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BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE BRITISHERS
About 500 different Aboriginal language groups inhabited the entire continent of Australia when the British first arrived. There were 200000 to 500000 aborigines inhabiting Australia then.
(Picture- Map of Australia before the colonisation) -
JAMES COOK LANDS AT BOTANY BAY
In 1770, Englishman Lieutenant James Cook charted the Australian east coast in his ship HM Barque Endeavour. Following the old European law of Terra Nullius (meaning ‘This Land Belongs to No One), Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of England on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming eastern Australia 'New South Wales'.
(Picture-Map of Australia showing NSW and New Holland) -
NSW CHOSEN AS CONVICT SETTLEMENT
NSW was chosen by the British Government as a convict settlement. -
CAPTAIN ARTHUR PHILIP SETTLES AT SYDNEY COVE
The first fleet commanded by Capt Arthur Philip carrying 1473 people including 778 convicts arrived at Botany Bay. It was unfit for settlement – there was no shelter for ships, not enough freshwater and the soil was too sandy to grow crops. So he sailed into Port Jackson and landed at Camp Cove, known as 'cadi' to the Cadigal people. He named it Sydney Cove in honour of Lord Sydney, the British minister for Colonies. A penal settlement at Norfolk Island was established.
(Picture - Arthur Philip) -
RISDON CAVE (TASMANIA) SETTLEMENT
Between 1792-1815 the Britain was at war with France. The British feared that the French would claim Australian land not claimed as yet by them. So in 1803, they set up a new settlement Risdon Cave , located on the east bank of Derwent River in Van Diemen’s Land ( now called Tasmania). Between 1825-1841, 35000 convicts and 16000 free settlers arrived in Van Diemen’s Land. Hobart became the largest whaling port of the British empire.
(Picture - Whale Hunting) -
ROUTE TO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
In 1810 Lord Lachlan Macquarie became the Governor of NSW and he struggled with growing shortage of land on the Cumberland Plain. With Macquarie’s support, explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson found a way through the Blue Mountains. In 1814, Convicts start building a road across the mountains and the settlers had access to excellent farming and grazing land.
(Picture - Map showing Blue Mountains, Port Jackson and Sydney) -
CREATION OF BATHURST
Town of Bathurst was created.
( Picture - John Lewin, water colour sketch of the precise site of Bathurst 5 May, 1815) -
POPULATING BATHURST
Initially Lord Macquarie did not allow large scale settlement and allocated 10 land grants of 20 hectares each in Bathurst. The next governor Thomas Brisbane allowed more and more land grants and soon the sacred sites and food sources of Wiradjuri aborigines were destroyed by the settlers.
(Picture - A Wiradjuri warrior, thought to be Windradyne) -
BATHURST WAR
Bathurst War started and continued till 1824. Finally Wiradjuri aborigines surrendered and settlement began to spread in the western plains. Macquarie Harbour penal settlement was established in Tasmania.
(Picture - Bathurst War) -
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PARLIAMENT
The British government established a New South Wales parliament by setting up a Legislative Council as well as a Supreme Court under the New South Wales Act 1823 (UK) . This Act is now seen as a first step to establish English law in the colony with the establishment of NSW criminal and civil courts.
(Picture - NSW Parliament House) -
SETTLEMENT AT BRISBANE
In 1823 Governor of NSW Sir Thomas Brisbane instructed John Oxley that a new northern penal settlement be developed. Oxley recommended Red Cliff Point.The party settled in Redcliffe on 13 September 1824, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller with 14 soldiers and 29 convicts. However, this settlement was abandoned after a year and the colony was moved to a site on the Brisbane River.Soon German missionaries and immigrants began to arrive in Brisbane.
( Picture- Sir Thomas Brisbane) -
SETTLEMENT AT PERTH
Captain Charles Fremantle landed with 53 settlers at the mouth of the Swan River Colony in Western Australia. A month later Governor Stirling moved the settlement 19 km up the Swan river to a site which he named Perth. On 1 June 1850, the first convicts arrived and over the next 18 years 10000 convicts laboured to construct roads, dams, bridges, buildings and even worked as farm hand.
( Picture - Landing of first convicts in Western Australia) -
PORT ARTHUR PENAL SETTLEMENT
( Picture - Port Arthur penal settlement was established in Tasmania.) -
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Swan River Colony has its name changed to Western Australia.
(Picture - Australian map 1832) -
SETTLEMENT AT MELBOURNE
John Batman established a village at the mouth of the river Yarra in the Port Philip Disrict. This village was later renamed as Melbourne
( Picture- A depiction of Batman’s meeting with the Wurundjeri Aborigines at Merri Creek) -
CREATION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
South Australia was carved out of NSW. It was a settlement free of convicts. Colonel William Light , the Surveyor General, chose the site of Adelaide. Over a period of time Barossa Valley thrived as more and more German refugees arrived and started the famous vineyards. -
VICTORIA BECOMES A SEPARATE COLONY
Until 1851 the area was part of New South Wales, then from 1851 until 1901 it was the Colony of Victoria, with its own government within the British Empire. In 1901 it became a state of the new Commonwealth of Australia. -
CREATION OF QUEENSLAND
Fighting between Aborigines and settlers in colonial Queensland was more bloody than in any other colonial state in Australia.
The "Native Police Force" recruited and deployed by the Queensland government, was a key instrument in the oppression, dispossession and murder of indigenous people during this period.The three largest massacres of whites by Aborigines took place in Queensland- Martha Fraser's Hornet Bank station, The Battle of One Tree Hill and Darkey Flat Massacre. -
SETTLEMENT AT DARWIN
Darwin was founded. On 5 February 1869, George Goyder, the Surveyor-General of South Australia, established a small settlement of 135 men and women at Port Darwin. Goyder named the settlement Palmerston, after the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. The Port of Darwin was first used for modern commerce in 1869. It was used to supply the new settlement of Palmerston.
(Picture-Larrakia Tribe men: The Original Inhabitants of Darwin) -
SETTLEMENT AT ALICE SPRINGS
Alice Springs was founded
(Picture- Uluru Rock) -
KALGOORLIE AND COOLGARDIE SETTLEMENT
Gold was found in Western Australia and new settlement were established in Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie. (Picture- Prospector dry blowing for gold at Kalgoorlie) -
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Australian Capital Territory was carved out of NSW. On 1 January 1911, a decade after federation, the Northern Territory was separated from South Australia.Also, Commonwealth of Australia came into existence. This was the final step in the colonisation of Australia by the British.
