History of Australia:
Prehistory:
SINCE: Immigration of the original inhabitants,
TO: the first European sighting confirmed in 1606.
The southern land has been inhabited by humans for between 42,000 and 48,000 years.
At that time there was a period of massive environmental change, result of human actions.
- First Australians were the ancestors of today's Aborigines:
Arrived by land bridges and short length steps from maritime Southeast Asia. Most of these people were hunter-gatherers with a tradition and spiritual values based on the worship of the earth and the belief of sleep time.
- The Torres Strait Islanders:
Ethnically Melanesian, inhabited the Torres Strait Islands and parts of far north Queensland, have different cultural practices to those of other Australian Aboriginal groups.
Contact with Asia:
For at least the past century, Calcutta has traded with the natives of the north coast.
1603: Matteo Ricci made a map of the known world at that time.
In the space where they would place Australia, noted: “No one has been in this southern land, therefore we know nothing about it.”
He also wrote in Chinese characters: Fire’s Land and Land of Parrots, which suggested that the Chinese knew or perhaps even visited Australia.
European exploration:
The earliest writings about the discovery of the Australian continent by European explorers date from the seventeenth century.
The first European sighting of the continent was made in 1606 by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, who sailed through the Gulf of landing in the west coast of Cape York Peninsula.
However, some historians believe the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros sighted the Australian mainland a few months earlier.
In fact, the navigator Luis Vaez de Torres belonging to the Quiros expedition was the first to map “the Torres Strait”.
Other writers have argued that Portuguese navigators discovered Australia even earlier, in the sixteenth century
(Cristovão de Mendonça – Botany Bay – 1522)
In 1770, Endeavour’s issue sailed and mapped the east coast of Australia, landing on the continent for the first time in Botany Bay on 29 April.
Then Cook turned north and, before leaving, he landed on Possession Island in the Torres Strait, on 22 August. There he formally claimed the eastern coast of Australia to the Kingdom of Great Britain and named New South Wales.
Settlement and colonization:
In the British Crown Colony of New South Wales, established a settlement and penal colony at Port Jackson (now part of Sydney) founded by Captain Arthur Phillip on 26 June 1788.
- Tasmania was founded in 1803 and became a separate colony in 1825.
- The UK claimed as its own the western part of Australia in 1829.
- Separate colonies were formed from portions of New South Wales: South Australia (1836), Victoria (1851) and Queensland (1859). The Northern Territory (1863) was founded as part of the province of South Australia.
- Victoria and South Australia were founded as "free", meaning they were never penal colonies.
- Western Australia was also founded "free", but agreed after penal transportation due to the scarcity of jobs suffering.
- New Zealand was part of New South Wales until 1840, when it became a colony by itself. The transportation of convicts was being gradually abolished throughout Australia between 1840 and 1864.
- The Northern Territory was divided by latitude 20 °S in Northern Australia and Central Australia.
- The Indigenous Population, (estimated at 350,000 inhabitants at the time of European settlement), was significantly reduced in the 150 years following that establishment, mainly due to infectious diseases with cultural disintegration and the forced resettlement suffered due to the advance of settlers.
- The separation of Aboriginal children and their families, which some historians argue that indigenous and should be considered genocide under the laws of today, may have a small contribution to the population decline of the native peoples.
- These interpretations of national history are a matter of discussion and are ranked by some as exaggerated and fabricated for political or ideological.
- After approval of the referendum in 1967, the federal government gained the power to implement new policies and make laws with respect to Aborigines.
Assessment of the presentation:
Good things: Good pronunciation, good organization, good powerpoint, and very good information. Also, a good structure of the presentation.
Bad things: I was a bit nervous, and my voice showed this.
Note: 9
Paula.
