Home UK English First Fleeter

Meaning of First Fleeter in English:

First Fleeter

Pronunciation /fəːst ˈfliːtə/

noun

Australian

  • One of the first settlers who sailed to Australia from England in 1787.

    ‘many of the First Fleeters acquired dingoes as pets’
    • ‘As an entrepreneur, a businessman, and a family man, the ex-convict first fleeter, helped to lay the foundations for the new and respectable society which was to become Australia.’
    • ‘Fifty of the 1,500 First Fleeters were children, some among them convicts.’
    • ‘Fear of starvation led to a division of the First Fleeters into two convict settlements.’
    • ‘Seven of my eight great grandparents are descendants of early settlers, including two first fleeters.’
    • ‘In the course of an enthusiastic rummage through the online NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages records, I discovered a pair of five-greats grandparents who were both First Fleeters.’
    • ‘It is understood there was also a large contingent of 'First Fleeters' visiting for this special week in Norfolk's history.’
    • ‘The prologue contrasts the First Fleeters' diet of mouldy bread and rancid pork with that of the Iora Aboriginals—Sydney rock oysters, crayfish and prawns, roasted kangaroo, grilled snapper.’
    • ‘Australia's first extinction wave began almost as soon as the First Fleeters stepped ashore, and by the 1940s it had carried away 10 per cent of the continent's mammal species.’
    • ‘Sydney was about as hot as the hottest day the First Fleeters experienced in their first four years.’
    • ‘It is tucked away off the beaten track in a town over-endowed with magnificent, fading heritage left from First Fleeters.’