World History: Australia

Country occupying all of the Earth's smallest continent, situated south of Indonesia, between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Australia is an independent sovereign nation within the Commonwealth.

From Immigration and Asylum from 1900 to Present
Australia has been a land of immigrants since the beginning of British colonization in 1788. The early colonial period was marked by genocide, dispossession, and racism against the Aboriginal population, while at the same time the colonies were integrating into the British Empire as suppliers of raw materials. Britain took an active role in providing workers through convict labor, assisted passages, and the encouragement of free settlement. In the mid–nineteenth century, Australian employers sought cheap labor in China, India, and the South Pacific Islands.

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
Archaeology combining textual and oral evidence with excavated data and the study of surface remains began in Australia, as in the USA, in 1967.

When Europeans first began to explore and settle in Australia, about three hundred languages were spoken by the hunter-gatherer peoples (possibly 300,000 people in total) who inhabited the continent.

From The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English: The Timeless Land (1941), Storm of Time (1948) and No Barrier (1953) are commonly referred to as Eleanor Dark's 'Historical Trilogy'.

From Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English: The emergence in the 1920s of indigenous black writing in Australia saw the publication of Aboriginals: Their Traditions and Customs (1924) by well-known Ngarrindjeri speaker and inventor DAVID UNAIPON.

From The Encyclopedia of World History
The 19th century in Australia was characterized by European settlement and political and economic development in European terms. British settlement saw the steady dispossession of some 200 Aboriginal groups: by 1914 only a few desert people remained in control of their country.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Smallest continent and sixth largest country (in area) on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Area: 2,969,978 sq mi (7,692,208 sq km).

From Chambers Dictionary of World History: Australia's largest conservative party, formed by Menzies in 1944–5 from existing conservative groups.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History: The third largest party in Australia, it grew out of the Australian Country Party formed in 1920.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History: Australia's oldest political party, founded in 1891 in New South Wales following the defeat of the trade unions in the 1890 maritime strike.

From The Macquarie Encyclopedia of Australian Events: 1901 Jan 1: Barton Government. The new Commonwealth of Australia began with the proclamation of the Federal Constitution and the swearing in of Lord Hopetoun at Sydney's Centennial Park. NSW Protectionist leader Edmund Barton headed the first Commonwealth Ministry.

he practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil (for raising crops) and the raising of domesticated animals. The units for managing agricultural production vary from smallholdings and individually owned farms to corporate-run farms and collective farms run by entire communities or by the government.

From The Macquarie Encyclopedia of Australian Events: 1788 Jan: Governor Arthur Phillip arrived in Botany Bay with the colony's first livestock, seeds and young plants. However, the small cattle herd was lost and many of the sheep either died or strayed; only 2 of the horses survived more than 2 years.

Common name for many species of wild and domesticated ruminant mammals of the genus Ovis of the Bovidae, or cattle, family.