Australian History Summery By: Grant Huber

Aborigines The first or original people of Australian were the Aborigines. They were nomadic people who lives in hunter gatherer communities across the country. They lived in Australia more than 10,000 years before the europeans came. Many of them died out though when the europeans arrived because of disease, land loss, and violence with settlers.

European Colonization In the 17 th century the Dutch explored Australia but most of it was undisturbed until is the year when Captain James Cook claimed much of the east coast for England. On January 26 th, 1788 the British established Port Jackson which is known today as Sydney. Later Colonies were set up in Melbourne, Perth, and Hobart. Most of the colonists were soldiers or convicts. In 1851 many people came to Australia because of the discovery of gold. Finally in 1868 the practice of bringing prisoners ceased.

1900’s In 1901 the 6 British colonies all agreed to become a federation, thus creating the commonwealth of Australia. Around this time Australia went from being a loyal British empire member to an independent. They got the role of a loyal member by always supplying English troops in there conflics such as the Boer war, WW 1, and WW II. A major way they became more independent was going through many hardships in the WW II battle of Gallipdi, Turkey, which creation of ANZAC (Australian and new Zeland army corps)

Multicultural times in 20 th century In the second half of the 20 th century Australia saw a large transformation of ethnic makeup. At the end of WW II in 1945 almost all Aussies were of Anglo-Celtic descent. The 1950’s through 60’s is when many immigrants from Greece, Italy, and other European country’s came over. Most Asian immigrants came in the 1970’s. today 25% of Australians were born overseas and 40% are immigrants of children of immigrants.

Modern Times In the 1960’s there were many reforms that addressed aborigine issues marked the year aborigines received national voting rights. In 1970 the government ended a long standing assimiltion policy, that removed children from there aboriginel parents Australian high court ruled aborigines were on the continent before the Europeans. This legislation let aborigines press land claimes. Now aborigine culture is regarded as an important part of society. Prime minister Kevin Rudd apoligized formaly to aborigines for past mistreatment. In 2010 Australia elected Julia Eillen Gilard as the first woman prime minister.