Given the evolution of European society, economy and technology, it was virtually inevitable by the eighteenth century that some intrusion into Australia should occur. It is possible, indeed, that successive imperial constraints on Javanese maritime activity, at least in the construction of the large vessels that the Javanese were capable of building and handling, prevented a South-east Asian intrusion earlier and on a scale larger than the trepangers visiting from Sulawesi.

One might speculate about the possibility of alternative nationalities invading Aboriginal lands. But from almost every point of view — an isolated location for convicts to deal with domestic social problems, the structure of the British domestic economy, British maritime capability, extending trading interests into the Indian Ocean and to China, the growth of whaling activity into the southern hemisphere, extra- and intra-European conflict and competition, the British inclination to settle distant areas — all made Australia a useful, if incidental, appendage to Britain.

The incoming British were representatives of one of the most recently formed of human societies in the world, colliding with one of the most ancient. The Aborigines had adapted to slow evolution and an attachment to land that was managed rather than exploited; and they had evolved strong preferences for non-material ends. By contrast, British society had been exposed to massive change over a short period, and through external influences and internal dynamics had been projected into the position of the most wealthy and technically advanced society on earth.