New South Wales historical timeline

Origins

Aboriginal people have lived here for at least 65,000 years — the Willandra Lakes burials in the far southwest are among the oldest known human remains outside Africa. The Eora, Dharug, Wiradjuri and many other nations held this country continuously until 1788.

Turning points

The First Fleet landed at Port Jackson in January 1788, establishing a penal colony that became the first permanent British settlement in Australia. The Blue Mountains were not crossed by Europeans until 1813; the gold rushes of the 1850s then transformed the colony's population and wealth within a decade.

Influential people

Jørn Utzon won the Opera House competition in 1957 with a design nobody yet knew how to build, resigned in 1966 before it was finished, and never returned to see it.

Cultural evolution

Postwar migration remade the state: Italian and Greek, then Vietnamese, Lebanese, Chinese and Indian communities, giving Sydney one of the highest foreign-born populations of any major city.

Present-day significance

Finance, education, tourism and mining carry the economy. The 2019-20 bushfires burnt more than five million hectares here and reshaped how the state plans for summer.