Australia: History

More than 60 000 years before the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the Australian European settlement in 1788. However, there were an estimated 300 000 Indigenous Australians living on the continent.

Until recently, Western historians focused on early European contact with the Australian continent during the 16th and 17th centuries.

In recent years this approach has been balanced by the recognition that Asian and Oceanic explorers and traders had contact with Indigenous Australian people long before the European expansion into the eastern hemisphere.

After the American War of Independence, Britain looked to establish new penal settlements to replace the north Atlantic colonies. The First Fleet of 11 ships with 1500 aboard, half of them convicts, arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. Sydney grew from that first British penal settlement.

Transportation of British convicts to New South Wales ceased in 1840, but continued to Western Australia until 1868. About 160 000 convicts arrived over 80 years. That compares with free settler arrivals as high as 50 000 a year.

During the 1850s, settlement was boosted by gold rushes. Scarcity of labour, the vastness of the bush, and new wealth based on farming, mining and trade all contributed to the development of uniquely Australian social institutions and sensibilities.

In 1901 the Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. As in Canada, the British monarch remains the monarch of Australia, which is now an independent, democratic nation with a tradition of religious tolerance and free speech.

Resource: www.dfat.gov.au/facts/intro.html