Full Answer
How many species of fly are there in Australia?
While there are about 30,000 species of fly in Australia, we only really come into contact with four groups: the bush fly, house fly, blowfly, and the mosquito. Some, like the bush fly, are born from eggs laid in animal dung. They hatch into larvae, which feed off the dung, and then pupate in a cocoon like a butterfly.
Why are female flies so successful?
Female flies are great at finding rotting organic matter, be that dung or dead bodies, to lay their eggs in.
How many wings do flies have?
Flies have two wings plus two small "paddles" that give them extreme aerial agility.
What is a bush fly?
A fly from the Family Pelechorhynchidae – nectar and pollen feeders. "We have a reputation for our bush flies that dates back to Captain Cook. He discusses them as being horrendous," says Dr Lambkin. They are bad, but they are not the worst in the world, she says.
Is a mosquito a fly?
That honour would have to go to the malaria-carrying insects of the tropics, says Dr Lambkin. Yes, mosquitoes are a type of fly. Here's the first fact to know about flies: don't bother trying to swat them.
Do flies come to Christmas?
Flies are a vital attendee at any good Australian Christmas. Their buzz is the symphony of our summer. Their coming is met with an "Australian salute". They always RSVP promptly to barbecues. They are really annoying.
How did the Trowunna people live?
Sacred ochre pigments of red, yellow and white, and black minerals were crushed and ground and mixed with grease to paint their bodies, to draw symbols inside burial tombs, and on the walls of the huts to protect them from the bad spirits of the night. Trowunna was made up of about nine different language groups with physical boundaries of mountain ranges, wide valleys and winding rivers dividing each group. These language groups were subdivided into several extended families who came together at regular times during certain seasons to perform ceremonies, sing and dance, trade goods and exchange marriage partners. The people lived in harmony with their lands and formed close alliances with their neighbours. They harnessed the technology of fire to manage the land, encourage new growth for the wildlife, keep open pathways that networked the island for ease of seasonal movement, maintaining trade and close alliances.
What did the Palawa people do?
Their technology was basic yet adequate to meet their semi-sedentary way of life in a temperate environment. The Palawa people continued a fisher, hunter and gatherer economy exploiting the coastal rocky platforms and ocean depths for shellfish, crayfish, seals and sea birds and eggs.
What animals did the Trowunna people eat?
They travelled defined pathways to follow seasonal harvests into the hinterland for swan, duck, emu, kangaroo, wallaby, wombat, possum, platypus and fresh water lobster, and gathered fruits, roots, tubers, berries, healing herbs, plants and fibres. The people of Trowunna were culturally diverse, dynamic and inventive.
What did women hunt for in the sea?
They also trapped birds, collected emu, duck, swan, redbill and muttonbird eggs, and hunted for small land animals including possum, porcupine and bandicoot.
What was the climate of the Bassian Plain?
It was in the icy grip of an ice age whose climate was dry and freezing cold. Towards the coast, the Bassian Plain was flat and thinly vegetated with low heathy scrub and native grasses. Towards the south a central range of exposed granite tors rose from the coast below, separating the east and west Bassian Plain.
What did the caves do in the Ice Age?
Many caves contain the remains of ancient meals and testify to customs and traditions practised by the people of the Ice Age.
What were the tools used in the South West?
Tools were made from wood, bone and stone. The leg bones of animals were sharpened into bone points for making holes in skins and sewing together for cloaks and foot covers. Bone points may also have been used as points for hunting. A glassy material, tektite, was collected from the meteor crater site north-east of Macquarie Harbour, and sometimes this favourite material was carried many hundreds of kilometres before being refined into small sharp cutting and scraper tools.
Where did the Aboriginal people travel to?
What we do know is that Aboriginal people from the north coast of Australia were travelling to the far reaches of South-East Asia long before white settlers ever arrived Down Under.
When did the Dutch East India Company discover Australia?
Historical evidence shows the Dutch East India Company discovered the north coast of Australia in 1606, but the Dutch did not believe there was anything of value in Australia, so no trade occurred.
What are the archaeological finds in Arnhem?
The Arnhem Land coastline is also full of archaeological finds, like pottery, knives, and coins. Tamarind trees were also introduced by the northern neighbours, and on Milingimbi trees more than 100 years old still stand. "We all know that by putting tamarind trees, that they were there," Ms Yunupingu says.
Where did the Yolngu people come from?
But the Yolngu people of the Northern Territory say they were trading with Indonesians for hundreds of years before that. What we do know is that Aboriginal people from the north coast of Australia were travelling to the far reaches of South-East Asia long before white settlers ever arrived Down Under. This story is part of Curious Darwin, our new ...
When did Aboriginal people start trading?
The exact dates of contact with outsiders have long been the subject of dispute, with Aboriginal oral history saying trading began hundreds of years before Captain Cook arrived , and historians debating over more recent dates.
Who said first contact was made before European settlement?
Linguist and academic Michael Cooke says first contact was made prior to European settlement, a view which is in line with Yolngu storytelling. "It was definitely before European settlement, but it's not known exactly how long; 300 years is a good guess," Dr Cooke says. But not everyone agrees. Historians at odds.
How long has carbon dating been around?
That carbon dating refers to the human occupation of a cave on Groote Eylandt, which anthropologists from the Anindilyakwa Land Council say dates back 500 to 600 years.
What did the settlers do when they first arrived in Australia?
When the settlers first arrived in Australia they had attempted to civilise the Aboriginal people. They made them wear proper clothes, attend church, educate them the European way but eventually they started a policy of assimilation. They stopped trying to provide the indigenous population with an education instead they started forcing them to live the same way and have the same beliefs and values as the white population.
What was the worst part of the assimilation policy?
The worst bit of the assimilation policy was that it led to many children being taken from their parents and families, and being forcibly and placed in foster care or group homes. The children involved with this have become known as the stolen generation.
Why are Australian bush flies so persistent?
The female bush fly pesters you because she wants your saliva, blood, mucus and tears; it’s how she gets her protein. She needs it to breed and it’s why she is so persistent and so in your face.
Can you open a bottle of water in Queensland without flies?
Outback Queensland currently has a bit of a fly epidemic going on; apparently you can’t open a bottle of water out there without three flies diving in before you get your mouth to it. Hmm, yummy! When the wind blows from north to south it takes a lot of these flies with it and they can land just about anywhere.
Can you cope with flies?
Some people can cope with these flies swarming all over them; I’ve especially noticed that in the movies. In real life though, it’s different. Me in particular, I look like a mad man on a mission to beat himself up. I think we only got to see about five of the Apostles before we were back in the car, windows shut tight.
Overview
The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early British colonial period of Australia's history. This started with the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson in the lands of the Eora Nation, and the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales as part of the British Empire. It further covers the European scientific exploration of the continent and the establishment of the other Australian colonies that make up the modern states of Australia.
Colonisation
The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. This was taken for two reasons: the ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution, as well as the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion. Approximately 50,000 convicts are estimated to have been transported to the …
European exploration
While the actual date of original exploration in Australia is unknown, there is evidence of exploration by William Dampier in 1699, and the First Fleet arrived in 1788, eighteen years after Lt. James Cook surveyed and mapped the entire east coast aboard HM Bark Endeavour in 1770. In October 1795 George Bass and Matthew Flinders, accompanied by William Martin, sailed the boat Tom Thum…
Aboriginal resistance and accommodation
Aboriginal reactions to the arrival of British settlers were varied, but often hostile when the presence of the colonists led to competition over resources, and to the occupation of Aboriginal lands. European diseases decimated Aboriginal populations, and the occupation of land and degradation of food resources sometimes led to starvation. By contrast with New Zealand, no valid treaty wa…
Politics and government
Traditional Aboriginal society had been governed by councils of elders and a corporate decision-making process, but the first European-style governments established after 1788 were autocratic and run by appointed governors—although English law was transplanted into the Australian colonies by virtue of the doctrine of reception, thus notions of the rights and processes established by …
Economy and trade
The instructions provided to the first five governors of New South Wales show that the initial plans for the colony were limited. The settlement was to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on subsistence agriculture. Trade, shipping and ship building were banned in order to keep the convicts isolated and so as not to interfere with the trade monopoly of the British East India Company. There wa…
Religion, education, and culture
Since time immemorial in Australia, Indigenous people had performed the rites and rituals of the animist religion of the Dreamtime. The permanent presence of Christianity in Australia however, came with the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. As a British colony, the predominant Christian denomination was the Church of England, but one tenth of all the convicts wh…
Representations in literature and film
• Marcus Clarke's 1874 novel, For the Term of his Natural Life, and the 1983 television adaptation of the novel.
• Eleanor Dark's 1947 Timeless Land trilogy, which spans the colonisation from 1788 to 1811. The 1980s television drama, The Timeless Land, was based on this trilogy.
• D. Manning Richards. Destiny in Sydney: An epic novel of convicts, Aborigines, and Chinese embroiled in the birth of Sydney, Australia. First book in Sydney series. Washingt…
• Marcus Clarke's 1874 novel, For the Term of his Natural Life, and the 1983 television adaptation of the novel.
• Eleanor Dark's 1947 Timeless Land trilogy, which spans the colonisation from 1788 to 1811. The 1980s television drama, The Timeless Land, was based on this trilogy.
• D. Manning Richards. Destiny in Sydney: An epic novel of convicts, Aborigines, and Chinese embroiled in the birth of Sydney, Australia. First book in Sydney series. Washington DC: Aries Books, 2012. ISBN 9…