The nation might be divided over whether Friday is “Australia Day” or “Invasion Day”, but historians say some basic facts about the date should be remembered.
The First Fleet sailed from England with explicit instructions that no indigenous people be harmed when they arrived in New South Wales.
When the fleet landed at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788, no shots were fired and no one was physically injured.
Whether the country was “invaded” or “settled” – much like what happened over the next two centuries – is at the heart of the debate over how and when we celebrate Australia Day.
The 1992 Mabo decision granting native title to indigenous Australians was based on the country having been colonised, not invaded.
In that ruling, the High Court rejected the doctrine of ‘terra nullius’ (that the landmass did not belong to anyone) without overturning the view that the continent had been colonized.
In the 236 years after the arrival of the First Fleet, terrible injustices occurred against Aboriginal people.
All of those atrocities – the massacres, human rights abuses and discrimination – form part of the argument about whether the nation should change the date of Australia Day.
The First Fleet sailed from England with explicit instructions that upon arrival in New South Wales the inhabitants of the country would not be harmed. Above is an oil painting by Algernon Talmadge of Captain Arthur Phillip raising the flag at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.

Whether the country was “invaded” or “settled”, as much as what happened over the next two centuries, is at the heart of the debate over how and when we celebrate Australia Day.
But what really happened on January 26, 1788?
Royal Navy Captain Arthur Phillip had been authorized under British law by King George III to establish a penal colony in New South Wales.
The land he was ordered to colonize had been occupied by Aboriginal people for perhaps 60,000 years, but was not legally recognized as a sovereign nation.
Eleven ships under Phillip’s command left Portsmouth in May 1787 with some 1,400 men, women and children on board, bound for Botany Bay.
The boats were small, each no bigger than a Manly ferry.
At the head of the fleet were two Royal Navy ships accompanying three cargo ships and six convict transports.
Among Phillip’s instructions upon reaching his destination were that the lives and livelihoods of Aboriginal people be protected and friendly relations established with them.
The initial landing of the First Fleet was gradual, with the ships arriving between 18 and 20 January at Botany Bay, south of Port Jackson, where James Cook had anchored 18 years earlier.

When the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788, no shots were fired and no one was physically injured. The Sydney Opera House appears illuminated with artwork by Indigenous artist Brett Leavy on Friday.
According to the New South Wales Migration Heritage Centre, local Aboriginal people encountered the fleet in an “uncomfortable confrontation” at what is now called Frenchmans Beach in La Perouse. On that occasion there was no violence.
Dissatisfied with Botany Bay as a suitable site to establish a colony, on 21 January Phillip led a small group in three ships to explore other options further north.
He entered Port Jackson, which he later described in a letter as “the best harbor in the world, in which a thousand line sails may sail in the most perfect safety.”
Phillip’s party returned to Botany Bay two days later to find representatives of another colonial power exploring the coast.
On January 24, two French ships from the scientific expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse were sighted outside Botany Bay.
The French, who remained at Botany Bay until 10 March, fired on the Aborigines in February.

Eleven ships under Phillip’s command left Portsmouth in May 1787 with some 1,400 men, women and children on board, bound for Botany Bay. Phillip is pictured at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.
On 26 January, the First Fleet headed to Port Jackson and landed at a place Phillip named Sydney Cove after Lord Sydney, the British Home Secretary.
Initially, only Phillip and several officers and marines from the naval ship Supply disembarked, while the rest of those on board watched from the water.
The British flag was planted in a brief ceremony and formal possession declared.
The other 10 ships in the fleet did not arrive until later that day. There was no armed conflict with the local Eora people.
Phillip’s instructions regarding the existing inhabitants of the land were that he would “conciliate their affections”, “live in friendship and kindness with them”.
He was to punish anyone who “wantonly destroyed them or unnecessarily interrupted their various occupations.”

Phillip’s instructions regarding the existing inhabitants of the land were that he would “conciliate their affections”, “live in friendship and kindness with them”. La Perouse Gamay dancers are pictured on Bondi Beach for a sunrise reflection and smoking ceremony on Friday.
Those instructions were standard British orders for the time and were largely followed at first.
In a Sydney Dictionary article, historian Grace Karskens said: “Phillip and the officers were genuinely committed to establishing and maintaining friendly and peaceful relations.”
‘Early meetings at Botany Bay and Port Jackson were often marked by friendship, curiosity, the giving of gifts and dancing together on beaches.
‘This is completely different from previous violent and murderous encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples.
‘It is also very different from the frontier violence that dominated pastoral expansion in Australia well into the 20th century. In that sense he was enlightened and humane.”
Professor Karskens stated that the arrival of the First Fleet and the establishment of a small camp at Sydney Cove was momentous only because it “marked the origins of a great city.”
“But at the time it was just a small pinprick on the edge of a vast ancient Aboriginal continent; at first it barely formed a ripple,” he wrote.

As the colony spread, so did the violence and more and more land was taken. A protester is shown holding a sign at an Invasion Day demonstration in Sydney on Friday.
‘From this perspective, the idea that Phillip’s first step on the beach at Botany Bay caused instant death and corruption across the continent is Eurocentric nonsense.
“Aboriginal people didn’t drop dead or lose their culture the moment they saw a white person.”
Professor Karskens noted that the Eora immediately had to deal with an alarming influx of strangers onto their lands and waterways.
“Phillip forbade anyone to shoot or harm Eora,” he wrote.
But by anyone he meant convicts. He punished them severely for doing so and for stealing Eora from him.
“But this does not mean that officers and other military personnel did not shoot at the Aborigines; they did, usually with small pellets, usually because the warriors threw spears and stones at them.”
According to Professor Karskens, the first fatal shooting may not have occurred until September 1789, when Henry Hacking shot a group of Aboriginal people hunting on the north coast.
As the colony spread in the following years, so did the violence. More and more land was taken and massacres occurred across the continent.
Many Australians believe that all these errors should be the sole focus of each anniversary of the First Fleet’s arrival at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788.
But there was no violent confrontation on that first Australia Day.