In order to get more accurate results, our search has the following Google-Type search functionality:
If you use '+' in front of a word, then that word will be present in the search results.
ex: Harry +Potter will return results with the word 'Potter'.
If you use '-' in front of a word, then that word will be absent in the search results.
ex: Harry -Potter will return results without the word 'Potter'.
If you use 'AND' between two words, then both of those words will be present in the search results.
ex: Harry AND Potter will return results with both 'Harry' and 'Potter'.
If you use 'OR' between two words, then bth of those words may or may not be present in the search results.
ex: Harry OR Potter will return results with just 'Harry', results with just 'Potter' and results with both 'Harry' and 'Potter'.
If you use 'NOT' before a word, then that word will be absent in the search results.
ex: Harry NOT Potter will return results without the word 'Potter'.
Placing '""' around words will perform a phrase search. The search results will contain those words in that order.
ex: "Harry Potter" will return any results with 'Harry Potter' in them, but not 'Potter Harry'.
Using '*' in a word will perform a wildcard search. The '*' signifies any number of characters. Searches can not start with a wildcard.
ex: Pot*er will return results with words starting with 'Pot' and ending in 'er'. In this case, 'Potter' will be a match.
Never before or since has there been an experiment quite as bold as this. Eleven of the tiniest ships sailed for eight months over the roughest of seas, carrying fifteen hundred people, food for two years and all the equipment needed to build a colony of convicts in a land completely beyond their experience and imagination.
In Portsmouth the fleet's preparation was characterised by disease, promiscuity and death. The journey itself was one of unbearable hardship, but also of extraordinary resilience, with the majority of settlers and exiles making it alive to the new colony at Sydney Cove. There, however, they faced their biggest challenges of all: conflict, starvation and despair.
Combining the skills of a vigilant journalist with the magic of a master novelist, David Hill brings the sights, sounds, sufferings and triumphs of the First Fleeters back to life. Journals, letters, reports and pleas to England are all interwoven here with the author's own insight and empathy to convey the innermost horrors and joys of the first European Australians. The result is a narrative history that is suprising, compelling and unforgettable.