Contact
Here come the Europeans
First Explorers
• The First: March 1606, Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (1571–1638) charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.
The Next Explorer
• Later that same year (1606), the Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait separating Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Continued Exploration
Over the next two
centuries,
European
explorers and
traders continued
to chart the
coastline of
Australia, then
known as New
Holland.
Map of Dutch exploration
The First British ExplorerIn 1688, William Dampier became the
first British explorer to land on the
Australian north west coast.
Captain Cook takes his shotIt was not until 1770
that another
Englishman, Captain
James Cook, aboard
the Endeavour,
extended a scientific
voyage to the South
Pacific in order to
further chart the east
coast of Australia and
claim it for the British
Crown.
Captain Cook‟s VoyagesThe routes of Captain James Cook's voyages. The first voyage is shown in red,
second voyage in green, third voyage in blue.
Captain Cook‟s first voyage into the seas around Australia took him to New Zealand, which until then had apparently been visited by Europeans only once, by Abel Tasman in 1642. Cook mapped its complete coastline (with only minor mistakes, such as calling Banks Peninsula an island and thinking Stewart Island was part of the South Island), discovering Cook Strait (named by Banks), which separates the North Island from the South Island and which Abel Tasman had not guessed at.
Accidental DiscoveryCook also discovered the Great Barrier Reef, when his ship ran aground June 11th 1770; Endeavour was seriously damaged and his voyage was delayed for two months while repairs were carried out. He then sailed through Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, again becoming only the second European to do so (the first being Luis Vaez de Torres, in 1604). His ship on this voyage, HM Bark Endeavour, gave the name to the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Botany Bay
The site of Cook's first landing, at Kurnell on Botany Bay, was the site of one of the earliest European contacts with Australian Aborigines and the first European sightings of Australian flora and fauna (the name Botany Bay was chosen to reflect the diverse range of flora found there).
The First Prison Colony
Botany Bay, was intended to be the site of
the first British colony in Australia, but
when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived with
the First Fleet in 1788, he felt that Botany
Bay was unsuitable, and sailed a short
distance northwards to Port Jackson, for
the establishment of Sydney.
Show Film
• Movie time!
• Show “European Colonization”
• Show “Australia‟s Early Settlers Aborigines
and Prisoners and Free Settlers”
Bring on the Convicts!
Britain decided to use its new outpost as a penal colony. The First Fleet of 11 ships carried about 1500 people – half of them convicts. The fleet arrived in Sydney Harbor on 26 January 1788, and it is on this day every year that Australia Day is celebrated
From 1788 to 1823, the Colony of New South
Wales was officially a penal colony comprised
mainly of convicts, marines and the wives of the
marines. About 160,000 men and women were
brought to Australia as convicts from 1788 until
penal transportation ended in 1868. The
convicts were joined by free immigrants
beginning in the early 1790s. The wool industry
and the gold rushes of the 1850s provided an
impetus for increasing numbers of free settlers
to come to Australia.
A land of opportunity for Europeans
Scarcity of labor,
the vastness of
the land and
new wealth
based on
farming, mining
and trade made
Australia a land
of opportunity.
Effects of a growing population on
Aborigine peoples
• During the first century of white settlement,
the Aboriginal population declined
dramatically in numbers. Death, illness,
displacement and dispossession disrupted
traditional lifestyles and practices.
The Aboriginal population at the time of initial
European colonization was 350,000. It is estimated
that over the 90 years of prisoner transport the
Aboriginal population dropped as low as 100,000
people. During this time the British brought about
160,000 prisoners to the country. The White settlers
soon found the presence of Aboriginals near their
settlements to be a nuisance. Crime and petty theft
along with a very serious Aboriginal addiction problem
to alcohol caused White settlers to exact severe
punishments on the local population. These reprisals
were sometimes unjustified and involved serious
massacres.
This state of mutual reprisals led to generally strained
relations between the White settlers and the locals.
However, the rapid thinning out of the Aboriginal
population by disease meant that by 1920, according
to estimates, there were only about 60,000 left. The
remaining aborigines were “westernized” and were
forced to adopt what Europeans considered a superior
culture.
The Stolen Generations
• Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000
Aboriginal children were taken forcibly or
under duress from their families by police
or welfare officers.
• Most were under 5 years old. There was
rarely any judicial process. To be
Aboriginal was enough. They are known
as the „Stolen Generations‟.
What happened to them?
• Most were raised in Church or state
institutions. Some were fostered or
adopted by white parents.
• Many suffered abuses. Food and living
conditions were poor.
• They received little education, and were
expected to go into low grade domestic
and farming work.
Why they were taken.• They were taken because it
was Federal and State
Government policy that
Aboriginal children -
especially those of mixed
Aboriginal and European
descent - should be removed
from their parents.
• Between 10 and 30% of all
Aboriginal children were
removed, and in some places
these policies continued into
the 1970s.
Why continued
• The main motive was to „assimilate‟ Aboriginal children into European society over one or two generations by denying and destroying their Aboriginality.
• Speaking their languages and practicing their ceremonies was forbidden
• They were taken miles from their country, some overseas
• Parents were not told where their children were and could not trace them
• Children were told that they were orphans
• Family visits were discouraged or forbidden; letters were destroyed.
Positive benefits of British
settlement
• Not every policy that British lawmakers put into
place was hurtful to the Aborigine peoples. For
example, The British government itself followed
a policy of trying to protect the Aboriginals:
indeed the very first state-paid schools for
Aboriginals was set up by one of the early
governors, one Lachlan Macquarie (who served
as governor from 1809 to 1821). This was done
long before the colonial governments set up
schools for all the Whites.
• The British government
also issued specific
instructions to protect
Aboriginals. Often
settlers adhered to
these instructions
though there were
many notable incidents
of violence against
Aborigines.
Discuss what other positive effects
British colonization had
Think of some other examples of a positive
benefit of British settlement of Australia for
the Aboriginal peoples.
References
• http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/
• www.aboriginalculture.com.au
•
• http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_aboriginal_whitesettler
s/index1.htm
• http://www.everyculture.com/A-
Bo/Australia.html#ixzz0U7ss4jXo
• http://www.aboriginalarts.co.uk/aboriginal_culture.htm