These include the Victualling Board Supply Lists, which were detailed provisioning schedules compiled under the Victualling Board of the British Admiralty in 1787 to equip the First Fleet. They set out the food, drink, clothing, tools and other stores to be issued on the voyage and in the fledgling colony, effectively forming the logistical blueprint for Britain’s first Australian settlement.

The supply lists encompassed:

• Food staples: salted beef and pork, ship’s bread, peas, oatmeal, butter, rice, flour, sugar, spices, vinegar and spirits (rum, brandy, wine).

• Equipment & tools: spades, shovels, axes, hoes, ploughs, grindstones, fishing nets, carpenters’ and smiths’ tools, brick-making gear and a printing press.

• Clothing & bedding: jackets, drawers, shoes, hats, stockings, petticoats, shifts, canvas beds and camp kettles.

• Livestock & seeds: cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, poultry, plus seeds and plants intended to kick-start agriculture.

They also underpinned the weekly ration scales later recorded for marines and convicts (for example 7 lb beef or 4 lb pork per week, with bread or flour and peas).​​​​​​​​

​​​Other important, primary source evidence comes from the instructions to Governor Arthur Phillip, and First Fleet provisioning contracts.

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2. Journals of First Fleet officers

Writers like Watkin Tench, and Arthur Bowes Smyth David Collins describe:

• livestock being unloaded

• stores being transferred

• food rations

• farming tools

For example, David Collins, in An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, describes cattle and sheep landed​, seed stores, and tools for agriculture.

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3. Muster and landing records at Sydney Cove

When the fleet arrived at Sydney Cove, officials recorded livestock numbers, food stores, and tools. For example, early landing records show:

• 7 cattle

• 29 sheep

• 74 pigs

• poultry

These numbers appear in The Founders of Australia (State Library of NSW archival sources)​.​​​​​​​