The Australian continent was first populated by humans at least 65,000 years ago, though the first inhabitants may have arrived considerably earlier, up to 125,000 years ago. These people were hunter-gatherers with a complex economy and social structure. Over the millennia, the Australian Aboriginal people developed a unique lifestyle and adapted to the harsh conditions of the Australian continent.
Willem Janszoon
The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland was made by the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon in 1606. Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline, including what is now known as the Gulf of Carpentaria.
James Cook
In 1770, English captain James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. Eight years later, the first fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. The colony was moved to Sydney Cove in 1788 because of poor conditions at Botany Bay.
The Tragedy of Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians were dispossessed of their lands, and many were killed in violent clashes with British settlers. The British established other colonies on the continent, including Tasmania (1803), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1836), and Victoria (1851). Canberra, the capital of Australia, was founded in 1908 as a compromise between rival state capitals Sydney and Melbourne.
On January 1, 1901, Australia became a nation when 6 British colonies—New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania—formally federated as the Commonwealth of Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act became law on July 9, 1900. The newly formed nation was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire.
The World War II
During World War II, Australia was an ally of the United Kingdom, and Australian troops fought in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia. More than 1 million Australian men and women served in the armed forces during the war. On February 19, 1942, Australian, British, and Dutch troops surrendered to the Japanese in Southeast Asia. This marked the beginning of more than three years of the Japanese occupation of the region.
After the war, Australia began to diversify its economy and increase its trade with Asia. On January 26, 1973, Australia became a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). In 1986, Australia and New Zealand signed the Australia, New Zealand, and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS), which committed the three countries to cooperate on defense matters.
In 1999, voters in Australia’s capital, Canberra, approved a plan to move the nation’s capital from Sydney to Canberra. The new capital city was officially inaugurated on January 1, 2001.
