Pre-history and Aboriginal occupation
The first European settlers who arrived at Botany Bay in 1788 saw Australia as
terra nullius
- empty land - on the principle that Aborigines didn't "use" the country in an agricultural sense. However, decades of archeological work,...
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The first Europeans
Although earlier attempts had been made to locate and map the continent, by the Dutch, Spanish and French, it was only with the
Endeavour
expedition headed by Captain
James Cook
that a concerted effort was made. Cook had headed to...
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Founding of the colony of NSW
The outcome of the American War of Independence in 1783 saw Britain deprived of anywhere to transport convicted criminals; they were temporarily housed in prison ships or "hulks", moored around the country, while the government tried to solve...
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The Rum Corps and Governor Macquarie
After Phillip's departure in 1792, the military, known as the
New South Wales Corps
(or more familiarly as "the rum corps"), soon became the supreme political force in the colony. Headed by
John Macarthur
, they soon...
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The Victorian era
Australia's first
goldrush
occurred in 1851 near Bathurst, west of Sydney. Between 1850 and 1890 Sydney's population jumped from 60,000 to 400,000; terrace houses were jammed together, and with their decorative cast-iron railings and...
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Federation, WWI and WWII
With
Federation
in 1901, the separate colonies came under one central government and a nation was created. Unhappily for Sydney, Melbourne was the capital of the
Commonwealth of Australia
until Canberra was built in 1927 - exactly...
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The postwar generation
Australia came out of World War II realizing that the country was closer to Asia than Europe, and began to look to the USA and the Pacific, as well as Britain, for direction.
Immigration
was speeded up, fuelled by Australia's recent...
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1965 to the present
Immigration continued in waves, with a large influx of people from postwar Vietnam and Southeast Asia aided by Gough Whitlam's tolerant Labor government (before it was famously sacked by the Governor General in 1975). Noticeably concentrated ethnic...
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