Who discovered and populated Australia?

Answer 1

In reality, it was the people now known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who discovered and populated Australia. they were the first people on the continent, living their traditional lifestyle for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived.

After the Aborigines had already populated Australia for thousands of years, Malay traders were landing on the far northern coast, collecting sea slugs to trade with China. They did not populate the country, although they did have some considerable contact with the indigenous people.

Credit for the first European discovery of Australia goes to Willem Jansz/Janszoon, a Dutchman who was seeking new trade routes and trade associates. He became the first recorded European to step foot on Australia's shores on the western shore of Cape York Peninsula, on 26 February 1606. However, the Dutch did not populate Australia. They were less than impressed with what they saw. It fell to the English to be the first Europeans to colonise the continent, doing so with the First Fleet of English convicts, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788.