Women were given the vote in the Parliament of South Australia in 1895 and they became the first women in the world allowed to stand in elections.[22][23]. 4. In 1840, the Adelaide City Council and the Sydney City Council were started and some people could vote for them (but only men with a certain amount of money). English is the first language of the majority of the population, being the only language spoken in the home for approximately 72.7% of the population. Aboriginal people did not usually build houses, except huts of grass, leaves and bark. But in 1770 a British sailor, Captain James Cook, found the fertile east coast of Australia. Old … Sydney grew, and new towns were started. [10] The country is divided up into six states and two territories, and more than half of Australia's population lives in and around the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide. Australian music has had lots of world-wide stars, for example the opera singers Nellie Melba and Joan Sutherland, the rock and roll bands Bee Gees, AC/DC and INXS, the folk-rocker Paul Kelly (musician), the pop singer Kylie Minogue and Australian country music stars Slim Dusty and John Williamson. Australia is the sixth biggest country in the world. In 1788 the British First Fleet of 11 ships, carrying about 1500 people arrived at Botany Bay (Sydney). The other colonies soon followed. Today Australia remembers this battle every year on ANZAC Day. Then, Australia's first parliamentary elections were held for the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1843, again with some limits on who could vote. Around 4-5% of Australians could not get a job in 2010. Somehow, the little group of tents with a hut for the Governor, Arthur Phillip, and another hut for the supply of food, grew into a small town with streets, a bridge over the stream, a windmill for grinding grain and wharves for ships. Share page. Related Topics. Sport is an important part of Australian culture because the climate is good for outdoor activities. 25 millions[9] people live in Australia, and about 85% of them live near the east coast. Hamilton Hume and William Hovell went south from Sydney by land. Aboriginal art started at least 30,000 years ago and there are lots of Dreaming stories painted on walls and cut in rocks all around Australia. An important new party, the Liberal Party of Australia was made by Robert Menzies in 1944 and it won lots of elections from 1949 until in 1972, then Gough Whitlam won for the Labor Party. Their contact influenced the Aboriginal tribes of Arnhem Land with the introduction of steel, boats, cards and words, which are still in use today. Hobart was much smalle… They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering. Captain Phillip found that Botany Bay was flat and windy. A road was built and the governor, Lachlan Macquarie founded the town of Bathurst on the other side, 100 miles from Sydney. At last they sailed into a large open bay which was full of fish and stingrays which the sailors speared for food. Their religion is called the Dreamtime, which has lots of stories about the creation of the world by spirits. The boomerang was used in some areas for sport and for hunting. In simple physical terms, the age of much of the continent is certainly impressive—most of the rocks providing the foundation of Australian landforms were formed during Precambrian and Paleozoic time (some 4.6 billion to 252 In 1813 Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and a 17-year-old called William Charles Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains and found land on the other side which was good for farming. In the early days of the colony, a great number of explorers went out, searching for good land to settle on. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Most of the Australian colonies, having been settled from Britain, became mostly independent democratic states in the 1850s and all six combined as a federation on 1 January 1901. Australian TV has produced many successful programs for home and overseas - including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Home and Away and Neighbours - and produced such well known TV stars as Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) and The Wiggles. Just 60 years ago, Australia had only one big art festival. Australia became more multicultural. For the history of Australia, see History of Australia. The land was dry because of not much rain; some was a desert. At about the time that Citibank released its promissory note, the Australian Sentry Life Insurance Company, responding to a survey of its customers, produced a plain language insurance policy. In 1855, the right to vote was given to all men over 21 in South Australia. This system was copied around the world. In 1606 the first European, Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (1571–1639), visited the west. He saw them fishing and hunting and collecting grass seeds and fruit. In most parts of the world, people put up a house and a fence or some marker to show that they own the land. Britain needed a place to send its convicts (people who had been sent to jail for theft and other crimes) because its gaols were full and it had just lost its American colonies in the American War of Independence. Over the next 25 years, millions of people came to Australia. Aborigines from Bathurst Island (1939), one of the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory. The transportation of convicts to Australia ended in the 1840s and 1850s and more changes came. They sent Captain James Cook to the Pacific Ocean. close. But in 1770 a British sailor, Captain James Cook, found the fertile east coast of Australia. Some died like Burke and Wills. Their leader was Captain Arthur Phillip. [19][20][21] The Aboriginal people did not use metal or make pottery or use bows and arrows or weave cloth. Australia is the lowest, flattest, and oldest continental landmass on Earth and it has had a relatively stable geological history. When other Pacific islands are included with Australasia, it is called Oceania. Australia fought alongside Britain in World War I, notably with the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in the Dardanelles campaign (1915). The largest city is Sydney.[14]. Major Australian subgroups such as the Bogan have been shown on Australian TV in shows such as Bogan Hunters and Kath & Kim.[28]. Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and other islands on the Australian tectonic plate are together called Australasia, which is one of the world's great ecozones. Australia supported the United States in wars against dictatorships in Korea and Vietnam and later Iraq. They were free from British rule and would not take England's convicts any more, so England needed to find a new and less populated place. But voices were getting louder for all of them to come together as one country with a national parliament. In 1826, the first British military outpost was set up at King George Sound in Western Australia. Because of this, many animals and plants live in Australia that do not live anywhere else. This page was last changed on 16 March 2021, at 03:44. But by the 1770s, the colonies in America became the United States. Australia has two public broadcasters (the ABC and the multi-cultural SBS), three commercial television networks, three pay-TV services, and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations. Published 7 January 2020. After the war, Australia became a close friend of the United States. English is the commonly spoken language in Australia although ’Australian English’ has a distinctive accent and vocabulary. Often they were sent away to the British colonies in America. The original inhabitants, who have descendants to this day, are known as aborigines. They did not usually build walls or fences, and there were no horses, cows or sheep in Australia that needed to be kept in pens. The population grew across south east Australia and made great wealth and industry. For a more detailed discussion of Aboriginal culture, see Australian Aboriginal peoples. Whitlam made changes, but he made the Senate unhappy and the Governor-General sacked him and forced an election in 1975. The Parliament of Australia sits in Canberra and makes laws for the whole country, also known as the Commonwealth or Federation. In some parts of Australia the people used sharp flaked-stone spearheads, but most Aboriginal spears were made of sharply pointed wood. In the 1980s and 90s, the Labor Party under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, then the Liberal Party under John Howard made lots of changes to the economy. The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early colonial period of Australia's history, from the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney, New South Wales, who established the penal colony, the scientific exploration of the continent and later, establishment of other Australian colonies. The history of Australia records that the first settlers were Aboriginals from Southeast Asia who arrived about 40,000 years ago. But usually they were just thrown in gaol. Second was Sydney with about 360,000. Some were killed, and many died from illness and hunger. 2003, "Hiding the Bodies: the myth of the humane colonisation of Australia", in Journal of Aboriginal History, Vol. From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The largest inland city is Canberra, which is also the nation's capital. Then they sailed westward. It was probable that everyone in the new colony would die of starvation. [12] The continent of Australia, including the island of Tasmania, was separated from the other continents of the world many millions of years ago. Queensland became a separate colony in 1859. Each state and territory has its own Parliament and makes its own local laws. [3] Famous Australian sports players include the cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, the swimmer Ian Thorpe and the athlete Cathy Freeman. Arthur Phillip led them as the first Governor of New South Wales. On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. [18] This meant that a lot of grass grew back, but not many big trees. The largest city was Melbourne with a population of about 420,000. Ancient Australia (also called the Prehistory of Australia), covers the time from when the first humans came to Australia to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. The fleet assembled at Mother Bank, the Isle of Wight, later arriving at Cape Town to take ab… They sailed up the coast and Captain Cook named the land that he saw "New South Wales". They were to make a new colony at the place that Captain Cook had discovered, named Botany Bay because of all the unknown plants found there by the two scientists. More modern famous writers include Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally and Colleen McCullough. The currency in Australia is the Australian dollar. (1942) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online, "Fair Dinkum Fillums": the Crocodile Dundee Phenomenon, St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Australia&oldid=7462474, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2016 ID same as Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz area identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. They decided there would be no economic reasons to stay. All the plants were different so no-one knew which ones could be eaten. Led by Captain Arthur Phillip, the fleet comprised of the frigate HMS Sirius, four storeships, the armed tender Supply, the Golden Grove, Borrowdale, Fishburn and six transports, the Scarborough, Lady Penrhyn, Friendship, Charlotte, the Prince of Wales and the Alexander. In the past decades people from all over the world have come to Australia. They lived in all sorts of climates and managed the land in different ways. The other colonies soon followed. … Aboriginal music has songs about the Dreamtime, sometimes with special instruments like the didgeridoo. [32] Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger became global stars during the 1990s and Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman made a lot of money in 2008. Share. The 19th century would be dominated by the British Empire, spreading on all five continents, from Canada and the Caribeans to Australia and New Zealand, via Africa, India and South-East Asia. ", "Electoral milestones for Indigenous Australians", Women and the Right to Vote in Australia - Australian Electoral Commission, "Australia in Brief: Australia - an overview - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade", Video Overview The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online, Video Overview In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online, Video Overview Kokoda Front Line! The Swan River Colony was started in 1829, with townsites at Fremantle and Perth. Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, 13th February 1790, Historical Records of New South Wales, I, ii, pg. So the government said it would take in people from Europe who had lost their homes in the war. Its name was later changed to honour the man who discovered it. A new secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 1856, allowing people to vote in private. He went with two ships up the coast and sailed into a great harbor which he said was "the finest harbor in the world!" The Dutch governor, van Diemen, sent Abel Tasman on a voyage of discovery and he found Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land. Ludwig Leichhardt got lost twice. They found the Murray River, and good land in Victoria. Australia started trading more with America, than Japan. [31] In the 1970s and 1980s lots of big Australian movies and movie stars became world famous with movies like Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli (with Mel Gibson), The Man From Snowy River and Crocodile Dundee. Later they also came from countries like Turkey and Lebanon. In Australia at this time, the trade unions were very strong, and they started a political party, the Australian Labor Party. Adelaide had about 115,000 and Brisbane 86,000. The government decided to make a settlement in New South Wales and send some of the convicts there. [30] Flynn went on to a celebrated career in Hollywood. Julia Gillard became the first woman Prime Minister of Australia in 2010 when she replaced her colleague Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party. A lot of land in Australia (like Uluru) has been returned to Aboriginal people, but lots of Aborigines are still poorer than everybody else. 79-104 3. There was not much fresh water. More than 60,000 Australians were killed. Corporate and government sponsorship of many sports and elite athletes is common in Australia. [5], In 1855, limited self-government was granted by London to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The History of Aboriginals in Western Australia bares witness to these events. In 1840, the city councils started and some people could vote. English is the main spoken language, and Christianity is the main religion, though all religions are accepted and not everybody has a religion. It is unknown where they came from and how they appeared in Australia but it is estimated they have been habitants to their homeland for around 60,000 years ago or more. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Australia is a very big country, but much of the land is very dry, and the middle of the continent is mostly desert. Only after Dirk Hartog chanced upon the west coast in 1616 did other European vessels visit and map the coast. This timeline begins when the Europeans first arrived. In 2013 according to world bank Australia had just over 23.13 million people. Englishman Matthew Flinders published his map of the coast in 1814, calling it Australia for the first time, a name later formally adopted by the authorities. In the 1950s and 1960s Australia became one of the richest countries in the world, helped by mining and wool. enough was known for a map to be published in 1811. In 1855, limited self-government was given by London to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The first Prime Minister of Australia was Edmund Barton in 1901. In 1911, Australia's Capital Territory (where Canberra is located today) was formally established, and in 1927, the seat of government was transferred from Melbourne to Canberra. Captain Cook saw the Aboriginal people with their simple way of life. There is also evidence that the Aboriginal people used farming methods. The explorers thought no crops could be grown and so it would be difficult for people to live there. Australian soldiers were sent to Gallipoli, in the Ottoman Empire. The United Kingdom has the Plain English Campaign, started by a Liverpool woman who was fed up with unintelligible government forms. 1606 - The first European to land at Australia is Dutch explorer Captain Willem Janszoon. [3] They lived in all parts of Australia. The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Other major international events held regularly in Australia include the Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, annual international cricket matches and the Formula One Australian Grand Prix.