really thought this would be more edited, but it's the full text. The intro by Flannery is not particularly interesting or memorable.

Author had a first-hand perspective of the beginnings of the First Fleet to Botany Bay. Well written but a little bit wordy.

Written by a well worded high ranking soldier this is amazing

This should be read by every secondary school student in Australia. It provides much needed truth and insight into the establishment of the country.

While describing in detail the struggles and risk that the settlers faced in the new colony of Sydney, my main interest in this delightful little book was how Tench humanises both the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia and the new settlers like himself who were open to learning everything about this new world. Tench provides charming and acute observations of many aspects of aboriginal people whom he met and interacted with over time. His archaic language is sometimes difficult to understand today. While noting their capriciousness and lack of interest in many subjects that white people considered important, he had a great respect for the fundamental intelligence and sensitivity of the aboriginal people.

I loved this and can not understand how I missed out on it for so long.

excellent reading, very informative for those who are interested in Australian History.