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Captain James Cook was sent to the Royal Society of Britain to discover and claim the territory, despite the fact there were natives tribes already living here. -
Ships of convicts from Britain came to Australia, supervised by Captain Arthur Phillip, in order to empty overcrowded jails and to settle the first colony. -
They were people coming from Britain motivated by the idea of a new life and the lands offered by the British Crown. They wanted to leave poverty and hunger to go to another part of the world. Like that, they could settle down and farm. -
Convicts were taken to Tasmania in order to create a new colony and to take over the whole continent. Free settlers soon joined them. -
By now, the half of the population living in colonies was born there. -
The first gold gem was discovered in New South Wales in 1847 by William Tipple Smith. Thanks to this discovery, a large number of new settlers came : this event is known as "the Gold Rush" (1851) -
A part of New South Wales (the first colony in Australia) became independent and took the name of Victoria, in honor of Queen Victoria I. -
Four of the five provinces of Australia at the time became "self-governing". They were in charge of their land (so their own affairs) but Britain still was the mother country, and they were under its rule. -
Queensland, seperated from New South Wales, and the last province/colony created, came to existence. -
All six territories wanted to manage their own affairs. They then became "self-governing" provinces. -
The head of each one of the six colonies met to talk about rules and to, in the end, write a Constitution for Australia. In fact, over 80% of people were born there now. The objective was to unite the Nation as a whole independent country. -
This day stayed in minds like the birth of a nation. All six territories joined as one, called the "Federation". They got theit own Parliament, but the king stayed the head of state. Australia was under British influence : "Commonwealth of Australia"