Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Recent Challenges
Since the 1970s, Australia has been dismantling the protectionist scaffolding that allowed
its economy to develop. Wages and working conditions, which used to be fixed by an inde-
pendent authority, are now much more uncertain. Two centuries of development have also
placed great strains on the environment - on water supplies, forests, soil, air quality and the
oceans. Australia is linked more closely than ever to the USA (exemplified by its involve-
ment in the 21st century's Afghanistan and Iraq wars). Some say this alliance protects Aus-
tralia's independence; others insist that it reduces Australia to a fawning 'client state'.
In Queensland, old fears and prejudices continue to struggle with tolerance and an ac-
ceptance of Asia, and Indigenous issues seem as intractable as ever. Indigenous leaders ac-
knowledge that poverty, violence and welfare dependency continue to blight the lives of
too many Indigenous communities. In the Cape York Peninsula, Aboriginal leaders, cattle
ranchers, the government and mining companies displayed a new willingness to work with
each other on land issues when they signed the Cape York Heads of Agreement in 2001. In
late 2007, worrying newspaper reports (such as those appearing in The Australian and New
York Times ) of child sexual abuse in the Cape York Aboriginal communities highlighted
the enormous social problems within Indigenous communities in Queensland and across
the country.
In 2008 an official apology to the stolen generations (Aboriginal children taken from
their parents and placed with white families during the 19th and 20th centuries) delivered
by the Australian government was an important step on the road to addressing long-stand-
ing grievances afflicted on Australia's first peoples.
TIMELINE
60,000 BC
Although the exact start of human habitation in Australia is still uncertain, according to most experts
this is when Aboriginal people settled on the continent.
6000 BC
Rising water levels due to global warming force many indigenous groups off their fertile flatland
homes along the coast. Vast sections of land disappear into the sea.
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