How long had European people been interested in Australia?
The earliest recorded European explorers of Australia - the
Dutch - were not interested in Australia at all. The continent held
no trade prospects as far as they could see, so they made no claim
to the land. Even the first English explorer of Australia, William
Dampier, thought the land was not worth bothering with, being dry
and arid in the west. in 1688 he dismissed any prospects of the
British claiming the land, and when he returned in 1699, his
opinion had not changed.
It was the French who showed the most interest in Australia,
even making a formal (though not 'official') claim on the western
coast two years after James Cook had explored and charted the
eastern coast in 1770. The French had previously named many points
along the coast, in the mid1700s. This was around the time when
European interest in Australia really gathered momentum.