Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
South Australia was founded as a "free province"—it was never a penal colony. [33] Victoria and Western Australia were also founded "free", but later accepted transported convicts. [34] [35] A campaign by the settlers of New South Wales led to the end of convict transportation to that colony; the last convict ship arrived in 1848. [36]
The theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia claims that early Portuguese navigators were the first Europeans to sight Australia between 1521 and 1524, well before the arrival of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606 on board the Duyfken who is generally considered to be the first European discoverer.
The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land, in the north of the continent, is perhaps the oldest site of human occupation in Australia. [2] [7] From the north, the population spread into a range of very different environments. Devil's Lair in the extreme south-west of the continent was occupied around 47,000 years ago and Tasmania by 39,000 ...
Norse Viking explorers were the first known Europeans to set foot in North America. Norse journeys to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence. [ 11 ] The Norsemen established a colony in Greenland in the late tenth century, which lasted until the mid 15th-century, with court and parliament assemblies ( þing ...
In 1815, Evans was the first colonial explorer to enter the Lachlan Valley, naming the area the Oxley Plains after his superior the Surveyor-General, John Oxley. He also discovered the Abercrombie and Belubula River Valleys. He was the first explorer through the areas that now include the towns of Boorowa and Cowra.
In 1643, Abel Tasman left Mauritius, missed Australia, found Tasmania, continued east and found New Zealand, missed the strait between the north and south islands, turned northwest, missed Australia again and sailed along the north coast of New Guinea. In 1644, he followed the south coast of New Guinea, missed the Torres Strait, turned south ...
Under the auspices of the NWC, Alexander Mackenzie discovered the Mackenzie River in 1789 and was the first European to reach the North-American Pacific overland, via the Bella Coola River, in 1793. Simon Fraser reached the Pacific in 1808 via the Fraser River.
Flinders first sailed along the south coast to Sydney, then completed the circumnavigation of Australia back to Sydney. [72] The Freycinet Map of 1811 – the first full map of Australia to be published. While each was charting Australia's coastline, Baudin and Flinders met by chance in April 1802 in Encounter Bay in what is now South Australia ...