141-719: The Darlinghurst Gaol is a former Australian prison located in Darlinghurst , New South Wales . The site is bordered by Darlinghurst Road, Burton and Forbes streets, with entrances on Forbes and Burton Streets. The heritage-listed building, predominantly designed by New South Wales Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis , was closed in 1914 and has subsequently been repurposed to house the National Art School . Construction commenced with pegging out by Francis Greenway in 1821. The Darlinghurst Gaol wall began in 1822 and finished in 1824 using convict labour, but due to
282-479: A Mediterranean climate . The south-east ranges from oceanic (Tasmania and coastal Victoria) to humid subtropical (upper half of New South Wales), with the highlands featuring alpine and subpolar oceanic climates . The interior is arid to semi-arid . Driven by climate change , average temperatures have risen more than 1°C since 1960 . Associated changes in rainfall patterns and climate extremes exacerbate existing issues such as drought and bushfires . 2019
423-525: A belt of Brigalow grasslands lie between the coast and the mountains, while inland of the dividing range are large areas of grassland and shrubland. These include the western plains of New South Wales, and the Mitchell Grass Downs and Mulga Lands of inland Queensland. The northernmost point of the mainland is the tropical Cape York Peninsula . The landscapes of the Top End and
564-824: A large wave of immigration from across Europe , with such immigrants referred to as " New Australians ". This required a relaxation of the white Australia policy , which was justified to Australians using the slogan "populate or perish". A member of the Western Bloc during the Cold War , Australia participated in the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency during the 1950s and the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1972. During this time, tensions over communist influence in society led to unsuccessful attempts by
705-605: A British naval ship from the First Fleet—the Alexander . Neither La Pérouse, nor any of his men, were seen again. Fortunately the documents that he dispatched with the Alexander from the in-progress expedition were returned to Paris, where they were published. In September 1791, the French Assembly decided to send an expedition in search of La Pérouse, and Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was selected to command
846-546: A beach on Elcho Island , another of the Wessel Islands, by archaeologist and member of the Past Masters, Mike Hermes. Hermes speculated that the coins may suggest trade between indigenous Australians and Kilwa, or may have arrived via Makassan contact with Australia . Mike Owen, another member of the Past Masters group speculated that these coins may have arrived sometime after they had installed Muhammad Arcone on
987-461: A date which later became Australia's national day . Most early settlers were convicts , transported for petty crimes and assigned as labourers or servants to "free settlers" (willing immigrants). Once emancipated , convicts tended to integrate into colonial society. Convict rebellions and uprisings were suppressed under martial law, which lasted for two years following the 1808 Rum Rebellion , Australia's only successful coup d'état . During
1128-445: A lack of funds, the site sat empty for 12 years. Construction of the rest of the complex did not begin until 1836, with completion of some of the cell blocks in 1840. The gaol was ready for occupation a year later, with the first prisoners occupying the gaol on 7 June 1841. The gaol was finally completed in 1885. The main material used for construction of the gaol is Sydney sandstone, cut into large blocks by convicts. Convict markings on
1269-613: A map, the Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht , entirely devoted to the discoveries of the West Australian coastline, which was named "Eendrachtsland", though the name had been used since 1619. On 1 May 1622, Englishman John Brooke in the Tryall , a British East India Company owned vessel of approximately 500 tons, on the way to Batavia made the second English voyage to use Brouwer's southern route. He sailed too far east and sighted
1410-520: A popular place for male prostitutes to offer their services. Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia , is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands . Australia has a total area of 7,688,287 km (2,968,464 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest country in the world and
1551-545: A settlement in Van Diemen's Land , and on 10 October 1803 a convoy of two ships HMS Calcutta and Ocean led by Captain David Collins carrying 402 people entered Port Phillip and formed a settlement near Sorrento . The first British to enter the bay were the crews of HMS Lady Nelson , commanded by John Murray and, ten weeks later, Investigator , commanded by Flinders, in 1802. Investigator
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#17327767758221692-523: A settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania ), and in 1813, Gregory Blaxland , William Lawson and William Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement. The British claim extended to the whole Australian continent in 1827 when Major Edmund Lockyer established a settlement on King George Sound (modern-day Albany ). The Swan River Colony (present-day Perth )
1833-562: A short distance off the north-east coast and extends for more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi). Mount Augustus , claimed to be the world's largest monolith, is located in Western Australia. At 2,228 m (7,310 ft), Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland. Even taller are Mawson Peak , at 2,745 m (9,006 ft), on the remote Australian external territory of Heard Island , and, in
1974-679: A small open boat, the Tom Thumb 1 , and explored some of the coastline south of Sydney. He suspected from this voyage that Tasmania was an island, and in 1798 Bass and he led an expedition to circumnavigate it and hence prove his theory. The sea between mainland Australia and Tasmania was named Bass Strait . One of the two major islands in Bass Strait was later named Flinders Island by Philip Parker King. Flinders returned to England in 1801. Meantime, in October 1800, Frenchman Nicolas Baudin
2115-665: A small river near Cape Duyfken (named after Janszoon's vessel which had earlier visited the region) and landed at the Pennefather River . Carstensz named the small river Carpentier River , and the Gulf of Carpentaria in honour of Pieter de Carpentier , Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies . Carstensz reached the Staaten River before heading north again. The Pera and Carstensz returned to Amboyna while
2256-501: A time in a hut outside the eastern wall of the gaol, would then leave his house to the jeers and catcalls of the gathering crowd, enter the prison and do his job. Seventy-six people were hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol, but most of them met their demise on the scaffold inside the gaol in a corner of E-wing. Among those who met their demise at the end of a rope were bushranger Andrew George Scott, better known as Captain Moonlite , in 1880, and
2397-597: A tremendous gale. Just as he was attempting to move the colony, on 24 January 1788 Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse arrived off Botany Bay. The French expedition consisted of two ships led by La Pérouse, the Astrolabe and the Boussole , which were on the latest leg of a three-year voyage that had taken them from Brest, around Cape Horn, up the coast from Chile to California, north-west to Kamchatka, south-east to Easter Island, north-west to Macao, and on to
2538-411: A wide variety of landscapes, with tropical rainforests in the north-east, mountain ranges in the south-east, south-west and east, and desert in the centre. The desert or semi-arid land commonly known as the outback makes up by far the largest portion of land. Australia is the driest inhabited continent; its annual rainfall averaged over continental area is less than 500 mm. The population density
2679-436: Is 3.4 inhabitants per square kilometre, although the large majority of the population lives along the temperate south-eastern coastline. The population density exceeds 19,500 inhabitants per square kilometre in central Melbourne. In 2021 Australia had 10% of the global permanent meadows and pastureland. Forest cover is around 17% of Australia's total land area. The Great Barrier Reef , the world's largest coral reef, lies
2820-413: Is a constitutional monarchy , a parliamentary democracy and a federation . The country has maintained its mostly unchanged constitution alongside a stable liberal democratic political system since Federation in 1901. It is one of the world's oldest federations, in which power is divided between the federal and state governments. The Australian system of government combines elements derived from
2961-849: Is a middle power , and has the world's thirteenth-highest military expenditure . It is a member of international groups including the United Nations; the G20 ; the OECD ; the World Trade Organization ; Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ; the Pacific Islands Forum ; the Pacific Community ; the Commonwealth of Nations ; and the defence and security organisations ANZUS , AUKUS , and the Five Eyes . It
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#17327767758223102-753: Is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States. The name Australia (pronounced / ə ˈ s t r eɪ l i ə / in Australian English ) is derived from the Latin Terra Australis ( ' southern land ' ), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times. Several 16th-century cartographers used the word Australia on maps, but not to identify modern Australia. When Europeans began visiting and mapping Australia in
3243-438: Is diverse, and the country has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world . It has a highly developed market economy and one of the highest per capita incomes globally . Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy. It ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights. Australia
3384-472: Is governed by convention and their precise scope is unclear. The most notable exercise of these powers was the dismissal of the Whitlam government in the constitutional crisis of 1975 . European maritime exploration of Australia The maritime European exploration of Australia consisted of several waves of European seafarers who sailed the edges of the Australian continent. Dutch navigators were
3525-540: Is named after Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour and Guichenotia after Antoine Guichenot . In April 1802, the Le Naturaliste under Hamelin explored the area of Western Port, Victoria, and gave names to places, a number of which have survived. Ile des Français is now called French Island . Flinders' work came to the attention of many of the scientists of the day, in particular the influential Sir Joseph Banks , to whom Flinders dedicated his Observations on
3666-563: Is north-west of the Cape). The most significant exploration of Australia in the 17th century was by the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company ( Dutch : Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie , "VOC", "United East India Company") was set up in 1602 and traded extensively with the islands which now form parts of Indonesia , and hence were very close to Australia already. The first documented and undisputed European sighting of and landing on Australia
3807-476: Is now open to the public as The National Art School. The last hanging at the gaol was in 1907. Hangings were open to public viewing throughout several decades. People would gather at the front gate of the gaol in Forbes Street, and the condemned would be brought out to a scaffold built in front of the gaol gate, and later on a platform built above the gate. The public executioner Alexander Green lived for
3948-571: Is one of only two pristine Archaean 3.6–2.7 Ga (billion years ago) crusts identified on the Earth. Having been part of all major supercontinents , the Australian continent began to form after the breakup of Gondwana in the Permian , with the separation of the continental landmass from the African continent and Indian subcontinent. It separated from Antarctica over a prolonged period beginning in
4089-617: Is uncertain how many waves of immigration may have contributed to these ancestors of modern Aboriginal Australians. The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is possibly the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia. The oldest human remains found are the Lake Mungo remains , which have been dated to around 41,000 years ago. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. At
4230-411: Is unique. About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds , and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic . Australia has at least 755 species of reptile, more than any other country in the world. Besides Antarctica, Australia is the only continent that developed without feline species. Feral cats may have been introduced in the 17th century by Dutch shipwrecks, and later in
4371-586: The Kurfürsten Atlas ("Atlas of the Great Elector"). Maps from this period and the early 18th century often have Terra Australis or t'Zuid Landt ("the South Land") marked as " New Holland ", the name given to the continent by Abel Tasman in 1644. Joan Blaeu 's 1659 map shows the clearly recognizable outline of Australia based on the many Dutch explorations of the first half of
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4512-412: The 1769 Transit of Venus , Cook followed Admiralty instructions to explore the south Pacific for the reported Terra Australis and on 19 April 1770 sighted the south-eastern coast of Australia and became the first recorded European to explore the eastern coastline. Explorers by land and sea continued to survey the continent for some years after settlement. Some writers have advanced the theory that
4653-661: The Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially by that name. The first official published use of the new name came with the publication in 1830 of The Australia Directory by the Hydrographic Office . Colloquial names for Australia include " Oz ", " Straya " and " Down Under ". Other epithets include "the Great Southern Land", "the Lucky Country" (from the 1964 book of
4794-520: The Arnhem crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria, sighting the east coast of Arnhem Land . In 1627, François Thijssen ended up too far south and on 26 January 1627 he came upon the coast of Australia, near Cape Leeuwin , the most south-west tip of the mainland. Pieter Nuyts the VOC official aboard his ship gave Thijssen permission to continue to sail eastwards, mapping more than 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) of
4935-500: The Australia Acts of 1986. Australia is a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy comprising six states and ten territories . Its population of more than 28 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous cities are Sydney and Melbourne , both with a population of more than 5 million. Australia's culture
5076-691: The Furneaux Group at the eastern entrance to Bass Strait , and the group now known as the Low Archipelago . Cook's first expedition carried botanist Joseph Banks , for whom a great many Australian geographical features and the plant genus Banksia and a number of plant species, e.g. Grevillea banksii , were named. The reports of Cook and Banks in conjunction with the loss of England's penal colonies in America after they gained independence and growing concern over French activity in
5217-595: The Gulf Country —with their tropical climate—include forest, woodland, wetland, grassland, rainforest and desert. At the north-west corner of the continent are the sandstone cliffs and gorges of The Kimberley , and below that the Pilbara . The Victoria Plains tropical savanna lies south of the Kimberley and Arnhem Land savannas, forming a transition between the coastal savannas and the interior deserts. At
5358-454: The Gulf of Carpentaria . On 14 April 1623, he passed Cape Keerweer. Landing in search of fresh water for his stores, Carstensz encountered a party of the local indigenous Australian inhabitants, who he described as "poor and miserable looking people" who had "no knowledge of precious metals or spices ". On 8 May 1623, Carstensz and his crew fought a skirmish with 200 Aborigines at the mouth of
5499-551: The Indian Ocean Dipole and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation , which is correlated with periodic drought , and the seasonal tropical low-pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia. These factors cause rainfall to vary markedly from year to year. Much of the northern part of the country has a tropical, predominantly summer-rainfall ( monsoon ). The south-west corner of the country has
5640-539: The Iraq War from 2003 to 2009. The nation's trade relations also became increasingly oriented towards East Asia in the 21st century, with China becoming the nation's largest trading partner by a large margin. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic , several of Australia's largest cities were locked down for extended periods and free movement across the national and state borders was restricted in an attempt to slow
5781-664: The Menzies Government to ban the Communist Party of Australia , and a bitter split in the Labor Party in 1955. As a result of a 1967 referendum , the federal government gained the power to legislate with regard to Indigenous Australians, and Indigenous Australians were fully included in the census . Pre-colonial land interests (referred to as native title in Australia) was recognised in law for
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5922-596: The Peace of Westphalia . A map of the world inlaid into the floor of the Burgerzaal (" Burger 's Hall") of the new Amsterdam Stadhuis ("Town Hall") in 1648 revealed the extent of Dutch charts of much of Australia's coast. Based on Joan Blaeu 's Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula ("A New and Most Accurate Chart of the Sphere of the Earth") of the same year, it incorporated Tasman's discoveries. Although
6063-532: The Permian and continuing through to the Cretaceous . When the last glacial period ended in about 10,000 BC, rising sea levels formed Bass Strait , separating Tasmania from the mainland. Then between about 8,000 and 6,500 BC, the lowlands in the north were flooded by the sea, separating New Guinea, the Aru Islands , and the mainland of Australia. The Australian continent is moving toward Eurasia at
6204-641: The Portuguese were the first Europeans to sight Australia in the 1520s. A number of relics and remains have been interpreted as evidence that the Portuguese reached Australia. The primary evidence advanced to support this theory is the representation of the continent of Jave la Grande , which appears on a series of French world maps, the Dieppe maps , and that may, in part, be based on Portuguese charts. However, most historians do not accept this theory, and
6345-724: The Portuguese East Indies conquered by the Dutch Empire in a protracted conflict across the 17th century from the lands reserved under those treaties for the Spanish Empire and reclaimed by the act of possession of "Austrialia" carried out by Pedro Fernández de Quirós in 1606. This western limit of Spain's claim is shown on the 1761 map of the Spanish Empire by Vicente de Memije, Aspecto Symbolico del Mundo Hispanico ("Symbolic Presentation of
6486-686: The Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1949 and gained independence from Australia in 1975. In 1914, Australia joined the Allies in fighting the First World War, and took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front . Of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli in 1915 as
6627-568: The Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia, and continued his voyage westwards along the north Australian coast. He mapped the north coast of Australia making observations on the land, which he called New Holland , and its people. From the point of view of the Dutch East India Company, Tasman's explorations were a disappointment: he had found neither a promising area for trade nor a useful new shipping route. By
6768-589: The Torres Strait . At Possession Island Cook formally claimed possession of the entire east coast he had just explored for Britain. The expedition returned to England via the Indian Ocean and Cape of Good Hope . In 1772, two French expeditions set out to find Terra Australis. The first was led by Marc-Joseph Marion Dufresne who found and named the Crozet Islands . He spent a few days in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania ) where he made contact with
6909-403: The Torres Strait Islands . The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent " New Holland " during the 17th century, and although no attempt at settlement was made, a number of shipwrecks left men either stranded or, as in the case of the Batavia in 1629, marooned for mutiny and murder, thus becoming the first Europeans to permanently inhabit
7050-456: The University of Adelaide , during this expedition Baudin prepared a report for Napoleon on ways to invade and capture the British colony at Sydney Cove . The British suspected that the reason for Baudin's expedition was to try to establish a French colony on the coast of New Holland. In response, the Lady Nelson and the whaler Albion , both under direction of Lieutenant John Bowen, sailed from Port Jackson on 31 August 1803 to establish
7191-519: The bombing of Darwin and other Japanese attacks on Australian soil , led to a widespread belief in Australia that a Japanese invasion was imminent , and a shift from the United Kingdom to the United States as Australia's principal ally and security partner. Since 1951, Australia has been allied with the United States under the ANZUS treaty. In the decades following World War II, Australia enjoyed significant increases in living standards, leisure time and suburban development. Governments encouraged
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#17327767758227332-426: The emu and the kookaburra . Australia is home to many dangerous animals including some of the most venomous snakes in the world. The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people who traded with Indigenous Australians around 3000 BCE . Many animal and plant species became extinct soon after first human settlement, including the Australian megafauna ; others have disappeared since European settlement, among them
7473-479: The governor-general at the federal level and by the governors at the state level, who by section 63 of the Constitution and convention act on the advice of their ministers. Thus, in practice the governor-general acts as a legal figurehead for the actions of the prime minister and the Cabinet. The governor-general may in some situations exercise reserve powers : powers exercisable in the absence or contrary to ministerial advice. When these powers may be exercised
7614-504: The kingdom of Beach ". This expedition used two small ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen . Starting in Mauritius both ships left on 8 October using the Roaring Forties to sail east as fast as possible. On 7 November, because of snow and hail the ships' course was altered to a more north-eastern direction. On 24 November 1642 Abel Tasman sighted the west coast of Tasmania , north of Macquarie Harbour . He named his discovery Van Diemen's Land after Antonio van Diemen , Governor-General of
7755-409: The last glacial period . By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct languages and had the oldest living culture in the world. Australia's written history commenced with Dutch exploration of most of the coastline in the 17th-century. British colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales . By the mid-19th century, most of
7896-483: The "baptism of fire" that forged the new nation's identity . The beginning of the campaign is commemorated annually on Anzac Day , a date which rivals Australia Day as the nation's most important. From 1939 to 1945, Australia joined the Allies in fighting the Second World War. Australia's armed forces fought in the Pacific , European and Mediterranean and Middle East theatres . The shock of Britain's defeat in Singapore in 1942, followed soon after by
8037-503: The "island continent" and is sometimes considered the world's largest island . Australia has 34,218 km (21,262 mi) of coastline (excluding all offshore islands), and claims an extensive exclusive economic zone of 8,148,250 square kilometres (3,146,060 sq mi). This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory . Mainland Australia lies between latitudes 9° and 44° south , and longitudes 112° and 154° east . Australia's size gives it
8178-443: The 17th century, the name Terra Australis was applied to the new territories. Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as New Holland , a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland ) and subsequently anglicised. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts. The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders , who said it
8319-460: The 17th century. In 1664, the French geographer Melchisédech Thévenot published his Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux ("Relations of Various Interesting Voyages"), including a map of New Holland. Thévenot divided the continent in two, between Nova Hollandia to the west and Terre Australe ("Southern Land") to the east. He divided the continent on a line at longitude 135° east , which appears to have been on his initiative, as there
8460-428: The 18th century by European settlers. They are now considered a major factor in the decline and extinction of many vulnerable and endangered native species. Seafaring immigrants from Asia are believed to have brought the dingo to Australia sometime after the end of the last ice age—perhaps 4000 years ago—and Aboriginal people helped disperse them across the continent as pets, contributing to the demise of thylacines on
8601-416: The 2018 Environmental Performance Index . There are more than 1,800 animals and plants on Australia's threatened species list, including more than 500 animals. Paleontologists discovered a fossil site of a prehistoric rainforest in McGraths Flat , in South Australia, that presents evidence that this now arid desert and dry shrubland / grassland was once home to an abundance of life. Australia
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#17327767758228742-500: The Australian Antarctic Territory, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies , at 3,492 m (11,457 ft) and 3,355 m (11,007 ft) respectively. Eastern Australia is marked by the Great Dividing Range , which runs parallel to the coast of Queensland, New South Wales and much of Victoria. The name is not strictly accurate, because parts of the range consist of low hills, and the highlands are typically no more than 1,600 m (5,200 ft) in height. The coastal uplands and
8883-438: The Australian mainland. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken , captained by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon . He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February 1606 at the Pennefather River near the modern town of Weipa on Cape York. Later that year, Spanish explorer Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through and navigated
9024-428: The Coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass's Strait, etc. . Banks used his influence with Earl Spencer to convince the Admiralty of the importance of an expedition to chart the coastline of New Holland. As a result, in January 1801, Flinders was given command of HMS Investigator , a 334-ton sloop, and promoted to commander the following month. Investigator set sail for New Holland on 18 July 1801. Attached to
9165-431: The Dutch East Indies. Proceeding south he skirted the southern end of Tasmania and turned north-east, Tasman then tried to work his two ships into Adventure Bay on the east coast of South Bruny Island where he was blown out to sea by a storm, this area he named Storm Bay . Two days later Tasman anchored to the north of Cape Frederick Hendrick just north of the Forestier Peninsula . Tasman then landed in Blackman Bay – in
9306-452: The Dutch had followed a route copied from Arab and Portuguese sailors who followed the coasts of Africa, Mauritius and Ceylon. The Brouwer Route involved sailing south from the Cape of Good Hope (which is at 34° latitude south) into the Roaring Forties (at 40–50° latitude south), then sailing east before turning north to Java using the South Indian Ocean Current . The Brouwer Route became compulsory for Dutch vessels in 1617. The problem with
9447-424: The Indies and Eendrachtsland One Dutch captain of this period who was not really an explorer but who nevertheless bears mentioning was Francisco Pelsaert , captain of the Batavia , which was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1629. In August 1642, VOC despatched Abel Tasman and Franchoijs Visscher on a voyage of which one of the objects was to obtain knowledge of "all the totally unknown provinces of
9588-409: The Kilwa throne as a Portuguese vassal, from 1505 to 1506, or that the Portuguese had visited Wessel islands. The French navigator Binot Paulmier de Gonneville claimed to have landed at a land he described as "east of the Cape of Good Hope " in 1504, after being blown off course. For some time it had been thought he landed in Australia, but the place he landed has now been shown to be Brazil (which
9729-403: The Pacific, encouraged the foundation by the British of a colony at Botany Bay . The First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip left England on 13 May 1787 to found a penal colony in Australia. It reached Botany Bay in mid-January 1788. Phillip had decided to move the settlement to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson , but the British ships were unable to leave Botany Bay until 26 January because of
9870-503: The Philippines, the Friendly Isles, Hawaii and Norfolk Island . The gale also prevented La Pérouse's ships from entering Botany Bay. Though amicably received, the French expedition was a troublesome matter for the British, as it showed the interest of France in the new land. To preempt a French claim to Norfolk Island, Phillip ordered Lieutenant Philip Gidley King to lead a party of 15 convicts and seven free men to take control of Norfolk Island. They arrived on 6 March 1788, while La Pérouse
10011-436: The Spanish World") and played a part in the British claim and division of the territory during the establishment of New South Wales in the late 18th century and Western Australia in the early 19th century. In 1696, Willem de Vlamingh commanded the rescue mission to Australia's west coast to look for survivors of the Ridderschap van Holland that had gone missing two years earlier. The mission proved fruitless, but along
10152-692: The Western Australian coast north to Shark Bay . He landed on Dirk Hartog Island and claimed Western Australia in the name of French King Louis XV. Tobias Furneaux on Adventure accompanied James Cook (in Resolution ) on Cook's second voyage (1772–1775), which was commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society , to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there
10293-796: The World , created a sensation when it was published in English in 1697. Though he was briefly marooned on the northwest Australian coast on the trip described in this book, only his second voyage seems to be of importance to Australian exploration. In 1756, French King Louis XV sent Louis Antoine de Bougainville to look for the Southern lands. After a stay in South America and the Falklands, Bougainville reached Tahiti in April 1768, where his boat
10434-419: The blocks are visible along the upper half of the wall on Darlinghurst Road. A tall circular chapel stands in the middle of the site, around which are sited the six rectangular cellblocks in a radial fashion. Australian poet Henry Lawson spent time incarcerated here during some of the turbulent years of his life and described the gaol as Starvinghurst Gaol due to meagre rations given to the inmates. The site
10575-632: The centre and Phanerozoic sedimentary basins , metamorphic and igneous rocks in the east. The Australian mainland and Tasmania are situated in the middle of the tectonic plate and have no active volcanoes, but due to passing over the East Australia hotspot , recent volcanism has occurred during the Holocene , in the Newer Volcanics Province of western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia. Volcanism also occurs in
10716-461: The coast and continued on to Batavia. He called Australia 't Landt van d'Eendracht —shortened to Eendrachtsland —after his ship, a name which would be in use until Abel Tasman named the land New Holland in 1644. In 1619 Frederik de Houtman , in the VOC ship Dordrecht , and Jacob d'Edel, in another VOC ship Amsterdam , sighted land on the Australian coast near present-day Perth which they called d'Edelsland . After sailing northwards along
10857-490: The coast they made landfall in Eendrachtsland , which had previous been encountered and named by Hartog, before turning for Batavia. Hessel Gerritsz was appointed on 16 October 1617 as the first exclusive cartographer of VOC, whose job included creating and maintaining charts of coastlines in the area. Gerritsz produced a map in 1622 which showed the first part of Australia to be charted, that by Janszoon in 1606. It
10998-476: The coastline of Western Australia at Point Cloates (about 22° latitude south), although he mistook it for an island sighted in 1618 by Janszoon (and in 1816 named Barrow Island by Phillip Parker King ). They did not land there, and a few weeks later were shipwrecked on an uncharted reef northwest of the Montebello Islands (about 20° latitude south, now known as Tryal Rocks ). The shipwreck caused
11139-545: The colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, constitutional conventions and referendums , resulting in the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia as a nation under the new Australian Constitution . After the 1907 Imperial Conference , Australia and several other self-governing British settler colonies were given the status of self-governing dominions within the British Empire. Australia
11280-519: The continent had been explored by European settlers and five additional self-governing British colonies were established, each gaining responsible government by 1890. The colonies federated in 1901, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 , and culminating in
11421-847: The continent. In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named " New South Wales " and claimed for Great Britain. Following the loss of its American colonies in 1783, the British Government sent a fleet of ships, the First Fleet , under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip , to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales . A camp was set up and the Union Flag raised at Sydney Cove , Port Jackson , on 26 January 1788,
11562-440: The continent. The scientific expedition was a great success, with more than 2500 new species described. The French also met Indigenous people and treated them with high respect. Many Western Australian places still have French names today from Baudin's expedition ( Peron Peninsula , Depuch Island , Geographe Bay , Cape Naturaliste , Cape Levillain, Boullanger Island and Faure Island ). The Australian plant genus Lechenaultia
11703-594: The convict system culminated in its abolition in the eastern colonies by the 1850s. Initially a free colony, Western Australia practised penal transportation from 1850 to 1868. The six colonies individually gained responsible government between 1855 and 1890, thus becoming elective democracies managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire . The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs. In
11844-578: The deaths of 93 men, but Brooke, his son John and nine men scrambled into a skiff and the ship's factor Thomas Bright and 35 others managed to save a longboat . Brooke sailed separately to Java. Bright and his crew spent seven days ashore on the Montebello Islands, before sailing the longboat to Bantam in Java. This was the first recorded shipwreck in Australian waters and first extended stay in Australia by Europeans. In 1623, Jan Carstensz
11985-458: The detailed Voyage de d'Entrecasteaux, envoyé à la recherche de Lapérouse produced by Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré . The atlas contains 39 charts, of which those of Van Diemen's Land were the most detailed, and which remained the source of the English charts for many years. His expedition also resulted in the publication of the first general flora of New Holland. In 1796 (after settlement), British Matthew Flinders with George Bass took
12126-459: The early 2010s after the 2000s Australian drought . Although most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, the continent includes a diverse range of habitats from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests . Fungi typify that diversity—an estimated 250,000 species—of which only 5% have been described—occur in Australia. Because of the continent's great age, extremely variable weather patterns, and long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota
12267-570: The east coast, charting and naming many features along the way. He identified Botany Bay as a good harbour and one potentially suitable for a settlement, and where he made his first landfall on 29 April. Continuing up the coastline, the Endeavour was to later run aground on shoals of the Great Barrier Reef (near the present-day site of Cooktown ), where she had to be laid up for repairs. The voyage then recommenced, eventually reaching
12408-467: The end of the Renaissance (1450 to 1650), every continent had been visited and mostly mapped by Europeans, except the south polar continent now known as Antarctica , but originally called Terra Australis , or 'Australia' for short. This geographical achievement was displayed on the large world map Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula made by the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu in 1648 to commemorate
12549-401: The expedition was the botanist Robert Brown , botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer , and landscape artist William Westall . Due to the scientific nature of the expedition, Flinders was issued with a French passport, despite England and France then being at war . Flinders first sailed along the south coast to Sydney, then completed the circumnavigation of Australia back to Sydney. While each
12690-502: The expedition. In 1792, d'Entrecasteaux landed and named Esperance in Western Australia and made many more discoveries and named many other places. The expedition suffered many difficulties, with d'Entrecasteaux dying on 21 July 1793 of scurvy. On 18 February 1794 the expedition vessels were surrendered to the Dutch authorities in the East Indies so that the new French Republican Government could not profit by them. Élisabeth Rossel ,
12831-441: The first Europeans known to have explored and mapped the Australian coastline. The first documented encounter was that of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon , in 1606. Dutch seafarers also visited the west and north coasts of the continent, as did French explorers. The most famous expedition was that of Royal Navy Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook 164 years after Janszoon's sighting. After an assignment to make observations of
12972-772: The first time when the High Court of Australia held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that Australia was neither terra nullius ( ' land belonging to no one ' ) or "desert and uncultivated land" at the time of European settlement. Following the abolition of the last vestiges of the White Australia policy in 1973, Australia's demography and culture transformed as a result of a large and ongoing wave of non-European immigration, mostly from Asia. The late 20th century also saw an increasing focus on foreign policy ties with other Pacific Rim nations. The Australia Acts severed
13113-412: The heart of the country are the uplands of central Australia . Prominent features of the centre and south include Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), the famous sandstone monolith, and the inland Simpson , Tirari and Sturt Stony , Gibson , Great Sandy, Tanami , and Great Victoria deserts, with the famous Nullarbor Plain on the southern coast. The Western Australian mulga shrublands lie between
13254-479: The interior deserts and Mediterranean-climate Southwest Australia . Lying on the Indo-Australian Plate , the mainland of Australia is the lowest and most primordial landmass on Earth with a relatively stable geological history. The landmass includes virtually all known rock types and from all geological time periods spanning more than 3.8 billion years of the Earth's history. The Pilbara Craton
13395-642: The interpretation of the Dieppe maps is highly contentious. In the early 20th century, Lawrence Hargrave argued that Spain had established a colony in Botany Bay in the 16th century. Five coins from the Kilwa Sultanate were found on Marchinbar Island , in the Wessel Islands in 1945 by RAAF radar operator Morry Isenberg. In 2018 another coin, also thought to be from Kilwa, was found on
13536-417: The island of New Guinea (considered geologically as part of the Australian continent), and in the Australian external territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands . Seismic activity in the Australian mainland and Tasmania is also low, with the greatest number of fatalities having occurred in the 1989 Newcastle earthquake . The climate of Australia is significantly influenced by ocean currents, including
13677-462: The island's indigenous people (the first European to have done so). In Blackmans Bay he claimed Van Diemen's Land for France. He then sailed on to New Zealand where he and some crewmen were killed by Māori warriors. The survivors retreated to Mauritius . Also in 1772, the two ships of the second French expedition were separated by a storm. The leader turned back but the second in command, Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn , sighted Cape Leeuwin and followed
13818-495: The larger Marion Bay . The next day, an attempt was made to land in North Bay; however, because the sea was too rough the carpenter swam through the surf and planted the Dutch flag in North Bay. Tasman then claimed formal possession of the land on 3 December 1642. In 1644 Tasman made a second voyage with three ships ( Limmen , Zeemeeuw , and the tender Braek ). He followed the south coast of New Guinea eastwards, missed
13959-503: The largest country by area in Oceania . It is the world's oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with some of the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country , and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates including deserts in the interior and tropical rainforests along the coast . The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during
14100-664: The last woman to be hanged in NSW, Louisa Collins, in 1889. The site was transferred in 1921 to the New South Wales Department of Education, which adapted the building for use as the East Sydney Technical College. The National Art School was established in 1922 and is now the sole occupant of the site. The Darlinghurst Road side of the Gaol, (commonly known as "the wall") was for many years
14241-494: The location for the future federal capital of Canberra . While it was being constructed, Melbourne served as the temporary capital from 1901 to 1927. The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of South Australia to the Commonwealth in 1911. Australia became the colonial ruler of the Territory of Papua (which had initially been annexed by Queensland in 1883) in 1902 and of the Territory of New Guinea (formerly German New Guinea ) in 1920. The two were unified as
14382-448: The mainland. Australia is also one of 17 megadiverse countries. Australian forests are mostly made up of evergreen species, particularly eucalyptus trees in the less arid regions; wattles replace them as the dominant species in drier regions and deserts. Among well-known Australian animals are the monotremes (the platypus and echidna ); a host of marsupials , including the kangaroo , koala , and wombat , and birds such as
14523-474: The mid-19th century, explorers such as Burke and Wills charted Australia's interior. A series of gold rushes beginning in the early 1850s led to an influx of new migrants from China , North America and continental Europe, as well as outbreaks of bushranging and civil unrest; the latter peaked in 1854 when Ballarat miners launched the Eureka Rebellion against gold license fees. The 1860s saw
14664-678: The modern town of Weipa and the Pennefather River , but were promptly attacked by the Indigenous people. Janszoon proceeded down the coast for some 350 km (220 mi). He stopped in some places, but was met by hostile natives and some of his men were killed. At the final place, he initially had friendly relations with the natives, but after he forced them to hunt for him and appropriated some of their women, violence broke out and there were many deaths on both sides. These events were recorded in Aboriginal oral history that has come down to
14805-456: The most senior surviving officer, sailed from Java in January 1795 on board a Dutch ship taking with him the expedition's papers. The ship left Rossel at Table Bay but took the papers, but was captured by the British. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802, all the expedition papers were returned to Rossel, who was thus able to publish a narrative of the whole enterprise. In 1808 Rossel published
14946-602: The next two decades, social and economic reforms, together with the establishment of a Legislative Council and Supreme Court , saw the penal colony transition to a civil society. The indigenous population declined for 150 years following European settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. British colonial authorities did not sign any treaties with Aboriginal groups . As settlement expanded, tens of thousands of Indigenous people and thousands of settlers were killed in frontier conflicts while settlers dispossessed surviving Indigenous peoples of most of their land. In 1803,
15087-665: The north and east. He had almost found the Great Barrier Reef . He sailed through what is now known as the Solomon Islands that, due to the hostility of the people there, he avoided, until his passage was blocked by a mighty reef. With his men weak from scurvy and disease and no way through he sailed for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies where he received news of Wallis and Carteret who had preceded Bougainville. When he returned to France in 1769, he
15228-682: The original mosaic was worn flat, it was reproduced in 1748. This reproduction was left in storage for centuries before being restored after World War II as part of the Royal Palace of Amsterdam . It was also used as the basis of another mosaic in Canberra, focused specifically on the Australian section of the map of the eastern hemisphere. Tasman's discoveries also subsequently appeared on the Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus ("Eastern or Asiatic Archipelago") published in
15369-428: The political systems of the United Kingdom (a fused executive , constitutional monarchy and strong party discipline ) and the United States ( federalism , a written constitution and strong bicameralism with an elected upper house), resulting in a distinct hybrid. Federal government power is partially separated between three groups: Charles III reigns as King of Australia and is represented in Australia by
15510-563: The present day. Here Janszoon decided to turn back, the place later being called Cape Keerweer , Dutch for "turnabout". That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in nearby waters and led by Pedro Fernández de Quiros landed in the New Hebrides and, believing such to be the fabled southern continent , named the land "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" ( Southern Land of the Holy Spirit ), in honour of his queen Margaret of Austria ,
15651-594: The protection of threatened species. Numerous protected areas have been created under the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity to protect and preserve unique ecosystems; 65 wetlands are listed under the Ramsar Convention , and 16 natural World Heritage Sites have been established. Australia was ranked 21st out of 178 countries in the world on
15792-480: The rate of 6 to 7 centimetres a year. The Australian mainland's continental crust , excluding the thinned margins, has an average thickness of 38 km, with a range in thickness from 24 km to 59 km. Australia's geology can be divided into several main sections, showcasing that the continent grew from west to east: the Archaean cratonic shields found mostly in the west, Proterozoic fold belts in
15933-545: The remaining constitutional ties between Australia and the United Kingdom while maintaining the monarch in her independent capacity as Queen of Australia . In a 1999 constitutional referendum , 55% of voters rejected abolishing the monarchy and becoming a republic. Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, Australia joined the United States in fighting the Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2021 and
16074-419: The resources of their reefs and seas. Agriculture also developed on some islands and villages appeared by the 1300s. By the mid-18th century in northern Australia, contact, trade and cross-cultural engagement had been established between local Aboriginal groups and Makassan trepangers , visiting from present-day Indonesia. The Dutch are the first Europeans that recorded sighting and making landfall on
16215-486: The return voyage he continued his explorations of the South Pacific, in search of the postulated continent of Terra Australis . He first reached New Zealand, and then sailed further westwards to sight the south-eastern corner of the Australian continent on 20 April 1770. In doing so, he was to be the first documented European expedition to reach the eastern coastline of Australia. He continued sailing northwards along
16356-491: The rise of blackbirding , where South Sea Islanders were coerced or abducted into indentured labour, mainly by Queensland colonists. From 1886, Australian colonial governments began removing many Aboriginal children from their families and communities, justified on the grounds of child protection and forced assimilation policies. The Second Boer War (1899–1902) marked the largest overseas deployment of Australia's colonial forces . On 1 January 1901, federation of
16497-636: The route, however, was that there was no easy way at the time to determine longitude, making Dutch landfalls on the west coast of Australia inevitable, as well as ships becoming wrecked on the shoals. Most of these landfalls were unplanned. The first such landfall was in 1616, when Dirk Hartog , employed by VOC, reached land at Shark Bay (on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island ) off the coast of Western Australia . Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued sailing northwards along this coastline of Western Australia previously unknown to Europeans, making nautical charts up to about 22° latitude south. He then left
16638-549: The same name ), "the Sunburnt Country", and "the Wide Brown Land". The latter two both derive from Dorothea Mackellar 's 1908 poem " My Country ". Indigenous Australians comprise two broad groups: Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. It
16779-498: The ship was being careened he made notes on the fauna and flora and the indigenous peoples he found there. He made another voyage to the region in 1699, before returning to England. He described some of the flora and fauna of Australia, and was the first European to report Australia's peculiar large hopping animals . Dampier contributed to knowledge of Australia's coastline through his two-volume publication A Voyage to New Holland (1703, 1709). His book of adventures, A New Voyage around
16920-467: The southern coast of Australia from Albany, Western Australia to Ceduna, South Australia . He called the land 't Land van Pieter Nuyts ("The Land of Pieter Nuyts"). Part of Thijssen's map shows the islands St Francis and St Peter, now known collectively with their respective groups as the Nuyts Archipelago . Thijssen's observations were included as early as 1628 by Gerritsz in a chart of
17061-741: The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus . Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas, with the Coral Sea lying off the Queensland coast, and the Tasman Sea lying between Australia and New Zealand. The world's smallest continent and sixth-largest country by total area , Australia—owing to its size and isolation—is often dubbed
17202-406: The thylacine. Many of Australia's ecoregions, and the species within those regions, are threatened by human activities and introduced animal, chromistan , fungal and plant species. All these factors have led to Australia's having the highest mammal extinction rate of any country in the world. The federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is the legal framework for
17343-970: The time of first European contact, Aboriginal Australians belonged to wide range of societies, with diverse economies spread across at least 250 different language groups . Estimates of the Aboriginal population before British settlement range from 300,000 to 3 million. Aboriginal Australians cultures were (and remain) deeply connected with the land and the environment, with stories of The Dreaming maintained through oral tradition , songs , dance and paintings. Certain groups engaged in fire-stick farming , fish farming , and built semi-permanent shelters . These practices have variously been characterised as " hunter-gatherer ", " agricultural ", "natural cultivation" and "intensification". Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands at least 2,500 years ago. Culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and
17484-646: The way Vlamingh charted parts of the continent's western coast and as a result improved navigation on the Indian Ocean route from the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch East Indies. Englishman William Dampier came looking for the Tryall in 1688, 66 years after it was wrecked. Dampier was the first Englishman to set foot on the Australian mainland on 5 January 1688, when his ship the Cygnet was marooned in King Sound . While
17625-403: The west coast northward, and after another visit to Timor, undertook further exploration along the north coast of Australia. Plagued by contrary winds and ill health, it was decided on 7 July 1803 to return to France. The expedition stopped at Mauritius , where he died of tuberculosis on 16 September 1803. The expedition finally came back to France on 24 March 1804. According to researchers from
17766-471: The wife of Philip III of Spain . Later that year, De Quiros' deputy Luís Vaez de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait , charting New Guinea's southern coast, and possibly sighting Cape York in October 1606. In 1611 Hendrik Brouwer , working for VOC, discovered that sailing from Europe to Batavia was much quicker if the Roaring Forties were used. Up to that point,
17907-479: Was "more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the Earth". The first time that Australia appears to have been officially used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst . In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted. In 1824,
18048-615: Was Australia's warmest recorded year, and the 2019–2020 bushfire season was the country's worst on record . Australia's greenhouse gas emissions per capita are among the highest in the world. Water restrictions are frequently in place in many regions and cities of Australia in response to chronic shortages due to urban population increases and localised drought. Throughout much of the continent, major flooding regularly follows extended periods of drought, flushing out inland river systems, overflowing dams and inundating large inland flood plains, as occurred throughout Eastern Australia in
18189-486: Was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis. On this expedition Furneaux was twice separated from his leader. On the first occasion, in 1773, Furneaux explored a great part of the south and east coasts of Van Diemen's Land, and made the earliest British chart of the same. Most of his names here have survived. On Cook's third voyage (1776–80), in 1777 Cook confirmed Furneaux's account and delineation of it, with certain minor criticisms and emendations, and named after him
18330-680: Was charting Australia's coastline, Baudin and Flinders met by chance in April 1802 in Encounter Bay in what is now South Australia. Baudin stopped at the settlement of Sydney for supplies. In Sydney he bought a new ship, the Casuarina , a smaller vessel which could conduct close inshore survey work, under the command of Louis de Freycinet . He sent home the larger Naturaliste with all the specimens that had been collected by Baudin and his crew. He then headed for Tasmania and conducted further charting of Bass Strait before sailing west, following
18471-471: Was commissioned by VOC to lead an expedition to the southern coast of New Guinea and beyond, to follow up the reports of further land sighted by Janszoon in his 1606 voyages to the south. Setting off from Amboyna in the Dutch East Indies with two ships, the Pera and Arnhem (captained by Willem Joosten Van Colster), he traveled along the south coast of New Guinea, then headed south to Cape York Peninsula and
18612-405: Was considered to be part of New Guinea and called Nueva Guinea on the map, but Gerritsz also added an inscription saying: All charts and logs from returning VOC merchants and explorer sailors had to be submitted to Gerritsz and provided new information for several breakthrough maps which came from his hands. Gerritsz' charts would accompany all VOC captains on their voyages. In 1627 Gerritsz made
18753-472: Was declared unseaworthy, so in 1803 Flinders was compelled to return to England as a passenger on Porpoise (1799) , together with his charts and logbooks. The vessel stopped in Mauritius, thinking that he would be safe because of the scientific nature of his voyages, though England and France were at war at the time. However, the governor of Mauritius kept Flinders in prison for six and a half years. As
18894-413: Was established in 1829, evolving into the largest Australian colony by area, Western Australia . In accordance with population growth, separate colonies were carved from New South Wales: Tasmania in 1825, South Australia in 1836, New Zealand in 1841, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. South Australia was founded as a free colony—it never accepted transported convicts. Growing opposition to
19035-557: Was in late February 1606, by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken . Janszoon charted the Australian coast and met with Aboriginal people. Janszoon followed the coast of New Guinea , missed Torres Strait , and explored and then charted part of the western side of Cape York , in the Gulf of Carpentaria , believing the land was still part of New Guinea. On 26 February 1606, Janszoon and his party made landfall near
19176-543: Was no such division in Tasman's journals or on his, Blaeu's, or Amsterdam Burgerzaal's maps or on any other Dutch maps of this period. Instead, Terra Australis or t'Zuid Landt appeared—if at all—as alternative names with Hollandia Nova in reference to the whole island. This 135° E. line seems to have represented Thévenot's understanding of the Zaragoza Meridian or Tordesillas antimeridian, dividing
19317-579: Was one of the founding members of the League of Nations in 1920, and the United Nations in 1945. The Statute of Westminster 1931 formally ended the ability of the UK to pass federal laws without Australia's consent. Australia adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed during World War II. The Australian Capital Territory was formed in 1911 as
19458-503: Was selected to lead what has become known as the Baudin expedition to map the coast of Australia/New Holland. He had two ships, Géographe and Naturaliste captained by Jacques Hamelin , and was accompanied by nine zoologists and botanists, including Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour . He reached Australia in May 1801, being the first to explore and map a part of the southern coast of
19599-643: Was still in Sydney. The British received him courteously, and each captain, through their officers, offered the other any assistance and needed supplies. La Pérouse was 6 weeks in Port Jackson, where the French established an observatory, held Catholic masses, performed geological observations, and planted the first garden. Before leaving Sydney on 10 March, La Pérouse took the opportunity to send his journals, some charts and also some letters back to Europe with
19740-486: Was surrounded by hundreds of canoes filled with beautiful women. "I ask you", he wrote, "given such a spectacle, how could one keep at work 400 Frenchmen?" He claimed Tahiti for the French and sailed westward, past southern Samoa and the New Hebrides , then on sighting Espiritu Santo turned west still looking for the Southern Continent . On June 4 he almost ran into heavy breakers and had to change course to
19881-616: Was the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe and the first European known to have seen the Great Barrier Reef. Though he did not reach the mainland of Australia, he did eliminate a considerable area where the Southern land was not. In the meantime, in 1768, British Lieutenant James Cook was sent from England on an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti, sailing westwards in HMS ; Endeavour via Cape Horn and arriving there in 1769. On
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