  We present the first data release (DR1) of the SkyMapper Southern Survey, a
hemispheric survey carried out with the SkyMapper Telescope at Siding Spring
Observatory in Australia. Here, we present the survey strategy, data
processing, catalogue construction and database schema. The DR1 dataset
includes over 66,000 images from the Shallow Survey component, covering an area
of 17,200 deg$^2$ in all six SkyMapper passbands $uvgriz$, while the full area
covered by any passband exceeds 20,000 deg$^2$. The catalogues contain over 285
million unique astrophysical objects, complete to roughly 18 mag in all bands.
We compare our $griz$ point-source photometry with PanSTARRS1 DR1 and note an
RMS scatter of 2%. The internal reproducibility of SkyMapper photometry is on
the order of 1%. Astrometric precision is better than 0.2 arcsec based on
comparison with Gaia DR1. We describe the end-user database, through which data
are presented to the world community, and provide some illustrative science
queries.
