The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who inhabited most areas of the Australian continent nearly 40,000 years ago. Despite some possible trading relationships between northern Aboriginal peoples and New Guinea / Indonesian peoples of Asian descent, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia had very little contact with other peoples for thousands of years.  Australia was not encountered by Europeans until the early 1600s when Dutch explorers charted parts of the  eastern coastline. For nearly 200 years European explorers continued to charter the vast coastline of this new territory known as New Holland.

An English explorer by the name of Captain James Cook set out in 1770 to charter the east coast and claim the land for Britain. Due to the overcrowding of the English gaols, Britain decided to use the newly claimed territory as a penal colony. The First Fleet of 11 ships made the long journey to Australia carrying around 2000 people, half of which where convicts. They arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788. This day known as Australia Day is celebrated throughout the country each year. The men and women of the First Fleet were not well equipped to survive in a new land, and struggled for some time before establishing themselves.  For the next 100 years, thousands of men and women were transported to Australia.

Through the federation of the six states, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, bringing the nation together under a single constitution. The constitution and the new government were based on two systems, the Westminster system that is in use throughout Britain and the state and national system that is used in the USA.