  The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey is a major new initiative to map a
representative volume of the universe. The survey makes use of the 2dF
multi-fibre spectrograph at the Anglo-Australian Telescope to measure redshifts
for over 250,000 galaxies brighter than B=19.5 and a further 10,000 galaxies
brighter than R=21. The main goals of the survey are to characterise the
large-scale structure of the universe and quantify the properties of the galaxy
population at low redshifts. This paper describes the design of the survey and
presents some preliminary results from the first 8000 galaxy redshifts to be
measured.
