First Fleet Re-enactment Company records, 1978-1990

MLMSS 7796/Boxes 1-9
MLMSS 7796/Boxes 10X-11X
VT 1267-VT 1274

fonds

1978-1990

Textual Records, Moving Images

825606

2.57 metres of textual material (9 boxes and 2 outsize boxes) - manuscript, typescript, printed
8 videocassettes

In 1975 Jonathan King had the idea to re-enact the voyage of the First Fleet to celebrate the Australian Bicentenary. The First Fleet Re-enactment Company (FFRC), with Wally Franklin as its Executive Director, was formed in the mid 1980s to organise the First Fleet Re-enactment Voyage (FFRV). The FFRC chartered square-rigged sailing ships from around the world and, with permanent and trainee crew, departed from Portsmouth on 27 April 1987 and arrived at Port Jackson on 26 January 1988, via Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Mauritius, Fremantle and Botany Bay.
Source: Australia's First Fleet : the voyage and the re-enactment 1788/1988 by Jonathan King. ML REF 1/Q994/103

BOX 1
Correspondence, 1985-1990: correspondents include Wally Franklin, Jonathan King, Philip King, Gerald Weingarth;
Wally Franklin’s appointment diaries, 1986-1989, and file
‘1985 World Trip’: notes and itinerary of trip to negotiate charter of ships for the First Fleet Re-Enactment Voyage (FFRV)
File: ‘Historical Info’: including ‘The Original First Fleet’ an article by Dr Jonathan King; list by ship of all those who sailed on board the First Fleet

BOX 2
Legal and financial records:
Allen Allen & Hemsley files mainly concerning the chartering of ships for the FFRV and applications to the Department of Transport and Communications for single voyage permits for carriage of passengers: correspondence and related papers, 1978 -1989, including agreements, contracts, certificates, inspection surveys, stability data reports
FFRC budget summaries, 1985-1988; financial statements, 1985-1986;
port inspection and on-site merchandising revenue, 1987-1988
‘Stock Control’ note book recording sale of FFRV merchandise, 1987-1988

BOX 3
File for each port of call visited by Wally Franklin during the FFRV: London, Portsmouth, Tenerife, Capetown, Mauritius, Botany Bay
File ‘Memorabilia’: includes invitations, menus, tickets, calendar, FFRV cloth badges, official first fleet souvenir pop-up
Files of letters of support and congratulations
File of postcards received by Trish and Wally Franklin

BOX 4
File ‘Biographical material/Ships’: information about the ships taking part in the FFRV
File ‘Fleet Position’: telexes from Soren Larsen advising the position of the fleet while at sea
Ship’s log of the Bounty, 12 May 1987 – 11 January 1988, compiled by Kenneth Edwards and Adrian Small, Masters of the Bounty, and Jonathan King, official FFRV correspondent;
‘Diary of First Fleet Re-Enactment 5th April 1987 – 26th January 1988’, by Dick Ridsdale, 1st Mate on the One and All;
‘Four weeks before the mast: a personal memoir of a voyage across the Indian Ocean aboard the Tradewind as part of the First Fleet Re-Enactment incorporating excerpts from the ship’s log’, 10 November – 10 December 1987, by John Patterson, trainee crewmember
File of papers concerning a proposal to have erected at Darling Harbour a monument to James Mario Matra, midshipman on the Endeavour, who was with Cook's landing party at Botany Bay.

BOX 5
Trainee crew handbook
Lists of permanent and trainee crew for each leg of the voyage between London and Sydney, and for subsequent ports of call within Australia

BOX 6
Certificates and commemorative medals for permanent and trainee crew

BOX 7
First Fleet Times, Editions 1-8, October 1986 – January 1988
Various publications promoting the FFRV: magazines, brochures, flyers, posters, etc.
Various newsletters and magazines containing articles about the FFRV, 1986-1988
‘Press coverage April 1986 – May 1987 including details of TV and radio coverage’: British media coverage of the FFRV, including copies of press cuttings, compiled in 2 volumes by Rosamunde Bern Associates, Press and Public Relations, London
Press cuttings (loose), March – November 1987, about the FFRV from newspapers in Britain, Tenerife, Brazil, Cape Town, Mauritius

BOX 8
Press cuttings (loose), April 1982, January 1985 – 16 January 1988, about the FFRV from Australian newspapers and magazines

BOX 9
Press cuttings (loose), 17 January 1988 – 5 July 1988, about the FFRV from Australian newspapers and magazines

BOX 10X – 11X
Scrapbooks of press cuttings, October 1985 – July 1987, about the FFRV from Australian newspapers and magazines

VT 1267-VT 1274
Videos: FFRV departure from Portsmouth, 27 April 1987
FFRV arrival at Fremantle, December 1987
FFRV arrival at Botany Bay, 18 January 1988
FFRV final landfall, 29 January 1988 [2 tapes]
ABC TV 7.30 Report -'The Story of the One and All',
square-rigged sailing ship built in South Australia
which took part in the FFRV, [1987]
'Bound for Botany Bay', documentary about the First
Fleet presented by Jonathan King, [198?]
'Keep Sailing On': song performed by Bahloo