A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, credited to Watkin Tench, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Watkin Tench. Read in English by chocmuse Watkin Tench was a British marine officer who sailed with the First Fleet from England to Australia, landing in January 1788. He first wrote an account of his experiences with the First Fleet in a book called "A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay". Later he published this book, "A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson", where he takes up from where he left off in the previous account; July 1788 up until he left the colony in December 1791. This is one of the earliest published accounts of this pivotal period in Australian history. Tench displays all the assumptions and world-views of an officer of Imperial England, but also reveals his own intelligent personality and occasional flashes of empathy. The account is a classic of its kind and is invaluable to historians. (Summary by chocmuse)

Recording facts

• Recording title: A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson
• Author credits: Watkin Tench
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 6:34:20

Catalogue topics

• history
• travel
• australia
• Aboriginal
• new south wales
• sydney
• convicts
• first fleet

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 2:59
2. 01 - Chapter I. A Retrospect of the State of the Colony of Port Jackson, on the Date of my former Narrative, in July, 1788 — 7:41
3. 02 - Chapter II. Transactions of the Colony from the sailing of the First Fleet in July, 1788, to the Close of that Year — 6:19
4. 03 - Chapter III. Transactions of the Colony, from the Commencement of the Year 1789, until the End of March — 16:22
5. 04 - Chapter IV. Transactions of the Colony in April and May, 1789 — 14:01
6. 05 - Chapter V. Transactions of the Colony until the Close of the Year 1789 — 21:50
7. 06 - Chapter VI. Transactions of the Colony, from the Beginning of the Year 1790 until the End of May following — 14:58
8. 07 - Chapter VII. Transactions of the Colony in June, July, and August, 1790 — 16:24
9. 08 - Chapter VIII. Transactions of the Colony in the Beginning of September, 1790 — 13:43
10. 09 - Chapter IX. Transactions of the Colony in part of September and October, 1790 — 18:23
11. 10 - Chapter X. The arrival of the 'Supply' from Batavia; the State of the Colony in November, 1790 — 21:21
12. 11 - Chapter XI. Farther Transactions of the Colony in November, 1790 — 9:59
13. 12 - Chapter XII. Transactions of the Colony in Part of December, 1790 — 28:13
14. 13 - Chapter XIII. The Transactions of the Colony continued to the End of May, 1791 — 14:05
15. 14 - Chapter XIV. Travelling Diaries in New South Wales — 36:47
16. 15 - Chapter XV. Transactions of the Colony to the end of November, 1791 — 12:55
17. 16 - Chapter XVI. Transactions of the colony until 18th of December 1791, when I quitted it, with an Account of its state at that time — 37:26
18. 17 - Chapter XVII Part 1. Miscellaneous Remarks on the country. On its vegetable productions. On its climate. On its animal productions. On its natives, etc. — 34:15
19. 18 - Chapter XVII Part 2. Miscellaneous Remarks on the country. On its vegetable productions. On its climate. On its animal productions. On its natives, etc. — 53:09
20. 19 - Chapter XVII. Observations on the Convicts — 6:26
21. 20 - Chapter XIX. Facts relating to the probability of establishing a whale fishery on the coast of New South Wales, with Thoughts on the same — 7:04

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.