Indigenous Australians comprise two broad groups: Aboriginal Australians, who are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, including Tasmania Torres Strait Islanders, who are a distinct Melanesian people of Torres Strait Islands Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65,000 years ago,[18][19][20] with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia.[18] It is uncertain how many waves of immigration may have contributed to these ancestors of modern Aboriginal Australians.[31][32] The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is possibly the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia.[19][20][33] The oldest human remains found are the Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to around 42,000 years ago.[34] Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth.[35][36][37][31] At the time of first European contact, Aboriginal Australians belonged to wide range of societies, with diverse economies spread across at least 250 different language groups.[38][39][21] Estimates of the Aboriginal population before British settlement range from 300,000 to 3 million.[40] Aboriginal Australians cultures were (and remain) deeply connected with the land and the environment, with stories of The Dreaming maintained through oral tradition, songs, dance and paintings.[41] Certain groups engaged in fire-stick farming,[42][43] fish farming,[44][45] and built semi-permanent shelters.[46] These practices have variously been characterised as "hunter-gatherer", "agricultural", "natural cultivation" and "intensification".[47][48][49][50] Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands at least 2,500 years ago.[51][52] Culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. Agriculture also developed on some islands and villages appeared by the 1300s.[51] By the mid-18th century in northern Australia, contact, trade and cross-cultural engagement had been established between local Aboriginal groups and Makassan trepangers, visiting from present-day Indonesia.[53][54][55] European exploration and colonisation Main articles: European maritime exploration of Australia, European land exploration of Australia, and History of Australia (1788–1850) Landing of James Cook at Botany Bay on 29 April 1770 The Dutch East India Company ship, Duyfken, captained by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606.[56] Later that year, Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast.[57] Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land. On his second voyage of 1644, he mapped the north coast of Australia south of New Guinea. Following Tasman's voyages, the Dutch were able to make almost complete maps of Australia's northern and western coasts and much of its southern and south-eastern Tasmanian coasts. They named the continent New Holland.[58] In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named "New South Wales" and claimed for Great Britain.[59] in 1786, the British government announced its intention to establish a penal colony in New South Wales.[60] On 26 January 1788, the First Fleet commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. A camp was established and the Union Flag raised. The date later became Australia's national day.[61] Most early settlers were convicts, transported for petty crimes and assigned as labourers or servants to "free settlers" (willing immigrants). Once emancipated, convicts tended to integrate into colonial society. Aboriginal resistance, convict rebellions and bushranging were sometimes suppressed under martial law.[62][63] The 1808 Rum Rebellion, carried out by officers of the New South Wales Corp, led to a temporary military junta.[64] During the next two decades, social and economic reforms, together with the establishment of a Legislative Council and Supreme Court, saw the penal colony transition to a civil society.[65] The indigenous population declined for 150 years following European settlement, mainly due to infectious disease.[66] British colonial authorities did not sign any treaties with Aboriginal groups.[67][68] As settlement expanded, tens of thousands of Indigenous people and thousands of settlers were killed in frontier conflicts, which many historians argue included acts of genocide by settlers. Settlers dispossessed surviving Indigenous peoples of most of their land.[69] Colonial expansion Main articles: History of Australia (1788–1850) and History of Australia (1851–1900) Tasmania's Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites. In 1803, a settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania),[70] and in 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement.