Australian Colonisation History

On the 26th of January each year, the nation of Australia celebrates its foundation. This day is celebrated as the day Captain Arthur Phillip and a fleet of eleven ships arrived in Botany Bay to begin the British colonisation of Australia. The eleven ships were collectively known as “The First Fleet” and carried around 1500 convicts, crew and their families.

 

The First Fleet

The fleet departed Portsmouth on the thirteenth of May in 1787 and arrived in Australia ten months later. Throughout their journey the fleet encountered severe storms, rough seas and fierce winds as well as snow in what they called summer. The removal of convicts from England was due to overcrowding of gaols and the hulks they had used for housing of prisoners. Previously, Britain had sent prisoners to America, until the War of Independence which left their only solution in an attempted colonisation of the land discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770.

The Early Colonies

The penal colony that was established in New South Wales is considered to be harsh by our understandings but has proven to be one of the most successful methods of rehabilitating criminals that the world has seen. The people who were classified as convicts by England for their petty crimes, came to be the founders of our nation. They brought with them the tools that gave Australia it’s heritage.

The Convicts

Between the years of 1788 and 1850, 806 ships carrying more than 162 thousand convicts travelled to Australia to create the colonisation of Australia. Great Britain sent these ships with the intention of creating a colony of England. However, they did not anticipate that this colonisation would be met with any resistance.

Indigenous Interaction

Britain had classified the land as ‘uninhabited’ due to the fact that the land was uncultivated. The lack of cultivation on the land led to the assumption that the natives of this land, if any, were uncivilised. However, Australia was in fact inhabited by an Indigenous population of around 300 thousand who had lived on the land for more than 10 thousand years. The British intent on creating a British colony clashed with the Indigenous protocols and history.

The European Colonisation of Australia was a major turning point in the history of our great nation. It is an important aspect of culture as it provided the base for which our current way of life is based upon. As Australian's, it is important for us to recognise that our great nation's history did not begin with the European Colonisation, but many thousands of years prior, and that our great land has a very long and colourful history that can be explored throughout this website.

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