The arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 is an important event in Australian history and this manuscript account, probably a fair copy made by Philip Gidley King (1758-1808) to be sent to the Admiralty in London in 1790, provides a fascinating insight into the foundation of New South Wales.

This report covers King's time as Lieutenant from 25 October 1787 through to his return to Britain in December 1790. An additional report, covering the departure of the Fleet from England through to its arrival in Cape Town, was sent to London before the ships left Africa. It contains detailed information about the arrival of the Fleet at Botany Bay, the surveying of Port Jackson, and encounters with Indigenous Australians and with the French expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse.

On 26 January 1788, the fleet landed at Sydney Cove, and the first settlement was established:

" At two pm The Union [flag] was hoisted on-shore & the Company of Marines were drawn up under it, Capt Phillip & officers to the Right & the Convicts to the Left. When possession of the territory was taken & "Their Majesties" & "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales's healths' were drank & success to the Colony" after which a feu-de-joie was fired & the whole gave three cheers."

26 January is now marked by many modern Australians as Australia Day and huge parties are held across the country. The arrival of the First Fleet, however, is also regarded among Indigenous communities as an invasion of ancestral land and the anniversary is marked by several groups as a day of mourning for those lost due to European settlement.

In February, King was commissioned by Governor Phillip to sail with HMS Sirius to Norfolk Island in order to found an additional penal colony there and to provide a guaranteed source of hemp for sailcloth following the restriction of the Russian hemp trade by Catherine the Great. Much of the remainder of this journal covers the early history of the colony on the island, describing in great detail its geography, climate, resources and the development of the settlement. 
In 1790, Sirius was wrecked at Norfolk Island and King returned to London with Governor Phillip's despatches. Due to its remoteness, in 1794, the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales proposed the abandonment of the Norfolk Island penal colony in order to focus on new colonies on the Australian mainland. However, in 1824 a new settlement was founded to serve as a secondary penal colony to imprison those who had committed a crime in New South Wales following transportation. Evidence from the records of those imprisoned during this second period showed that many of the convicts were sent to the island for minor infractions, not serious offences as had been believed.
King would later serve as the third governor of New South Wales between 1800 and 1806, during which time he encouraged the foundation of many industries that helped the colony to become self-sufficient.

The journal was possibly given to the present Royal Library around the time of its establishment in the 1830s. It features in the catalogue of the Library produced at this time. It was certainly in the Library during the reign of Queen Victoria.