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AUSTRALIA |
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Australia was inhabitted by Aboriginals app. 40,000 years ago. There are no definite facts or dates in regards to early history. Australia was first discovered by Europeans in need of a new route for accessing the East Indies. It was 1567 when Alvaro de Mandaņa made an encounter with the Solomon Islands and in 1606 Luis de Torres entered New Guinea claiming how he had seen the 'great southern continent'. There were plans of the Dutch to take a short-cut to get to the East Indies but on this short-cut it was Dirk Hartog that accidently landed himself on an island in Shark Bay in 1616. Later in 1642 Abel Tasman discovered the island that now bears his name - Tasmania, then left. In 1689 and 1699 William Dampier visited the west coast of Austalia. He wrote an account of the Natives he encountered which can be read in the Natives section.
In 1768 British exploration was underway to find this southern continent. Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks led the expedition. They entered through the east coast of Australia (New South Wales), exploring near Port Kembla to Torres Strait (near Adelaide).
Modern Australian History
| The beginning of Immigration to Australia | Convicts in Australia | Letter from a convict |
Immigration
| immigration background | Attitudes towards European immigration | Postwar immigration | Extracts - Immigration Restriction Act 1901 | Refugee's story |
Chronology of key events from:
| 1848-1890 leading upto Gold | 1892-1945 | 1945-73 | 1973-92 |