Exploration by Europeans till 1812
Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago,
[37] possibly with the migration of people by
land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now
South-East Asia.
These first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous
Australians. At the time of European settlement in the late 18th
century, most Indigenous Australians were
hunter-gatherers, with a complex
oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the
Dreamtime. The
Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically
Melanesian, were originally horticulturalists and hunter-gatherers.
[38]
Following sporadic visits by fishermen from the
Malay Archipelago,
[39]
the first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland and the
first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent were
attributed to the Dutch navigator
Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of
Cape York Peninsula on an unknown date in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the
Pennefather River on the western shore of Cape York, near the modern town of
Weipa.
[40]
The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines of
"New Holland" during the 17th century, but made no attempt at
settlement.
[40] William Dampier,
an English explorer and privateer landed on the north-west coast of
Australia in 1688 and again in 1699 on a return trip. In 1770,
James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain.
[41] Cook's discoveries prepared the way for establishment of a new
penal colony. Captain
Arthur Phillip led the
First Fleet into
Port Jackson on 26 January 1788.
[42] This date became Australia's national day,
Australia Day. (The British
Crown Colony
of New South Wales was not formally promulgated until 7 February 1788,
but 26 January has entered the popular consciousness as the effective
date of its foundation.)
Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, was settled in 1803 and became a separate colony in 1825.
[43] The United Kingdom formally claimed the western part of Australia in 1828.
[44]
Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales:
South Australia in 1836,
Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859.
[45] The
Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia.
[46] South Australia was founded as a "free province"—it was never a penal colony.
[47] Victoria and Western Australia were also founded "free", but later accepted
transported convicts.
[48][49]
A campaign by the settlers of New South Wales led to the end of convict
transportation to that colony; the last convict ship arrived in 1848.
[50]
The indigenous population, estimated at 750,000 to 1,000,000 at the time of European settlement,
[51] declined steeply for 150 years following settlement, mainly due to infectious disease.
[52] The "
Stolen Generations" (removal of Aboriginal children from their families), which historians such as
Henry Reynolds have argued could be considered genocide,
[53] may have contributed to the decline in the Indigenous population.
[54] Such interpretations of Aboriginal history are disputed by conservative commentators such as former Prime Minister
John Howard as exaggerated or fabricated for political or ideological reasons.
[55] This debate is known within Australia as the
History wars.
[56] The Federal government gained the power to make laws with respect to Aborigines following the
1967 referendum.
[57] Traditional ownership of land—
aboriginal title—was not recognised until 1992, when the
High Court case
Mabo v Queensland (No 2) overturned the notion of Australia as
terra nullius ("land belonging to no one") before European occupation.
[58]
A
gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s,
[59] and the
Eureka Rebellion against mining licence fees in 1854 was an early expression of
civil disobedience.
[60] Between 1855 and 1890, the six colonies individually gained
responsible government, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the
British Empire.
[61] The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs,
[62] defence,
[63] and international shipping.
On 1 January 1901
federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, consultation, and voting.
[64] The Commonwealth of Australia was established and it became a
dominion
of the British Empire in 1907. The Federal Capital Territory (later
renamed the Australian Capital Territory) was formed in 1911 as the
location for the future federal capital of Canberra. Melbourne was the
temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927 while Canberra was
constructed.
[65] The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the federal parliament in 1911.
[66] In 1914, Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I, with support from both the outgoing
Commonwealth Liberal Party and the incoming
Australian Labor Party.
[67] Australians took part in many of the major battles fought on the
Western Front.
[68] Of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded.
[69] Many Australians regard the defeat of the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at
Gallipoli as the birth of the nation—its first major military action.
[70][71] The
Kokoda Track campaign is regarded by many as an analogous nation-defining event during
World War II.
[72]
Britain's
Statute of Westminster 1931 formally ended most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. Australia
adopted it in 1942,
[73] but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during World War II.
[74][75] The shock of the UK's defeat in Asia in 1942 and the
threat of Japanese invasion caused Australia to turn to the
United States as a new ally and protector.
[76] Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the US, under the
ANZUS treaty.
[77] After World War II Australia encouraged immigration from Europe. Since the 1970s and following the abolition of the
White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and elsewhere was also promoted.
[78] As a result, Australia's demography, culture, and self-image were transformed.
[79] The final constitutional ties between Australia and the UK were severed with the passing of the
Australia Act 1986, ending any British role in the government of the Australian States, and closing the option of judicial appeals to the
Privy Council in London.
[80] In a
1999 referendum, 55 per cent of Australian voters and a majority in every Australian state rejected a proposal to become a
republic with a president appointed by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of the Australian Parliament. Since the election of the
Whitlam Government in 1972,
[81] there has been an increasing focus in foreign policy on ties with other
Pacific Rim nations, while maintaining close ties with Australia's traditional allies and trading partners.
[82]
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