Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Secretary to the Admiralty, George
Jackson. Back in Britain, King George
III viewed Australia as a potential
colony and repository of Britain's over-
flowing prison population, which
could no longer be transported to the
United States of America following the
War of Independence.
The First Fleet left England in May
1787, made up of 11 store and trans-
port ships (none of them was bigger
than the passenger ferries that ply
modern-day Sydney Harbour from
Circular Quay to Manly) led by
Arthur Phillip. Aboard were 1,480
people, including 759 convicts.
Phillip's flagship,
The Supply,
reached
Botany Bay in January 1788, but
Phillip decided the soil was poor and
the surroundings too swampy. On
January 26, now celebrated as Aus-
tralia Day, he settled for Port Jackson
(Sydney Harbour) instead.
SETTLING DOWN
The convicts
were immediately put to work clearing
land, planting crops, and constructing
buildings. The early food harvests
were failures, and by early 1790, the
fledgling colony was facing starvation.
Phillip decided to give some con-
victs pardons for good behavior and
service, and even grant small land
parcels to those who were really indus-
trious. In 1795, coal was discovered;
in 1810 Governor Macquarie began
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1988
Aborigines demonstrate as Aus-
tralia celebrates its Bicentennial with a
reenactment of the First Fleet's entry
into Sydney Harbour.
1991
Australia's population reaches
17 million.
■
1993
Sydney chosen as the site of
2000 Olympics.
■
1994
High Court “Mabo” decision
overturns the principle of
terra nullius,
which suggested Australia was unoccu-
pied at time of white settlement.
■
1995
Australians protest as France
explodes nuclear weapons in the South
Pacific.
■
1996
High Court hands down
Wik
decision, which allows Aborigines the
right to claim some Commonwealth
land.
■
1998
The right-wing One Nation
Party holds the balance of power
in Queensland elections on an anti-
immigration and anti-Aboriginal
platform.
■
2000
A 10% Goods and Services
tax becomes part of everyday life in
Australia.
■
2000
Sydney Olympics held.
■
2001-2002
Massive bushfires start
on Christmas Day in NSW and rage
through much of January. Massive
areas of bushland and national parks
destroyed.
■
2003
Bushfires again ravage much
of NSW and Victoria. Hundreds of
homes are burned to the ground in
the capital city, Canberra. The country
faces a severe drought.
■
extensive city building projects; and in 1813 the explorers Blaxland, Wentworth,
and Lawson forged a passage over the Blue Mountains to the fertile plains
beyond.
When gold was discovered in Victoria in 1852, and in Western Australia 12
years later, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe, America, and
China flooded into the country in search of their fortunes. By 1860, more than
a million non-Aboriginal people were living in Australia.
The last 10,000 convicts were transported to Western Australia between 1850
and 1868, bringing the total shipped to Australia to 168,000.
FEDERATION & THE GREAT WARS
On January 1, 1901, the six states
that made up Australia proclaimed themselves to be part of one nation, and the
Commonwealth of Australia was formed. In the same ceremony, the first Gov-
ernor General was sworn in as the representative of the Queen, who remained
head of state. In 1914, Australia joined the Mother Country in war. In April the
following year, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) formed
