-
The first European explorers to go to Australia were Dutch. They explored Australia in 1606.
-
Captain James Cook, from Britain, sailed around Australia. He named part of Australia New South Wales and claimed it for England. Sailors also mapped eastern Australia.
-
Since AMerica gained their freedom in 1775, Europe could no longer send prisoners to Georgia. So they looked to Australia to send prisoners to.
-
Britain sent convicts to Australia to establish a prison.
-
Britain finally sent prisoiners to Australia in 1788.
-
From 1787 to 1832 New South Wales was a prison colony.Only guards and the guards' families were free. Only 20% of the population were women. Britain kept sending Prisoners until 1868. Then settlers arrived and made their homes.
-
Australia was the destination for the hardest criminals. Some say that people murdered each other to get away.
-
Britain wnated to build a military base in Australia because they thought that it would be a good place for training.
-
Australia still was a nonprisoner colonization still.In 1860, 7 seperate colonies were formed. In 1861, Laws and boundaries were formed by the government. In 1901, The Commonwealth of Australia was established Melbourne was capital until Canberra was completed in 1927.
-
Originally, Australia was called "White Australia" because they didn't allow other races except for Caucasians. In 1902, The government passed the Immigratuion Restriction Act which restricted migration to people of European descent.
-
Aborigines lost almost all of what they had. Today, many don't know about their ancestry.
-
The federal government passed legislation to help Aborigines. In March, Aborigines demanded equal wages and land ownership.
-
Vincent Lingiari symbolically hands back Australia to an Aborigine.Photo by Mervyn Bishop.
-
All legal ties with Britain was demolished in 1986. Queen Elizabeth II is still their constitutional monarchy.
-
There was a vote for if Australia should become an independent republic and 55% of people rejected becoming an independent Republic.
