First Fleet artwork collection

An eye-sketch of Port Jackson, with the settlement at Sydney Cove at upper left. The coast is outlined in black ink, with a band of blue wash indicating the water side. The harbour entrance, with the heads marked as "South Foreland" and "N. Foreland", is located at lower centre, with "North Harbour" and "Middle Harbour" at lower right, and the main channel bending to the left and extending to the top of the sheet. Places marked on the southern shore include "Rockey Point" and "Camp Cove" just inside the south head, and "Corn fields" drawn schematically in ink and pencil in the cove adjacent to "Sydney Cove", with "Garden Isld." and "Convicts Isld." in the channel nearby. The union jack of Queen Anne has been drawn on the eastern shore of Sydney Cove, with a dotted line indicating a track which passes a cluster of buildings (including one larger one which is presumably Government House, but is not labelled) and huts, crossing the Tank Stream (also not labelled) up to "Lieut. Govr. House", and on towards the "Hospital" on the western shore. The "Observation" is marked at the end of the western arm of the cove, and other huts and tents are indicated to the left of the hospital and on the western shore of the Tank stream. In the cove itself two ships have been drawn, one labelled "Golden Grove" (the name of one of the storeships of the First Fleet) and the other alongside "Reeds Rock". Two "Watering Pl." are indicated on the north shore opposite Sydney Cove. Other places labelled on the northern shores include "Bradley Point" further to the east, and "Middle Head" opposite the harbour entrance. The title and scale are at lower left, the orientation arrow in the centre indicates north to the right, and place names and soundings are marked in black ink.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in pencil at top right with the number "2", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling Collection.
• The drawing is inscribed with the title, in black ink at lower left, "New South Wales PORT JACKSON from the Entrance up to Sydney Cove taken in Oct.br 1788 Latitude, 33[degrees]~50 South Longitude 151~25 East". To the right there is a scale drawn in black ink and wash and labelled "Scale of One English Mile" (1 mile = 8.9 cm.). Soundings and place names are also marked (details in contents note below).
• One of the ships depicted in Sydney Cove is labelled "Golden Grove". The "Golden Grove" was one of the storeships of the First Fleet, and left Port Jackson on 30th September 1788 to convey a group of convicts and officers to settle Norfolk Island (this is described by David Collins on p.39 of his Account of the English Colony of New South Wales, 2nd edition, published London 1804).
• The drawing is annotated on the reverse in brown ink, along the upper right edge, "A Plan of Port Jackson Botany Bay".
• T. M. Perry (Wheeler and Smith, 1988, p.77) suggests that the area around Sydney Cove on this sketch shares some similarities with a "Sketch and Description of the Settlement at Sydney Cove ... taken by a transported Convict on 16th April 1788", which was published in London by R. Cribb in July 1797 and is initialled "FF". It has been attributed to the First Fleet convict Francis Fowkes.
• The author of this catalogue record is Suzanne Stenning.
• By permission of the trustees of the Natural History Museum (London)
• Two sets of transparencies held in the Natural History Museum (London) Zoology Library and Picture Library: Picture Library reference number 12502
• James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
• Data sheet available
• Wheeler, A. and Smith, B, (eds.) The Art of the First Fleet and other early Australian Drawings. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1988. (Plate 71, p. 76.)