Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, 12 February 2026
Time: 12:00PM
Price: $95 - Two-course set menu and beverage package.

“An Enlightened Beginning”
On Thursday, the 7th of February 1788, 238 years ago, and just twelve days after the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, a thousand civilians, marines and convicts assembled to hear David Collins, the Judge Advocate, read the Royal Commission appointing Arthur Phillip Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the new settlement, together with the Act of Parliament creating the new colony and official documents setting up the civil, criminal and admiralty courts.

Eleven small ships had set sail from Portsmouth on the 13th of May 1787 and had spent more than eight months sailing over 24,000 kilometres to establish a settlement on the other side of the world – an amazing long-distance colonisation effort. Its British foundations would ensure that this remote colonial outpost would develop on sound lines and settlement would spread across the continent and evolve into one of the most successful nations on earth.

Guest Speaker - Hon Tony Abbott AC

Born in England, Tony Abbott served as a Federal MP from 1994 to 2019 and was Prime Minister from 2013 to 2015. Prior to entering parliament, he was a journalist with The Australian, a senior adviser to opposition leader John Hewson, and director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. He has degrees in economics and law from Sydney University and in politics and philosophy from Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Currently, he is a director of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, a visiting fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs and the Danube Institute, chairman of Quadrant Magazine and a board director of FOX Corporation.

He is the author of four books with his latest being, Australia: A History – How an ancient land became a great democracy, which will be available for purchase at the lunch.

RSVP:
Member Portal

or 

Contact Events at [email protected]