Lexi Webster
Australia's human history begins with the arrival of the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago. The ancestors of the ethnically and culturally distinct Torres Strait Islanders arrived from Papua New Guinea around 2,500 years ago. The first documented landing on Australia by a European was in March 1606, when Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula. However, the arrival of white people in Australia as settlers and colonisers began in January 1788, with the arrival of the First Fleet of convicts at Botany Bay, marking the beginning of the colonial period.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date of first documented landing by a white person in Australia | March 1606 |
| Name of the white person | Willem Janszoon |
| Ship used by Willem Janszoon | Duyfken (“Little Dove”) |
| Landing site | Western side of Cape York Peninsula |
| Number of people in the First Fleet | 1,300-1,530 |
| Date the First Fleet arrived in Australia | January 1788 |
| Date the colony was formally proclaimed | 7 February 1788 |
| Number of convicts transported to Australia | 160,000+ |
| Date of the end of convict transportation to Australia | 1840 |
| Date modern Australia came into being | 1 January 1901 |
| Number of migrants who arrived between 1910 and 1914 | 300,000 |
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What You'll Learn
The First Fleet arrived in 1788
The First Fleet, comprising 11 ships and about 1,530 people, arrived in Australia in January 1788. Under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, the fleet set sail from Botany Bay on 13 May 1787. The fleet included 736 convicts, 17 convicts' children, 211 marines, 27 marines' wives, 14 marines' children, and about 300 officers.
The First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove, known by the Indigenous name Warrane, on 26 January 1788. This date later became Australia's national day, Australia Day. The colony was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788. Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe harbour. Phillip named the settlement after the Home Secretary, Lord Sydney.
The arrival of the First Fleet marked the beginning of British settlement in Australia, which continued until 1850. The settlement was initially planned as a self-sufficient penal colony based on agriculture. However, conflict broke out between the settlers and the traditional owners of the land, the Aboriginal Australians. The British troops played a role in suppressing the resistance of the Aboriginal population to British settlement. This conflict resulted in a significant loss of life for both the European settlers and the Aboriginal inhabitants.
The relative isolation of the Indigenous population meant that they had little resistance to introduced diseases. An outbreak of smallpox in April 1789 killed about half of the Aboriginal population in the Sydney region.
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Aboriginal Australians' varied reactions
The First Fleet of British ships arrived in Australia in January 1788, marking the beginning of a new era for the country's Indigenous peoples. The arrival of the First Fleet, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, signalled the start of British colonisation and the establishment of a penal colony. The fleet carried around 1,530 people, including convicts, marines, and officers, and they established a settlement at Sydney Cove, known by the Indigenous name Warrane. This date, 26 January, later became Australia's national day, Australia Day.
The Aboriginal Australians' reactions to the arrival of the First Fleet were varied and complex. On the one hand, there are accounts of curiosity and attempts at amicable interactions. For example, Lieutenant King, at Phillip's request, offered assistance to a French expedition that arrived shortly after the First Fleet. This gesture demonstrates a willingness to engage and maintain peaceful relations. Additionally, Governor Phillip himself had instructions to "endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them."
However, the Aboriginal Australians' reactions were also shaped by their cultural beliefs, traditions, and deep connection to the land. They had established self-sufficient and harmonious communities along the foreshores of the harbour, with abundant resources and well-established trade networks. Their way of life, which was steeped in ritual and spirituality, was misunderstood by the early colonists, who viewed it with disdain. Watkin Tench, an officer in the First Fleet, described their living habits as "miserable" and lacking fixed habitation. This disconnect in perspectives often led to conflict and competition over resources as the colonists encroached on Aboriginal lands.
Furthermore, the relative isolation of the Indigenous population for thousands of years made them particularly vulnerable to introduced diseases. An outbreak of smallpox in April 1789, likely originating from contact with Indonesian fishermen, devastated the Aboriginal population in the Sydney region, killing about half of them.
The arrival of the First Fleet marked a significant turning point in the history of Aboriginal Australians. While some interactions were peaceful, the overall impact of colonisation was detrimental to their way of life, health, and sovereignty over their lands. The lack of valid treaties and the British concept of terra nullius further exacerbated the tensions and dispossession experienced by Aboriginal communities.
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Sydney Cove's establishment
The arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 marked the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. The fleet, commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, was comprised of 11 ships carrying about 1,500 people, including convicts from Britain, officers, marines, and their families. They had set sail from Botany Bay, but the lack of a secure anchorage and a reliable source of freshwater led them to Sydney Cove, serviced by a freshwater creek known as the Tank Stream.
The site of the settlement was chosen for its freshwater supply and safe harbour, which could accommodate a thousand ships. Phillip named the settlement after the Home Secretary, Lord Sydney. The date of the fleet's arrival is now commemorated as Australia Day. The colony was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788.
Sydney Cove was located in the country of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation. The Eora name for Sydney Cove was Warrane, and it was a significant spot as the first meeting place between Eora people and Europeans. Before colonisation, Eora men speared fish from the shoreline, while women line-fished from canoes. The arrival of the First Fleet changed the lives of the Eora people forever, and it marked the beginning of waves of convict transportation that lasted until 1868.
The settlement at Sydney Cove faced several challenges in its early years. The first crops failed due to a lack of skilled farmers, poor soil, an unfamiliar climate, and inadequate tools. The colony also faced starvation, and Governor Phillip insisted on sharing food between convicts and free settlers, which was not well-received by the British officers. Phillip also gave land to trustworthy convicts, further causing discontent among the officers.
The convicts occupied the sandstone ridges above Sydney Cove's western foreshores, known as The Rocks. The Hospital Wharf, constructed on the west side of Sydney Cove, was the colony's first public wharf and it served as an important disembarkation point for convicts and small boats. The Government Wharf was built on the eastern side of Sydney Cove between 1789 and 1790 and was used for shipbuilding until 1797, when Governor Hunter established the Government Dockyard on the western side.
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The White Australia Policy
The history of Australia dates back to the arrival of the first ancestors of Aboriginal Australians from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago. The country's modern nation came into existence on 1 January 1901 as a federation of former British colonies.
The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 led to an influx of immigrants from around the world, including a large number of Chinese migrant labourers. This caused alarm among European labourers due to perceived threats to their job security and wages. In 1855, the first race-based anti-immigration policy was passed to restrict the number of Chinese immigrants, followed by legislation targeting indentured workers from the Pacific Islands, such as the Polynesian Laborers Acts of 1868 and 1883. By the 1880s, all the colonies had restricted Chinese immigration, and by 1888, they had also restricted other Asian immigration.
In 1896, anti-immigration laws were extended to all non-white and non-European immigrant populations, and restrictive literacy and language tests were used to discriminate against non-white immigrants. The Immigration Restriction Bill of 1901 gave immigration officers the power to subject any non-European migrant to a 50-word dictation test. The White Australia Policy had a significant impact on the country's demographics, with only 2.7% of the population born outside Australia, Ireland, or the United Kingdom by 1947.
After World War II, external pressures and the need for American military cooperation catalysed a gradual transformation of immigration laws. The Chifley and Menzies governments began to relax the policy, allowing refugees from continental Europe, including the "beautiful Balts," to immigrate to Australia. Over time, Australia moved away from its racially exclusive immigration framework towards a more multicultural approach. Significant legislative changes in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975, dismantled the legal structures of the White Australia Policy, leading to increased immigration from non-white populations. Today, Australia is recognised for its cultural diversity, with a significant portion of the population having immigrant backgrounds.
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Population growth and economy
The economic history of Australia traces back to European settlement in 1788. The European settlement of Australia began on 26 January 1788, when the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson (modern Sydney, New South Wales) with more than 1,000 convicts, marines, and a few free settlers. The United Kingdom claimed all of eastern Australia as its territory on the basis of terra nullius. The colony was to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on subsistence agriculture.
Between 1788 and 1792, convicts and their gaolers made up the majority of the population. However, a free population soon began to grow, consisting of emancipated convicts, locally born children, soldiers whose military service had expired, and free settlers from Britain. The Second Fleet arrived in 1789, and the Third Fleet in 1791, with other convict transports in the years that followed. By 1800, the population of Australia was approximately 350,000 people, and the majority of these were Indigenous Australians.
By 1820, British settlement was largely confined to a 100-kilometre radius around Sydney and to the central plain of Van Diemen's Land. From 1816, penal transportation to Australia increased rapidly, and the number of free settlers grew steadily. In 1824, the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the site of present-day Brisbane as a place of secondary punishment. In 1825, Van Diemen's Land became a separate colony. From the 1820s, economic growth was based increasingly upon the production of fine wool and other rural commodities for markets in Britain and the industrializing economies of Northwestern Europe.
In the 1850s, Victoria was Australia's gold mining centre, its population increasing from 76,000 in 1851 to 540,000 in 1861. Australia's total population more than tripled from 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871. The gold rushes caused a huge influx of people from overseas, including from many non-British sources. The accelerated population growth and the enormous wealth of the goldfields fuelled a boom which lasted for forty years.
In the post-war period, economic growth, high employment levels, growing foreign investment, and the development of new markets led Australia to enjoy a high level of economic prosperity. High population growth, high government spending, the introduction of television, and the gradual relaxation of government controls over "hire purchase" helped Australia develop into an affluent society in the 1950s and 1960s. Australia has promoted immigration from all over the world in the past fifty years and now has one of the strongest economies and highest living standards in the world, with a population that has grown to over 25 million people in 2020.
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Frequently asked questions
The first documented landing on Australia by a white person was in March 1606 by the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon.
Yes, the British settlement of Australia began in 1788 as a penal colony governed by a captain of the Royal Navy.
The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships and about 1530 people that set sail for Botany Bay on 13 May 1787.
The motive and circumstances regarding the arrival of white people in Australia is a matter of conjecture. It may have been a deliberate attempt to settle new territory or an accident after being caught in monsoon winds.
The Aboriginal Australians' reactions to the arrival of white people were varied, but often hostile when the presence of the colonists led to competition over resources and the occupation of Aboriginal lands.
