The Chinese, Malays, Hindu and Buddhist colonists of the islands of Southeast
Asia suspected the existence of a "great Southland." Its existence was
even found on many maps. A series of maps from France between 1536-1567 based on
Portuguese originals show a large landmass named "Java la Granda."
This would become known as Australia. Many scholars use this as proof of
Portuguese discovery, but they are independent of an actual voyage.
In 1607 Luis Vaez de Torres, a Portuguese explorer sailed between Cape York
and Papua New Guinea, in what is now known as the Torres Straight. It is
believed that he may have taken a southerly route on his journey, from which he
would have been clearly able to see the tip of Cape York, however there is no
record of this.
In 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasman a Dutch sea captain, for the Dutch East India
company became the first European to officially discover Australia. He
discovered Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, and moored there whilst
taking on new supplies. He also charted the southern coastline of Australia, but
never sighted Australia's east coast, instead moving on towards New
Zealand.
In 1768 Captain James Cook of the British Navy was dispatched to Tahiti, in
his ship the Endeavour, to observe a transit of Venus, however before he left he
was given secret orders to open only when he got to Tahiti. Upon opening these
orders he found an order to head south to look for the great southern landmass,
found by Tasman in 1642. He first headed to New Zealand in 1769 where he mapped
the complete coast of New Zealand, and then discovered and followed the east
coast of Australia and was the first in 160 years to sail through the Torres
Strait. On 22 August 1770 on Possession Island, off what is now northern
Queensland, Cook claimed all eastern Australia for King George III.
Cook returned to England where he reported his new findings. The loss of the
American War of Independence meant that Britain needed a place to send its
convicts during a particularly intolerant time for minor lawbreakers. The island
continent at the end of the world seemed a perfect place to send them. Captain
Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet landed at Port Jackson in the new colony of
New South Wales on 26 January 1788.
The First Fleet, comprising 11 ships and around 1,350 people, 736 of which
were convicts (188 were women), was dispatched to Australia with the only
information about New South Wales was that from Cook's voyage of 1770. Botany,
named by the Cooks Botanist Joseph Banks, was chosen as the first settlement
site, with Norfolk Island to be the second to provide ships masts and timber.
However, on arrival at Botany Bay on 18 January 1788, Captain Phillip decided
the site was not suitable and resolved to look for another. He decided upon Port
Jackson, the site of modern day Sydney, and the people of the First Fleet
established Australia's first settlement on 26 January 1788.
The first fleet struggled due to the harsh and very foreign nature of the
land they had encountered. In fact the early settlers didn't even realize that
the seasons here were in reverse to what they had come from in the Northern
Hemisphere. This combined with poor soil quality meant that the first fleet was
under constant threat from starvation until the second fleet arrived some two
years later. In fact farms had to be established in what is now the Parramatta
region, and the Hunter Valley.
As the settlement grew, convicts were sent to build infrastructure, and the
evidence of this is still here today in the oldest part of Sydney, the Rocks,
and in many of the roads that lead to the city. An example is the Great North
Road, which is a 240km stretch from Sydney to the second convict settlement in
Australia, Newcastle. Convicts with an iron collar, and each ankle chained
together, built this road over a ten-year period, from 1826-36. Some 700 men labored
at any given time, with picks and shovels. Their daily food ration was
1 pound of fresh or salt meat, 1 pound of flour or cornmeal, one ounce of
sugar, and half an ounce of salt.
Governor Phillip believed that the colony could not survive as with only
convicts, so embarked on a plan to entice free settlers, and give full rights to
emancipated convicts. However there was a disproportionate amount of land
ownership amongst officers of the military, who had rooted the system for many
years to gain social and economic advantage. This situation didn't change until
Governor Lachlan Macquarie was dispatched to the new colony in 1809. Macquarie
changed the colony from one of chaos and hopeless despair into visionary hope,
and embarked on a plan to increase the infrastructure and desirability of living
in the new colony.
Settlements were then established in Hobart (Tasmania) in 1803, on the
Brisbane River (Queensland) in 1824, on the Swan River (Western Australia) in
1829, on Port Phillip Bay (Victoria) in 1835 and on Gulf St Vincent (South
Australia) in 1836. Today, the capital cities of five States are on those sites.
Thus Australia was built on the back of the rugged pioneer spirit, which still
exists to this day.
Another important person in Australia's history was Matthew Flinders.
Flinders was to first man to circumnavigate Australia. It was Flinders who
suggested the name "Australia" and it was adopted in 1824, as a
collective name for the entire country, which until then as only known by the
separate colonies names.
Population growth and economic expansion prompted the colonies to call for
self-government. Thus on 1 January 1901 the six colonies joined in a federation
of States to become the Commonwealth of Australia. The site for the capital was
decided upon as Canberra (aboriginal for meeting place), after much argument
between Sydney and Melbourne. In fact Melbourne was the interim capital until
the infrastructure was in place in Canberra in 1927.
If you're gonna travel abroad, make sure you are prepared... take it from us, travel insurance is an absolute must!
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