1770 East Australia was claimed by Captain Cook for the United Kingdom. Cook’s order stated “with the consent of the natives, take possession of convenient situations in the name of the King or, if you find the country uninhabited, take possession for His Majesty”.
1788 New South Wales founded as a British penal settlement.
1820 Macquarie issues a government order permitting limited grazing at Goulburn and Breadalbane marking beginning of the graziers movement inland.
1825Secretary of the Colonies removes ban on unauthorised immigration.
1828Establishment of Demarcation Proclamation which orders out all Aboriginal people from settled districts in Tasmania.
1829Governor Darling proclaims 19 counties of NSW, redefining the limits of location beyond which settlement was prohibited.
1830Earl Grey, first Whig (liberal) Prime Minister in Britain since 1807.
1831British Government orders end to the land grant system and imposes price per acre. This increased pressure for squatters to take up land outside the 19 Counties in defiance of colonial authority.
1832British Reform Act doubles number of voters.
1833Abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire.
1836.37Reports of United Kingdom Parliamentary Select Committee on Native Tribes in Africa, Australasia, Pacific Islands, South America, West Indies and North America. The Committee states that the Aboriginal people had a “plain and sacred right to their own soil”.
1837.39Severe drought in New South Wales.
1838 G A Robinson appointed Chief Protector of Aborigines with headquarters at Port Phillip (4 Assistant Protectors, all located in what is now Victoria; NSW Protector appointed 1880).