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| History of Australia |
Some of the first people arrived in the distant land of Australis, around 40,000 B.C. These people were called the Aborigines and they were the only inhabitants and it was not till 1606 that the first European explorer, a Dutchman called Williem Jansz, landed in Australia.
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It was in the year 1770 that a British Explorer called Captain James Cook landed on the Eastern coast of Australia and claimed it as a British territory. He named it as New South Wales. Britain sent most of its prisoners to Australia as the first settlers. A prison camp was set up in what is today known as Sydney and it was guarded by British soldiers. The shipments of prisoners continued till 1868 and their numbers grew to over 1,50,000.
Most of Australia remained unexplored till 1930. Various attempts had been made by explorers like Stuart, Cook, wills and Burke, Jansz etc. But they were unsuccessful. Some of them did manage to cross Australia but died on the way back. In 1851 gold was discovered in large quantities in Australia and thousands of prostectors arrived from all parts of the world. Within the next few decades the population of Australia grew in large numbers.
This did have its effects on the Aborigines and their customs began to die out with modernization.
To further boost the population the Australian government began to allow poor Europeans to come to Australia in 1945 and even paid for their passage. The advent of Asians was however restricted till as late as the 1960s. in 1901 Australia became an independent dominion of the British empire.
qAustralia supported the allies during both the World Wars. Most of Australia’s terrain is desert and is called the ‘Outback’. This area is very sparsely populated. On the Southeast coast of Australia lies the island of Tasmania which is mostly covered with jungle and does not have a very large populations.
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