AustLit

'Australia is a multicultural nation, having different ethnic groups and communities with different origins, languages and traditions. The process of immigration to Australia began with colonialism and later different immigration policies continued it. It began around eighteen hundred when settlers from the United Kingdom including Ireland came to Australia, as it is put in some of the records, 'A number of European explorers sailed the coast of Australia, then known as New Holland, in the seventeenth century. However, it was not until 1770 that captain James Cook charted the east coast and claimed it for Britain. The new outpost was put to use as  penal colony transportation ended in 1868,,,' (Australian history of multiculturalism web) (93)