Often they were sent away to the British colonies in America. (). In 1855, the right to vote was given to all men over 21 in South Australia. In the year 2000, Sydney had the Summer Olympics. English is the main spoken language, and Christianity is the main religion, though all religions are accepted and not everybody has a religion. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The current Prime Minister is Scott Morrison. The Henty brothers had come from Tasmania, had built themselves a house, had a successful farm and fed the Major and his men on roast lamb and wine. [1][2] The first people who arrived in Australia were the Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. They were outnumbered by more than 500,000 indigenous Aboriginal people whose ancestors had lived in Australia for at least 50,000 years. He expanded the article into a book, The Stolen Generations (1981). But in 1770 a British sailor, Captain James Cook, found the fertile east coast of Australia. 1788—The English first settle in Australia, near present-day Sydney. Australia is the sixth biggest country in the world. The history of Australia records that the first settlers were Aboriginals from Southeast Asia who arrived about 40,000 years ago. Somehow, the little group of tents with a hut for the Governor, Arthur Phillip, and another hut for the supply of food, grew into a small town with streets, a bridge over the stream, a windmill for grinding grain and wharves for ships. Australian movies have a very long history. They decided there would be no economic reasons to stay. The continent is also one of the richest countries in the world. Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander went ashore and were astonished to find that they did not know what any of the plants or birds or animals that they saw were. They were free from British rule and would not take England's convicts any more, so England needed to find a new and less populated place. 27, pg. In the 1950s and 1960s Australia became one of the richest countries in the world, helped by mining and wool. This page was last changed on 6 April 2021, at 09:42. [15][16][17] Until the arrival of British settlers in 1788, the Aboriginal people lived by hunting and gathering food from the land. Australia supported the United States in wars against dictatorships in Korea and Vietnam and later Iraq. But voices were getting louder for all of them to come together as one country with a national parliament. In the eighteenth century, the aboriginal population was about 300,000. From 1788 to 1868 Britain transported more than 160,000 convicts from its overcrowded prisons to the Australian colonies, forming the basis of the first migration from Europe to Australia. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. A person could be sentenced to death for stealing a loaf of bread. Thomas Mitchell went inland, and found more rivers. 1789 —Noah Webster publishes Dissertations on the English Language , which advocates an American standard of usage . Famous Australian sports players include the cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, the swimmer Ian Thorpe and the athlete Cathy Freeman. In 1840, the city councils started and some people could vote. Their contact influenced the Aboriginal tribes of Arnhem Land with the introduction of steel, boats, cards and words, which are still in use today. For the first few years of the settlement, things were very difficult. [3] They lived in all parts of Australia. Australia passed many laws to help the workers.[25]. Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and other islands on the Australian tectonic plate are together called Australasia, which is one of the world's great ecozones. Australia became more multicultural. This article discusses the history of Australia from the arrival of European explorers in the 16th century to the present. Captain Cook's secret mission was to find "Terra Australis" (the Land of the South). In the past decades people from all over the world have come to Australia. The people in Australia wanted to run their own country, and not be told what to do from London. Many Indigenous Australians suffered when Europeans from Britain and Ireland arrived in Australia. In 1911, Australia's Capital Territory (where Canberra is located today) was formally established, and in 1927, the seat of government was transferred from Melbourne to Canberra. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering. Australia started trading more with America, than Japan. Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Australia. Australia has also hosted the 1938, 1962, 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games and are to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Corporate and government sponsorship of many sports and elite athletes is common in Australia. They were to make a new colony at the place that Captain Cook had discovered, named Botany Bay because of all the unknown plants found there by the two scientists. They belonged to the land, like a baby belongs to its mother. 2. 1791 — The Observer , the oldest national Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication. Australian soldiers were sent to Gallipoli, in the Ottoman Empire. A new secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 1856, allowing people to vote in private. The Parliament of Australia sits in Canberra and makes laws for the whole country, also known as the Commonwealth or Federation. The land was dry because of not much rain; some was a desert. Australia is known for its mining (coal, iron, gold, diamonds and crystals), its production of wool, and as the world's largest producer of bauxite. All of the cattle escaped. They voted to join together to form one new country, called the Commonwealth of Australia, in 1901. Related Topics. The British decided to use the land visited by Captain Cook as a prison colony. Australians had started parliamentary democracies all across the continent. Share. Hall. 1606 - The first European to land at Australia is Dutch explorer Captain Willem Janszoon. Australian Prehistory: Humans are thought to have arrived in Australia about 30,000 years ago. [4] In 1850 elections for legislative councils were also held in the colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The 19th century would be dominated by the British Empire, spreading on all five continents, from Canada and the Caribeans to Australia and New Zealand, via Africa, India and South-East Asia. By the 1780s the gaols of England were so full that convicts were often chained up in rotting old ships. In the 1960s many people began coming to Australia from China, Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries in Asia. In 1901 the population of Australia was 3,370,000. Cite error: Cite error: tag with name "language" defined in is not used in prior text. Aboriginal artefacts on Rottnest Island have been dated from 6,500 to more than 30,000 years ago. Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, 13th February 1790, Historical Records of New South Wales, I, ii, pg. It was probable that everyone in the new colony would die of starvation. Australian TV has produced many successful programs for home and overseas - including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Home and Away and Neighbours - and produced such well known TV stars as Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) and The Wiggles. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Many of the explorers did not prepare very well, or else they went out to explore at the hottest time of year. Aboriginal music has songs about the Dreamtime, sometimes with special instruments like the didgeridoo. The Dutch governor, van Diemen, sent Abel Tasman on a voyage of discovery and he found Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land. In simple physical terms, the age of much of the continent is certainly impressive—most of the rocks providing the foundation of Australian landforms were formed during Precambrian and Paleozoic time (some 4.6 billion to 252 The first governments in the colonies were run by governors chosen by London. Australia joined in on the side of Britain against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Most Australians live in cities along the coast, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Hobart and Adelaide. Australia was colonised by people from Britain,[27] but today people from all over the world live there. In 1606 the first European, Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (1571–1639), visited the west. Englishman Matthew Flinders published his map of the coast in 1814, calling it Australia for the first time, a name later formally adopted by the authorities. He mapped the country as he went, and his maps remained in use for more than 100 years. Wool brought good money. Most of the marsupials in the world are found only on the continent. By 1822, many towns had been set up and people from the towns often visited Sydney for additional economic resources. Second was Sydney with about 360,000. The only Aboriginal buildings that are known are fish-traps made from stones piled up in the river, and the remains of a few stone huts in Victoria and Tasmania. The gold rushes of New South Wales and Victoria started in 1851 leading to large numbers of people arriving to search for gold. In 1688, William Dampier became the first Englishman to reach Australia. [31] In the 1970s and 1980s lots of big Australian movies and movie stars became world famous with movies like Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli (with Mel Gibson), The Man From Snowy River and Crocodile Dundee. These native Australians are called the Australian Aborigines. In 1788 the First Fleet of eleven ships set sail from Portsmouth carrying convicts, sailors, marines, a few free settlers and enough food to last for two years. Australia fires; image copyright AFP. The voyage of discovery was very successful, because they found New Zealand and sailed right around it. Copy link. Their leader was Captain Arthur Phillip. 20th CENTURY: 1901: Creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. Each major city has its daily newspapers, and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. They did not usually build walls or fences, and there were no horses, cows or sheep in Australia that needed to be kept in pens. [18] This meant that a lot of grass grew back, but not many big trees. These include animals like the kangaroo, the koala, the emu, the kookaburra, and the platypus. Nobody had chosen them carefully. The first Prime Minister of Australia was Edmund Barton in 1901. Its capital city is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s lots of Australian movies, actors and singers became famous around the world. All the plants were different so no-one knew which ones could be eaten. Colonial Australia Australian Aboriginal music is very special and very ancient: it has the famous digeridoo woodwind instrument. Every year the government chooses a big number of new people from all around the world to come as immigrants to live in Australia. The Aboriginal people did not think that the land belonged to them. [5] Women were given the vote in the Parliament of South Australia in 1895 and they became the first women in the world allowed to stand in elections. From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, There are minor variations from three basic time zones; see, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (, It's an Honour – Symbols – Australian National Anthem, "Australian Bureau of Statistics web site", "How centralised is Australia's population? There was no-one among the convicts who was a builder, a brick-maker or a blacksmith. Australian soldiers also helped the United Nations in countries like East Timor in 1999. It is unknown where they came from and how they appeared in Australia but it is estimated they have been habitants to their homeland for around 60,000 years ago or more. Aboriginal art started at least 30,000 years ago and there are lots of Dreaming stories painted on walls and cut in rocks all around Australia. Soon the settlers wanted local government and more democracy. The first European explorations did not begin until the 17th century. Use the adverb “fully” and add “sick” to it. Australia had a really hard time in the Great Depression of the 1930s and joined Britain in a war against Nazi Germany when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. History of Australia. He went with two ships up the coast and sailed into a great harbor which he said was "the finest harbor in the world!" He called it New South Wales, and claimed it for Britain. At 7,692,024km 2 it’s about 32 times bigger than the United Kingdom! But soon they began to farm, and more people came. At last, a boy, William Hicks, who was up the mast spotted land on the horizon. They believed that they had grown from the land, so it was like their mother, and they belonged to the land. Australia's long history of immigration and the increasing ethnic diversity of its population have spurred debates about the definition of an Australian. Now Australia has hundreds of smaller community-based festivals, and national and regional festivals that focus on specific art forms.[35]. Later they also came from countries like Turkey and Lebanon. There was not much fresh water. The History of Aboriginals in Western Australia bares witness to these events. Another notable fact of George III's reign was the start of the Industrial Revolution , with James Watt's famous steam engine and the mechanisation of the manufacturing industry transforming the face of England to this … In 1840, the Adelaide City Council and the Sydney City Council were started and some people could vote for them (but only men with a certain amount of money). Free immigrants began arriving in the 1790s.[3]. These people may come because they want to do business, or to live in a democracy, to join their family, or because they are refugees. Captain Cook saw the Aboriginal people with their simple way of life. Soon the settlers wanted local government and more democracy. [3] Australia to 1900 Early exploration and colonization Early contacts and approaches But the Aboriginal people did not own the land in that way. Their religion is called the Dreamtime, which has lots of stories about the creation of the world by spirits. In 1836, a free-settler colony was started in South Australia, where no convicts were ever sent. On 26 January 1788, the flag was raised and New South Wales was claimed in the name of King George III of England, and the new settlement was called Sydney. Australia was once a British colony and after its discovery in 1788 people from Great Britain settled there. Convict transportation ended in the 1840s and 1850s and more changes came. Australia is made up of six states, and two mainland territories. The Governor-General, currently His Excellency David Hurley, is chosen by the Prime Minister. Only after Dirk Hartog chanced upon the west coast in 1616 did other European vessels visit and map the coast. [34] In international sports, Australia has very strong teams in cricket, hockey, netball, rugby league and rugby union, and performs well in cycling, rowing and swimming. Australia is also a popular destination for business conferences and research, with Sydney named as one of the top 20 meeting destinations in the world.[33]. By 1853 the gold rushes had made some poor people, very rich. But there were no houses and no fences. No-one in the British Government had thought very hard about what sort of convicts should be sent to make a new colony. [19][20][21] The Aboriginal people did not use metal or make pottery or use bows and arrows or weave cloth. Harris, J. But usually they were just thrown in gaol. The New South Wales Legislative Council, was created in 1825 to advise the Governor of New South Wales, but it was not chosen by voters. An important new party, the Liberal Party of Australia was made by Robert Menzies in 1944 and it won lots of elections from 1949 until in 1972, then Gough Whitlam won for the Labor Party. The other colonies soon followed. After sixty more ships visited the coast,[source?] As the towns and farms spread across Australia, the Aboriginal people were pushed off their land. By the 1820s there was a fine brick house for the Governor. About 160 000 convicts were brought to Australia from 1788 until 1868. Australia is the lowest, flattest, and oldest continental landmass on Earth and it has had a relatively stable geological history. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Ancient Australia (also called the Prehistory of Australia), covers the time from when the first humans came to Australia to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. But it still has problems. The people in Australia wanted to run their own country, and self-govern. For a more detailed discussion of Aboriginal culture, see Australian Aboriginal peoples. He called it New South Wales, and claimed it for Britain. The climate in Tasmania was more like that in England, and farmers found it easy to grow crops there. Soon, Australia's Aborigines were outnumbered by Europeans, and many were made to live on reserves. On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. They lived in all sorts of climates and managed the land in different ways. They found the Murray River, and good land in Victoria. The second time, he was never seen again. In 1911, Australia's Northern Territory became a part of the Commonwealth (prior control was by South Australia.) The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul (/ s ə ˈ h uː l /), Australinea, or Meganesia to distinguish it from the country of Australia, consists of the landmasses which sit on Australia's continental plate.The name "Sahul" takes its name from the Sahul Shelf, which is part of the continental shelf of the Australian continent.