Port Jackson

Inlet of the coast of New South Wales, Australia, on which the city of Sydney is situated. The inlet is about 29 km/18 mi long and has an area of about 54 sq km/21 sq mi, and forms a magnificent natural harbour. The River Parramatta is the larger, western arm of the harbour.

Port Jackson was named by the English explorer Captain James Cook in 1770, in honour of Sir George Jackson, one of the secretaries of the Admiralty. Captain Arthur Phillip of the Royal Navy rejected Botany Bay as the site for the first British penal settlement and chose instead a cove on Port Jackson, where a landing was made and the colony founded on 26 January 1788.