what is important about the early settlement in australia

Colonial Australia

• Work Convicts were sent to Australia to work as a form of punishment. The work depended on the crimes the convicts had committed. ...
• Diet Convicts who worked for the government were given rations, or food allowances. ...
• Clothing Convicts were issued clothing by the British government once they arrived in Australia. ...
• Housing At the very beginning, colonial housing was very basic. ...
• Children ...

Full Answer

What was the original purpose for the settlement of Australia?

Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to establish an agricultural work camp there for British convicts.

What was life like for the early settlers in Australia?

Daily Life. Life was very hard for most of Australia's early settlers. The colonists of New South Wales struggled to find fertile land, and the hot, dry climate made farming even more difficult. The seasons were different from Britain's, and most of the plants and animals were unfamiliar.

Where did people first settle in Australia?

The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony, the first colony on the Australian mainland.

What were some of the reasons people came to the early Australian colonies?

Well you can be pretty sure it was for one of two main reasons – either as a gaol for convicts, or because of the land, to graze sheep or cattle. Three of the states were started as gaols – New South Wales, where the First Fleet arrived; Queensland, which began when Moreton Bay was settled – now called Brisbane.

How did building settlements affect Australia?

Since European settlement in 1788, the way in which people use the land has significantly changed Australia's natural systems and landscapes. Some land management practices place enormous pressures on the land which can result in damage to ecosystems, reductions in biodiversity and degradation of soils and waterways.

What did the early settlers eat?

Those animals settled in the colonies along with the people and became a source of food. After a time people started hunting for deer, turkey, ducks and geese. They also were able to fish for cod and flounder and catch lobster and clams. Farmers grew corn, wheat, rice, barley, oats, squash, pumpkins and beans.

Who settled Australia first?

Governor Arthur PhillipThe first settlement, at Sydney, consisted of about 850 convicts and their Marine guards and officers, led by Governor Arthur Phillip. They arrived at Botany Bay in the "First Fleet" of 9 transport ships accompanied by 2 small warships, in January, 1788.

Who named Australia?

explorer Matthew FlindersIt was the English explorer Matthew Flinders who made the suggestion of the name we use today. He was the first to circumnavigate the continent in 1803, and used the name 'Australia' to describe the continent on a hand drawn map in 1804.

What was Australia called before Australia?

The official name for the country of Australia is the Commonwealth of Australia. The original names for Australia Australia included Terra Australis, New South Wales and New Holland. These old names were dropped in 1824.

What factors influenced Australian settlement patterns?

The underlying geography and the location of natural resources had an obvious impact on settlement patterns. Most often this impact had already played out in earlier times and was evident in the settlement patterns of 1911. The climate, soils and distance were key factors in the early development of Australia.

What are 3 major events that brought immigrants to Australia?

Australia's Immigration History Driven by the promise of a new life the Great Southern Land, waves of immigrants came to find fortune in the gold rush, to escape the social upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, two world wars and the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

How did the colonial settlement change the environment?

Overview. Colonization ruptured many ecosystems, bringing in new organisms while eliminating others. The Europeans brought many diseases with them that decimated Native American populations. Colonists and Native Americans alike looked to new plants as possible medicinal resources.

What was life like in Australia before European settlement?

For thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans, northern Sydney was occupied by different Aboriginal clans. Living primarily along the foreshores of the harbour, they fished and hunted in the waters and hinterlands of the area, and harvested food from the surrounding bush.

What was life like in the 1800's in Australia?

Children worked up to 60-hours per weeks and were paid around 2-3 pence (2c) an hour. Factory owners were keen to exploit children as cheap labour.In the 1800's children had to work in Factories and mines. Children were often hired at the same time as their parents and worked as young as 4 for up to 14 hours a day.

Who were the early free settlers of Australia?

The first free settlers arrived on board the sailing ship Bellona on 16 January 1793. They were a farmer named Thomas Rose, his wife and four children and seven others. These first settlers received free passage, agricultural tools, two years provisions, and free grants of land from the government.

What did free settlers eat in Australia?

The early settlers relied on fish, oysters and native animals and fruits to supplement their diet. They also traded with the local aboriginal people for game, especially kangaroo.

Where was the settlement of Sydney Cove Port Jackson?

Francis Fowkes, Sketch & Description of the Settlement at Sydney Cove Port Jackson in the County of Cumberland Taken by a Transported Convict on the 16th of April, 1788 1789, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1084748

When was Sydney Cove painted?

Invite students to compare the 1788 sketch of Sydney Cove to Richard Read’s painting (painted in about 1820) . As a class, discuss the changes that occurred at Sydney Cove during the early years of European settlement.

Was Australia a European country?

Australia has not yielded readily to development by Europeans. Even on the relatively favoured eastern periphery, the first European settlers were perplexed by the environment. Later, when they penetrated the mountains of the Great Dividing Range, they had to fight even harder against searing droughts, sudden floods, and voracious bushfires. They also continued to clash, often ruthlessly, with Aboriginal communities. Pioneer settlers took pride in conquering the continent’s prodigious distances, and that became a national trait. The spread of railway networks in the latter part of the 19th century and the subsequent introduction of the automobile, the airplane, radio, television, and the Internet gradually reduced the friction of distance, but the conquest was far from complete even by the beginning of the 21st century.

Is Australia arid or semiarid?

Extensive arid and semiarid areas in Western Australia, Northern Territory, and South Australia are routinely labeled as actually or virtually uninhabited. This description also applies to remote sections of west-central Queensland and to scattered patches of dry or mountainous wilderness in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania. On the northern and central mainland some large Aboriginal reserves punctuate the open territory.

When did the first colony of Australia start?

On 13th May 1787, the First Fleet consisting of 11 ships and 1300 people left England to found a penal colony in far away Australia. Upon landing eight months later on the 18th – 20th January 1788, the Naval officers, their families and the convicts set about establishing the European settlement of Australia. The penal colony faced many hardships and very nearly starved to death in the early years of settlement. Australia wasn’t a land unoccupied but a land peopled by Indigenous Peoples, however in the eyes of the British, this translated as a land to occupy, a land vastly different to far away England.

What are the issues in the first settlement?

Issues such as convicts, chain gangs, starvation and hangings are mentioned but very sensitively. We ‘meet’ convicts such as James Ruse who plays such an important role in the survival of the colony and is honoured today as a pioneer farmer. Highly recommend.

Where was the first European burial in Australia?

Another of the priests was wounded at Pacific Island, died of his wounds and was buried at La Perouse, on the shore of Botany Bay, likely the first burial of a European on the East Coast of Australia. On Board the Boussole, the Diary of Julienne Fulbert – Christine Edwards.

Who was the Governor of Australia in An Uncommonly Fine Day?

An Uncommonly Fine Day- John Anthony King. Governor Phillip and crew sail into Sydney for the first time and “find the finest harbour in the world in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security”.

Where did the First Fleet go on their voyage?

We ‘visit’ the various places the First Fleet ‘put into’ on the long voyage to Botany Bay. John always manages to become involved in adventures. The book concludes with the Fleet’s arrival in Australia and the raising of the flag in Sydney Cove on 26th January 1788. Highly recommend.

What is the Australian settlement?

The Australian settlement was a set of nation-building policies adopted in Australia at the beginning of the 20th century . The phrase was coined by journalist Paul Kelly in his 1992 book The End of Certainty. Kelly identified five policy "pillars" of the settlement: White Australia (a racially exclusive immigration policy); Protection (protective tariffs on imported manufactured goods); Wage Arbitration ( compulsory arbitration for industrial disputes); State Paternalism (interventionist social and economic policies); and Imperial Benevolence (faith in the British Empire ). These pillars profoundly influenced the way Australia developed over the coming decades and were only dismantled towards the end of the century. The term "settlement" refers to the way this constellation of policies emerged as a compromise between major interests in Australian society at that time, namely workers and employers. It has also been referred to as the Deakinite settlement, after its principal architect Alfred Deakin .

Who coined the phrase "Australian Settlement"?

As part of the campaign to liberalise the Australian economy in this period, journalist Paul Kelly coined the phrase "Australian Settlement" and blamed those early policy decisions for Australia's economic difficulties of the 1970s and 1980s.

Why was the protective tariff introduced in 1866?

This was supported and promoted in the Colony of Victoria by a protective tariff that had been introduced in 1866 to help generate local employment for migrants initially attracted to the gold fields.

What party was involved in the Australian settlement?

The three-cornered contest between Protectionist Liberals, Free Trade Liberals and the Australian Labor Party ( ALP), saw the Protectionists introduce the key "Australian settlement" policies with Labor support.

What was the economic development strategy of Francis Castles?

For theorist Francis Castles, implementation of these policies constituted an economic development strategy of "domestic defence" – using Australia's natural wealth to support an otherwise uncompetitive manufacturing sector, providing a good living to workers and pensions for later life.

When did Australia end its domestic defence policy?

Dismantling the domestic defence framework began with the ending of the White Australia Policy between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s. Australia persisted, however, with other components such as tariff protectionism while other advanced economies were moving toward more open trade in the post-war years through the GATT process. Weaknesses in Australia's commodity exporting economy combined with steadily increasing competition in world manufacturing thanks to the newly industrialized countries (NICs) put that strategy under great pressure in the 1980s. Under the Hawke-Keating Labor governments (1983–96), both tariff protectionism and centralised wage fixing were wound back. As part of the campaign to liberalise the Australian economy in this period, journalist Paul Kelly coined the phrase "Australian Settlement" and blamed those early policy decisions for Australia's economic difficulties of the 1970s and 1980s. A closer examination makes that interpretation difficult to sustain, but does not alter the reality that by the late 20th century the strategy of domestic defence had become an encumbrance.

What is the purpose of the establishment of a national government spanning the continent and the transfer of certain key functions to?

The establishment of a national government spanning the continent and the transfer of certain key functions to that government entailed the establishment of new national policies in regard to a range of important economic and social matters.

Why did the British settle New South Wales?

The motives for this move have become a matter of some controversy. The traditional view is that Britain thereby sought to relieve the pressure upon its prisons —a pressure intensified by the loss of its American colonies, which until that time had accepted transported felons. This view is supported by the fact that convicts went to the settlement from the outset and that official statements put this first among the colony’s intended purposes. But some historians have argued that this glossed a scheme to provide a bastion for British sea power in the eastern seas. Some have seen a purely strategic purpose in settlement, but others have postulated an intent to use the colony as a springboard for economic exploitation of the area. It is very likely that the government had some interest in all these factors.

Who explored the southern coast of Australia?

Pieter Nuyts explored almost 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of the southern coast in 1626–27, and other Dutchmen added to knowledge of the north and west. The Duyfken off Australia, 1606. The Duyfken off Australia, 1606, oil on canvas by Robert Ingpen, 2011. Robert Ingpen, National Library of Australia, nla.obj-138210565.

What was the name of the Dutch ship that sailed from Bantam to Australia?

Late in 1605 Willem Jansz (Janszoon) of Amsterdam sailed aboard the Duyfken from Bantam in the Dutch East Indies in search of New Guinea. He reached the Torres Strait a few weeks before Torres and named what was later to prove part of the Australian coast—Cape Keer-Weer, on the western side of Cape York Peninsula. More significantly, from 1611 some Dutch ships sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to Java inevitably carried too far east and touched Australia: the first and most famous was Dirck Hartog ’s Eendracht, from which men landed and left a memorial at Shark Bay, Western Australia, October 25–27, 1616. Pieter Nuyts explored almost 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of the southern coast in 1626–27, and other Dutchmen added to knowledge of the north and west.

What was the most important thing that Abel Tasman did?

Most important of all was the work of Abel Tasman, who won such respect as a seaman in the Dutch East Indies that in 1642 Governor-General Anthony van Diemen of the Indies commissioned him to explore southward. In November–December, having made a great circuit of the seas, Tasman sighted the west coast and anchored off the southeast coast of what he called Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). He then explored the island of New Zealand before returning to Batavia, on Java. A second expedition of 1644 contributed to knowledge of Australia’s northern coast; the Dutch named the new landmass New Holland.

How did the British develop the region's economy?

The British government planned to develop the region’s economy by employing convict labour on government farms, while former convicts would subsist on their own small plots. The First Fleet sailed on May 13, 1787, with 11 vessels, including 6 transports, aboard which were about 730 convicts (570 men and 160 women).

How did the British government show its interest in the voyages?

The British government showed its interest by backing several voyages. Hopes flourished for a mighty empire of commerce in the eastern seas. This was the background for the three voyages of Captain James Cook on behalf of the British Admiralty.

Which country sponsored the expeditions of Flinders and Flinders?

Appropriately, Flinders urged that the name Australia replace New Holland, and this change received official backing from 1817. France sponsored an expedition, similar in intent to Flinders’s, at the same time.

What was the first free settlement in Western Australia?

The first settlement in what is now Western Australia was the Swan River Colony. It was founded as a free settlement in 1829 but later became a convict colony. The colony of South Australia was the first free settlement that remained that way. It was founded in 1836.

What were the first settlers of Australia?

Most settlers in the early colonial years of Australia were convicts. However, there were a small number of people who chose to leave their homes and start a new life in the colony. These people were called free settlers. Free settlers were usually seafaring men who remained in Australia at the end of their contracts. The few who did make the long and difficult journey to Australia were given free land by the British government. They also received free farming tools and convict labor. The government hoped to attract free settlers who could succeed in living and working off the land.

Why were convicts sent to Australia?

Convicts were sent to Australia to work as a form of punishment. The work depended on the crimes the convicts had committed. The most severe criminals were sent to prisons or penal stations. The rest worked as servants for free settlers.

How did European colonization affect Aboriginal people?

European colonization also had a negative impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Indigenous peoples were affected in several different ways. Europeans took over the land that the Indigenous peoples had lived on for thousands of years. The Indigenous peoples had to move somewhere else and often had no access to good water or food. They had to change their style of life to adapt to the new land. Some Aboriginal people tried to fight the Europeans, but many died as a result. Other Indigenous people died from diseases that were introduced by the Europeans.

How did the arrival of Europeans change the Australian environment?

As soon as they landed, colonists began clearing land so they could grow food to feed themselves. They approached the environment as if it was the same environment they left behind in Europe. They did not take care to protect the native plants and animals. As a result, many animal and plant species became threatened or even went extinct as a result of the damage done to their ecosystems. The Europeans also introduced foreign animal and plant species.

When was Australia established?

Australia was a collection of British colonies from 1788 until 1901. The first colonies were established as places where criminals were sent to live and work. These were known as convict settlements or penal colonies. Later, colonies were established by free settlers.

How did the early years of colonial Australia affect the people?

They were not familiar with the land, climate, plants, or animals. They also angered the local people by destroying their traditional lands. At first, settlers had trouble finding land that was good for growing crops. Starvation was a major concern for them. However, life did improve in the early 1800s as a result of successful farming practices and sheep and cattle grazing.

Why did the British choose Australia?

It chose Australia partly because of the continent’s remoteness. When the British set up the New South Wales colony, they planned to develop the region’s economy by using convict labor on government farms. Other convicts would be “assigned” to work for free settlers. © Grey 18/Dreamstime.com.

When did the British stop transporting to Australia?

The British government ended transportation to eastern Australia in 1852. Transportation to Western Australia, which had begun on a smaller scale in 1850 at the request of the colonists, ended in 1868.

How many convicts were sent to Australia?

Between 1788 and the end of transportation in 1868, more than 160,000 convicts were sent to Australia from Great Britain. The places where the convicts were held were known as convict settlements. They were also sometimes called penal settlements or penal colonies.

What were the conditions in the convict settlements?

In general, conditions in the convict settlements were not especially harsh. With good behavior the convicts could obtain a “ticket of leave,” enabling them to work for wages and live independently. Some prisoners earned pardons. Conditional pardons freed convicts but prohibited them from returning to Britain.

What was the practice of convicts in the 1820s?

In the 1820s and ’30s a growing number of convicts were assigned to work for free settlers instead of the British government. The British public became increasingly critical of this practice, believing that it was a form of slavery. In Australia many free settlers resented the stereotyping of all Australians as convicts, ...

What was the term for the stereotyping of all Australians as convicts?

In Australia many free settlers resented the stereotyping of all Australians as convicts, known as the “convict stain.”. In addition, the population of free settlers had grown large enough by the mid-1800s that convict labor was no longer needed to sustain the colony.

Where were women sent to work?

Thousands of women convicts were sent to so-called “female factories” in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. They were prisons that also served as places of production. The women spun wool and flax, made blankets and rope, and did needlework, among other tasks.

Overview

Dismantling

Dismantling the domestic defence framework began with the ending of the White Australia policy between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s. Australia persisted, however, with other components such as tariff protectionism while other advanced economies were moving toward more open trade in the post-war years through the GATT process. Weaknesses in Australia's commodity exporting economy combined with steadily increasing competition in world manufacturing thank…

Background

Decade of decision: 1901–1910

See also

Further reading