The First Fleet is the name given to the first group of eleven ships that carried convicts from England to Australia in 1788. Beginning in 1787 the ships departed with about 778 convicts , provisions and agricultural implements. Seventeen convicts died and two were pardoned before departure. Another nine died before reaching Santa Cruz plus another 14 who died before arrival at Port The during the eight-month trip. In 2005, the First Fleet Garden, a memorial to the First Fleet immigrants, friend and others was created on the banks of Quirindi Creek at Wallabadah, New South Wales. Stonemason Ray Collins researched and then carved the names of all those who came out to Australia on the eleven ships in 1788 on tablets along the garden pathways. The stories of those who arrived on the ships, their life, and first encounters with the Australian country are presented throughout the garden.No single definitive list of people who travelled on those ships exists; however, historians have pieced together as much data about these pioneers as possible. In the late 1980s, a simple software program with a database of convicts became available for Australian school students, both as a history and an information technology learning guide. An on-line version is now hosted by the University of Wollongong.The six ships that transported the First Fleet convicts were: Alexander Charlotte Friendship Lady Penrhyn Prince of Wales Scarborough
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