Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 101 637
THE REST OF AUSTRALIA “White” Australia was always used to distinguish
the Anglo-Saxon population from that of the Aboriginal population.
These days, though, a walk through any of the major cities will show that things
have changed dramatically. About 100,000 people immigrate to Australia each
year. Of these, approximately 12% were born in the U.K. or Ireland, 11% in
New Zealand, and more than 21% are from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, or
the Philippines. Waves of immigration have brought in millions of people since
the end of World War II. At the last census in 1996, more than a quarter of a
million Australian residents were born in Italy, for example, some 186,000 in the
former Yugoslavia, 144,000 in Greece, 118,000 in Germany, and 103,000 in
China. So what’s the typical Australian like? Well, he’s hardly Crocodile Dundee.
3 Australian History 101
IN THE BEGINNING In the
beginning there was the Dreamtime—
at least according to the Aborigines of
Australia. Between then and now, perhaps,
the supercontinent referred to as
Pangaea split into two huge continents
called Laurasia and Gondwanaland.
Over millions of years, continental drift
carried the land masses apart. Laurasia
broke up and formed North America,
Europe, and most of Asia. Meanwhile,
Gondwanaland divided into South
America, Africa, India, Australia and
New Guinea, and Antarctica. Giant
marsupials evolved to roam the continent
of Australia: among them were a
plant-eating animal that looked like a
wombat the size of a rhinoceros; a giant
squashed-face kangaroo standing 3m
(10 ft.) high; and a flightless bird the
same size as an emu, but four times
heavier. The last of these giant marsupials
are believed to have died out some
40,000 years ago, possibly helped
towards extinction by Aborigines.
EARLY EXPLORERS The existence
of Australia had been in the minds of
Europeans since the Greek astronomer
Ptolemy drew a map of the world in
about A.D. 150 showing a large land
mass in the south, which he believed
had to be there to balance out the land
in the northern hemisphere. He called it
Terra Australia Incognita—the unknown
southland.
Evidence suggests Portuguese ships
reached Australia as early as 1536 and
Dateline
■ 120,000 B.C. Evidence suggests
Aborigines living in Australia.
■ 60,000 B.C. Aborigines living in
Arnham Land in the far north fashion
stone tools.
■ 24,500 B.C. The world’s oldest known
ritual cremation takes place at Lake
Mungo.
■ 1606 Dutch explorer Willem Jansz
lands on far north coast of Van
Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).
■ 1622 First English ship to reach
Australia wrecks on the west coast.
■ 1642 Abel Tasman charts the
Tasmanian coast.
■ 1770 Capt. James Cook lands at
Botany Bay.
■ 1787 Capt. Arthur Phillip’s First Fleet
leaves England with convicts aboard.
■ 1788 Captain Phillip raises British flag
at Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour).
■ 1788–1868 Convicts are transported
from England to the colony of
Australia.
■ 1793 The first free settlers arrive.
■ 1830 Governor Arthur lines up 5,000
settlers across Van Diemen’s Land to
walk the length of the island to
capture and rid it of all Aborigines.
■ 1850 Gold discovered in Bathurst,
New South Wales.
■ 1852 Gold rush begins in Ballarat,
Victoria.
■ 1853 The last convict arrives in Van
Diemen’s Land and to celebrate, the
colony is renamed Tasmania after Abel
Tasman.
continues