Why go
The origins of European migration explain why a penal colony appeared at Sydney rather than simply following Cook's voyage. Joseph Banks promoted Botany Bay, James Matra proposed a broader settlement, and British policymakers eventually made transportation of convicts a defining feature of the new colony.
The full story
After Cook's 1770 voyage along the east coast, British interest in Botany Bay developed slowly. The American Revolutionary War had cost Britain most of its North American colonies, closing established routes for sending convicts overseas. In 1779 Joseph Banks, who had travelled with Cook, recommended Botany Bay as a settlement site. James Matra's 1783 proposal imagined a colony that could serve Pacific trade and provide a home for displaced American Loyalists, along with other proposed settler groups. Convicts were absent from his initial plan. He later amended it to include them. At the same time, reformers were drawing attention to harsh conditions in British prisons and prison ships. Britain ultimately established a penal colony in New South Wales in 1788. This was a political and economic choice made in Britain, with lasting consequences for the Aboriginal peoples whose lands were claimed. It helps explain the convict traces in colonial history while leaving room for later, different waves of migration.