Australia itself is massive, I mean wouldn’t travellers from Europe discover the North-west corner first and start building from that end? But the biggest cities are all the way on the other side of a continent. Why?
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Europeans didn’t travel to Australia via the north west.
The initial discovery of Australia by the British, namely the voyage of James Cook, came from the east across the Pacific Ocean. Cook identified the ideal places for settlement along the east coast, primarily Botany Bay – though it turned out that this was far from ideal and what later became known as Port Jackson (Sydney Cove) was chosen by Arthur Phillip with the First Fleet.
The First Fleet used the [Roaring Forties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Forties), a strong westerly wind at southern latitudes, to make quicker journeys via the Cape of Good Hope. The fleet would therefore by travelling from the south west and navigate towards the east coast of the continent, not from the north west.
Due to the Great Dividing Range on the east side, the climate around the east coast was far more suitable for settlement. Aside from Perth on the west side, the climate around the rest of Australia was poorly suited for large settlements, nor were there many accessible routes to build cities outside of those ideal regions.
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