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