Economic history of Australia

The economic history of Australia traces the economic history of Australia since European settlement in 1788.

The first European settlement of Australia took place on 26 January 1788 at Port Jackson (modern Sydney, New South Wales), when the First Fleet brought more than 1,000 convicts, marines and seamen, and a vast quantity of stores to found the penal colony of New South Wales. The United Kingdom claimed all of New South Wales as its land on the basis of terra nullius, though the actual landing and consequent settlement was confined to the Port Jackson area. According to the first census of 1788 as reported by Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, the Home Secretary, the white population in the colony was 1,030, of which 753 were convicts and their children, and the colony also had 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 swine, 6 rabbits, and 7 cattle. The Indigenous population was not counted or estimated, nor reported at that point.

Governors of New South Wales had authority to make land grants to free settlers, emancipists (former convicts) and non-commissioned officers. Land grants were often subject to conditions, such as a quit rent (one shilling per 50 acres (200,000 m2) to be paid after five years) and a requirement for the grantee to reside on and cultivate the land. Whaling in Australia commenced in 1791, when Captain Thomas Melvill, commanding the Britannia, one of 11 ships of the Third Fleet, and Captain Eber Bunker of the William and Ann led expeditions in Australian waters. Whale oil and baleen (whalebone) were profitable commodities and whaling was one of Australia's first major export industries. Sealing and whaling contributed more to the colonial economy than land produce until the 1830s. When Governor Phillip left the colony in December 1792, the European population was 4,221, of whom 3,099 were convicts.

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