The British invasion of Australia is generally marked by the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788. This date signifies when agents of the British government, including military officers and marines, entered the sovereign territory of the Indigenous Gadigal people, establishing a penal colony under Captain Arthur Phillip. While some view this day as the beginning of Australia as a nation, many Indigenous Australians regard it as an invasion and a date of mourning due to the subsequent dispossession and suffering of Aboriginal peoples.