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Teen life in the Great Depression | Further Back In Time For Dinner

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https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/1967-referendum/10523010

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The 1967 referendum saw the majority of Australians vote to change our country’s laws to count Indigenous Australians as full citizens.

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The Museum commissioned award-winning filmmaker Alison Page and director Nik Lachajczak to create a film in collaboration with Indigenous communities along Australia's east coast. The Message: the Story from the Shore features descendants of those whose ancestors witnessed Cook's passage, powerfully reimagining the message of the ship's arrival being passed up the coast line.

Learn more about the making of The Message: the Story from the Shore.

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The Museum commissioned award-winning filmmaker Alison Page and director Nik Lachajczak to create a film in collaboration with Indigenous communities along Australia's east coast. The Message: the Story from the Shore features descendants of those whose ancestors witnessed Cook's passage, powerfully reimagining the message of the ship's arrival being passed up the coast line.

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Forging The Nation - Simpson and his donkey | The Australian War Memorial

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Simpson would not have made a good peacetime soldier, and he was recklessly independent in war. Instructed to recover and help the wounded he undertook this work enthusiastically. Famously, he used a small donkey to carry men down from the front line, often exposing himself to fire.

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This songs sums up the spirit of the ANZACS

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This songs sums up the spirit of the ANZACS

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yt5s.io-Diggers Of The ANZAC by John Williamson

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In 1967 Australia voted to remove the provisions of the constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal people. See this defining moment in Australia's history brought to life, as written by historian David Hunt.

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In 1967 Australia voted to remove the provisions of the constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal people. See this defining moment in Australia's history brought to life, as written by historian David Hunt.

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Discovery of gold in Australia

There had been multiple gold finds in New South Wales (Bathurst and Monaro), Tasmania and what would become Victoria prior to the 'official' discovery of the precious metal by Edward Hargraves near Orange in 1851.

In 1841 Reverend William Branwhite Clarke, one of the earliest geologists in the colony, came across particles of gold near Hartley in the Blue Mountains.

In 1844 he mentioned it to Governor Gipps who reportedly said: 'Put it away Mr Clarke or we shall all have our throats cut'.

Gipps feared that mutiny would result if the people of New South Wales, the majority of whom were convicts or ex-convicts, found that gold was within easy reach.

In 1848 mineralogist William Tipple Smith found gold near Bathurst and the following year revealed the find to the NSW Colonial Secretary Edward Thomson. Research by one of Smith's relatives, Lynette Silver, established that Smith's find was the first discovery of payable gold. However, he was denied the recognition and monetary reward, which was ultimately claimed by Edward Hargraves.

The government's attitude to gold discoveries changed in 1848 with news of the California gold rush. The promise of fortunes to be had across the Pacific led thousands of men to leave the colony, creating labour shortages and economic depression.

Governor Charles FitzRoy had heard rumours of the gold to be found in New South Wales and believed a mineral discovery in the colony could reverse the economic downturn.

He convinced the British Government in 1849 to appoint a government geologist, Samuel Stutchbury, and offered a reward to anyone who found a commercially viable amount of gold.

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1851: Gold rushes in New South Wales and Victoria begin

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Explore the reasons you might have got a FREE TRIP to Australia.

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Discover 21 crimes that saw over 160,000 thieves, rogues and vagabonds deported to Australian penal colonies.

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Not all of our First Australians were hunter/gatherers.

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Not all of our First Australians were hunter/gatherers.

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Budj Bim is a dormant volcano in South Western Victoria on Gunditjmara Country. The Budj Bim cultural landscape consists of multiple locations such as Lake Condah and the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area.

Budj Bim means High Head in the language of Gunditjmara people and is home to one of oldest aquaculture systems in the world. Budj Bim is said to have erupted over 30,000 years ago and the lava flow that resulted created a system of channels that Gunditjmara people developed into weirs, dams and traps for fish and eels.

Creation Story

Budj Bim ties heavily in to the Dreaming of the Gunditjmara people. It is said that an ancestral creation-being revealed itself in the landscape to the Gunditjmara people. Budj Bim the ancestral creation-being's body, the mountain is the forehead and the stones are the teeth.

"(The Budj Bim landscape), which we have cared for over thousands of years, is so important to Gunditjmara People"- Aunty Denise Lovett, Gunditjmara Elder

To learn more about the creation story check out Dhauwurd Wurrong: The Creation of Budj Bim or you can download the Creation of Budj Bim App.

Lake Condah. Author - Tyson Lovett-Murray © Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners. Source: UNESCO.
National Park

The Budj Bim National park (formerly Mt Eccles National Park) is located 'at the western edge of the volcanic plains that stretch from Melbourne to Port Fairy, extending northwards to Hamilton and Ararat.

The park was renamed to Budj Bim in 2017 and was the first national park that was co-managed by Gunditjmara Traditional Owners and Parks Victoria.

The area (originally 35 hectares) was declared a public picnic space in 1921, this then grew to 6120 hectares in 1985 and today the national park extends over 8000 hectares.

Aquaculture and Eel Traps

Budj Bim is home to one of the oldest aquaculture systems in the world. Aquaculture is the farming and breeding of water creatures including fish, eels, shellfish and plants for food and other human use. Aboriginal people are pioneers of aquaculture and there are examples across the Country of sophisticated fish trapping systems that are thousands of years old. Another famous example besides Budj Bim is the Brewarrina Fish Traps on Ngemba Country in NSW.

The Budj Bim eel traps have been in use since the Dreaming and throughout this time they have been rebuilt as needed. As western science is still young and catching up to the complex systems we have used since time immemorial, the eel traps have been dated back to over 6000 years ago.

Image: A channel with reconstructed stake, branch and weir in the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, SBS News.

Gunditjmara people managed the water flow from Lake Condah, creating dams and blockages to ensure the water flowed as they needed it.

The eel and fish traps supplied enough food to sustain their community all year-round so that they never had to leave and also allowed the Gunditjmara people to trade with other nations.

Gunditjmara people built stone houses and huts to assist with living permanently on the land and today there are over 200 registered and recorded stone houses.

The Budj Bim eel traps and stone houses challenge a long held belief that Aboriginal people were hunters and gatherers who lived a nomadic lifestyle across the land. It shows that we had farming and land management practices and strong economic and agricultural lifestyles.

"There are around 200 registered and recorded stone house sites (at Budj Bim), so people were living a sedentary life" - Uncle Denis Rose, Gunditjmara Elder

Tae Rak channel and holding pond. Author - Tyson Lovett-Murray. © Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners. Source: UNESCO.
Heritage Listing

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was became a part of the National Heritage List on the 20th of July 2004 and almost 15 years later to the day The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was granted World Heritage Listing. Budj Bim being listed on the world heritage list means the site is recognised as having "outstanding universal value" and is 1 of 19 other locations in Australia that have made the list.

This was a landmark decision as it is one of few places recognised purely for its importance to the First Nations Peoples.

Further Reading

Sources

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Gunditjmara people build Budj Bim eel trap system

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Budj Bim means High Head in the language of Gunditjmara people and is home to one of oldest aquaculture systems in the world. Budj Bim is said to have erupted over 30,000 years ago and the lava flow that resulted created a system of channels ...

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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/gallipoli-landing

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British and French forces landed at Cape Helles on the southern tip of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), which included the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Australian Brigades along with the 1st New Zealand Brigade as well as artillery units from the British Indian Army, landed on the west coast in a series of waves.

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What was life like on the Australian home front in WW1?

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What was life like on the Australian home front in WW1?

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Eddie Mabo - Indigenous land rights (1992)

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Eddie Mabo - Indigenous land rights (1992)

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https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/mabo-day/13900674

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Mabo Day is on June 3rd, and celebrates the life and work of Eddie Mabo, who fought to disprove terra nullius. We speak to some kids from the island of Mer, where he grew up, to help explain his life and legacy.

Duration: 4min 13sec

Broadcast: Tue 31 May 2022, 12:00am

Transcript

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Mabo Legacy

We look at the life and legacy of Eddie Mabo.

Mabo Day

Mabo Day is a chance to remember a man who had a big impact on Australia's history. And a warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers; this story contains images of people who've died.

Further Information

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We learn more about Mabo Day and meet some kids from the island where Eddie Mabo grew up.

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https://www.clickview.net/videos/49240370/national-sorry-day

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Listen to a Parliamentary motion offering an apology to Australia's indigenous peoples Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services

The Speaker of the House (Hon Harry Jenkins MP): The Clerk.

The Clerk: Government business notice number 1, Motion offering an apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples.

The Speaker: Prime Minister.

Prime Minister (Hon Kevin Rudd MP): Mr Speaker, I move: That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We, the Parliament of Australia, respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

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Listen to a Parliamentary motion offering an apology to Australia's indigenous peoples

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The Speaker of the House (Hon Harry Jenkins MP): The Clerk. The Clerk: Government business notice number 1, Motion offering an apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. The Speaker: Prime Minister. Prime Minister (Hon Kevin Rudd MP): Mr Speaker, I move: That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

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2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart (Scroll down to the 'listen' section to hear it).

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2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart (Scroll down to the 'listen' section to hear it).

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We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from 'time immemorial', and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.

This sovereignty is spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or 'mother nature', and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.

How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia's nationhood.

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

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View The Statement - Uluru Statement from the Heart

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We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from 'time immemorial', and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.

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Mr Albanese's response to the Uluru Statement of the Heart (5 years later in 2022).

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Mr Albanese's response to the Uluru Statement of the Heart (5 years later in 2022).

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled the wording of a draft referendum question as part of moves to enshrine an Indigenous voice in parliament. During a speech at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land, Albanese proposed this question: 'Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?' Australia's constitution makes no reference to Indigenous people, whose leaders have toiled for generations to win recognition for injustices suffered since European colonisation in the 1700s

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Source: ABC & Carly Earl | Guardian Australia

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'If not now, when?': Albanese reveals wording of referendum question on Indigenous voice - video

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled the wording of a draft referendum question as part of moves to enshrine an Indigenous voice in parliament. During a speech at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land, Albanese proposed this question: 'Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?'

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Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

© tororo reaction/Fotolia

Great Barrier Reef

School of fish in the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

© StrangerView/Fotolia

Great Barrier Reef

Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef, off the northeastern coast of Australia.

© cool chap/Fotolia

Australia: soil groups

Distribution of Australian soil groups as classified by the Food and Agriculture...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

grass tree

Flowering grass trees (Xanthorrhoea), common vegetation of the Big Desert,...

© Hans Reinhard/OKAPIA/Photo Researchers

kangaroo

Female kangaroo with joey in pouch, Australia.

© redleg/Fotolia

red-barred dragon

Red-barred dragon (Ctenophorus vadnappa) in the Flinders Ranges, Australia.

© iStockphoto/Thinkstock

koala

Koala and joey in a eucalyptus tree in Australia.

Benjamint444

platypus

Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).

© Hans and Judy Besage—Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd/age fotostock

Kylie Kwong

Kylie Kwong, an Australian celebrity chef of Chinese heritage, performing a cooking...

© Damithri/Dreamstime.com

labourer cutting sugarcane

Italian immigrant cutting sugarcane in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia, 1952.

Virtual Museum of Italian Immigration in the Illawarra; used with permission of ITSOWEL

Aboriginal rights demonstration

Civil rights activist Faith Bandler (far right) protesting discrimination against...

Courtesy of AIATSIS (collection no. N04612_12)

Aboriginal stockmen

Aboriginal stockmen taking a break from work on a cattle station in Wyndham, Western...

National Archives of Australia: A1200, L11712

Lambing Flat Riots

Lambing Flat Riots, section from the scroll Harvest of Endurance, 1988.

National Museum of Australia

White Australia policy song

Sheet music for “White Australia (Australia the White Man's Land),” composed by W.E....

Composer: W. E. Naunton, Composer: H. J. W. Gyles Museums Victoria

The New Australian

The New Australian, January 1929, publication of the Big Brother Movement,...

National Archives of Australia: A1, 1932/7662

Australian citizenship ceremony

Immigrants attending an Australian citizenship ceremony during the 1950s.

Virtual Museum of Italian Immigration in the Illawarra; used with permission of ITSOWEL

Sydney

Sydney, Australia.

© Digital Vision/Getty Images

Australian bush food

Traditional foods from Australia's Outback, called “bush food.”

Courtesy of AIATSIS (collection item no. 000125299)

AC/DC

AC/DC, 2009.

Imhavingfun42

Rachel Roberts

Rachel Roberts in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), directed by Peter Weir....

British Empire Films Australia

Cathy Freeman

Cathy Freeman taking a victory lap at the Olympic Games in Sydney, 2000.

Reuters/Alamy

The Duyfken off Australia, 1606

The Duyfken off Australia, 1606, oil on canvas by Robert Ingpen, 2011.

Robert Ingpen, National Library of Australia, nla.obj-138210565

convict labour in Australia

Depiction of convict labourers in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, in 1836, from...

J.W. Beattie, National Library of Australia, nla.obj-140386630

convict uniform

Example of a uniform worn by convicts in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Australia,...

National Library of Australia, nla.obj-139411772

“Rats of Tobruk”

Australian soldiers during World War II standing with a Bren gun on which are painted...

Courtesy Australian War Memorial

Australian immigration

A crowd in Southampton listening to philanthropist Caroline Chisholm speak as the...

© Photos.com /Thinkstock

Malcolm Turnbull (left)

Malcolm Turnbull (left) being sworn in as prime minister of Australia by the governor-general,...

Lukas Coch/AP Images

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese (centre, holding dog) celebrating following the Australian Labor...

Dean Lewins—EPA-EFE/Shutterstock.com

didjeridu

Australian Aborigine playing a didjeridu.

Spectrum Colour Library/Heritage-Images/Impact Photos

Tamar, River

River Tamar, northern Tasmania, Australia.

Kyle

The Twelve Apostles, southwestern Victoria, Australia.

Earth

The planet Earth, as photographed from the Galileo spacecraft during its December...

NASA/JPL

Australian Capital Territory

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

continental drift

The location of Earth's continents at various times between 225 million years ago...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

earthquake epicentres

Global seismic centres for earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 and greater occurring between...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

New South Wales

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

New South Wales.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Northern Territory

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Queensland

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Western Australia

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The global distribution of human skin colour is a well-defined example of genetic...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Soils of Australia, distribution of soil groups as classified by the Food and Agriculture...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Wind and rainfall patterns of the Australian monsoon.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

world map

Map identifying the world's continents.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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Happy Birthday!!! Please enjoy your new SLR (Single Load Rifle) and greens.                                                    Yours sincerely,                                          The Government.

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Happy Birthday!!! Please enjoy your new SLR (Single Load Rifle) and greens.                                                    Yours sincerely,                                          The Government.

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Experiences in the Vietnam War

The Australian veterans in this series recall their stories of service during the Vietnam War. The series is not designed to retell the history of the war. Instead, it gives you a deeper insight into individual experiences through oral history.

While listening to these personal accounts, you'll gain an insight into how serving in the Vietnam War has affected - and even shaped - the lives of Australian veterans.

The Vietnam War was the longest conflict in the 20th century that involved Australia.

Most of the Australians in Vietnam were regular members of the armed forces (navy, army, air force). However, many of those who served were conscripts who had been inducted into the Australian Army under a compulsory national service scheme.

In the early 1960s, Australia's participation in the Vietnam War was not widely opposed. Public opposition grew as more national servicemen were deployed to Vietnam, and they began to make up a large percentage of those being killed in action.

More than 200,000 people marched in the streets of Australian cities in the early 1970s, to protest against the war.

By early 1972, the last Australian combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam. Some 60,000 Australians had been involved in the war by then. Over 500 Australian personnel had lost their lives, including more than 200 national servicemen. Some 3000 Australians were wounded and became sick during their tour of duty.

Patrick O'Hara

Patrick was working in the Australian Public Service when heard he had been conscripted for 2 years of national service in the Australian Army. The news came as a huge surprise.

While some people were objecting to national service, Patrick regarded it as an opportunity for adventure. He thought it offered him the prospect of new and exciting experiences. At the time, Patrick didn't even know where Vietnam was.

Patrick talks about finding out he had been called up for national service and his family's reaction.
Watch these 2 videos:
Hear more of Patrick O'Hara's story.
Do the activity

1. How did Patrick find out his birthday had been selected in the ballot?

2. How did Patrick's family react when he was called up for national service?

3. What punishments applied to men who did not register for national service? (See Conscription and the birthday ballot.)

Bonus activity
The Vietnam War was not the first time conscription was introduced in Australia. Conscription provoked debate across the country between those who supported national service and those who were against it. Using our Moratoriums and Opposition web page and your own research, explore the reasons why society was so divided at the time. If conscription was re-introduced in Australia today, list arguments for and against.

Colleen Mealy

Colleen worked as an Australian Army nurse in Vietnam.

Colleen talks about working conditions in the 8th Field Ambulance and the spirit of the wounded Australians.
Watch the video: Do the activity

1. What conditions did Colleen experience while she served with the 8th Field Ambulance in Vung Tau?

2. How did Colleen describe the 'Aussie attitude' of her patients and how it affected her?

3. How many women like Colleen served in Vietnam between 1966 and 1973? What were some of the roles they served in? (See our online book, Australian Women in War: Service, Courage and Care.)

Bonus activity
The role of Australian service women has changed significantly with each war, conflict and peacekeeping mission since the First World War. Using our book Australian Women in War: Service, Courage and Care and your own research, explore how roles for women in the navy, army and air force have developed over time.

Francis Adrian Roberts

Among military historians, Adrian is well known for his courage and leadership during the Battle of Long Tan. He received a Mention in Dispatches, which is a considerable honour for service personnel. Adrian served 2 tours of Vietnam before joining United States Special Forces to help train Cambodian troops.

Adrian talks about making difficult decisions as an officer, returning home to Australia after a tour of duty, and his feelings towards Vietnamese people.
Watch these 2 videos
Hear more of Adrian Roberts' story.
Do the activity

1. What are some of the advantages and dangers of being an officer that Adrian describes?

2. Why didn't Adrian feel comfortable in Australia after returning home from a tour of duty?

3. What does Adrian say about his relationship with the Vietnamese people? Do you think all veterans would have felt the same? Give your reasons.

Bonus activity
The Battle of Long Tan was one of the most significant engagements for Australian forces during the Vietnam War. Using our Battle of Long Tan web page, research the battle and list 5 facts about Australia's involvement you didn't know before.

Alastair 'Al' Gordon Bridges

Al was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and immigrated with his family to Australia when he was 2. Growing up, he developed a keen desire to become a pilot and fly aeroplanes.

At 21, Al joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He flew helicopters to recover wounded Australian soldiers, civilians and Viet Cong prisoners of war. Flying in a war zone was a difficult and dangerous job for pilots and their crew.

Thinking back on his time in Vietnam, Al was impressed by the dedication of the Australian service men and women in Vietnam. A determination to look after others and get the job done are lasting memories.
Watch the videos
Hear more of Al Bridges' story.
Do the activity

1. How did Al's interest in flying lead to his decision to join the RAAF as a career?

2. How did Al feel when he learnt he was going to have to fight in the Vietnam War? Do you think those feelings changed when he was in Vietnam, inserting SAS patrols in jungle landing zones?

3. What were some of the sights, sounds and dangers that Al encountered on these missions?

Bonus activity
Watch some more oral history videos in Vietnam War Stories. What are the similarities or common themes experienced by Australians who served in Vietnam?

Value of oral history in the classroom

Oral histories bring historic events to life through the voices and memories of people who lived through them.

Listening to the stories of Australian veterans helps us understand the experience of military service and war. Hearing from their family members gives insight into the hardship of service on homelife.

By gathering oral histories, we can avoid stereotyping and generalising military service. We can identify the similarities and recognise the diversity of their experiences. Two people who have served the same theatre of war will have different memories and bring their own insights to the broader story.

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Australian experiences in the Vietnam War: In Their Own Words

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The Australian veterans in this series recall their stories of service during the Vietnam War. The series is not designed to retell the history of the war. Instead, it gives you a deeper insight into individual experiences through oral history.

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Further Back in Time for Dinner: Daily Life in the Past S2 * E4 - 1930s

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How did people dress, cook, and work in the 1930s? The Great Depression had a significant impact on daily life. Families had to make do ...

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The Wall Street crash of October 1929 heralded a worldwide depression that saw one in three Australian breadwinners unemployed. In what became known as the Great Depression, hunger was commonplace, people ate bread and dripping or bread with a little milk and sugar. Soup kitchens were set up to feed the starving and sustenance payments, "the susso", were made in the form of foods such as bread and potatoes.

During the early 1930s, the response to the age-old question 'What's for tea, Mum?' was likely to draw an ironic response. 'Bread and duck under the table' - meaning bread and nothing else - was often all that was on offer. The expression had other variations: 'bread and pull it', 'duck under the table and catch it' or 'duck under the table and swing on the door'.

The Great Depression hit hard and fast. Demand for Australian exports fell, overseas financiers called in their loans, manufacturers were bankrupted and jobs evaporated. By 1932, 29 per cent of Australians were officially out of work. Banks foreclosed on mortgages and many were forced from their homes into shantytowns on the city fringes.

Those who still had a home and a back garden were the lucky ones. They could grow their own vegetables or raise chooks. But many were dependent on sustenance, 'the susso', which often came in the form of ration vouchers. Families queued up at soup kitchens and subsisted on bread and dripping, or bread and 'cocky's joy' (golden syrup). Babies were fed on condensed milk and arrowroot biscuits. Aboriginal people weren't eligible for the dole and had no choice but to take rations: plain flour, sometimes baking powder, a tin of black tea, a little cake of lard and sugar.

Private charities supplemented the meagre government support. In the capital cities, the Lord Mayor's Relief Funds funnelled money to the unemployed. Charity balls became a feature of the social calendar for the better-off. One event was even held on an ocean liner. The West Australian reported in September 1930 that ' Illuminated by hundreds of electric lights, the Orient liner Otranto was a gay sight in Fremantle harbour on Monday night, when a ball in aid of the Lord Mayor's Unemployment Fund was held on board '.

The great depression hit city workers in particular, with many factories closing down and whole industries destroyed. Many people moved to country areas, working as unpaid labour in return for housing and the chance to grow their own food.

During the depression years, Australia's rabbit plague proved a boon, with "underground mutton" replacing other meats on many tables. As a result, in later years, many people refused to eat rabbit because of its association with hard times.

Commodity prices fell during the great depression, with a drastic effect on Australian agriculture. Government assistance helped to support wheat farmers until prices rose again in 1935-36. At this time Australia produced 3-4% of the world's wheat, but it accounted for 18% of total world exports.

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Great Depression - Australian food history timeline

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The Wall Street crash of October 1929 heralded a worldwide depression that saw one in three Australian breadwinners unemployed. In what became known as the Great Depression, hunger was commonplace, people ate bread and dripping or bread with a little milk and sugar.

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STRUGGLETOWN

The Depression widened inequalities of wealth and income. There was compassion for those in need, and also heartbreaking rejection. The unemployed were both pitied and feared. Many people were strapped for cash as unemployment rocketed. The growing number of jobless were forced to sell their most valuable and treasured items to pawnbrokers, or leave them with moneylenders as security for cash loans. Eventually many tenants fell behind with their rent and some home buyers with mortgages lost their homes.

To avoid an irate landlord and unpaid rent many tenants chose to quietly leave their homes in the dead of night (known as doing 'the moonlight flit'). 'Fly-by-night' renters were reviled by landlords. When the rent wasn't paid, landlords sometimes lost not only their investment properties but also their own homes.

A family standing confused and bewildered on the footpath with their personal belongings at their feet was a degrading spectacle that became synonymous with the Great Depression. Tenants faced eviction, sometimes by police, if they could not pay their rent and refused to vacate their houses. Some tenants barricaded themselves inside their homes while neighbours and members of the Unemployed Workers' Movement and the Anti-Eviction League established boisterous pickets outside. The Unemployed Workers' Movement (UWM) was a militant organisation set up to defend the unemployed and their families against the worst indignities of poverty and life on the dole. In 1931 the UWM made its mark fighting major battles against forced evictions. UWM members and outraged locals armed themselves with stones, bricks, bottles and metal bars, then barricaded homes and awaited the arrival of the police. The police were also often armed - with batons and sledgehammers to break down doors and sometimes with revolvers. Some battles with the police were won; the majority were lost.

While evictions continued, advertisements by banks and builders artfully encouraged those who were employed to take advantage of the depressed property market to buy their own homes in the suburbs. The message was that home buyers could ensure their future security and be happy in the knowledge that they were reinvigorating the state's building industry. Nevertheless, scenes of inner-city evictions depicted in local newspapers were a constant reminder of the fate that could befall home owners or buyers should the family's main breadwinner lose his or her job.

Shanties were made from scraps of corrugated iron, hessian, wood and cardboard scavenged from the local area.

Following eviction, moving to shantytowns were the only option. Penniless families were forced to live in makeshift shacks La Perouse, Long Bay or Liverpool, or into squats in disused gun emplacements at Henry Head. Some moved into caves along the coast and poverty and slum-dwelling became increasingly visible. Happy Valley, Sydney's best-known shantytown, sprang up on land leased by the New South Wales Golf Club in a gully to the east of Anzac Parade at La Perouse, south of Sydney. Shanties were made from scraps of corrugated iron, hessian, wood and cardboard scavenged from the local area. Their walls were lined with hessian sugarbags fitted to timber frames and weatherproofed with a mixture of lime and fat boiled in salt water. Roofs were made from sheets of corrugated iron, and earthen floors were smoothed over and covered with calico flourbags or hessian sugarbags. A lack of money and job security meant that many marriages were also postponed and official birth rates began to fall. Having an extra mouth to feed during these tough times could destroy a family already living on the edge. To prevent unwanted births, some women abstained from intercourse or shared tips on birth control, advising each other on coitus interruptus, douching and various homemade solutions that were largely unsuccessful - contraceptives that were available during these years were too expensive for many. When birth control failed and an unwanted pregnancy resulted, some women resorted to abortion, almost universally illegal and considered immoral by the community, the Church and state.

There was no 'safety net' for destitute families and it was largely left to charities and community groups to assist the most vulnerable. Poor diet and inferior housing ultimately affected people's physical and mental wellbeing. Latent family tensions were at times aggravated. Verbal and physical abuse sometimes resulted. Men, unable to manage the intense pressures and financial stresses, deserted their families, leaving their wives to find work to support the children. Some men left to look for work in the country, promising to send home the wages, but never returned. Occasionally it was the women or children who walked out.

From 1930 onwards sustenance relief (the dole) issued food coupons according to the size and needs of a family. These were then exchanged for basic foodstuffs. Coupons were difficult to obtain: all family members, regardless of age, had to be unemployed. Desperate families had to complete lengthy, probing questionnaires to be assessed by officials at the dole office and the perceived unfairness of these questionnaires led to several riots. Once approved for the dole, families had to line up once a week to collect their food coupons at Circular Quay, walk to Central Station to collect their weekly rations and then walk home carrying their bundles. This could take a whole day. There were also a number of ration depots (or 'dole dumps') in suburban areas.

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Skint! Making do in the great depression

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On Tuesday 29 October 1929 the New York stock market collapsed. Twenty-six billion dollars vanished into thin air, leaving markets in ruin for the next 3 years. Australian exports fell overnight, leaving local industries at a standstill, driving up unemployment, misery and hardship. Australia's debts to overseas banks were impossible to meet.

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How the land was created - One Indigenous perspective

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How the land was created - One Indigenous perspective

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Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Narrator Rachel Perkins re-tells stories from the Dreamtime and historian Professor Marcia Langton of the Yiman-Bidjara Nation, historian Professor Janet McCalman and writer Bruce Pascoe of Boonwurrung Heritage weigh in on the unique prehistory experience of Australian Indigenous peoples.

Curator's notes

The images of the Australian landscape are breathtaking as Perkins recounts the Dreamtime stories. She states that 'in everything they (the giant beings of the Dreaming) touched they left their essence', and you can almost feel it as each story is accompanied by art and images of the land or 'country' they originate from.

Without the luxury of images of life before contact, this period of history is presented through shots of the aforementioned landscape, maps of Aboriginal Nations, and archival photographs of 'traditional' life which were taken over 100 years after contact. Despite such limited resources the filmmakers have made an impressive introduction to the series.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Life before contact from the documentary First Australians - Episode 1, They Have Come to Stay as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use' from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

You may retrieve materials for information only.

You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.

You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.

The National Film and Sound Archive's permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use' from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

You may retrieve materials for information only.

You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.

You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.

The National Film and Sound Archive's permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
First Australians - Episode 1, They Have Come to Stay

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG Narrator Rachel Perkins re-tells stories from the Dreamtime and historian Professor Marcia Langton of the Yiman-Bidjara Nation, historian Professor Janet McCalman and writer Bruce Pascoe of Boonwurrung Heritage weigh in on the unique prehistory experience of Australian Indigenous peoples.

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How the land was created - Another Indigenous perspective.

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How the land was created - Another Indigenous perspective.

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English cannot express the 'Dreaming'

'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming' has never been a direct translation of an Aboriginal word. The English language does not know an equivalent to express the complex Aboriginal spiritual concepts to white people.

Aboriginal languages contain a lot of words for spirituality and beliefs, such as

tjurkurrpa, jukurrpa, tjurgurba (Pitjantjatjara people, north-western South Australia),

altjeringa, alcheringa, alchera, aldjerinya (Arrernte people, central Australia),

palaneri,

bugaregara,

ngarangani,

ungud (Ngarinyin people, north-Western Australia),

wongar (north eastern Arnhem Land),

bugari (Broome, north-Western Australia).

There is no spelling orthodoxy because native speakers did not write down Aboriginal languages.

The Dreaming' or 'the Dreamtime' indicates a psychic state in which or during which contact is made with the ancestral spirits, or the Law, or that special period of the beginning. - Mudrooroo, Aboriginal writer

Should I use 'Dreaming' or 'Dreamtime'?

Aboriginal spirituality does not consider the 'Dreamtime' as a time past, in fact not as a time at all. Time refers to past, present and future but the 'Dreamtime' is none of these. The 'Dreamtime' "is there with them, it is not a long way away. The Dreamtime is the environment that the Aboriginal lived in, and it still exists today, all around us," says Aboriginal author Mudrooroo . It is important to note that the Dreaming always also comprises the significance of place .

Hence, if we try to use an English word, we should avoid the term 'Dreamtime' and use the word 'Dreaming' instead. It expresses better the timeless concept of moving from 'dream' to reality which in itself is an act of creation and the basis of many Aboriginal creation myths. None of the hundreds of Aboriginal languages contain a word for time .

We are the oldest and the strongest people, we're here all of the time, we're constant through the Dreaming which is happening now, there's no such thing as the Dreamtime. - Karl Telfer, senior culture-bearer for Kaurna people, Adelaide

The Dreaming is not the product of human dreams. The use of the English word 'dreaming' is more of a matter of analogy than translation. Take care to use appropriate terms for Aboriginal topics to avoid offence.

The creation process

The Dreaming also explains the creation process. Ancestor beings rose and roamed the initially barren land, fought and loved, and created the land's features as we see them today. After creating the 'sacred world' the spiritual beings "turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated men."

The spirits of the ancestor beings are passed on to their descendants, e.g. shark, kangaroo, honey ant, snake and so on and hundreds of others which have become totems within the diverse Indigenous groups across the continent .

Spirits don't belong to anyone and can be accessed by everyone. "No-one owns a spirits," says Quandamooka woman Evelyn Parkin. "You can have what I have got if you're in touch with the spirit." .

It is interesting to note that many Aboriginal people also use the term 'Dreaming' to refer to their concepts about spirituality. This might be because some of them find ceremonies or songs in a state of dreaming, a state between sleeping and waking . Strictly speaking, dreaming and mythology can be considered as the same thing: the deep mental archetypes and images of wisdom which we take on to be guided by them when the conscious mind is in a state of quietness .

The fact that the Dreaming is still around Aboriginal people is a fundamental difference to other spiritual beliefs. In Christianity, for example, the spiritual world is 'heaven', and many Christians believe it is reachable only after death and never while the person is still alive. (Those who find heaven inside might disagree, but such a discussion is beyond this article.)

Aboriginal man Midnight Davies describes how all-encompassing the Dreaming can be for Aboriginal people:

"The Dreaming is, however, more than just an explanation of cultural norms, and where we came from. The Dreaming is a complete guide to life and living - it is an encyclopaedia of the world. It is not just stories - it is art, songs, dance; it is written into the land itself.

"Through the Dreaming we are taught knowledge of plants and animals, to us many of the flowering plants are treated as signs of animals available to hunt, fish about to appear, fruits about to ripen; the movement of the stars foretells the changing of weather, the birth of animals, the time for ceremony and gatherings.

"The Dreaming completely surrounds us, we are shown proof of it everyday. It's not some old book written thousands of years ago, it is the living world itself. The Dreaming belongs to every Aboriginal person - it isn't the sacred property of a few priests/rabbis/imams, it is the property of everyone - every ceremony, every right, every tradition, every bit of knowledge is destined to be known to an individual sometime within their lifetime.

"The Dreaming was not designed to be just practised one day a week, or to only be turned to only in times of need - it is designed to be lived in every moment, and to shield you from those times of need. It serves as a guide to day-to-day life, a guide to the spiritual side of life."

What we draw on from our memories, and think, imagine and create in our daily lives is our dreaming. - Djon Mundine, Bundjalung man and Aboriginal Curator, Campbelltown Arts Centre

Dreaming gives identity

Each Aboriginal person identifies with a specific Dreaming. It gives them identity, dictates how they express their spirituality (see below) and tells them which other Aboriginal people are related to them in a close family, because those share the same Dreaming . One person can have multiple Dreamings .

Each form shares the spirituality from the 'Dreaming'. It is during ceremonies that the trance-like dreaming state seizes the Aboriginal people and they connect with the ancestral beings .

Video: Dreaming stories

Watch three Aboriginal men explaining what the Dreaming (tjukurrpa) means for them and how Dreaming stories encode information:

Here is a sample story:

Watch more Dreaming stories: Sam Taylor has put together a few Dreaming videos.

Poem: Dreaming stories

My culture is my identity.
Dreamtime stories tell the life of my people.
Growing older.
Hearing stories of my ancestors living off the land
Becoming one with the creatures
Even though I haven't met them
I feel this unbreakable connection
Through the stories I have heard.
The stories that have been passed down through generations.
These stories are living through us.
Without our culture we have no identity
And without our identity
We have nothing.

Poem by students Kiarra and Karri Moseley and Luke Bidner . Read more Aboriginal poetry.

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What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'?

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'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming' has never been a direct translation of an Aboriginal word. The English language does not know an equivalent to express the complex Aboriginal spiritual concepts to white people.

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While many people think that the Referendum gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the right to vote, this wasn’t the case.

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Propaganda - The ultimate in persuasive texts

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Propaganda - The ultimate in persuasive texts

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General War Posters

Thumbnail

Description (title, image, artist, printer, publisher, size, condition)

Item Number

Recruiting Posters

Thumbnail

Description (title, image, artist, printer, publisher, size, condition)

Item Number

Australia's Peril/"The people of Australia/must realise two things. One/is that their country is in/deadly peril; the other, that the/army which stands between/them and that peril/will not so stand unless/it be reinforced."/The Bulletin. Your Help Is Needed/Donald Mackinnon,/Director-General of Recruiting

(text only; no images)
NYSL's copy has a white (not pink) background.

Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer, Melbourne, Australia

State Recruiting Committee of Victoria

43 x 30

AUSL REC 01

Brothers Beyond the Seas:/"We shall need every man that/we can put in the field,/every pound that rigid public and/private economy can provide,/and every effort which a united/people can put forth to help in/the heavy task of our soldiers/and sailors."/Lloyd George

Image is a woodcut-style head-and-shoulders portrait of the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George

114 x 83

AUSL REC 35

Final Appeal for Volunteers/Tasmania's Quota for September/1100 Men/Will You Make One?/F. Lindsay, Bunn,/Hon. Sec. for State War Council, Tasmania

(black and white)
(text only; no images)

John Vail, Government Printer, Tasmania, Australia

State War Council - Tasmania

63 x 101

AUSL REC 37

Cricketers - Don't Be Caught Out/of the Sportsmen's 1000
(same style as AUSL REC 41)

(text only; no images)

Sands & McDougall, Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia

Sportsmen's 1000

25 x 100

AUSL REC 42

Join Our/O.B.U./One Big Union/The Khaki's

(text only; no images)

44 x 87

AUSL REC 43

Australian WWI poster: A Man Short

A Man Short. Are You the Man?
(4 sheets; each sheet ca. 20 x 100)

(text only; no images)

38 x 200

AUSL REC 53

AUSL REC 56

The New York State Library is part of the Office of Cultural Education, within the New York State Education Department
Contact NYS Library | Index A - Z | FAQ | Terms of Use | Accessibility Policy

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Australian World War I posters: Manuscripts and Special Collections: NYS Library

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Thumbnail Description (title, image, artist, printer, publisher, size, condition) Item Number Thumbnail Description (title, image, artist, printer, publisher, size, condition) Item Number Australia's Peril/"The people of Australia/must realise two things. One/is that their country is in/deadly peril; the other, that the/army which stands between/them and that peril/will not so stand unless/it be reinforced."/The Bulletin.

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Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

On 25 January 1788 the First Fleet enters Sydney Harbour. Narrator Rachel Perkins and historian Professor Marcia Langton of the Yiman-Bidjara Nation convey the Indigenous point of view of this event. Emeritus Scholar Inga Clendinnen describes attempts by the Aboriginal people and the British soldiers to meet on peaceful terms.

Curator's notes

Langton's use of the phrase 'can you imagine' is typical of her style of historical interpretation throughout the series, encouraging the audience to really think about how it would feel to be an Aboriginal person witnessing the landing of the First Fleet. The once-stale drawings and images of first encounters between black and white in Australia are given new meaning in light of the historical context given by Langton and Clendinnen. The inclusion of a peaceful encounter shows the attempt at a balance in the stories presented in the series and that it's not all about violence and destruction.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer 'Can you imagine?' from the documentary First Australians - Episode 1, They Have Come to Stay as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use' from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

You may retrieve materials for information only.

You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.

You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.

The National Film and Sound Archive's permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use' from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

You may retrieve materials for information only.

You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.

You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.

The National Film and Sound Archive's permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
First Australians - Episode 1, They Have Come to Stay

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG On 25 January 1788 the First Fleet enters Sydney Harbour. Narrator Rachel Perkins and historian Professor Marcia Langton of the Yiman-Bidjara Nation convey the Indigenous point of view of this event.

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'What was before Lord Vestey born and I born? It was blackfella country.' Vincent Lingiari (Wattie Creek 1966)

Australia's First Peoples have been living on the Australian continent for millenia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia is made up of many different and distinct groups, each with their own culture, customs, language and laws. They are the world's oldest surviving culture; cultures that continue to be expressed in dynamic and contemporary ways.

The AIATSIS map serves as a visual reminder of the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia. It was created in 1996 as part of the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia project and attempts to show language, social or nation groups based on published sources available up to 1994.

The map shows only the general locations of larger groups of people which may include smaller groups. There are also variations in the way that some language or group names are spelt. You can view some of these alternate spellings on the list of alternate spellings for names on the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia below.

Note that the borders between groups are purposefully represented as slightly blurred and are not meant to be exact. Some of the information shown on the map is contested and may not be agreed to by some traditional custodians - the map isn't suitable for native title or other land claims.

The map isn't the only source of information; if you would like more information about Australian Indigenous languages please see our Austlang database. The National Native Title Tribunal also produces maps that show native title claims determinations.

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The AIATSIS map serves as a visual reminder of the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.

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Australia's first peoples

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for between 50,000 and 120,000 years. They were a hunter-gatherer people who had adapted well to the environment. There were between 300,000 to 950,000 Aboriginal people living in Australia when the British arrived in 1788.3 At that time there were approximately 260 distinct language groups and 500 dialects.

Aboriginal people lived in small family groups and were semi-nomadic, with each family group living in a defined territory, systematically moving across a defined area following seasonal changes. Groups had their own distinct history and culture. At certain times, family groups would come together for social, ceremonial and trade purposes. It is estimated that
up to 500 people gathered at the one time. Membership within each family or language group was based on birthright, shared language, and cultural obligations and responsibilities. Relationships within groups predetermined categories of responsibilities and obligations to the group and to family. Aboriginal people built semi-permanent dwellings; as a nomadic society emphasis was on relationships to family, group and country rather than the development of an agrarian society. Being semi-nomadic meant that Aboriginal people were also relatively non-materialistic. Greater emphasis was placed on the social, religious and spiritual activities. The environment was controlled by spiritual rather than physical means and religion was deeply tied to country.4,5

According to Aboriginal beliefs, the physical environment of each local area was created and shaped by the actions of spiritual ancestors who travelled across the landscape. Living and nonliving things existed as a consequence of the actions of the Dreaming ancestors. Helen Milroy speaks about the importance of land as part of the Dreaming:

We are part of the Dreaming. We have been in the Dreaming for a long time before we are born on this earth and we will return to this vast landscape at the end of our days. It provides for us during our time on earth, a place to heal, to restore purpose and hope, and to continue our destiny.6(p414)

Land is fundamental to Indigenous people, both individually and collectively. Concepts of Indigenous land ownership were, and are, different from European legal systems. Boundaries were fixed and validated by the Dreaming creation stories. Each individual belonged to certain territories within the family group and had spiritual connections and obligations to particular country. Hence land was not owned; one belonged to the land. Aboriginal people experience the land as a richly symbolic and spiritual landscape rather than merely a physical environment. Religion was based on a philosophy of oneness with the natural environment. Both men and women were involved in the spiritual life of the group. While men have been acknowledged as having the overarching responsibilities for the spiritual activities of the groups, past scholars studying Aboriginal cultures have neglected women's roles. Women's roles in traditional contexts, how these were disrupted during colonisation, and the misrepresentation of these roles, have become important issues.

Aboriginal social, cultural and historical contexts

The social and economic organisation of Aboriginal groups varied greatly throughout Australia, but some general observations can be made.

Aboriginal society had a relatively egalitarian social structure where age, gender, totemic and land affiliations were important demarcations.

Women usually provided the staple food supply, and they owned and had special responsibilities towards sites in the landscape, associated song cycles and Dreaming stories. They had exclusive control of the secret ceremonies of reproduction, and their maternal function as child rearers was highly valued.

Men hunted and also played an important role in nurturing and teaching children, and there were special responsibilities for a wide network of kin in relation to each child.

When a baby was born, she or he immediately had a niche in a complex cosmology defined by Dreaming stories. Identity was secure, and the child had a variety of land relationships via its conception Dreaming, as well as inheritance through its father and mother.

The child would gradually be introduced to responsibilities towards land and kin and the strict marriage rules.

Values which were taught in traditional Aboriginal society included sharing, respecting the wisdom of age, looking out for the young, gentle treatment and close observation of plants and animals, and the fulfilment of kinship obligations.

Families and clans travelled the land throughout the year. They harvested the land's resources when the opportunity was available, and looked after special sites to which they had responsibility.

Men and women separately facilitated the reproduction of resources through ritual nurturing. They also spent much time working or negotiating business in the company of their own gender.

Decision making and law enforcement were divided between men and women, and ultimate power was often accorded on the basis of custodial obligations towards relevant land or kinship obligations.

The tablet of the law which was ensconced in the landscape itself was explained through Dreaming stories as people travelled. While women were in charge of their own business--sacred and secular-men' s power often appears to have been more highly valued in regard to law and punishment matters concerning the larger group. In some areas, women's law was more powerful than others and older women held high status.

Gatherings of many clans took place from time to time to conduct social, marriage and religious business. Ritual confrontations were also staged to avenge wrongdoing, and other transgressions could be punished physically or through potentially fatal sorcery. Dancing and singing, story telling, drawing, painting and sculpture took place all year round, and through such entertaining means everyone learnt the law of their group.

Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

Dates and events

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 60,000 years (Torres Strait Islanders at least 2500 years).

It is only in the past 500 years there has been European contact with Australia and the Torres Strait.

1606 - The Spaniard, Vaez de Torres has explored the Strait which today bears his name.

Mid 1600s - Portuguese traders from Timor began raiding Melville Island, just off the coast of Darwin, to kidnap young male Tiwi for slaves. The Portuguese continue their raids until about 1800.

1688 - The first English visitor, William Dampier, arrived at Cygnet Bay on the West coast of Australia.

It was during his time here that he made the presumption that people seemed to have no tools other than wooden 'swords and lances', whilst recording also that they 'constructed fish weirs and dug wells'. He described that local Djawi and Bardi as being, 'the miserablest people in the world'. He visited nearby Roebuck Bay in 1698, his opinion of 'much the same blinking creatures' reinforced during his second trip. He also discharged his gun at one of them.

Dampier's negative opinion was not insignificant in England's decision to treat Australia as terra nullius when it occupied the east coast of the continent a century later.

Although intermittent, the visits by people from Melanesia and Asia are evidence that the original Australians did not live in complete isolation.

1694 - the English fleet blew up the port of Dieppe destroying many records of European exploration; although it is speculated that the Portuguese may have mapped as far as Australia's southeast coast in 1522. Ultimately, it would be Spain who protested the British possession of the whole eastern coast of Australia, claiming it infringed the Spanish law of the Indies.

The Dutchman, Captain William Jansz recorded his visit, in the Duyfken, to about 200 miles off the coastline from the Pennefather River to Cape Keerweer on Western Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Upon landing at Batavia river to make observations, 'the crew was attacked and one mortality, speared'.

This act of resistance to European visitors, the earliest in written record, was by a number of Tjungundji people whose country is located several kilometres south of the former location of Mapoon and who were familiar with outside visitors.

The Tjungundji share songs with a number of groups in Cape York, which demonstrate ceremonial links to the peoples of Papua New Guinea. For thousands of years intermarriage, cultural and technological exchange was conducted along trade routes which threaded north from the mainland and through the Torres Strait Islands.

Source: Australian Museum

Vlideo Clip B: First Footprints over 50,000 years ago (1 min 40 sec)

First Footprints Series 1 Ep 1 Super Nomads: 50,000 To 30,000 Years Ago

The story of how people arrived and thrived on our continent. With startling new archaeological discoveries revealing how the first Australians adapted, migrated, fought and created in dramatically changing environments.

Video Clip C: First Australians Ep1 NSW Arrival 1788 (5 min 59 sec)

See: SBS On Demand for full video 1Hour 10 mins

They Have Come to Sta y - This landmark series chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. It explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire, and depicts the true stories of individuals - both black and white. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney with the friendship between an Englishmen, Governor Phillip, and a warrior, Bennelong.

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History: 60,000 years : Working with Indigenous Australians

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Aboriginal people have been in Australia for between 50,000 and 120,000 years. They were a hunter-gatherer people who had adapted well to the environment. There were between 300,000 to 950,000 Aboriginal people living in Australia when the British arrived in 1788.3 At that time there were approximately 260 distinct language groups and 500 dialects.

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A great source of extra information. This is a more detailed timeline.

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A great source of extra information. This is a more detailed timeline.

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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/defining-moments-timeline

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Defining moments timeline | National Museum of Australia

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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/dirk-hartog-lands-off-western-australia

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After Hartog

Dirk Hartog's plate remained undisturbed on the island for 81 years after his landing.

In 1697 another VOC captain, Willem de Vlamingh, came ashore and found the marker half buried in sand. Removing the degraded plate, de Vlamingh created a new one, copying Hartog's inscription then adding the details of his own visit to the island.

De Vlamingh returned to the Netherlands with the Hartog plate, the oldest European artefact recovered from Australian shores. It is now held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In 1801 a French expedition led by Nicolas Baudin landed on the Island. The de Vlamingh plate was located by the young cartographer, Louis de Freycinet, who bought it back to the corvette Naturaliste. Captain of the Naturaliste, Jacques Hamelin, ordered de Freycinet to return the plate considering it poor form to remove it.

In 1818 de Freycinet returned, this time in charge of his own ship, and took the de Vlamingh plate back to France. The plate was misplaced until the 1940s when it was relocated and, after the Second World War, was gifted to the Australian people by the French government. The plate is now on display in the Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Many other explorers also spent time in the area around Dirk Hartog Island after its namesake's visit. In 1699 Englishman William Dampier arrived at the island during his voyage to explore and map the coasts of 'New Holland'.

Naming the surrounding area Shark Bay because of the large number of sharks spotted, he spent a week in the region mapping the coast and collecting plant specimens.

In 1772 Frenchman Francois de Saint Aloüarn arrived at the island and delegated to a junior officer, Jean Mengaud, the task of claiming the western half of 'New Holland' for King Louis XV. Mengaud performed a ceremony, burying two bottles sealed with lead and French coins at Turtle Bay on the island. It was not until 1998 that the coins and lead seals as well as one bottle were recovered.

Fifty years after de Saint Aloüarn buried his bottles, Phillip Parker King, the English captain of the Bathurst, also made his mark on the island, inscribing his initials and the year 1822 on one of the remaining posts.

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Dirk Hartog's plate remained undisturbed on the island for 81 years after his landing. In 1697 another VOC captain, Willem de Vlamingh, came ashore and found the marker half buried in sand. Removing the degraded plate, de Vlamingh created a new one, copying Hartog's inscription then adding the details of his own visit to the island.

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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/cook-claims-australia

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References
Cook's voyages to the Pacific James Cook, Australian Dictionary of Biography South Seas: Voyaging and Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Pacific (1760-1800), National Library of Australia
JC Beaglehole (ed), The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery. Boydell [in association with Hordern House, Sydney]: Woodbridge, 1999. 3 v. in 4.

Margarette Lincoln (ed), Science and Exploration in the Pacific: European Voyages to the Southern Oceans in the Eighteenth Century, Boydell Press [in association with the National Maritime Museum], Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK; Rochester, NY, USA, 1998.

Maria Nugent, Captain Cook was Here, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; Port Melbourne, 2009.

Maria Nugent, Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005.

Ray Parkin, H.M. Bark Endeavour: Her Place in Australian history: With an Account of her Construction, Crew and Equipment and a Narrative of her Voyage on the East Coast of New Holland in the Year 1770: With Plans, Charts and Illustrations by the Author, Miegunyah Press, Carlton, Victoria, 2003.

Nicholas Thomas, Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook, Allen Lane/Penguin, London, about 2003.

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1770: Lieutenant James Cook claims east coast of Australia for Britain

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Indigenous perspectives of Captain Cook's Visit

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Indigenous perspectives of Captain Cook's Visit

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https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/indigenous-perspectives-of-cook-visit/12176674

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JACK EVANS, REPORTER: On the other side of this bay is the exact spot Captain James Cook first landed. It's hard to imagine what it would have been like 250 years ago, watching as the Endeavour sailed into what we know today as Botany Bay. But over the years we've uncovered and learnt more about that first encounter between Australia's Indigenous people and Captain Cook and his crew.

A lot of what we know comes from Cook's journals.

We saw several people ashore four of whom were carrying a small boat or canoe which we imagined they were going to put into the water in order to come up to us but in this we were mistaken.

But there also stories that have been passed down by the first Australians who saw the Endeavour arrive. Beau from the National Maritime Museum has put together an exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks. To tell the story of Cook's arrival as seen from the shore.

JACK: So Beau, what do we know about that first encounter?

BEAU: Well I think these days we know a lot more. I mean when I was at school, we were taught that Captain Cook, the first encounter was at Kamay the local people there at Botany Bay. Cook came ashore and everything went quite well. But now looking back at it we now know from that very first time that Cook tried to come to shore there was conflict.

The people Cook and his crew saw were Gweagle, a clan of the Dharawal people.

JACK: Do we have any idea who the Gweagal people thought Captain Cook and his crew were?

BEAU: I think a lot of the local people nowadays are saying that they thought that Cook was a spirit - being white, fair skinned. You know that there is a spirit coming back and not to go near the spirit. The local people didn't want them to come ashore. They were shouting at them, threw rocks at them, trying to make them go away.

But Cook and his men didn't go away and when they were confronted by two Gweagal men they shot at them hitting one man in the leg. Cook and his men then entered the Gweagal camp and took shields and spears. Leaving in return beads, cloth and nails. In his journal, Cook wrote of his admiration for the Indigenous people's way of life.

From what I have said of the Natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans.

He also acknowledged that `all they seem'd to want was for us to be gone'. But that didn't stop him claiming the entire east coast for the British crown. The land was said to be terra nullius, meaning land belonging to no one. Of course, that wasn't the case.

JACK: And why have you chosen to include this piece in the exhibition?

BEAU: Really important because as I said it talks about that deep time and that deep connection, you know. That we have been here forever that we have been practising these traditions and cultures forever. But we're also an evolving culture and we're still here.

JACK: Do you think Cook was aware of that?

BEAU: Sometimes I like to be on Cook's side and say that he did think about that. But you know I don't think that was his mission either. His mission was to come and find this great southern land and if he was able to claim it for the crown.

JACK: So, Beau can you tell me about this artwork?

BEAU: This is done by Paddy Fordham, who is actually from Arnhem Land. What Patty is trying to explain is that it wasn't the first Captain Cook for them. It was all the Captain Cook's that came afterwards.

To many Captain Cook has become a symbol of all of the European colonists who came after him who took the land from Indigenous people, brought diseases and tried to erase cultures. While they didn't succeed, the devastating impact of colonisation is still being felt.

JACK: So, I recognise this guy, Cook. There's two of him, what's this all about?

BEAU: So, this is a contemporary work by Jason Wing. He's actually called them Captain Crook and this is Captain Crook unmasked and Captain Crook Masked.

JACK: It's quite a powerful image, what are you expecting audiences, their reaction to be?

BEAU: I hope it makes them think a little, you know. I hope they do think about the history we have been taught to the history we know now and the history that hopefully is being spoken about in this 250th year, you know, that we've moved as a country to go - well yeah how can you discover a place that's already inhabited? How can you claim a space that already has people living here? And that's really what Jason's wanting people to think about you know. We're not fixed to this one way of seeing or one way of viewing a certain point in time, you know. There is always a dual perspective and our voices need to be heard now and our stories need to be told.

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Indigenous Perspectives of Cook Visit - Behind The News

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JACK EVANS, REPORTER: On the other side of this bay is the exact spot Captain James Cook first landed. It's hard to imagine what it would have been like 250 years ago, watching as the Endeavour sailed into what we know today as Botany Bay.

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Click on - Video: They have come to stay

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Click on - Video: They have come to stay

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Australia's first peoples

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for between 50,000 and 120,000 years. They were a hunter-gatherer people who had adapted well to the environment. There were between 300,000 to 950,000 Aboriginal people living in Australia when the British arrived in 1788.3 At that time there were approximately 260 distinct language groups and 500 dialects.

Aboriginal people lived in small family groups and were semi-nomadic, with each family group living in a defined territory, systematically moving across a defined area following seasonal changes. Groups had their own distinct history and culture. At certain times, family groups would come together for social, ceremonial and trade purposes. It is estimated that
up to 500 people gathered at the one time. Membership within each family or language group was based on birthright, shared language, and cultural obligations and responsibilities. Relationships within groups predetermined categories of responsibilities and obligations to the group and to family. Aboriginal people built semi-permanent dwellings; as a nomadic society emphasis was on relationships to family, group and country rather than the development of an agrarian society. Being semi-nomadic meant that Aboriginal people were also relatively non-materialistic. Greater emphasis was placed on the social, religious and spiritual activities. The environment was controlled by spiritual rather than physical means and religion was deeply tied to country.4,5

According to Aboriginal beliefs, the physical environment of each local area was created and shaped by the actions of spiritual ancestors who travelled across the landscape. Living and nonliving things existed as a consequence of the actions of the Dreaming ancestors. Helen Milroy speaks about the importance of land as part of the Dreaming:

We are part of the Dreaming. We have been in the Dreaming for a long time before we are born on this earth and we will return to this vast landscape at the end of our days. It provides for us during our time on earth, a place to heal, to restore purpose and hope, and to continue our destiny.6(p414)

Land is fundamental to Indigenous people, both individually and collectively. Concepts of Indigenous land ownership were, and are, different from European legal systems. Boundaries were fixed and validated by the Dreaming creation stories. Each individual belonged to certain territories within the family group and had spiritual connections and obligations to particular country. Hence land was not owned; one belonged to the land. Aboriginal people experience the land as a richly symbolic and spiritual landscape rather than merely a physical environment. Religion was based on a philosophy of oneness with the natural environment. Both men and women were involved in the spiritual life of the group. While men have been acknowledged as having the overarching responsibilities for the spiritual activities of the groups, past scholars studying Aboriginal cultures have neglected women's roles. Women's roles in traditional contexts, how these were disrupted during colonisation, and the misrepresentation of these roles, have become important issues.

Aboriginal social, cultural and historical contexts

The social and economic organisation of Aboriginal groups varied greatly throughout Australia, but some general observations can be made.

Aboriginal society had a relatively egalitarian social structure where age, gender, totemic and land affiliations were important demarcations.

Women usually provided the staple food supply, and they owned and had special responsibilities towards sites in the landscape, associated song cycles and Dreaming stories. They had exclusive control of the secret ceremonies of reproduction, and their maternal function as child rearers was highly valued.

Men hunted and also played an important role in nurturing and teaching children, and there were special responsibilities for a wide network of kin in relation to each child.

When a baby was born, she or he immediately had a niche in a complex cosmology defined by Dreaming stories. Identity was secure, and the child had a variety of land relationships via its conception Dreaming, as well as inheritance through its father and mother.

The child would gradually be introduced to responsibilities towards land and kin and the strict marriage rules.

Values which were taught in traditional Aboriginal society included sharing, respecting the wisdom of age, looking out for the young, gentle treatment and close observation of plants and animals, and the fulfilment of kinship obligations.

Families and clans travelled the land throughout the year. They harvested the land's resources when the opportunity was available, and looked after special sites to which they had responsibility.

Men and women separately facilitated the reproduction of resources through ritual nurturing. They also spent much time working or negotiating business in the company of their own gender.

Decision making and law enforcement were divided between men and women, and ultimate power was often accorded on the basis of custodial obligations towards relevant land or kinship obligations.

The tablet of the law which was ensconced in the landscape itself was explained through Dreaming stories as people travelled. While women were in charge of their own business--sacred and secular-men' s power often appears to have been more highly valued in regard to law and punishment matters concerning the larger group. In some areas, women's law was more powerful than others and older women held high status.

Gatherings of many clans took place from time to time to conduct social, marriage and religious business. Ritual confrontations were also staged to avenge wrongdoing, and other transgressions could be punished physically or through potentially fatal sorcery. Dancing and singing, story telling, drawing, painting and sculpture took place all year round, and through such entertaining means everyone learnt the law of their group.

Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

Dates and events

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 60,000 years (Torres Strait Islanders at least 2500 years).

It is only in the past 500 years there has been European contact with Australia and the Torres Strait.

1606 - The Spaniard, Vaez de Torres has explored the Strait which today bears his name.

Mid 1600s - Portuguese traders from Timor began raiding Melville Island, just off the coast of Darwin, to kidnap young male Tiwi for slaves. The Portuguese continue their raids until about 1800.

1688 - The first English visitor, William Dampier, arrived at Cygnet Bay on the West coast of Australia.

It was during his time here that he made the presumption that people seemed to have no tools other than wooden 'swords and lances', whilst recording also that they 'constructed fish weirs and dug wells'. He described that local Djawi and Bardi as being, 'the miserablest people in the world'. He visited nearby Roebuck Bay in 1698, his opinion of 'much the same blinking creatures' reinforced during his second trip. He also discharged his gun at one of them.

Dampier's negative opinion was not insignificant in England's decision to treat Australia as terra nullius when it occupied the east coast of the continent a century later.

Although intermittent, the visits by people from Melanesia and Asia are evidence that the original Australians did not live in complete isolation.

1694 - the English fleet blew up the port of Dieppe destroying many records of European exploration; although it is speculated that the Portuguese may have mapped as far as Australia's southeast coast in 1522. Ultimately, it would be Spain who protested the British possession of the whole eastern coast of Australia, claiming it infringed the Spanish law of the Indies.

The Dutchman, Captain William Jansz recorded his visit, in the Duyfken, to about 200 miles off the coastline from the Pennefather River to Cape Keerweer on Western Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Upon landing at Batavia river to make observations, 'the crew was attacked and one mortality, speared'.

This act of resistance to European visitors, the earliest in written record, was by a number of Tjungundji people whose country is located several kilometres south of the former location of Mapoon and who were familiar with outside visitors.

The Tjungundji share songs with a number of groups in Cape York, which demonstrate ceremonial links to the peoples of Papua New Guinea. For thousands of years intermarriage, cultural and technological exchange was conducted along trade routes which threaded north from the mainland and through the Torres Strait Islands.

Source: Australian Museum

Vlideo Clip B: First Footprints over 50,000 years ago (1 min 40 sec)

First Footprints Series 1 Ep 1 Super Nomads: 50,000 To 30,000 Years Ago

The story of how people arrived and thrived on our continent. With startling new archaeological discoveries revealing how the first Australians adapted, migrated, fought and created in dramatically changing environments.

Video Clip C: First Australians Ep1 NSW Arrival 1788 (5 min 59 sec)

See: SBS On Demand for full video 1Hour 10 mins

They Have Come to Sta y - This landmark series chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. It explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire, and depicts the true stories of individuals - both black and white. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney with the friendship between an Englishmen, Governor Phillip, and a warrior, Bennelong.

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History: 60,000 years : Working with Indigenous Australians

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Aboriginal people have been in Australia for between 50,000 and 120,000 years. They were a hunter-gatherer people who had adapted well to the environment. There were between 300,000 to 950,000 Aboriginal people living in Australia when the British arrived in 1788.3 At that time there were approximately 260 distinct language groups and 500 dialects.

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https://www.clickview.net/interactive/8826122/welcome-to-a-penal-colony

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Access impactful educational videos and supporting classroom resources anywhere, at any time to enhance teaching and learning at all levels.

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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/convict-cargo

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Australia's first governor

Arthur Phillip joined the Royal Navy as a boy in 1751, and served with distinction in the British and Portuguese navies in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He was appointed the first Governor of New South Wales on 12 October 1786.

Despite the misgivings of some, including the First Lord of the Admiralty, he possessed the ideal qualities for the position of colonial governor: he was accustomed to command, experienced in transporting convicts and familiar with the rudiments of farming.

At Sydney Town, Phillip proved himself to be an enthusiastic and thorough leader who dealt in commonsense fashion with the challenges he faced in the early years of settlement.

Ill-health forced Phillip's return to England in 1792. He was prevented from returning to Sydney, as he had wished to do, by his illness, and resigned his commission in 1793.

Later, having recovered his health, Phillip returned to the Navy and served in the Napoleonic wars, attaining the rank of admiral. He died at the age of 75 on 31 August 1814.

In July 2014 a plaque was laid in Westminster Abbey to mark the bicentenary of Phillip's death.

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1788: Captain Arthur Phillip establishes a convict settlement at Sydney Cove

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https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/gold-rush/12246848

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We look at how the gold rush began and how it helped to shape the country we live in today.

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https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/chinese-migration/10527080

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February the 19th is Chinese New Year, which is a big deal to the hundreds of thousands of Chinese Australians that call this country home. So to mark the occasion, we thought we’d take a look at the history of Chinese migration. Many started coming here right back in the 1850s for the gold rush, in…

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https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/eureka-stockade

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Conflict on the goldfields

From 1853 miners began to gather at 'monster' meetings to voice their concerns about the licencing system. They alleged the police were extorting money, accepting bribes and imprisoning people without due process. Delegations presented their concerns to Governor La Trobe, but he was unreceptive to the requests.

Many of the miners were politically engaged - some had participated in the Chartist movement for political reform in Britain during the 1830s and 1840s. Others had been involved in the anti-authoritarian revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848.

The situation on the goldfields was tense as police regularly ran 'licence hunts' to track down miners who hadn't paid their fees.

Murder at the Eureka Hotel

On 6 October 1854, Scottish miner James Scobie was killed in an altercation at the Eureka Hotel in Ballarat. The proprietor, James Bentley, was accused of killing Scobie.

A court of inquiry was held and Bentley was quickly exonerated. The miners sensed a miscarriage of justice, in part because one of the court members, John D'Ewes, was a police magistrate known to have taken bribes from Bentley.

On 17 October 1854 about 5,000 people gathered to discuss the case. They decided to appeal against the decision. After the dispersal of the crowd, a small group decided to set fire to the Eureka Hotel. They were arrested by police and the situation became more tense.

Eureka and the Southern Cross flag

Over the next weeks the miners met and elected delegates. On 27 November 1854 the delegates approached the new Victorian Governor, Charles Hotham.

The delegation demanded the release of the men who burned down Bentley's Eureka Hotel. Governor Hotham took offence to having demands made of him and dismissed the grievances. He sent 150 British soldiers of the 40th Regiment of Foot to Ballarat to reinforce the police and soldiers already stationed there.

Sensing a change in the government's approach, the miners held another meeting on 29 November 1854 at Bakery Hill. There, the newly created Eureka flag was unfurled. The use of the flag, featuring a depiction of the Southern Cross on a navy background, has become a symbol of the labour movement in Australia.

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1854: Rebellion of goldminers at Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria

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https://www.clickview.net/videos/33096310/federation-of-australia

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Behind the News - Federation of Australia

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Australia wasn’t a country; it was just the name of a continent divided into six very separate British colonies. They had different leaders and different ...

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Reactions in Australia

The very first Vietnamese refugees to reach Australia were the orphan infants evacuated by Operation Babylift in the weeks before the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Amid fears for their safety, more than 3000 infants were flown out of Vietnam, mainly to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, but also to Australia.

The Australian public was supportive of Operation Babylift; for example, the Australian Women's Weekly ran a two-page article in April 1975 that emphasised the impact of the war on Vietnamese children.

The first adult refugees arrived in the 20-metre Kein Giang, which sailed into Darwin Harbour on 26 April 1976. The 20-year-old captain, Lam Binh, with his younger brother and three friends, made the 3500-kilometre journey to find refuge.

Binh was not a sailor by trade; he taught himself navigation as part of his escape plan. His original map was nothing more than a page torn from a school atlas and, while a better map was acquired later, it extended no further than Timor. Binh sailed the rest of the journey by dead reckoning.

The exodus of refugees from South Vietnam continued. In 1977 boats carrying 21,276 people arrived in neighbouring South-East Asian countries and Hong Kong. In 1978 there were 106,489 arrivals and, in the first six months of 1979, another 166,604.

These figures record only the number of people who arrived in refugee camps, not all those who attempted to leave Vietnam. Many people were captured in their attempts to escape.

Dangerous seas, overcrowded or unseaworthy boats, and pirate attacks meant that an unknown number of refugees perished at sea. In his memoir, well-known Australian comedian Anh Do recounts that his family was twice attacked by pirates.

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The very first Vietnamese refugees to reach Australia were the orphan infants evacuated by Operation Babylift in the weeks before the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Amid fears for their safety, more than 3000 infants were flown out of Vietnam, mainly to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, but also to Australia.

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More detail about Federation - Some really cool stuff!

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More detail about Federation - Some really cool stuff!

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Choose a key person in the path to Federation (such as Sir Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton, George Reid) and present their contribution to Federation to your class in a creative way. You could do this with a poem, song, cartoon strip or a play.

Sir Henry Parkes is often called the 'Father of Federation'. Write a persuasive speech to convince your teacher why you agree or disagree with this description.

Australian Curriculum links
Year 6 History
Key figures, events and ideas that led to Australia's Federation and Constitution (ACHASSK134)
Year 5 Civics and Citizenship
How people with shared beliefs and values work together to achieve a civic goal (ACHASSK118)
Year 6 Civics and Citizenship
The shared values of Australian citizenship and the formal rights and responsibilities of Australian citizens (ACHASSK147)

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Choose a key person in the path to Federation (such as Sir Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton, George Reid) and present their contribution to Federation to your class in a creative way. You could do this with a poem, song, cartoon strip or a play. Sir Henry Parkes is often called the 'Father of Federation'.

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An entertaining view about how Federation occurred.

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An entertaining view about how Federation occurred.

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Invitation to the opening of the First Commonwealth Parliament at the Exhibition Building, Melbourne

Lead-up to Federation

Australia in the late 19th century consisted of six self-governing British colonies that were subject to the British Parliament. Each colony had its own - often quite distinct - laws, railway gauge, postage stamps and tariffs.

Problems caused by these differences led to discussions about the benefits of uniting as a nation, under a federal system of governance. The colonies of New Zealand and Fiji were also part of Federation discussions.

In addition, matters of defence, foreign policy, immigration, trade, transport and national pride were growing in importance among the colonies.

In 1880 the Australian Natives' Association - made up of white men born in Australia - committed itself to Federation. This provided most of the organisational and financial base for a number of Federation leagues, which formed later to work towards a united Australia.

The Federal Council of Australasia was formed in 1885 to resolve intercolonial issues, including customs duties and defence. As New South Wales, New Zealand and, for a time, South Australia, did not join the Council, it dissolved in 1889.

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1901: Inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia

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https://www.clickview.net/videos/3713075/aboriginal-australians-before-contact

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Australia's First Peoples - Aboriginal Australians: Before Contact

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What do we know about Aboriginal Australians prior to European contact? Historians have used evidence and artefacts to develop a number of theories about when ...