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First Europeans to sail to Australia were the Dutch, but they didn’t settle there after being attacked by Aborigines. -
Captain James Cook sailed around Australia and named the area New South Wales. He ignored the Aborigines living there and claimed the land for England. -
The British ships called the “First Fleet” left England with convicts to establish a prison colony. -
New South Wales was officially a penal colony consisting mainly of convicts, marines, and the marines’ families. -
From 1833, until the 1850s, Port Arthur, Tasmania 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. -
Government officials created boundaries for the colonies that are still in place today -
Melbourne served as the national capital until Canberra was completed in 1927 -
It restricted migration to people primarily of European descent. This was dismantled after the Second World War. -
It was widely seen as affirmation of the Australian people’s wish to see its government take direct action to improve the living conditions of Aborigines -
All legal ties with the British Empire were severed