There were people in Australia long before Europeans discovered the continent in the 1600s. Aborigines didn´t have metal or pottery, but they had very rich form of art, painting, song, poetry and mythology. There were around 500 different tribes with different languages and a complex system of trade. They lived by collecting food and hunting with spears and boomerangs. In 1770 James Cook landed in the eastern part of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain and declared it a British colony. At this time, Britain was looking for a place to send its prisioners and criminals. Australia was the perfect place, it was very far from Britain !!! Cook's discoveries prepared the way for establishment of a new penal colony . Captain Arthur Phillip led the First Fleet into Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. This date became Australia's national day, Australia Day At the beginning only prisioners and their guards arriv...