The History of Australia to 1901

Aborigines - 1st inhabitants – indigenous people *resemble primitive people from Asia and South Pacific Islands *may have come across land bridges from SE Asia *hunting and gathering group

Possessions of Aborigines – boomerangs, spears, tools of wood and stone for digging, cutting and carrying things

Art of aborigines – rock painting symbolic of spiritual ancestors

Walkabout – present day term for nomadic wandering

Explorers – 16th Century – explorations began *Portugese able to see Australia but didn’t land there * Abel Tasman- Dutch explorer

Abel Tasman’s routes

Portrait of Abel Tasman

Captain James Cook – 1st to survey Australia’s coast in 1770 Captain James Cook – 1st to survey Australia’s coast in 1770 *made way through coral reefs to reach mainland

Captain Cook’s Routes

Convicts-debtors shipped to Australia from Britain to work out their sentence

First Fleet of prisoners to arrive in Australia

Convicts building roads

Jail Gang

Port Royal – penal colony

Early settlements – difficult because soil was poor Early settlements – difficult because soil was poor *people didn’t like the native plants for food

Effects of settlers on aborigines – lands were taken away by settlers Effects of settlers on aborigines – lands were taken away by settlers *put up little resistance *weakened by western diseases; use of alcohol, and breakdown of tribal ties

Sheep-introduced in 1805 by retired British navy captain , John Macarthur

John Macarthur later had his picture on a 2 dollar bill in Australia.

Sheep shearing-The sheep are shaved and the wool is sold.

Australian Gold Rush – gold was discovered in the interior of Australia and caused the west to grow

Edward Hargreaves – 1st to discover gold in Australia "There is as much gold in the country I’m going to as there is in California, and Her Most Gracious Majesty, the Queen, God bless her, will appoint me one of her Gold Commissioners". - Edward Hargraves