*Introduction

= European discovery of Australia =

Key points
 ==The first settlers and the Indigenous peoples == The region around Sydney Cove was not uninhabited or unoccupied, as the British had declared. Its land belonged to the Eora and Dharug peoples. When the Union Jack was raised on 26 January 1788, all Indigenous land had been declared British territory. In addition, all Indigenous people had been made British subjects and would be expected to obey the laws of Great Britain. This was despite the fact that Indigenous people had their own laws, considered the land an essential part of their lives; and had their own families, clans and language groups. The arrival of the British was the start of a process which resulted in Indigenous groups losing their land, their hunting grounds and their way of life. Contact with the British brought diseases such as smallpox that Indigenous peoples had never known before. These diseases killed thousands and thousands of Indigenous people. There was also competition between the British and Indigenous peoples for clean water and food. The British settlers cut down trees, destroyed sacred sites, stole weapons and rapidly extended their control of the land. The British settlement of Australia has become known as the European invasion of Australia. In the following chapters the effects of the British colonisation on the Indigenous peoples will be explored. 
 * When European sailors began entering ‘Australian' waters in the early 1600s, they called it Terra Australis Incognita (unknown land of the South).
 * Between 1606 and 1770 more than 50 European ships made landfall on Australian soil, which was then inhabited solely by Indigenous people.
 * Navigator and astronomer Captain James Cook claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia for Great Britain on 22 August 1770, naming eastern Australia 'New South Wales'.