Year 5 Day 23: A Brief History Of Australia- Part 1
23 February 2012 | Bundaberg Port Marina, AU
Dave/Overcast and Blustery
As we sit on board Leu Cat, hunkered down as a slow moving trough passes over our area, there really isn’t much to do. My main focus is finishing the various little things that we need to do to get the mainsail fully up and ready to go. However, we need either light winds or winds from the NE. Instead, we are getting winds gusting up to 35 knots and from the NW. Thus, we sit twiddling our thumbs, waiting for better conditions to arrive. Unfortunately, the weather gods look like they are going to be taking their time before they let the good times roll again since stormy weather is predicted until we leave on Monday.
If you know me, I can only sit still for a short time before my cursed “itchy butt” syndrome kicks in. Thus, throughout today I was jumping up, going outside and looking for some little project to work on. It was really sad to watch…
Instead of boring you with what work was done on Leu Cat, I thought I would share some interesting tidbits I have read about our host country, Australia. This will be done in installments as we wait out this low pressure system over the next few days.
Early Settlers
The first settlers of Australia are thought to have arrived around 50,000 years ago. This would have most likely been at a time when the sea levels were low. Although much of Australia became populated, the central dry areas didn't attract settlers until around 25,000 years ago. The population grew proportionately quicker around 10,000 years ago as the climate improved.
At the time of British settlement at Sydney Cove it is estimated that 300,000 aboriginal people, speaking around 250 languages inhabited Australia. On arrival, finding no obvious political structure, the Europeans took the land as their own. The Indigenous people were driven out of their homes and many killed. Various new European diseases spread rapidly amongst the indigenous people, killing many. This is also what happened in North America. The Europeans, who for centuries lived in close quarters with their livestock, had lived with a number of diseases that transferred from their livestock to humans. The major such disease was smallpox. Over the centuries a resistance developed in the Europeans. The indigenous people had no such resistance and in both North America and in Australia. This disease decimated their populations.
During the early part of the 20th century legislations were passed to segregate and protect Aboriginals. This involved restrictions on where they could live and work and families being broken up.
After World War II, assimilation became the government’s aim. Rights were taken away from the Aboriginals and attempts made to 'Europeanize' them.
During the 1960's the legislation was reviewed and the Federal Government passed legislation for all Aboriginals to be given citizen status. However, it wasn't until 1972 that the indigenous people were given back limited rights to their own land. The situation has been steadily improving for Australia's Indigenous people, although many feel more needs to be done.