Aboriginal people resist the occupation of their land and the process of colonisation. Pemulwuy leads a campaign of resistance to British settlers on the land

Colony of Port Jackson is established in 1788 and transportation of convicts begins. Some 60 nationalities, ethnic backgrounds and religions are recorded among First Fleet.

1770: Captain Cook lands in Botany Bay, home of the Eora people, and claims possession of the East Coast of Australia for Britain under the

Trepangers from the Makassar region of Sulawesi (modern day Indonesia) begin visiting the coast of northern Australia sometime around the middle of the 1700s, first in

Earliest recorded contact between Europeans and Aboriginal people – by crew of Dutch ship Dwyflken under Captain Willem Jansz on the western coast of Cape

Macassan praus sail to the north-eastern coast of the Northern Territory. Trade continues between Aboriginal people and Macassans until the early 1900s.

Aboriginal people living in the coastal areas of what is now Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory have contact with people from the various

For thousands of years the Australian continent is isolated from the rest of the world. During this time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies develop