Port Jackson offered a secure, capacious harbor, fresh water, and shores where people and stores could be landed. Those practical advantages supported a settlement intended to serve more than a penal purpose. Cook's voyage, Joseph Banks, James Matra, and Lord Sydney linked the proposal to French expansion in the Pacific. Britain also wanted a Far Eastern base, naval stores, and a possible supply link for Indian Ocean operations. Early British Australia consequently formed part of a wider imperial sea-power project.
Chapter · 21:29-28:32
The First Fleet as a naval enterprise
Port Jackson's harbor and water supported a naval settlement intended to counter France and supply wider British operations.