The discovery of gold by employees of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line digging holes for telegraph poles at Pine Creek in the 1880s spawned a gold rush, which further boosted the colony's development.abc The Dutch visited Australia's northern coastline in the 1600s and landed on the Tiwi Islands only to be attacked by the Tiwi peoples. This accounts for the Dutch names in the area, such as Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt.