How much understanding of Australian national history should we all have? One would think as much as possible. Knowing some key events and names, an appreciation of the development of Australia from an isolated island continent inhabited by Indigenous Australians to the commencement of occasional contact with visitors from the outside world, to the point where we started to become a confident player on the world stage, would be an impressive start. To help you, we have compiled a thumbnail sketch of the fundamentals of Australian history.
One can recognize FOUR PERIODS. Some of these overlap.
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Written by AOTM
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BEFORE ANY OF OUR HISTORY WAS WRITTEN DOWN the Original Australians lived here for more than 40.000 years. They may be the oldest continuous population in the world. Many hunted and gathered for their livelihood, some lived in semi-permanent villages. They arrived here from the North, group after group and occupied the continent. |
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Written by AOTM
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THE AUSTRALIAN MARITIME CONTACT PERIOD is a most exciting but not well known period, starting in 1606, when the first European mariners sailed into Australian water, recording their observations of this land and the residents they encountered. Every Australian should know the name of Willem Janszoon and his ship Duyfken, the first recorded ship and crew to chart an Australian coast as well as the first to meet with Aboriginal people. |
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Written by AOTM
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THE COLONIAL ERA, includes the exploratory expeditions into the interior and the slow and often painful contact history on land. It starts with the arrival of the first fleet on the 26 January 1788, in Sydney, lead by Arthur Phillip, to establish a penal colony. This was the main reason for the initial British settlement. |
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Written by AOTM
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AUSTRALIA SINCE FEDERATION, begins with the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 as an independent nation. (Note it was not an 'end of the colony' where the colonists returned to the home country and left the land to the indigenous people as later happened elsewhere). Shortly after women gained the right to vote.
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