European Settlement

Captain Cook first sighted the east coast of Australia in 1770

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In 1606, Spanish navigator Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait which now bears his name. In the same year, a Dutch ship, Duyfken, made the first authenticated landing in Australia at Cape York. In 1642, Dutchman Abel Tasman reached Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land.

Other sightings and landings occurred, but it was not until 1770 that the more fertile east coast was sighted by Captain James Cook, of the British Royal Navy.

British settlement

On 13 May 1787, a fleet of 11 ships sailed from England. They reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 with 1,530 people, 736 of them convicts. Eight days later, the fleet left to establish a settlement at Port Jackson, a few kilometres north. The settlement grew to be Sydney, Australia’s biggest city.

Exploration

For many years, the rugged Blue Mountains blocked western expansion of the Sydney settlement but in 1813 the discovery of a passage over the mountains opened the way for inland exploration.

Settlements were established in Hobart (Tasmania) in 1803, on the Brisbane River (Queensland) in 1824, on the Swan River (Western Australia) in 1829, on Port Phillip Bay (Victoria) in 1835 and on Gulf St Vincent (South Australia) in 1836. Today, the capital cities of five States are on those sites.

Population growth and economic expansion prompted the colonies to call for self-government. On 1 January 1901 the six colonies joined in a federation of States to become the Commonwealth of Australia.

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