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The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonisation of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent written documentation of Australia. This period has been variously estimated, with most evidence suggesting that it goes back between 50,000 and 65,000 years.
The Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort on West Wallabi Island is the first known European structure to be built in Australia. Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight Fiji. On his second voyage of 1644, he also contributed significantly to the mapping of ...
The human history of Australia, however, commences with the arrival of the first ancestors of Aboriginal Australians by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and continues to the present day multicultural democracy. Aboriginal Australians settled throughout continental Australia and many nearby islands.
After the seas rose about 12,000 years ago and covered the land bridge, the inhabitants there were isolated from the mainland until the arrival of European settlers. [43] Short-statured Aboriginal people inhabited the rainforests of North Queensland, of which the best known group is probably the Tjapukai of the Cairns area. [44]
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.
First Prussian settlers arrived in South Australia; the largest group of non-British migrants in Australia at the time. 1839: Paul Edmund Strzelecki became the first European to ascend and name Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko. 9 September: HMS Beagle sailed into Darwin Harbour during its surveying of the area.
Hessel Gerritsz' map of Australia and the Dutch Indies after the explorations by François Thijssen in 1627. In March 1622, the Dutch galleon Leeuwin, captained by Jan Fransz, mapped parts of the Australian coast between Hamelin Bay and Point D'Entrecasteaux. This was the first European vessel to round what is now called Cape Leeuwin.
The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early British colonial period of Australia's history. This started with the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson on the lands of the Eora, and the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales as part of the British Empire.