Cook and Tasman

 Not the founder of Australia,  James Cook was a celebrated English captain funded by the English crown to sail around the world. 

Cook did command three extensive sailings around the world but met his untimely end in Hawaii, where he was killed by the natives there after getting involved in a misunderstanding with the community there.

James Cook never set foot in Australia or New Zealand.  He sailed around the Aussie coast, even passing by the Wollongong coast, and watched things from afar but in the safety of his well furnished ships. 

Cook had Joseph Banks on board - this was the botanist who later recorded much of the flora and fauna in Australia and drew detailed drawings of plants or animals.

James Cook had his underlings come ashore at Botany Bay NSW, near Sydney Airport today. These underlings are celebrated today as landing on 26 January 1788.  To the many Indigenious people around Australia today, that was Invasion Day for them. 

The British colonials denied the existence of around 200 Indigenious nations in Australia when they arrived - and constitutionally declared the land as empty - Terra Nullius or " land legally not belonging to anyone".

The Australian continent was exploited by Britain in the 18th to 20th centuries as, amongst varied purposes, a place for agriculture, initially sending unwanted people, an empty land to carry out nuclear experiments and as an alternative climate wise to colder England.

The Federation of Australia was created in 1901 by these colonists and the rest is history.

ANZAC forces were utilised to fight the wars of Britain and the USA in the 20th century.

Abel Tasman the Dutch explorer had already mapped the coasts of Australia long before the arrival of Cook.  He was also the first European in 1642 to map some part of the coast of NZ - west part of North Island.

In 1769, on the first of his three world wide voyages, James Cook was the first European to circumnavigate around NZ.

The British colonists signed the Treaty of Waitangi with Maori chiefs on 6 Feb 1840 - this forms the basis of the National Day for contemporary New Zealand.

A few months later, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over a place called Russell, leading to wars between the colonists and Maoris