Significant Australian Events to 1824
Events depicted here are meant only to capture a time relationship of general Australian history with surveying and mapping events of the same time period portrayed on this site.
45 million years ago
The Australian tectonic plate separated from India and Antarctica. Unique flora and fauna evolved.
60 000BC
Evidence suggests that humans travelled from South East Asia to inhabit Australia.
12,000 years ago
The newly formed Bass Strait separated Tasmania from the mainland.
8,000 years ago
With the filling of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea, Australia separated from New Guinea.
1600s
European explorers, mainly from Holland, discovered parts of "New Holland". The most notable among these explorers were William Jansz, Dirk Hartog, Abel Tasman, Luis Vaez de Torres and the Englishman William Dampier.
1770
Lieutenant James Cook, in the Endeavour, sailed and charted the eastern coastline of the continent north of Point Hicks. After naming many coastal land and water marks, he claimed possession for Britain on Possession Island off the tip of Cape York in August.
1787
The First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth, England, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. The eleven ships carried 756 convicts and about 450 soldiers and crew.
1788
The first Australian colony, named New South Wales, was declared at Sydney Cove. It was the main destination for convicts sent from England after they were no longer transported to North America.
1790
The Second Fleet arrived.
1791
The Third Fleet arrived. The first Irish convicts were among this contingent.
1798
Matthew Flinders and George Bass determined that Van Diemens Land was an island. It was later declared its own colony and called Tasmania.
1801-03
Matthew Flinders in the Investigator was the first to circumnavigate Australia.
1809
The colony’s first Post Office opened in Sydney.
1813
Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson crossed the Blue Mountains.
Last updated: 26 November 2007