First and Second Fleet Memorial Garden

Eleven garden beds representing the ships of the First Fleet lead by Arthur Phillips to settle Australia are arranged around a garden bed in the shape of Australia. Each little garden features sand-stone tablets with the names inscribed of the persons who sailed that particular ship. A winding cobblestone path connects all the gardens and leads to a storyboard with a list of all participants and some personal logs and memoirs of convicts and sailors. The personal accounts bring the privations and difficulties faced by the early settlers to life and bring a human face to those epic journeys. The Second Fleet Section of the Garden explains the difference between the two journeys and adds continuation to the First Fleet Story. This Memorial Garden is a great reminder of Australia's colonial past and a tribute to the hard work of the forefathers who made this country to what it is today.