Colonization of Australia

[Domen]

What is deeply deppressing me (and I mean: deeply!) is the lack of threads on Australian history.

I mean, Australia is not just a country, it is also a continent! And there is not a single thread about it:

I'm interested for example in the timeline of European colonization of Australia. Is it possible to find a list of all cities - or maybe all major cities - in Australia, listed in chronological order according to time when each of them was established? It would be even better if it was combined with a map, or an animation, showing how European settlement in Australia expanded. Was some town destroyed by natives, like it happened in Americas with some of early colonies?

Also what is the most current estimation of the size of native population of Australia and Tasmania before European colonization? And was that Aboriginal settlement roughly equally distributed throughout the continent, or maybe some regions were much more densely inhabited than some other regions?

AFAIK, if someone wants to emigrate to Australia, such a person is obliged to pass an Australian history exam. What kind of questions can one expect?

If there is an Australian history exam, then obviously this country (and continent) has some actual history.

 

[MilesGregarius]

If there is an Australian history exam, then obviously this country (and continent) has some actual history.

It could be that there is no actual history there, and the test is just a series of trick questions.

 

[Kyriakos]

Given that there is a Byzantine thread, and a considerable degree of Australianaliens are Greek, i don't see your point

 

[Domen]

Maybe there is only one question:

"Dear immigrant, does Australia have any history?

a) Yes
b) No
c) I came here to make history of Australia"

========================================

Are some Aborigines really still living their traditional lifestyle in the bush, as this video seems to suggest?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOWzcLuupi0

 

[Kyriakos]

FWIW I would be interested in threads about Australia before the 20th century. I did post something (i think here too, not sure) about the 'Murdering Point' incident at around the time that the Cleopatra's Needle (an Obelisk, not related with the Ptolemies), iirc in the late 1870s, was being carried to London so as to be installed there like it now is. Some small ship was wrecked in the coast of the Great Coral Sea and the reef there, and two of its three crew members were apparently eaten and parts of their bodies were left on the beach.
Later on this lead to attacks to nearby aboriginal settlements, deemed as the ones who commited those murders.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

If there is an Australian history exam, then obviously this country (and continent) has some actual history.

I don't know if that works. I live in England, and the history exams I took were about Weimar and Nazi Germany.

 

[Silurian]

Given that there is a Byzantine thread, and a considerable degree of Australianaliens are Greek, i don't see your point

There are a lot of Macedonians in Australia as well.

I have a lot of family there.

 

[Kyriakos]

^They live in E-Republic?*

Spoiler :

In the game E-Republic, the only lands that Fyrom has left are in central Australia, and it seems to be in a perpetual war against Greece. At least that was the case a month ago when i saw that site...

 

[Domen]

I was talking about Australian history exam for these who want Australian citizenship.

and it seems to be in a perpetual war against Greece.

And? Who is winning? Has the battle of E-Chaeronea already taken place?

 

[Mouthwash]

Does Australia even count as a country? I'd vote no.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Does Australia even count as a country? I'd vote no.

They're potentially a potential superpower.

 

[plarq]

I gave up Erepublik long time ago, though the id "plarq" once became president of Taiwan! I'm happy to learn that. And Australia has been an Indonesian colony from time immemorable.

Back to history, I should post the polandball comic where a Brit complains that they still require people with a criminal activity history to enter Australia.

 

[Arwon]

 

[Arwon]

This map is of course rather different.

 

[Mouthwash]

They're potentially a potential superpower.

They're a bunch of British cities scattered around the edge of a desert continent.

 

[Joecoolyo]

They're a bunch of British cities scattered around the edge of a desert continent.

Yeah, it has potential.

 

[Masada]

This thread is less of a train-wreck than I'd thought.

 

[Louis XXIV]

How much of Australian history prior to the 20th Century is isolated vs. tied to the empire as a whole? The United States's history always seemed to continually refer back to Europe and the Mediterranean (conflict with European powers, war on the Libyan coast, involving themselves in treaties over free trade, etc.). But the US was a) independent and b) not on an island.

Put it this way: when Australian history is taught in class, is it all domestic history? Besides Australian treatment of aboriginals, was there anything that was essentially more than Aussies dealing with Aussies? What was the Australian role within the Empire and was it functionally more independent or subordinate?

 

[Kyriakos]

Like with Canada they also had some regiments fight in British campaigns (including iirc the opium wars), up to ww2. Can't say i know more on that front..

 

[Masada]

Put it this way: when Australian history is taught in class, is it all domestic history?

You can look at our the contours of our new national history curriculum here. Just to summarise kids are taught about Indigenous life and European exploration (Year 4), colonization and the colonies (Year 5), Federation and the 20th century (Year 6), world history from the beginning ~60 000BCE to the end of the ancient period ~650CE (Year 7), the end of the ancient period to the early modern period ~1750 (Year 8), the makings of the modern world to 1918 (Year 9), the history of the modern world and Australia from 1918 to present (Year 10). That leaves two optional years of schooling. When I went through these a decade ago, I covered the Vietnam War, World War I, the Russian Revolution and French Revolutions. While we did look at Australian participation in Vietnam and World War I those weren't our central focus.

Besides Australian treatment of aboriginals, was there anything that was essentially more than Aussies dealing with Aussies?

Not a lot, to be honest. I did some early colonial history, the Eureka Stockade, the Gallipoli Campaign, the New Guinea campaign and Fall of Singapore, the protests movements during the Vietnam War and that's about all I can recall being taught about Australian history. Most of those obviously involved rather more than just Australians dealing with Australians and only made sense in the context of being part of the Empire (more on that latter).

What was the Australian role within the Empire and was it functionally more independent or subordinate?

We talk about the Empire. But it's usually part of a narrative that sees Australia form in 1901 and become gradually more assertive over-time before finally severing the link sometime in the 1950s with the US replacing Britain until Vietnam ended and we adopted a more independent foreign policy with the final act involving Australia getting embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan and messing that all up. Australian relations with the Empire... are complicated with lots of different views. But that's the usual, I guess, left of center view of things.

Like with Canada they also had some regiments fight in British campaigns (including iirc the opium wars), up to ww2. Can't say i know more on that front..

Australia didn't exist until 1901. So no, we didn't have troops involved in the Opium Wars (1839-42 and 1856-60) nor did the colonies that went on to make up Australia. The colonies did send troops to fight in some of the Maori Wars, the Second Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion. But the bulk of the troops were drawn from just two colonies, Victoria and New South Wales. Australia then fought in the First World War where we grabbed ourselves a Pacific Empire and in the Second World War where Curtin made a habit of thumbing his nose at Churchill.

Back to history, I should post the polandball comic where a Brit complains that they still require people with a criminal activity history to enter Australia.

The biggest offenders against our immigration laws... are Brits.