Eastern Polynesian voyagers reached New Zealand by canoe, probably between about 1250 and 1300; their descendants developed Māori culture.
Approximate date.
Dutch captain Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, the first recorded European landing in Australia.
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first known European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand.
On his first voyage, Captain James Cook of HMS Endeavour landed at Botany Bay, then charted Australia's east coast and claimed it for Britain.
The explorer James Cook was killed in a clash with Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay during his third voyage.
Arthur Phillip's eleven-ship convict fleet arrived at Sydney Cove and founded the penal colony of New South Wales, the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
Representatives of the British Crown and many Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document; differences between its English and Māori texts remain debated.