Australia

[00:00.26] The history of Australia is the history of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia.

[00:05.03] People first arrived on the Australian mainland by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and penetrated to all parts of the continent, from the rainforests in the north, the deserts of the centre, and the sub-Antarctic islands of Tasmania and Bass Strait. The artistic, musical and spiritual traditions they established are among the longest surviving such traditions in human history.

[00:29.73] The first Torres Strait Islanders – ethnically and culturally distinct from the Aboriginal people – arrived from what is now Papua New Guinea around 2,500 years ago, and settled in the islands of the Torres Strait and the Cape York Peninsula forming the northern tip of the Australian landmass.

[00:45.67] The first known landing in Australia by Europeans was in 1606 by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon on Australia's northern coast. Later that year, Spanish explorer Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through, and navigated, what is now called Torres Strait and associated islands. Twenty-nine other Dutch navigators explored the western and southern coasts in the 17th century and named the continent New Holland. Macassan trepangers visited Australia's northern coasts after 1720, possibly earlier. Other European explorers followed until, in 1770, Lieutenant James Cook charted the east coast of Australia and claimed it for Great Britain. He returned to London with accounts favouring colonisation at Botany Bay (now in Sydney).

[01:33.48] The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony, the first colony on the Australian mainland. In the century that followed, the British established other colonies on the continent, and European explorers ventured into its interior. Aboriginal people were greatly weakened and their numbers diminished by introduced diseases and conflict with the colonists during this period.

[01:59.51] Gold rushes and agricultural industries brought prosperity. Transportation of British convicts to Australia was phased out from 1840 to 1868. Autonomous parliamentary democracies began to be established throughout the six British colonies from the mid-19th century. The colonies voted by referendum to unite in a federation in 1901, and modern Australia came into being. Australia fought as part of British Empire and later Commonwealth in the two world wars and was to become a long-standing ally of the United States when threatened by Imperial Japan during World War II. Trade with Asia increased and a post-war immigration program received more than 6.5 million migrants from every continent. Supported by immigration of people from almost every country in the world since the end of World War II, the population increased to more than 25.5 million by 2020, with 30 per cent of the population born overseas.

[00:00.00] Indigenous prehistory

[00:00.00] Main article: History of Indigenous Australians

[00:00.00] See also: Prehistory of Australia and Aboriginal history of Western Australia

[00:00.00] Rock painting at Ubirr in Kakadu National Park. Evidence of Aboriginal art in Australia can be traced back some 30,000 years.

[00:00.00] Humans are believed to have arrived in Australia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago. As hunter-gatherers, they established enduring spiritual and artistic traditions and used a range of implements adapted to their environments. Recent estimates of the population at the time of British settlement range from 500,000 to one million.

[00:00.00] There is considerable archaeological discussion as to the route taken by the first population. People appear to have arrived by sea during a period of glaciation, when New Guinea and Tasmania were joined to the continent; however, the journey still required sea travel, making them among the world's earliest mariners. Scott Cane wrote in 2013 that the first wave may have been prompted by the eruption of Lake Toba. If they arrived about 70,000 years ago, they could have crossed the water from Timor, when the sea level was low, but if they came later, around 50,000 years ago, a more likely route would have been through the Moluccas to New Guinea. Given that the likely landfall regions have been under approximately 50 metres of water for the past 15,000 years, it is unlikely that the timing will ever be established with certainty.

[00:00.00] The oldest known sites of human occupation in Australia are in Arnhem Land in the north of the continent and have been dated to between 50,000 and 65,000 BP. The population spread into a range of very different environments. Devil's Lair in the extreme south-west of the continent was occupied around 47,000 BP and Tasmania by 39,000 BP. The earliest known human remains in Australia, found at Lake Mungo, a dry lake in the southwest of New South Wales, are about 40,000 years old. Remains found at Mungo suggest one of the world's oldest known cremations, thus indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans.

[00:00.00] The spread of the population also altered the environment. There is evidence of the deliberate use of fire to shape the Australian environment 46,000 years ago. In many parts of Australia, firestick farming was used to clear vegetation to make travel easier, drive animals into ambushes, and create open grasslands rich in animal and vegetable food sources. More than 60 species of animals, including Australian megafauna, became extinct by 10,000 ago. Researchers have variously attributed these extinctions to human hunting and firing practices, climate change or a combination of these factors.