history of Australia

European Exploration: Dutch

1606

First Europeans to sail to Australia were the Dutch in 1606, but they didn’t settle there. The Dutch made one landing, were attacked by Aborigines, and then abandoned further exploration.

prisoners to colonists

1717

American Revolution forced the British to stop sending prisoners to Georgia, which was used as a penal colony at the time.

European Exploration: British

1770

Captain James Cook sailed around Australia, Cook named the area New South Wales. Ignored the Aborigines living there & claimed the land for England

First Fleet

1778

British ships called the First Fleet left England with convicts to establish a prison colony. British prisoners settled in Australia.

New South Wales

1788

1788 to 1832: New South Wales was officially a penal colony consisting mainly of convicts, marines, guards, and the marines’ families. Only 20% of the first convicts were women, British transported prisoners to Australia until 1868

Aborigines

1830

remnants of the tribes in the settled areas were moved onto Reserves. They were forbidden from teaching their children their language and customs.

Port Arthur, Tasmania

1833

From 1833, it was the destination for the hardest of convicted British and Irish criminals, those who were secondary offenders having re-offended after their arrival in Australia.

"White Australia"

1901

Australia promoted a policy called “White Australia”,they would not allow non-Caucasians to immigrate to Australia. That has since changed, Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, restricted migration to people primarily of European descent.

Commonwealth

Jan 1, 1901

The Commonwealth of Australia was established. Melbourne served as the national capital until Canberra was completed in 1927.

Australia today

1999

all legal ties with the British Empire were severed,today, Australia is a parliamentary democracy with Elizabeth II as queen.55% of voters rejected the idea of becoming an independent republic.