Governor's Cove

On the fleet’s arrival off Sydney Cove on the evening of the 26th of January, the small inlet was referred to in contemporanous logs and journals simply as ‘the cove’. Thus, in his journal for the Sirius, Captain Hunter wrote that at 5pm that day, they came to in seven fathoms of water ‘at the entrance of a Cove which was fixed for making a Settlement’. The 1st Lieutenant of that ship, William Bradley, described it as ‘the Cove in which the Supply was lying’. The master of the Sirius referred to it as 'Sydney Cove', suggesting that his log was written up after Hunter’s, and that the official name was given very soon after their arrival.[1] Interestingly, Daniel Southwell, one of the midshipmen on the Sirius, described it in his personal journal as ‘a cove, where the Supply was riding, and which is now known by the name of Sydney Cove’.[2]

Two contemporary sources refer to it as 'Governor's Cove'. The log of the Fishburn, one of the store ships, states that they hauled into the cove late on the 26th of January, ‘which Governor Phillip Call’d Governors Cove', but ‘Governors’ was subsequently crossed out, and the word 'Sydney' was written above. Ralph Clark, a marine lieutenant on one of the convict transports wrote that same day in his journal: 'here we make the Ships fast to the Trees on Shore both sides of Gouvernors Cove'.[3] However, John Easty, a marine on the Scarborough described it as ‘a littel Cove now named Philips Cove Sidney Cove’. This seems to suggest that the cove was informally associated with Phillip, because he had personally selected it.[4]

The cove would have acquired the name 'Governor's Cove' or 'Phillip's Cove', possibly informally, on Phillip’s return to the fleet at Botany Bay on the 24th of January, with the news that he had selected the site for the settlement. It seems reasonably clear that he gave the inlet its formal name very soon after landing on the 26th.

[1] John Hunter, ‘A Journal of the Proceedings of His Majestys Ship Sirius’, 15 December 1786 to 14 June 1788, UK National Archives (hereafter TNA) ADM51/832A, 27 January 1788; William Bradley, ‘Sirius from England to New South Wales’, Journal of HMS Sirius, 1787 to 1792, Australian National Maritime Museum, 00055232, 27 January 1788; James Keltie, ‘A Log Book of H.M. Ship Sirius’, 1 September 1787 to 31 August 1788, TNA ADM52/2535, 27 January 1788.

[2] ‘Journal of Daniel Southwell 1787-1791’, British Library, Add MS16382, note following entry for 27 May 1788.

[3] Log of the Fishburn, 26 January 1788, TNA ADM51/4375; Ralph Clark, ‘Fair Copy of Journal’, 9 March 1787 to 17 June 1792, State Library of NSW, Safe 1/27a, 26 January 1788.

[4] John Easty, Memorandum of the Transactions of a Voyage from England to Botany Bay, 1787-1793, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1965, p.94.