The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians crossed the sea from Southeast Asia to the Sahul landmass at least 50,000 years ago, founding one of the world's oldest continuous cultures.
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.
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.