STORMING THE SKY FLEET TORRENT

Perhaps they expected that life would resemble their other colonial outposts like India, or an undeveloped version of England. HMS Endeavour had only briefly skirted past modern-day Sydney Harbour in May 1770, so the British knew next to nothing of the land, its climate or its people. He didnвЂ™t even stop in for a quick stickybeak at Port Jackson, the settlement site that eventually came to be known as Sydney Cove. Eighteen years before the arrival of the First Fleet, Captain James Cook had barely spent a week in Botany Bay. When the British sailed into Australian waters, they had no idea of what awaited them. By poking around in the settlersвЂ™ old diaries, letters and newspaper clippings, we can begin to piece together an idea of what the countryвЂ™s climate was like long before official weather measurements began. So how did the early arrivals to Australia deal with such extreme weather? Have we always had a volatile climate? To answer these questions, we need to follow AustraliaвЂ™s colonial settlers back beyond their graves and trace through centuries-old documents to uncover what the climate was like from the very beginning of European settlement. Modern Australia's defining moment came long after First Fleet More than once, intense storms would threaten the arrival of the ships and bring the new colony close to collapse. The unforgiving weather that greeted the First Fleet was a sign of things to come. Now, after an eight-month journey from England in a ship riddled with death and disease, the passengersвЂ™ introduction to Australia was also far from idyllic.

The severe storm was yet another taste of the ferocious weather that slammed the First Fleet as it made its way across the Southern Ocean in December 1787.

The sea raged around them as the wind whipped up into a frenzy, damaging all but one of the heavily loaded ships. Many dropped to their knees, praying for the violent rocking to stop.

STORMING THE SKY FLEET TORRENT

Horrified, they watched the foaming torrent wash away their blankets. The women screamed as the huge waves crashed loudly on the wooden deck.

Storming the sky fleet