The History of Migration in Australia

Around 50,000 years ago, a small band of humans landed in northern Australia. Arriving on a primitive boat or raft the first Aboriginal people set foot on Australia. They are thought to have migrated from Asia, however a current theory holds that those early migrants themselves came out of Africa. It is believed that the journey was planned because enough men and women arrived to found a new population there. Guided by rivers, the group ventured deeper inland, where they found giant mammals, birds, and reptiles ripe for hunting, and no other humans to challenge them. This group had stumbled upon a new continent, their land Australia and they had it all to themselves.

Born 7th November 1728, in Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England, a young man James Cook. Grew up to be a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. In 1770, Captain Cook discovered the South East coast of Australia, landing in Botany Bay. On 22 August 1770, he claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia at Possession Island, naming eastern Australia New South Wales. He died at the age of 50, 14 February 1779.

Until 1782, English convicts were transported to America. However, in 1783 the American War of Independence ended. America refused to accept any more convicts, so England had to find somewhere else to send their prisoners. Transportation to New South Wales was the solution. Between 1788 and 1868, more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. The convicts were transported as punishment for crimes committed in Britain and Ireland. Some crimes included petty theft, burglary or housebreaking, highway robbery, stealing clothing and stealing animals. In Australia their lives were hard as they helped build the young colony.

The First Fleet of 11 ships, left Portsmouth in 1787 with more than 1480 men, women and children on board. Although most were British, there were also African, American and French convicts. After a voyage of three months the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay on 24 January 1788. Arthur Phillip was a Royal Navy officer and the first Governor of New South Wales who founded the British penal colony that later became the city of Sydney, Australia. In 1797 the first Europeans to make contact with the Aboriginal people of south-east Australia were shipwrecked sailors.

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s.. The first gold rush began in May 1851 after prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange, at a site he called Ophir. Hargraves had been to the Californian goldfields and had learned new gold prospecting techniques such as panning and cradling. The gold rush helped increase the population, which helped bring social, cultural development and democratic government. The discovery of gold brought about major economic, social and political changes to the nation of Australia.

The Eureka Rebellion was a rebellion in 1854, instigated by gold miners in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, who revolted against the colonial authority of the United Kingdom.

In 1900, it was agreed to by the British Parliament. On 1 January 1901, the Australian colonies united to become a nation. This is known as federation and resulted in the creation of a federal Parliament, with the colonies becoming Australia's six states. Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia.