Australian+History+Notes

Australian History Aborigines • Arrived 40-50,000 years ago from Asia • They spread all the way into Southern Australia and Tasmania Early European Contact • March 1606 – the first recorded landfall by a Dutch ship Duyfkin • August 1606 Portuguese Captain Torres sails through the Torres Strait and possibly next to the Great Barrier Reef Dutch exploration continues through the end of the 17th and into the 18th centuries European Action • 1770 James Cook Expedition for England • 1788 First Fleet lands at Sydney Cove and establishes first British Penal Colony Penal Colonies • First 736 arrived in 1788 at Botany Bay • Next 60 years, more than 50,000 more were transported from Great Britain • Ruling and upper class believed that these people were “inherently defective” • Survived on little food, often rotten • Worked in their areas of specialty More on the Penal Colonies • Harsh physical treatment occurred within the colony and prison • Last shipment in 1868 after 162,000 men and women had been transported • Ex-cons continued to live in Australia after they served their time After Colonial Rule • 1890 Australian Federation Conference calls a constitutional convention • 1891 Commonwealth of Australia is established <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">• 1901 Australia becomes a federation (after more than 10 years of debate over a constitution) Resources __Culture.Gov.AU__. 17 Nov. 2008. Australian Government Culture Portal. 10 Sep. 2009 <http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/convicts/>.