-
European colony in Australia
11 ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts (192 women and 586 men), to establish the first European colony in Australia, in New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip. The ships arrived at Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January 1788. -
Gold rush Bathurst
The Gold Rush- gold was struck first in Bathurst, NSW and then Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria.
370,000 immigrants arrived from all over the world to seek their fortunes in the gold fields. People came to Australia from all over Europe, America and China- around 40,000 Chinese people came to Australia during this time. At this time there are also many people were fleeing from persecution in European countries including Poland, Hungary, and Italy- these people settled in Australia. -
Prisons in Britain
Prisons in Britain had become very overcrowded and prisoners began to be transported to Port Jackson, NSW. Around 160,000 convicts came to Australia. -
Port Jackson settlement
The Port Jackson settlement began to grow and more settlements in Hobart, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. Free settlers from Europe came to Australia who bought land and started trading companies. By 1851, the population was 430,000. -
White Australia policy
Federation: the various colonies in the different states came together to create a united Australian government. The new government created many new laws including the White Australia policy. The White Australia policy discouraged people who weren’t ‘white’ from settling in Australia. -
Immigration Restriction
The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration to Australia and formed the basis of the White Australia policy. It also provided for illegal immigrants to be deported. -
Australian Parliament
Passed by the Australian Parliament in 1922, the Empire Settlement Act established immigration schemes between the British and Australian Governments to assist ‘suitable persons’ to immigrate to Australia. People were helped with fares, living allowances, training, employment and grants of farmland. The schemes did not attract the anticipated numbers and, of those who did come, many returned home disappointed. -
Big brother movement
The Big Brother Movement was founded in 1925 to sponsor the migration of young British lads mainly to rural Australia. -
Assimilation
The idea of assimilation had been around since the 1930s but was not adopted as an official government policy towards the Aboriginal peoples until the 1950s. It became official government policy in Australia not just for Aboriginal peoples, but for all foreign migrants as well. -
War II
Enemy Alien was the term applied to any immigrant who had moved to Australia from a country that was an enemy in World War II - Germany, Italy, and later Japan. As the government established a war economy, it began to take steps to neutralise the potential threat posed by these resident aliens. The decision was made to introduce severe restrictions on the aliens and, in some cases, imprison them in internment camps -
Second world war.
Many people fled persecution in Nazi Germany before and during the second world war. -
Japenese
The advance of the Japanese in early 1942 and Australia's inability to defend itself made it clear to the Curtin Government that something would have to be done in the post war years to increase the nation's population. -
Persons Scheme
Displaced Persons Scheme in 1947. That scheme enabled around 170,000 refugees from the wreckage of war torn Europe to make their homes in Australia under the auspices of the International Refugee Organisation. -
migrant reception centre
For 1947 to 1971, Bonegilla was the largest and longest operating migrant reception centre in Australia. It was the first Australian home for some 300,000 post-war migrants from more than 50 countries. -
Australian citizenship
Australian citizenship was created through the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948, and came into effect 26 January 1949, soon after the post-war mass migration program was launched (in 1945). Prior to 1949, Australians could only hold the status of British subjects. -
Hydro-electric Scheme
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme took 25 years to build, from 1949 to 1974. It employed over 100,000 people from over 30 countries in its construction, providing valuable employment for a large number of recently-arrived immigrants, and was important in Australia's post-war economic and social development. Seventy per cent of all the workers were migrants. -
£10 Poms
£10 Poms is a colloquial term used in Australia to describe British subjects who migrated to Australia after the Second World War under an assisted passage scheme established and operated by the Government of Australia. -
Federal Government
In a referendum in 1967 Australians voted to enable the Federal Government to make laws specifically relating to Indigenous Australians (and for their inclusion in the national census). This empowered the Federal Government to override discriminatory laws in any State or Territory legislation and to enact special laws and programs for Indigenous Australians -
Status of Refugees
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is the key legal document in defining who is a refugee, their rights and the legal obligations of States. The 1967 Protocol removed geographical and temporal restrictions established by the Convention. -
boat people
The term ‘boat people’ entered the Australian vernacular in the 1970s with the arrival of the first wave of boats carrying people seeking asylum from the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Over half the Vietnamese population was displaced in these years and, while most fled to neighbouring Asian countries, some embarked on the voyage by boat to Australia -
political introduction
Full political introduction of official policies of multiculturalism in 1972. -
Indochinese refugee
The Indochinese refugee crisis prompted the government of the time to introduce a clear refugee policy and administrative machinery in 1977. Before this, Australia’s approach to refugee resettlement was largely to respond to specific international events as they arose. -
mandatory immigration
Mandatory detention in Australia concerns the Australian federal government's policy and system of mandatory immigration detention active from 1992 to date,[1] pursuant to which all persons entering the country without a valid visa are compulsorily detained and sometimes subject to deportation. -
MV Tampa
The MV Tampa was a Norwegian cargo ship who was most famous for rescuing drowning people in waters between Indonesia and Australia in August 2001, people who claimed to be refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq, who had first fled to Indonesia but were now seeking refuge in Australia, as they were dying in the Indonesian refugee camps. The ship, carrying the illegal immigrants as passengers, was refused entry into Australian waters in August 2001, which sparked great outrage across the nation. -
Pacific Solution
The Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government policy (2001–2007) of transporting asylum seekers to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. -
European Settlement
Before European Settlement, there were around 100,000 Indigenous people and over 300 languages spoken. -
1960
In the 1960s a policy of integration was developed. Integration was a policy which said Aboriginal people could continue their cultural beliefs and live alongside others of different cultures.