The latter part isn't really true in this case, the east coast was the last part of the continent to be discovered by Europeans. The west and north had been ex

The latter part isn't really true in this case, the east coast was the last part of the continent to be discovered by Europeans. The west and north had been explored and mapped centuries earlier by various explorers (Hartog, Tasman, Dampier) but it wasn't until Cook discovered the more agriculture-friendly south-east coast that the idea of colonisation started to seem worthwhile; just eighteen years later we had Sydney.