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 The
continent of Australia (roughly equal in size to the continent of
North America), was 'discovered' by a number of explorers before James
Cook in 1770.
Some historians claim that it is at least possible that Marco Polo
visited
Aussie shores, but it is definitely known that Dutch Navigator Plesart
landed on the west coast in 1629; Able Tasman.
In 1642-3; William de Vlamingh in 1697; William Dampier in 1699;
Nicholas
du Fresne (who is said to have visited Tasmania) in 1767 to mention a
few.
At the time James Cook discovered the 'east coast of the continent it
was known as Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo (The South Land of the Holy
Spirit). One early map showed a land with the name Iave la Grandé to the
south of Java. It included the notation: Coste des Herbaiges being
French
for 'coast of vegetation'.
British Settlement
Captain Cook's account of his discovery aroused much interest in England
but Britain did not try to colonize Australia until its American
colonies
achieved independence.
On 13 May 1787, the first fleet of 11 ships
sailed
from England under the command of Capt. Arthur Phillip. They reached
Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 with 1530 people, 736 of them convicts.
Finding the bay a poor choice, the fleet left eight days later to
establish a settlement at Port Jackson, a few kilometres north. Here,
Phillip began the first permanent settlement on January 26, now known as
Australia Day.
The settlement grew to be Sydney, Australia's biggest
city
with one of the world's best natural harbors. It was named Sydney for
Britain's home secretary, Lord Sydney, (1733-1800), who was responsible
for the colony.
Phillip's domain covered half of Australia (from the
eastern oceanic waters to as far west as the 135th meridian), but his
human resources were limited.
Three major problems confronted the early governors: providing a
sufficient supply of foodstuffs; developing an internal economic system;
and producing exports to pay for the colony's imports from Britain.
Land
around Sydney was too sandy for suitable farming, and the colony faced
perpetual food shortages through the 1790s. (Natural food sources were
largely limited to fish and kangaroo.) Phillip established farms on the
more fertile banks of the Hawkesbury River, a few miles north-west of
Sydney, but this land was often flooded or still used by the Aborigines.
Food supplies came mainly from Norfolk Island, nearly 1,600 km (about
1,000 miles) away, which Phillip had occupied in February 1788; the
island
later served as a jail.
In 1792 the Royal Marines were replaced with the New South Wales Corps,
which had been specifically recruited in Great Britain. Given grants of
land, members of the corps became the colony's best and largest farmers,
but they also posed a serious threat to the governors by their power
over
the economy. With a sharp eye for enhancing their income, they
specialized
in controlling the price of rum, which served largely as the colony's
internal means of exchange.
Phillip's successor as governor, Capt. John Hunter (1738-1821), who
arrived in 1795, tried in vain to gain control of the rum traffic.
The
next governor, Capt. Philip G. King (1758-1808), who served from 1800 to
1806, was no more successful.
The island settlement at Hobart in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) was
established in 1803 to accommodate convicts and to quash any possible
French claims to the island.
In 1806 Capt. William Bligh replaced King. Bligh had gained notoriety
earlier, when the crew of his ship, the Bounty, had mutinied in the
Pacific. Bligh threatened the corps with the loss of their monopoly. He
was met with the so-called Rum Rebellion, and on Jan. 26, 1808,
Lieutenant
Colonel George Johnston arrested him.
Bligh was later sent to London, where he successfully defended his
policies, but he was not restored to his governorship. The Rum Rebellion
thus gave the leaders of the corps immediate victory.
Meanwhile, one of its ringleaders, John Macarthur (1767-1834), had found
the solution to the colony's lack of valuable exports. In 1802 he had
shown British manufacturers samples of Australian wool. It was only
after
1810, however, with the breeding of the merino sheep, with its long
staple
wool, that sheep grazing gradually developed into a major economic
activity.
Bligh's replacement, Lachlan Macquarie (1762-1824), served as governor
from 1809 to 1821. The New South Wales Corps was sent home, and because
the economy had improved, the government gained stability. Macquarie
began
an extensive public works program, employing the ex-convict Francis
Greenway (1777-1837) to design churches, hospitals, and government
buildings in Sydney. The population of the colony also increased after
Britain's defeat of Napoleon in 1814.
The arrival of more free settlers brought increased claims to farmland
on
which more convicts could serve as laborers. These two groups of
colonists, however, reflected a growing tension within New South Wales.
As
convicts completed their sentences or were eligible for release due to
good behavior, they sought land and opportunities. They were known as
the
emancipists, and their leaders urged that they be given more rights. The
free settlers, like the corps before them, maintained that convicts,
even
after their release, should not be treated as equals. These opponents to
the emancipists were known as the exclusives. Macquarie, as had Bligh,
tended to support the emancipists, granting them land and appointing
them
to minor offices. The exclusives became critical of both Macquarie and
the
emancipists.
Macquarie's government was expensive, and most of the burden had to be
carried by the British treasury. Overseas punishment, however, did not
appear to have reduced the number of convicts, and many wondered if New
South Wales was the proper solution to Britain's crime problems. In
1819,
the British Colonial Office sent Judge John Thomas Bigge (1780-1843) to
inspect and report on Macquarie's administration. He recognized the
colony's growing importance to the British Empire as a home for wealthy
free settlers, and he popularized the name Australia for the southern
continent. Bigge's reports resulted in a major change in the
constitution
for New South Wales.
In 1823,
New South Wales was granted the first constitutional charter by a
British
law, authorizing the creation of a Legislative Council with limited
power. In 1825, by an executive order of the British government, the island
settlement of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) became a separate
colony.
Written by:
Linda from Oz
(Linda's
Australian Page)
Australian
Statistics
Country
(long form)
Commonwealth of Australia
Government Type
democratic, federal-state system
recognizing the British monarch as sovereign
Capital
Canberra
Currency
1 Australian dollar ($A) = 100 cents
Total Area
2,967,909.38 sq mi
7,686,850.00 sq km
(slightly smaller than the US)
GDP (per
capita)
$23,200 (2000 estimated)
Population
19,357,594 (July 2001 est.)
Industry
mining, industrial and transportation
equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel
Estimated Population in 2050
24,175,783
Agriculture
wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits;
cattle, sheep, poultry
Languages
English, native languages
Arable Land
6%
Religions
Anglican 26.1%, Roman Catholic 26%,
other Christian 24.3%, non-Christian 11%
Natural Resources
bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin,
silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc,
diamonds, natural gas, petroleum
Life Expectancy
77.02 male, 82.87 female (2001 est.)
Source:
HRW World Atlas (2005)
The
Australian Flag came into being after the the federation of the
Australian States into the Commonwealth of Australian on 1 January,
1901. The Commonwealth Blue Ensign was selected a a result
of a public competition (over 30 000 designs were submitted); although
selected in 1901 and gazetted in 1903, it was not given Royal assent and
adopted as the definitive Australian flag until 1954 in the Flags Act
1953 (Act No. 1 of 1954)! It is based on the Blue Ensign of the United
Kingdom, is twice as long as it is wide, and consists of a dark blue
field that can be notionally divided into four quadrants. There is a
different motif in each of the upper and lower hoist quadrants and the
remaining two quadrants of the fly share another different
constellation motif.
The present Australian flag can be considered to consist of three
main elements:
 The
Union Jack in the upper hoist quadrant or first quarter (also know
as the Canton) denotes Australia's historical links with Great
Britain. The Union Jack itself, is composed of red and white
intersecting and overlayed vertical and diagonal crosses on a blue
background.
 The
Southern Cross in the second quarter (also known as the top or head)
and fourth quarter. Consists of five stars in a more or less
kite-like pattern - Alpha Crucis (7-point), Beta Crucis (7-point),
Gamma Crucis (7-point), Delta Crucis (7-point) and the smaller
Epsilon Crucis (5-point). The outer diameter of each of the 4 major
stars is 1/7 the width of the fly and the inner diameter is 4/9
outer diameter; the diameter of Epsilon Crucis is 1/12 the width of
the fly and the inner diameter is 4/9 the outer diameter. The
constellation of the Southern Cross is a significant navigational
feature of the southern hemisphere, strongly places Australian
geographically and has been associated with the continent since its
earliest days.
 The
Commonwealth Star or Star of Federation, central in the third
quarter or lower hoist, has seven points to denote the six states
and the combined territories of the Commonwealth. The seventh point
was added in 1909. The outer diameter is 3/5 the width of the Union
Jack (3/10 the width of the fly) and the inner diameter is 4/9
the outer diameter.
The Australian National Flag identifies a free & democratic people
in a nation united in purpose. Each of the symbols on the flag has a
special meaning for Australians. The stars of the Southern Cross
represent Australia's geographic position in the Southern
Hemisphere; the Commonwealth star stands for the federation of
States & Territories; the Crosses represent the principles on which
the nation is based, namely: parliamentary democracy, rule of law,
and freedom of speech.
In 1996, the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, proclaimed 3rd
September as Australian National Flag Day, to commemorate the day in
1901 on which the national flag of "Stars and Crosses" was first
shown. It is the right and privilege of every Australian to fly the
Australian National Flag.
Significant Flag Dates
29 April 1901
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (#27) holds a design competition
for the Flag of Australia, announced by the first Australian Prime
Minister, Edmund Barton.
03 September 1901
First official raising of the blue Australian Flag at the Royal
Exhibition Building, Melbourne.
20 February 1903
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (#8) Proclamation that King Edward
VII had approved the design for the Flag of Australia.
19 December 1908
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (#65 pg. 1709) announced addition
of the 7th point to the Commonwealth Star to represent the
Australian Territories.
02 December 1953
In the Commonwealth Government 'Flags Act 1953', the status of The
Flag is confirmed by legislation and to be titled the Australian
National Flag.
24 March 1998
Flag Amendments Bill amended the Flags Act 1953 to ensure that the
Australian National Flag can only be changed if the electorate
approves.
MORE ARTICLES
on Australian History.
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