area was taken from New South Wales. South Australia was never a British convict colony and between 1836 and 1840 about 13,400 immigrants arrived in the area. Between 1841 and 1850, another 24,900 arrived. Some escaped convicts did settle in the area and no doubt a number of ex-convicts moved there from other colonies. On 4 January 1837 Governor Hindmarsh proclaimed that any offenders convicted in South Australia, and being under sentence of transportation, were to be transported to either New South Wales or Van Diemens Land, by the first opportunity. 1841 – New Zealand is separated from New South Wales 1846 – The colony of North Australia was proclaimed by Letters Patent on 17 February, which included all of New South Wales north of 26° S. Revoked in December 1846. European exploration While the actual date of original exploration in Australia is unknown, there is evidence of exploration by William Dampier in 1699, and the First Fleet arrived in 1788, eighteen years after Lt. James Cook surveyed and mapped the entire east coast aboard HM Bark Endeavour in 1770. In October 1795 George Bass and Matthew Flinders, accompanied by William Martin, sailed the boat Tom Thumb out of Port Jackson to Botany Bay and explored the Georges River, previously known by the Indigenous name Tucoerah, further upstream than had been done previously by the colonists. Their reports on their return led to the settlement of Banks' Town. In March 1796 the same party embarked on a second voyage in a similar small boat, which they also called the Tom Thumb. During this trip they travelled as far down the coast as Lake Illawarra, which they called Tom Thumb Lagoon. They came across and explored Deeban, an estuary occupied by the Tharawal and Eora peoples, and later named Port Hacking. In 1798–99, Bass and Flinders set out in a sloop and circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land, thus proving it to be an island. Aboriginal guides and assistance in the European exploration of the colony were common and often vital to the success of missions. In 1801–02 Matthew Flinders in The Investigator led the first circumnavigation of Australia. Aboard ship was the Aboriginal explorer Bungaree, a Kuringgai man, who became the first person born on the Australian continent to circumnavigate the Australian continent. Previously, the famous Eora man Bennelong and a companion had become the first people born in the area of