Shipwreck, Sailors and 60,000 Years: Pre-1788

In 1493 the Pope gave Portugal the half of the world that included eastern Australia. By 1770 the Dutch had claimed the western, northern and southern coastlines of the continent-and Cook claimed the east coast for the British in 1770. But unlike the Europeans who claimed New Holland as their own, many nations of Indigenous people had already been living there for tens of thousands of years . . .