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THE DUTCH, THE WEST AND VAN DIEMEN’S LAND
About 1000 years ago people from China, India, Arabia, Malaya and the Pacific Islands started to explore the oceans around them. It is most likely that these sailors visited the north coast of Australia and traded with Aboriginal people. -
JAMES COOK AND NEW SOUTH WALES
Cook’s expedition sailed west for Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) but winds forced the Endeavour north and the expedition came upon the east coast of Australia in April 1770. For the next four months, Cook mapped the east coast from Eden to the Gulf of Carpentaria. At a brief and simple ceremony at Botany Bay, Cook named the entire east coast of Australia New South Wales. -
BRITAIN’S MOVE INTO THE PACIFIC
By the 1790s British Investors were purchasing 38,000 slaves a year. Over sixty percent of the world’s slave trade was transported in British ships. Slavery and the feudal farm system were under attack by evangelical reformers who fought for personal liberty and the right of the individual. Industrials too had become opposed to slavery and the feudal farm system for they had discovered that for manufacturers. -
THE FIRST FLEET, BOTANY BAY AND THE BRITISH PENAL COLONY
The First Fleet of 11 ships, each one no larger than a Manly ferry, left Portsmouth in 1787 with more than 1480 men, women and children onboard. Although most were British, there were also African, American and French convicts. On 26 January two French frigates of the Lapérouse expedition sailed into Botany Bay as the British were relocating to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson. European Australia was established in a simple ceremony at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. -
THE AGE OF MACQUARIE
The colony at Sydney Cove was critically short of food. To make matters worse, the supply ship HMS Guardian was wrecked off South Africa before it reached the colony, and HMS Sirius, one of two of the colony’s navy vessels, was wrecked on Norfolk Island. In desperation, the HMS Supply, the Colony’s second navy ship, was sent to Indonesia for food. -
ASSISTED IMMIGRATION INTRODUCED
The Colonial Government decided to promote the migration of free settlers and limit squatter land leases to 14 years. This was to create an emancipist consumer economy and improve the moral tone of the colony. The Colonial Government assisted some migrants by paying their fare to Australia and helped to set up farms and businesses alongside the wealthy settlers – who of course were not very happy with such competition. -
FOR A COLONIAL & ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT? EXPERIMENTS IN WHITE AUSTRALIA
By 1869, there were six colonies in Australia – New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland – all settled by British people. These separate colonies all had their own governors, parliaments and systems of government reporting to Britain. -
THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND THE IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION ACT 1901
Before 1900, there was no actual country called Australia, only the six colonies – New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia. While these colonies were on the same continent, they were governed like six rival countries and there was little communication between them. -
THE GREAT WAR AND THE GERMAN COMMUNITIES
In 1914, Franz Ferdinand, a member of the Austrian Royal family, was assassinated in Serbia. As a result, Austria declared war on Serbia. Most of Europe had divided itself into alliances to protect each other if war broke out. Russia was an ally of Serbia and Germany of Austria – so when war broke out, Germany and Russia were drawn into it. France and England were allies of Russia (Triple Entente Alliance) and Italy and Turkey allies of Germany (Triple Alliance). -
PLAGUES, PANDEMICS AND BRIDGES
Bubonic plague broke out in Sydney in 1900 and soon spread to other Australian states. In seven months, 300 people caught the disease and 100 died.In January 1919, a worse epidemic broke out. The Spanish Flu, brought to Australia by soldiers returning from World War I, killed millions of people around the world. Growing out of the gloom of the Great Depression, the Sydney Harbour Bridge came to symbolise Australia’s hope for a better deal and fairer future for all. -
WORLD WAR II
During World War II the Australian Government passed laws that gave it much greater control over the lives of people:
Germans and Italians were interned in concentration camps
Communist and fascist organisations were banned
All media was censored
Profiteering by factory and shop owners was banned
The Government took control of all transport, banking and the docks
Conscription was introduced -
NEW AUSTRALIA
Between 1945 and 1965 more than two million migrants came to Australia. Most were assisted: the Commonwealth Government paid most of their fare to get to Australia. In return they had to stay in Australia for at least two years and work in whatever jobs the Government gave them. -
AUSTRALIA & ASIA
Refugees were allowed to come to Australia because Australia had signed a United Nations agreement to accept refugees. Australia wanted to help people in Asia and other parts of the world who had been made homeless by war, revolutions or persecution by governments. -
BEYOND MULTICULTURALISM
After more than 200 years of migration, Australia has become a multicultural society. By 2010, 27% of people in Australia were born overseas and over 100 languages were spoken. Australian culture has transformed from the stiff Britishness of the late 19th century to the multiplicity of influences we see around us. As we have seen, modern Australia is creative, adaptive and resourceful.
