Pre Federation Timeline

Pre Federation Migration

Indigenous People

Afghan Cameleers

First Fleet lands at Botany Bay

Japanese pearlers recruited

First assisted migrants arrive in NSW

Convicts arrive at the Swan River settlement (Perth WA)

Convict transport to Eastern Australia ends

Convict settlement established in Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania)

First European settlers arrive in South Australia

Colony of free settlers and convicts established at Albany in Western Australia

The first Fleet of eleven convict ships arrived at Botany Bay before relocating to Sydney Cove.

The only inhabitants of Australia were the Aboriginal people, estimated to number 800,000 to 1 million people having arrived around 50 000 years ago.

Recruited to Australian pearling regions- Thursday Island Darwin and Western Australia to work as divers.

Camels and cameleer’s were brought to Australia for a short period.

They became the backbone of the Australian economy opening up inland Australia.

They accompanied exploration parties, carrying supplies and materials.

With increasing numbers of free migrants and the desire of Colonial society to be free of the hated ‘convict stain’, the Colonial Government decided to cease transportation to NSW in 1852.

To further develop the land and employ convict labour, a new policy was initiated to attract new settlers through assisted migration.

These people had some of the costs covered. The scheme attracted many impoverished people who came seeking employment, cheap or free land and a better life.

The government targeted a majority of single women and families in an effort to address the gender imbalance that had emerged in the population.

Funding for the scheme came from selling land grants.

South Australia was a planned settlement.

There was a belief that it should be open to free settlement, that land should be bought not granted, and bought at a price to ensure an adequate supply of labour by preventing potential labourers from acquiring land too quickly, and to provide the funds for assisted emigration.

There was also a preference for young, fit families as assisted emigrants, to ensure a balance of the sexes.

Fearful of a French Government claim, a military outpost was established.

The port was popular for cargo and migration and the town thrived until the inner harbour of Fremantle opened in 1897 and then the population declined.

West Australia chose to change its status from a free colony for the settlers to access cheap labour to help develop the region.

The eastern states were no longer accepting convicts leaving the British government no place to put their criminals.

From 1850-1868 9,720 British convicts were sent directly to the colony.

Convicts arrived in Van Diemen's Land, to establish a settlement in the colony.

Penal settlements were constructed by convict labour at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour in 1822, at Maria Island in 1825, and Port Arthur in 1830.

The convicts to arrive at Sarah Island worked to supply timber, firstly for construction of the penal settlement and later for ship building and to supply timber for Hobart Town.

On May 26th 1853, the last convict transport ship docked in Hobart Town. The Port Arthur penal colony was closed in 1877.

The expedition departs from Royal Park, 20 August 1860

Published in 1881, Property of State Library of Victoria

1853

1788

Late 1860s

1850

Pre-1770

1826

1803

1883

1832

1836

1855

1793

1851

1840

1822-1824

1829

1834

1863

1770

Gold discovered in Eastern Australia

The British Government stops sending convicts to NSW

The first free European settlers arrive in New South Wales

Victorian legislation to limit the number of Chinese coming to the colony

Settlers start colony at Freemantle, WA

Settlements established in Victoria

South Sea Islanders brought into Queensland

Convict settlements founded at

Port Macquarie (NSW) Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in Queensland and Norfolk Island

Cook sights the east coast of Australia and anchors in Stingray Bay (Botany Bay)

The discovery of Gold brought an increase in migration from the British Isles, America, Europe and China. The population of Australia was increased by thousands of hopeful diggers.

In March 1851, Victoria’s population was 80,000, not including Aboriginal people. By 1854 the population tripled to 237,000 and by 1861 it had doubled again to 540,000.

The New South Wales gold fields were poorer but the state’s population increased from 200,000 in 1851 to 357,000 in 1861.

Free settlers were migrants who came to Australia at their own expense. They arranged their own transport, brought their own food and paid for land to settle on.

The colony was the first to be developed entirely by free settlers. Convicts first arrived later in 1850.

South Sea Islanders were recruited to work on the Queensland sugar plantations and cotton industries

First permanent European settlement established at Portland Bay, Victoria while John Bateman and John Fawkner, both sons of convicts from Tasmania looking for more pastoral land, established the village of Melbourne in 1835.

Victoria introduces the first Immigration Restriction Act in Australia aimed at limiting Chinese immigration.

Other Australian colonies soon follow.

The policy of transportation was the subject of much inquiry and debate over the decades. In 1837, a British parliamentary committee recommended ending transportation to New South Wales.

On 22 May 1840 this Order-in-Council was issued, removing New South Wales from the list of places to which convicts could be sent. Van Diemen’s Land continued to receive convicts, and transportation to Western Australia began in 1850.

In 1848, there was an attempt to re-introduce a limited form of transportation to New South Wales, but local opposition was so intense the plan was abandoned and this Order-in-Council was not revoked.

James Cook charted and claimed possession of the east coast of Australia for Britain. He and Banks give a positive report of the potential to the Royal Society for colonisation.

New penal settlements for reoffending convicts were established between 1822 and 1824 at Port Macquarie (New South Wales), Moreton Bay (Queensland), and Norfolk Island.

Conditions at these newer settlements were harsher than Sydney, as the British Colonial Office wanted transportation to be seen as a deterrent to crime.