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European Exploration: Dutch
First Europeans to sail to Australia were the Dutch (Netherlands) in 1606, but they didn’t settle there:
The Dutch made one landing, were attacked by Aborigines, and then abandoned further exploration -
The Perfect Colony
Great Britain saw that Australia was a good location to base its navy in the South Pacific Ocean:
Its location would make it possible for British ships to make repairs & get supplies:
Had many opportunities for trade with Asia and the Americas -
European Exploration : British
1770: Captain James Cook sailed around Australia:
Cook named the area New South Wales:
Ignored the Aborigines living there & claimed the land for England:
Sailors also mapped the coast eastern Australia & Tasmania -
Prisoners as Colonists
American Revolution forced the British to stop sending prisoners to Georgia (used as a penal colony at the time):
Great Britain had to start looking for another place to send its prisoners:
Australia seemed like a good choice: no chance of escape, no colonies around it, and very few indigenous people lived there -
New South Wales
1788 to 1832: New South Wales was officially a penal (prison) colony consisting mainly of convicts, marines (guards), and the marines’ families:
Only 20% of the first convicts were women:
British transported prisoners to Australia until 1868:
By this time, many free immigrants were settling there:
They built businesses, trading posts, farms, etc -
Aborigines
Aborigines went through stages of being conquered through an 'invasion' and taking of their lands:
European settlers often separated Aborigines from society:
Some were removed from their families and placed into institutions:
Others were killed because they were seen as a “nuisance”:
remnants of the tribes in the settled areas were moved onto Reserves:
They were forbidden from teaching their children their language and customs:
During the 1900s, separation was an official government policy -
Port Arthur, Tasmania
From 1833, until the 1850s, it was the destination for the hardest of convicted British and Irish criminals, those who were secondary offenders having re-offended after their arrival in Australia:
In addition, Port Arthur had some of the strictest security measures of the British penal system:
Some tales suggest that prisoners committed murder (an offence punishable by death) just to escape the desolation of life at the camp -
Commonwealth of Australia
Non-prisoner colonization continued:
Major coastal settlements became 7 independent colonies:
government officials created boundaries for the colonies that are still in place today:
the Commonwealth of Australia was established:
Melbourne served as the national capital until Canberra was completed in 1927 -
“White Australia”
Originally, Australia promoted a policy called “White Australia”:
They would not allow non-Caucasians to immigrate to Australia:
That has since changed:
Immigration Restriction Act of 1901: restricted migration to people primarily of European descent:
This was dismantled after the Second World War:
Today, Australia has a global, non-discriminatory policy and is home to people from more than 200 countries -
Australia Today
Australia Act -- all legal ties with the British Empire were severed:
Today, Australia is a parliamentary democracy (constitutional monarchy) with Elizabeth II as queen:
55% of voters rejected the idea of becoming an independent republic
