Page 59 - Ultimate Australia

Historical Overview of Australia

Early History
Australia’s Aborigines believe that their people have lived here since the dawn of time—the
Dreamtime—when their spiritual ancestors brought the land into being with song.
Anthropologists believe that Aborigines have lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years,
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time, the ancestors of many groups now lumped together under the term “Aborigines”
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Walpiri, and Anangu cultural groups, which are roughly like tribes or clans, are among those
still present today.

In addition to passing along spiritual practices that are still observed, ancient Aborigines
mastered the challenges of living in a harsh environment. There is evidence that they planted
crops, diverted streams, and maintained grasslands by deliberate burning in order to attract
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groups of Aboriginal people traded with each other across the continent. After thousands of
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arrival of Europeans.

European Exploration and Settlement

Although people in Europe imagined the existence of a Terra Australis in late medieval times,
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set foot on Australian soil was probably the Dutch sailor Dirk Hartog in 1616. Dutch ships
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colonizing it. In 1642, Abel Tasman of Holland explored the southern coast, which is why the
Tasman Sea and Tasmania now bear his name.

English Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay on Australia’s eastern coast in 1770,
establishing an English claim that eventually led to colonization. Another Englishman,
Matthew Flinders, circumnavigated the continent at the beginning of the 19th century. These
early explorations revealed the coast, but Australia’s inland geography remained a mystery.

The departure of the American colonies from the British Empire set the stage for pivotal
events in Australian history. When England could no longer send colonists or exiled convicts
to America, Australia became a new destination for them. On January 26—the date now
celebrated as Australia Day—in 1788, English Captain Arthur Phillip founded Sydney as a penal
colony. From its inception, Sydney has been the capital of New South Wales, then a colony and
now the most populous of Australia’s six states.

Captain William Bligh of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame became Australia’s fourth governor
in 1806. He lost his post two years later in the Rum Rebellion, a successful mutiny by the
colony’s powerful military, the New South Wales Corps, who held land grants and a monopoly
on rum. During the more stable tenure of Bligh’s successor, Lachlan Macquarie, sheep farming
began to play an increasingly large role in the economy.

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