1750 Aboriginal culture continues to flourish

1767 British Captain Samuel Wallis is the first European to reach Tahiti; six months later, French navigator Bougainville visits the islands
1768 (till 1771) First of British Captain James Cook's three voyages to Pacific

1770 English Lieutenant James Cook's expedition in HM Bark Endeavour charts the eastern coast, and claims it for the British Crown. Australia dubbed "terra nullius" i.e., according to the European legal precepts of the era, it was "owned" by no-one.
1770 Spanish sailors reach Easter Island
1772 (till 1775) Captain Cook's second voyage to the Pacific

1776 (till 1779) Cook's third voyage; on his way through the Pacific he lands in Hawaii and is clubbed, or stabbed, to death by islanders Comte la Perouse, French navigator, leads expedition to Pacific and northwest America; touches Japan; he is lost at sea in 1788

1787 (till 1789) Voyage of Lieutenant William Bligh in the Bounty to the Pacific to find breadfruit plants; crew mutiny and put him to sea
1788 The British First Fleet, led by Governor Arthur Phillip arrives in New South Wales to found first European settlement and penal colony at Sydney. Colony includes "all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean" and running westward to the 135th meridian east. This claim included the islands of New Zealand, which were administered as part of New South Wales.
1788 British settlement founded at Norfolk Island.

1790 Bligh returns to England
1790 Beleaguered Second Fleet arrives. Colony gripped by food crisis.
1792 Two French ships, La Recherche and L'Espérance, anchor at Recherche Bay, near the southernmost point of Tasmania at a time when England and France were racing around the globe to be the first to discover and colonise Australia.
1792 Governor Philip returns to England, accompanied by his friend Bennelong and a companion who became the first Australian born person to sail to Europe.
1793 First free British settlers reach Australia

1797 Sydney Cove wrecked and some survivors travelled from Bass Strait to Port Jackson allowing for the rescue of others but also furthering knowledge of the geography of Australia.
1798 George Bass and Matthew Flinders sail from Sydney and circumnavigate Tasmania, thus proving it to be an island. (to 1799)
1799 Major civil war in Tonga

1801 (till 1803) Matthew Flinders completes the first circumnavigation of the continent (still known as "New Holland")
1804 A settlement is founded at Risdon on the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land by Lieutenant Bowen.
1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion also known as the second Battle of Vinegar Hill
1804 The Risdon settlement is moved to Sullivan's Cove (now Hobart) by Colonel David Collins.

1808 The Rum Rebellion

1810 Kamehameha I becomes king of all Hawaii
1813 Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth cross the Blue Mountains.
1813 Matthew Flinders refers to New South Wales by the name "Australia".

1815 Russia tries to make landings in Hawaiian Islands
1817 John Oxley charts the Lachlan River
1817 Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales, opens in Macquarie Place, Sydney (it became Westpac in 1982).
1817 Governor Lachlan Macquarie petitioned the British Admiralty to use the name "Australia" instead of "New Holland"
1818 Oxley charts the Macquarie River.
1819 Pomare II establishes Society Islands' first legal code
1819 Death of Kamehameha I of Hawaii; his heir, Kamehameha II, abolishes system which restricted contact between men and women