CE 1606: Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, captain of the Dutch East India Company ship the Duyfken, became the first European to make recorded contact with and map part of the Australian continent. 

After sailing about 197 nautical miles down the west coast of Cape York, the Duyfken returned to the port of Banda in present-day Indonesia after a clash with the Wik Indigenous people led to the death of around nine crew members.

In 1933 the ’Duyfken Chart’ was discovered in a library in Vienna. This map is an extremely accurate charting of the west coast of Cape York created by the crew of the Duyfken. While it is the first known map of any part of Australia, it is likely that the crew had presumed that the land they charted was a continuation of the coast of ‘Nova Guinea’, not an entirely new continent or the great south land.

The map shows where the crew made landfall along the coast, and where they decided to turn around and return to Banda after some of them were killed in a skirmish with the Wik people. The conflict arose because the Duyfken’s crew were trying to abduct members of the tribe.This spot is still called Cape Keerweer (‘Cape Turnaround’ in Dutch).

 

1616  Dutch navigator Dirk Hartog on the ship Eendracht sailing eastward from the Cape of Good Hope ocean and intending to turn northward to reach Batavia (present day Jakarta) sailed too far to the east and landed on the island off Western Australia that now bears his name.To record their visit to the new land, Hartog had a pewter dinner plate flattened and inscribed with details of their landing and further journey plans. This plate was nailed to a post and placed on high ground at the northern end of the island, a spot now known as Cape Inscription.

 

1635  Antonie van Dieman became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies and during his 9 year tenure he energetically expanded the power and reach of the Dutch East India Company ( the “VOC” ) including sending Abel Tasman in search of the Great South Land, which Tasman would soon dub “Nieuw Holland”. The VOC had been established in 1602.

1642  In November 1642, heading east from Mauritius on latitude 44 and missing the south coast of the Australian continent, Tasman sighted land at what is now the west coast of the island of Tasmania, and followed the coastline along the southern shore and around to the east coast. Tasman sent a party ashore at Blackman Bay, on the Tasman Peninsula, who planted a flag and encountered a few Tasmanian people. Believing he had found a large territory, Tasman named it Van Diemen’s Land in honour of his patron and on the 3rd December claimed possession on behalf of VDL.

 

1688  William Dampier was an English buccaneer who spent most of the 1680s raiding Spanish possessions in South America and attacking Spanish ships. In 1687 he took command of a ship captured by the “Cygnet” and accompanied the Cygnet when it anchored at the northwest coast of Australia, near King Sound. Dampier and his ship remained there until 12 March, and while the ship was being cleaned and repaired Dampier made notes on the fauna and flora and the indigenous peoples he found there.

The publication of the book, A New Voyage Round the World, in 1697 was a popular sensation, creating interest at the Admiralty.

In 1699, Dampier was given command of the 26-gun warship HMS Roebuck, with a commission from King William III. His mission was to explore the east coast of New Holland, the name given by the Dutch to what is now Australia.

The expedition set out on 14 January 1699, too late in the season to attempt Cape Horn, so it headed to New Holland via the Cape of Good Hope instead. Following the Dutch route to the Indies, Dampier passed between Dirk Hartog Island and the Western Australian mainland into what he called Shark Bay on 6 August 1699. He landed and began producing the first known detailed record of Australian flora and fauna. The botanical drawings that were made are believed to be by his clerk, James Brand. Dampier then followed the coast north-east, reaching the Dampier Archipelago and Lagrange Bay, just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay, all the while recording and collecting specimens, including many shells.

Dampier was thus the first Englishman to record contact with the land of New Holland, now known as Australia.

 

1768  James Cook in command of the “Endeavour” departed Plymouth on the south coast of England and sailed via Cape Horn to Tahiti and around New Zealand.

1770  19 April The east coast of Australia was sighted. The Endeavour sailed north in search of an anchorage at which supplies could be taken on.

29 April The first landing was made at Botany Bay. A confrontation took place with two men who opposed the British landing and shots were fired, injuring one man in the leg.

It is believed that while at Botany Bay Cook made the short overland hike to Port Jackson where the later settlement was made - this was reported verbally to his superiors in London and not recorded in his journals in order to avoid having the information leaked to the French.

5 May 1770: The Endeavour sailed north, passing an inlet Cook called Port Jackson, which later became the site of the first British prison colony in Australia and which grew into the modern city of Sydney.

11 June 1770: The Endeavour ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off modern-day Queensland. The ship was holed below the waterline and nearly sank.

18 June 1770: A landing was made at Waalumbaal Birri, which the British called Endeavour River, and the ship hauled ashore for repairs.

23 June 1770: Members of the expedition sighted a kangaroo for the first time.

10 July 1770: The first meeting between the British and the Guugu Yimithirr people who lived in the Endeavour River area. During the stay, Sydney Parkinson compiled a vocabulary of the Guugu Yimithirr language, including the word ‘Kangooroo’ (Gangurru).

16 August 1770: The Endeavour almost ran aground again on the Great Barrier Reef, but avoided this by sailing through a gap in the coral.

22 August 1770: Cook claimed the east coast of Australia, calling it New South Wales, at an island he called Possession Island. Cook recorded the event thus: 

"As I was about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I had coasted from latitude 38 deg. to this place, and which I am confident no European had ever seen before, I once more hoisted English colours, and though I had already taken possession of several particular parts, I now took possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38 deg. to this place, latitude 10 deg. 30 min., in right of his Majesty King George the Third, by the name of New South Wales, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it. We then fired three volleys of small arms, which were answered by the same number from the ship.”

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Of course this act of possession was without the consent of the the indigenous inhabitants and in terms of the prevailing understanding between the rival European nations such possession was only valid if actual settlement occurred within a reasonable period of time. So, in fact Cook was not responsible for the indigenous dispossession, it was the decision of the British government 17 years later that initiated this dispossession.

 

1787  A fleet of 11 ships sets sail from Portsmouth to Australia. On board were about 750 convicts and 550 crew, soldiers and family members. 

 

1788  On 18th January the ships anchored in Botany Bay but then move up the coast to Port Jackson where the first colony in Australia was founded on 26th January under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip.

1790  A second fleet arrives 

1791 A third fleet arrives 

 

1797  Spanish Merino sheep are brought to Australia.  Captain Henry Waterhouse and Lieutenant William Kent brought the first flock of 26 merinos from the Cape of Good Hope to Port Jackson in 1797.

The sheep came from a flock originally given to Prince William of Orange in the Netherlands by King Carlos III of Spain. In 1789, the Prince had sent two rams and four ewes to the warmer Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope to be cared for by Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon. Gordon returned the original breeding animals in 1791 when ordered to do so by the Dutch government, but kept their offspring. Gordon’s wife inherited the sheep after his death, and sold them for £4 per head to Waterhouse and Kent.

The flock was divided between the HMS Reliance and the storeship Supply for the journey back to Australia. Bad weather nearly doubled their expected time at sea, and more than half the sheep perished.

Captain John Macarthur, an officer in the NSW Corps, offered Captain Waterhouse 15 guineas a head for the surviving sheep on the condition he could buy them all.

Waterhouse refused the offer and grazed his sheep at The Vineyard, a 140-acre property on the Parramatta River he had bought on his return from the Cape. He kept his merino flock segregated, allowing them to breed only with one another.

As his flock increased, Waterhouse distributed a few sheep between Macarthur, the Reverend Samuel Marsden, Lieutenant Kent and Captain Thomas Rowley. When Waterhouse returned to England in 1800, William Cox bought most of the flock from him, including several of the original sheep from the Cape. The remainder went to Macarthur.

John and wife Elizabeth Macarthur worked together to expand their pure merino flock, breeding more than 4000 by 1803.

 

1803  Lt-col. William Paterson was despatched from Sydney to found a settlement in northern Tasmania - initially at George Town, then across the river at York Town, and finally further up the Tamar at Launceston.

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1804 Lt. Governor David Collins after an aborted attempt to establish a settlement at Sorrento on Port Phillip Bay, moved on to Sullivan’s Cove where Hobart was founded.

 

1813 A pass is established through the Blue Mountains following an expedition by Wentworth, Blaxland and Lawson who were guided by the local aboriginal people.

 

1824  The name Australia is officially adopted by the British Admiralty 

 

1825  Brisbane is founded 

 

1828   The first census is taken in Australia. There are 20,870 free settlers and 15,728 convicts. 

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          Rev Joseph Docker and Sarah arrived in Sydney from England

 

1829  Swan River colony ( Perth) is founded

 

1831  Eliza Forlonge (nee Jack) arrived in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1831 with husband John and son Andrew together with a number of merino rams to join their elder son William who had already settled at Campbell Town with a flock of 100 merino sheep. The sheep had been carefully selected by Eliza during 2 trips to Saxony in Germany for their fine wool quality. It is likely most (if not all) the sheep that were take to Port Phillip by John Batman and his friends in 1835 were bred from this flock.

 

Rev. Joseph Docker purchased merino sheep in NSW to take with him to his new pastoral run at Bontharambo in 1838. Later, in 1846, he arranged to obtain 6 pure bred merino rams and 10 ewes from a stud near Chichester in England so as to improve his stock.

 

Sheep do not feature strongly in the subsequent story of the Telford and Gilbert families but the introduction of sheep was integral to the early development of Australia and Victoria in particular, as the motivation for settlers to cross Bass Strait from Tasmania and to overland from New South Wales to the cross the Murray ( or “Hume” as it was called then) was almost entirely to find new pastures to expand their sheep business. Gold would not have been found in Ballarat and Bendigo if the settlers had not already come with their sheep.

 

1834 Edward Henty and his brothers took their sheep from Launceston to Portland Bay to establish the first settlement in the Port Phillip District.

 

1835  John Batman and members of the the Port Phillip Association took their sheep across Bass Strait from Launceston to the Yarra River where Batman famously declared “this is the place for a village”.

David and Donald McArthur and families arrived in Sydney from Edinburgh.

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1836  A colony is begun at Port Adelaide 

 

1840  Transportation to New South Wales ends 

 

1851 Victoria is made a separate state from New South Wales 

        There is a gold rush in Victoria

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1852 Transportation to Tasmania ends 

 

1852 - 1858  Telford, Orr, Gilbert, Ellis and Johnson ancestors arrived in Australia 

 

1854 The Eureka rebellion takes place 

1860 Burke and Wills attempt to cross Australia 

1861 The population of Australia reaches 1.2 million 

1868  Transportation to Australia ends completely 

1878 The first telephone call in Australia is made 

1880 Ned Kelly is hanged 

1899 - 1902 Australians from all states, 15,000 in all served in the second Boer War in South Africa

1901  The Commonwealth of Australia is formed 

1914 - 1918 The Anzacs fight in World War I 

1917 A transcontinental railway is completed 

1922  Queensland is the first state of Australia to abolish capital punishment 

1927 Canberra becomes the capital of Australia 

1939 - 1945 The Anzacs fight in the Second World War 

1948  Clothes rationing in Australia ends 

1950  Petrol rationing in Australia ends 

1951  Jean Lee is the last woman hanged in Australia 

1954  Queen Elizabeth II is the first reigning monarch to visit Australia 

1956  Television begins in Australia
         The Olympic Games are held in Melbourne

1962  Indigenous Australians are allowed to vote in federal elections.