Geoscience Reference
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convicts; subsequent settlement occurred at Hobart, in Van Diemen's Land (now
Tasmania) in 1804, and also at Port Arthur. The separation of Van Diemen's
Land from the colony of New South Wales took place in 1825 and, from 1824-
1836, four other settlements were created: Moreton Bay (now Brisbane) in 1824,
Swann River (now Perth) in 1829, Port Phillip (now Melbourne) in 1835 and
Adelaide in 1836. Farming, grazing and gold mining took place in the hinterlands
of those settlements, stimulating their economic growth and attracting new
migrants.
While European settlement spread along the Australian coast, inland
exploration also took place. Major expeditions included the journeys made by
Oxley (1817), Sturt (1828), Mitchell (1835-1836 and 1844-1845), Eyre (1840-
1841), Warburton (1872-1873), Leichhardt (1844-1845), Kennedy (1848),
Burke and Wills (1860-1861), Stuart (1861-1862) and Giles (1876). Those
expeditions facilitated the movement of European pastoralists and squatters
inland, although European settlers encountered various forms of Aboriginal
resistance, as several authors have narrated (Bolton, 1963; Loos, 1982; Reynolds,
1982, 1987, 2003, pp vi, 11-12; Birtles, 1997, p394). Nevertheless, the period
from 1850-1889 was characterised by rapid economic development in the
Australian colonies, stimulated by exports of wool and discoveries of gold. Boom
towns, such as Ballarat and Bendigo, prospered as gold fields attracted new
European migrants. Further immigration also encouraged the growth of the major
cities, especially Sydney and Melbourne, and the establishment of new ports such
as those at Rockhampton and Townsville. Consequently, by the last decade of
the nineteenth century, large areas of Australia had been settled by Europeans;
pastoralism, agriculture and mining were expanding, and the population was
approaching four million people. A period of economic depression and drought
from 1890-1906 marked the end of that period of rapid European settlement in
Australia.
European settlement in coastal Queensland
European settlement in the area that would later become Queensland began in
the south-east and spread rapidly northwards and inland. The first settlement,
known as the Moreton Bay colony, was established at Redcliffe in 1824; it was
initially a convict settlement but, by 1840, free settlement had also begun in the
colony. The site chosen at Redcliffe was advantageous because of the availability
of safe anchorage and pastoral opportunities in its hinterland, although it lacked
adequate fresh water and, in the following year, the settlement was transferred
to a more favourable site where modern Brisbane stands (Fitzgerald, 1982, p74).
As occurred elsewhere in Australia, pastoral occupation took place in the region
surrounding the settlement; from 1840, the migration of pastoralists northwards
in search of new grazing land was extremely rapid. As early as 1842, most of
the Darling Downs had been claimed by pastoralists; soon afterwards, in 1847,
a town settlement became necessary at Port Curtis (now Gladstone) (Fitzgerald,
 
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