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200,000 BCE
Evolution in Africa
Homo sapiens or humans were evolved in Africa -
180,000 BCE
Migrating
About 180,000 years ago humans successfully migrated out of Africa. -
80,000 BCE
The Levant Wave
The Genographic Project has found that people spread out of Africa in at least two migratory waves. The first wave travelled from eastern Africa into the area of the east coast of the Mediterranean known as the Levant about 80,000 years ago. -
50,000 BCE
Distinct Populations
By about 50,000 years ago we were already beginning to diverge into distinct populations. -
50,000 BCE
Second Migratory Wave
The later second wave moved from Africa into the Arabian Peninsula and continued eastward following the coast of South Asia. This southern wave kept rolling along reaching Southeast Asia, where one branch of people migrated to Australia and New Guinea, while other branches moved along the coast of east Asia. -
50,000 BCE
Voyage to Australia
Before 50,000 years ago humans would still have faced a voyage across fifty miles of open sea to get to Australia. They must have built sea craft strong enough to survive the voyage, a technological feat that went beyond making spears or lighting fires. -
48,000 BCE
Modernity
Homo sapiens reached modernity -
40,000 BCE
Branch of the Second Wave
A branch of this second wave migration moved north, into the central Asia and spread west into Europe and east into Siberia. -
Period: 40,000 BCE to 65,000 BCE
The First Aboriginals
The first Aboriginal people arrived on the north west coast of Australia between 65,000 and 40,000 years ago. The archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal people had contact with Macassans and the people of southern Indonesia for the past two thousand years exchanging ideas, technology and culture. Aboriginal people eventually populated the entire continent of Australia developing a subsistence economy hunting birds, fish and animals and harvesting edible plants. -
33,000 BCE
Hominoids or Neanderthals
Prior to the arrival of humans in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, these places were inhabited by another species of hominid, Homo heidelbergensis or Neanderthals. Neandrathals began to show 400,000 years ago and became extinct around 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans. -
20,000 BCE
American Continent
Eventually, humans made their way to the American continent. -
10,000 BCE
Evidence of Migrants and the Ice Age
The actual timing of the southern wave of humans is hard to ascertain because it appears to have moved along the coast, where after the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago the melting glaciers drowned large stretches of coastline so the evidence is now under the ocean. The fossils we have of these migrants offer few clues as to what sparked their spread. -
150
Ptolemy Greek Astronomer
Around CE 150 a brilliant Greek astronomer named Ptolemy drew a map of the world. Ptolemy speculated that land masses might lie beyond the known European world. Like many others, Ptolemy believed there was a Great South Land to balance the landmass of the Northern Hemisphere. Ptolemy called his imagined land Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown south land. Gradually Europeans explored and pushed the boundaries of the known European world. -
1000
Exchanging with other countries
For at least 40,000 years Aboriginal people lived isolated in Australia. About 1000 years ago people from China, India, Arabia, Malaya and the Pacific Islands started to explore the oceans around them. It is most likely that these sailors visited the north coast of Australia and traded with Aboriginal people. -
Period: to
The Dutch
The first Europeans to visit Australia were the Dutch. Willem Janszoon mapped part of the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606 and was the first European to set foot on Australia soil. Janszoon was followed by Dirk Hartog in 1616 and Abel Tasman in 1642 and 1644. The Dutch named the west coast of Australia New Holland. In 1699 the English pirate William Dampier landed on the West Coast of Australia and this was a catalyst for British interest in New Holland. -
James Cook
In 1768, England sent an expedition to Tahiti to chart the transit of Venus across the sun. James Cook, a brilliant Royal Navy navigator and map maker, was in charge of the expedition on the converted coal carrier HMS Endeavour. After completing the astronomical task of observing the transit of Venus, Cook set out to see if there was a Great South Land – the land that navigators had believed existed for hundreds of years. -
Australia
After circumnavigating New Zealand, Cook’s expedition sailed west for Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) but winds forced the Endeavour north and the expedition came upon the east coast of Australia in April 1770. For the next four months, Cook mapped the east coast from Eden to the Gulf of Carpentaria. At a brief and simple ceremony at Botany Bay, Cook named the entire east coast of Australia New South Wales.
