A short guide to the history of

Australia
 Table of contents:
Introduction. Why it is important to learn the history of Australia.
Part 1. Aboriginal people of Australia.
•
How did they arrive?
•
How did they live?
•
What did they do?

Part 2. European encounters with Australia.

•
The first landing
•
James Cook and his mission
•
The war against aborigines
•
British colonisation and its impact

Part 3. Quiz

Part 4. Conclusion
 Introduction.
Why it is important to learn the history of Australia.
1. It is important to learn history in general, because history can teach us
about mistakes in the past for us not to repeat those mistakes in the future.
2. In the case of Australia, it is important to know how Australia was discovered,
who discovered Australia, how it was occupied and how Europeans treated
indigenous population.
Part 1. Indigenous people of Australia.

How and when did they arrive?

●
about 40,000 BC
●
during an ice age
●
Across a land bridge
 How did they live?
●
A classical version: a hunter-gatherer society
●
A modern version: it was a complex systems of agriculture.
Aborigines were, in fact, first farmers, whose knowledge
of managing native plants and animals sustained them
for thousands of years.
 Part 2. European encounters with Australia.

The first landing.

1606 - the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon 
 James Cook and his mission.

• a famous British military explorer, navigator and

cartographer
• introduced some innovative rules for his crew (ship
“Endeavour”)
• 1770 – arrived at Botany Bay, Australia
• claimed Australia as a British colony
• established a penal colony
• the notion of “terra nullius”
 The war against aborigines
• the Europeans came to drive the Aborigines off their land
• the Aborigines resented this and fought back unexpectedly

• there were no pitched battles between Europeans and Aborigines

• Aborigines fought 'hit and run' raids

• “Australian Aboriginal War” – the unknown and undocumented war

• Lasted from 26 January 1788 until well into the 20th century, especially in areas of Queensland and Western

Australia
• major battles (if they can be termed such) occurred prior to 1850
 British colonisation and its impact
●
a wave of “Old World” epidemic diseases (smallpox, etc.)
●
appropriation of land and water resources
●
reduction of the Aboriginal population by ca. 90% between 1788 and 1900
●
1901 - Australia got its independence from the Great Britain.
●
by the early 20th century the indigenous population had declined to between
50,000 and 90,000.
●
1962 - Commonwealth legislation gave Aborigines the right to vote
●
2008 - the Australian government officially said “sorry” to the Aborigines
1. Who was the first European who
landed on Australia?
1. His name was Willem Janszoon (17th
century)
2. Who was James Cook?

2. He was an English explorer

3.When did James Cook first land on Australia?
3. In 1770
4. What was James Cook‘s main mission ?
4. His main mission was to establish
a penal colony for Britain
5. What does the term ,,terra nullius“ mean?
5. It means “an empty land”
6. What was special about the war against
aborigines?
6. No references to this war can be found in the standart
histories of Australia
7. What were the main consequences of the
early British colonisation?
7. Epidemic diseases, appropriation of
land and water resources
8. When did Australia get independent?
8. 1901
9. How many Aborigines live in Australia
today?
9. About 500,000 Aborigines live in Australia
today
 Conclusions
●
It is important to learn Australian history in order to understand modern realities of this country.
●
Special attention should be made to the history of the Aborigines, the indiginenous population of
Australia.
●
Captain James Cook claimed Australia as a British colony and a new land to establish British penal
settlements
●
The unknown “Australian Aboriginal war” resulted in catastrophical consequences for the
Aborigines
●
British colonization brought European diseases and land/property appropriations
●
The number of the Aborigines living in Australia today is as big as it was before the British
invaded Australia
Geography of Australia
Outline

1.Pangea
2.Meaning of the Australian flag
3.The flag of Aboriginal
4.The southern Hemisphere
Pangea
• was one continent
• 335 million years ago
• broke apart 175 million years ago
Meaning of the Flag of Australia

•
Six rays=six Australian states
•
One of the rays stands for the territories
•
This star is called Commonwealth star
•
Name of the other five stars= Cross of south
•
The blue background=Indian and the Pacific Ocean
The flag of Aboriginal

•
Yellow disk symbolizes=the sun
•
Black stands for the dark sinned or the night
•
Red stands for the country of central Australia
•
Red stands also for the blood of the Aboriginal
•
1995 the flag of Aboriginal was one of the flags of Australia
•
Harold Thommas designed the flag in 1971
The southern Hemisphere
•
Southern Hemisphere=half of Earth
•
It is south of the Equator
•
Australia was located in the southern Hemisphere
Thank you for your attention!
 Sources:
●
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australien, last access 21.04.2019
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Hemisphere, last access 22.04.2019
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagge_der_Aborigines, last access 18.04.2019
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagge_Australiens, last access 21.04.2019
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https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/words/flagge_australien.htm, last access 21.04.2019
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook, last access 27.04.2019
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Australia, last access 15.04.2019
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http://www.aboriginalart.com.au/aboriginal_australia.html, last access: 27.04.2019
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https://www.nla.gov.au/faq/who-was-the-first-european-to-land-on-australia, last access 28.04.2019
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https://www.ducksters.com/biography/explorers/captain_james_cook.php, last access 13.04.2019
●
https://www.kapiert.de/englisch/klasse-9-10/land-leute/landeskunde-australien/die-geschichte-australiens/, last access 01.05.2019