The Portuguese mapped the east coast of Australia down to about Warnambool in about 1523-4. They also mapped the west coast down to Shark Bay. In the 1600s the Dutch did further exploration of the west and north coast, and to Tasmania. The British established a military colony with convict labour at botany Bay/Port Jackson as part of a chain of military colonies to protect the India and China trade in 1788.
From what I know Australia was used as an "exile" island by Great Britain. Britain sent their prisoners to Australia when they ran out of room in the late 1700s.
It is true that the first and foremost reason that the first white settlement occurred in Australia because Britain was in need of a place to send its convicts. The First Fleet of convicts, officers and marines arrived in Australia in 1788.
However, there was more to the story than that. Australia was not the first place to which the British sent the convicts. Britain had been sending their excess prisoners to North America, but the American War of Independence put a stop to the practice.
The British colonised Australia for several other reasons:
1. To expand the British empire, and prevent the French from gaining a foothold in the Australian continent or in that part of the Pacific.
2. Australia could provide commercial and political gains to Britain.
3. Due to war, Britain needed to find an alternative supply of Flax and timber as her Baltic supply was under threat. It was believed that nearby Norfolk Island would provide this.
4. Britain needed a port in the East to promote trade with China and to extend its naval and commercial power.
As to when white people came to Australia: It is believed that the Portuguese were the first white people to sight the Australian continent, but there are no records remaining within Portugal itself to substantiate the claim.
Willem Jansz/Janszoon was a Dutchman who became the first recorded European to step foot on Australia's shores on the western shore of Cape York Peninsula, on 26 February 1606.
In 1616, Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog became the first known European to reach Western Australia's shores when he landed at Cape Inscription in Shark Bay on 25 October 1616.
The first Englishman to visit Australia was William Dampier, in 1688.
The first white people to officially settle in Australia were convicts sent from Britain, and the officers sent to oversee the new colony. Governor Arthur Phillip was the first Governor of New South Wales (Australia). There were also many marines, some of whom brought their wives and children.
Having said that, however, there is some evidence that the first unofficial European settlers were survivors of Dutch shipwrecks off the western coast of the continent, a region renowned for shipwrecks in the 1600s.
In chains and shackles..killing the natives of the land
The first white settlers to establish a permanent settlement arrived with the First Fleet on 26 January 1788.
The first white settlers to officially establish a permanent settlement arrived with the First Fleet on 26 January 1788.
The First Fleet landed in 1788.
In sailing ships, at first.
the u.s was neutral in the beginning of WWI. People supported different sides but the u.s was fair and friendly to both sides cncerned in the war. the u.s help Britain by lending supplies but only if they could pay for them and come to American ports to get them.
2
700,000,000,000
No. The people of Australia voted "No" in two separate referendums.
Guist Brothers from Swamp People
they didn't come to Australia the white people did.
White people
106,254 people are German in Australia
No
people who wernt white idiot
The Aboriginal people never did invade Australia, The British people did. Aboriginal people roamed Australia long before the British/white people did. (:
1901
yes the black people do get on with the black people
They came to Australia in search for a better life.
well... people who were 'not white' could not enter australia. even those who were in Australia at the present got treated differently than to the pure 'white' Australians. Non-white people weren't allowed in pubs, schools, down town, to the movies, beaches etc... Their life was cut short. They were treated differently than to the 'white people.' it was a hard life for them. ("aboriginals")
The first white people to "immigrate" to Australia could be said to be the convicts and officers of the First Fleet, together with a handful of free settlers.
Well in 1851 there were about 40,000 chinese in Australia...