Unit 2: Australia.

In this unit, you will learn about how Australia was discovered and how the British began
settling in this continent.
Australia is not just a big island but a island-continent because it is a huge land. It belongs to
the Continent of Ocenia.
Before we begin, you need to understand these terms:
Colony, Settlement, founded by, discovery, aboriginals, ancestors, mytology. (So please do
your own research and write the answers in your exercise book) Will quiz you in class.

Discovery – Meaning – someone discovered the existence of this land

Though Australia was inhabited by native aboriginals who probably arrived more than 40,000
years ago, the first European was believed to be a Dutch explorer Williem Janszoon on the
western side of Cape York Peninsula in 1606. They did not have intention to colonise it.
In 1770, explorer James Cook from Britain discovered a land(the eastern coast of Ayustralia)
on the pacific occen and soon after he also discovered New Zealand.

Aboriginal Australia.

They developed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, established enduring spiritual and artistic traditions and
used stone technologies. The make tools and artefacts using stone. Below are some stone tools.

A stone hand axe for

slaughtering animals
 Stone knives

The population of the aboriginal people existed as 250 individual nations with their own distinct
language.

Permanent European settlers arrived at Sydney in 1788 and came to control most of the continent by
the end of the 19th century. The indigenous people knew themselves to be the landowners and
expected to share the products of the land: for example sheep and vegetables grown by the white
settlers. However, new settlement expanded and began to push the indigenous people away from their
traditional lands, denying access to their food supplies.

Consequences of British Colonisation for the indigenous people

Loss of land The culture scorned by the European settlers

Loss of food resources

No access to sacred sites population decrease.

When colonial rule was imposed upon them

Resistance disease loss of life murder

social disruption
Establishment of British Colonist

Arrival of the first settlers and early establishments.

** (Settlers are people to come to settle in a new area not necessarily to colonise)
First fleet of 11 vessels under the command of Captain Arthur Philip arrived in January 1788.
Consisted of 778 convicts and thousands of other white settlers.
Settlement was established at Sydney Cove on 26th January 1788. This date later became the
Australia’s national day.
Governor Philip was vested with complete authority over the inhabitants of the colony.
Incentives were given to the free white people who agreed to settle in this new land.
More male and female convicts were landed at Sydney between 1788 to 1792 – many were
professional criminals with few of the skills required for the establishment of a colony.
Many new arrivals were also sick or unfit for work. With hard labour and poor sustenance,
convicts fell sick. When the second fleet and third fleet arrived, the conditions very really bad
because of lack of food and unhealthy conditions.
Food was very scarce when Australia was first colonized. Lots of people on board the fleets
died from food shortages and there was only enough room on the ships to carry enough crops
to begin farming.
The environment in Australia was very different from what farmers were used to in Britian and
lots of crops and livestock could not survive in hot and dry Australian landscape.
Gradually in 1791, the more regular arrival of ships and the beginnings of trade lessened the
feeling of isolation and improved supplies.
In 1824, a penal colony was established near the mouth of Brisbane River. In 1829, the Swan
River Colony and its capital of Perth were founded on the west coast proper and also assumed
of the British crown.
Some convicts particularly Irish convicts had been transported to Australia political crimes or
social rebellion, so authorities were consequently suspicious of the Irish and restricted the
practice of Catholicism of Australia.

Rebellions
The Irish led Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 served to increased suspicions and repression.
The NSW Corps was formed in England in 1789 as a permanent regiment to relieve the marines
who had accompanied the First Fleet. Officers of the corps soon became involved in the corrupt
and lucrative rum trade in the colony.
In the Rum Rebellion of 1808, the Corps, working closely with the newly established wool trader
John Macarthur, staged a successful armed takeover of government deposing Governor William
Bligh and instigating a brief period of military rule in the colony prior to the arrival from Britain
another Governor named Lachlan Macquarie in 1810.

Questions: Write your answers in your exercise books.

1. What did the aboriginals do for a living before the arrival of the Europeans?
2. Who first sailed close to this big land before James Cook discovered it?
3. What is a Penal settlement / colony?
4. Find evidence on why Botany Bay was found suitable to be a penal settlement.