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First Europeans to Sail to Australia
First Europeans to sail to Australia were the Dutch (Netherlands) in 1606, but they didn’t settle there. -
Captain James Cook sailed around Australia
Capt Cook set sail on Endeavour - a British-built coal ship - in 1768 on a scientific voyage to map the Pacific Ocean. It was the ship in which the explorer charted New Zealand and Australia between 1769 and 1771. -
The " First Fleet " Leave England
British ships called the “First Fleet” left England with convicts to establish a prison colony. -
New South Wales was Created
1788 to 1832: New South Wales was officially a penal (prison) colony consisting mainly of convicts, marines (guards), and the marines’ families. -
British prisoners settled in Australia
New South Wales, a state in southeast Australia, was founded by the British as a penal colony in 1788. Over the next 80 years, more than 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, in lieu of being given the death penalty. -
Aborigines Get Invaded
Aboriginal land was taken over by British colonists on the premise that the land belonged to no one ('terra nullius'). The history of Aboriginal dispossession is central to understanding contemporary Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations. -
Port Arthur, Tasmania becomes Largest Prison
PORT ARTHUR IN TASMANIA WAS originally founded in 1830 as a timber station, but its isolation made it the ideal place for a prison, and it was quickly converted into Australia’s largest and most notorious prison colony. -
Australia becomes a Nation
Australia became a nation on 1 January 1901, when the British Parliament passed legislation enabling the six Australian colonies to collectively govern in their own right as the Commonwealth of Australia. It was a remarkable political accomplishment that had taken many years and several referenda to achieve. -
“White Australia”
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting in 1901. -
The Australia Act was Signed
The Australia Act ended all power of the UK Parliament to legislate with effect in Australia – that is, "as part of the law of" the Commonwealth, a state or a territory (s 1). ... Similarly, the Australia Act removed the power of the British government to be involved in the governing of an Australian state (ss 7 and 10).