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Harold Edward Holt CH (5 August 1908 - 17 December 1967) was an Australian politician who was the 17th prime minister of Australia, from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party.

Holt was born in Sydney and moved to Melbourne in childhood, studying law at the University of Melbourne. Before entering politics he practised law and was a lobbyist for cinema operators. He was first elected to the House of Representatives at the age of 27, becoming a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Fawkner at a by-election in 1935. A member of the United Australia Party (UAP), Holt was made a minister without portfolio in 1939, when his mentor Robert Menzies became prime minister. His tenure in the ministry was interrupted by a brief stint in the Australian Army, which ended when he was recalled to cabinet following the deaths of three ministers in the 1940 Canberra air disaster. The government was defeated in 1941, sending the UAP into opposition, and he joined the new Liberal Party upon its creation in 1945.

When the Liberals came to office in 1949, Holt became a senior figure in the new government. As Minister for Immigration (1949-1956), he expanded the post-war immigration scheme and relaxed the White Australia policy for the first time. He was also influential as Minister for Labour and National Service (1949-1958), where he handled several industrial relations disputes. Holt was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party in 1956, and after the 1958 election replaced Arthur Fadden as Treasurer. He oversaw the creation of the Reserve Bank of Australia and the decimal Australian dollar, but was blamed for a credit crunch that almost cost the Coalition the 1961 election. However, the economy soon rebounded and Holt retained his place as Menzies' heir apparent.

Holt became prime minister in January 1966, elected unopposed as Liberal leader following Menzies' retirement. He fought a general election later that year, winning a landslide victory. The Holt Government continued the dismantling of the White Australia policy, amended the constitution to give the federal government responsibility for indigenous affairs, and took Australia out of the sterling area. Holt promoted greater engagement with Asia and the Pacific, and made visits to a number of East Asian countries. His government expanded Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, and maintained close ties with the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson. While visiting the White House, Holt proclaimed that he was "all the way with LBJ", a remark which was poorly received at home.

Birth and family background

Holt was born on 5 August 1908 at his parents' home in Stanmore, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. He was the first of two sons born to Olive May (née Williams; formerly Pearce) and Thomas James Holt; his younger brother Clifford was born in 1910. His parents had married seven months before his birth, in January 1908. On his father's side, Holt was descended from James Holt, a cobbler from Birmingham, England, who arrived in New South Wales in 1829. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Holt Sr., owned a large farming property in Nubba, and was twice elected mayor of nearby Wallendbeen. Holt's father trained as a schoolteacher in Sydney and when Harold was born, worked as a physical education teacher at the Cleveland Street School in Surry Hills. Holt's mother was born in Eudunda, South Australia, and had Cornish, English, German, and Irish ancestry; her sister was the actress Vera Pearce.

Legal career

Holt served his articles of clerkship with the firm of Fink, Best, & Miller. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in late 1932, and opened his own legal practice the following year. However, clients during the Depression were scarce and frequently underpaid, so Holt lived in a boardinghouse and often relied upon the hospitality of friends. Drawing on his family connections in show business, he eventually accepted an offer to become secretary of the Victorian Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association, a film industry lobby group. In this capacity he appeared several times before the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. This had a positive effect on his own practice, and he eventually took on two partners, first Jack Graham and later James Newman. The firm of Holt, Graham, & Newman was dissolved in 1963, following a financial dispute and subsequently reconstituted as Holt, Newman, & Holt, with Holt's son Sam as the new addition. Holt's involvement in the practice declined once he entered politics and ceased altogether in 1949, although he did not formally retire until assuming the prime ministership.

Early political career

In 1933, Holt joined the Young Nationalists, the youth wing of the United Australia Party. He cultivated a friendship with Mabel Brookes, and through Brookes became acquainted with senior members of the influential Australian Women's National League (AWNL). He also secured the patronage of Robert Menzies, with whom he shared a similar background and political views. At the 1934 federal election, Holt stood for the UAP in the Division of Yarra. It was a safe seat for the Labor Party, held by the party's leader (and former prime minister) James Scullin. Holt lost heavily, as was expected, but was praised for his campaigning. Early the following year, he contested Clifton Hill - another safe Labor seat - at the Victorian state election, losing to Bert Cremean. Holt was eventually elected to parliament on his third attempt, winning a federal by-election for the seat of Fawkner in August 1935; his predecessor, George Maxwell, had died in office. He won UAP preselection against five other candidates, a victory which Smith's Weekly attributed to his "political godmothers" in the AWNL. His new seat was centred on Melbourne's wealthy inner-eastern suburbs.

Holt was twenty-seven years old when he entered parliament, making him its youngest member. He kept a relatively low profile in his first few years, but spoke on a wide range of topics. When Robert Menzies became prime minister in April 1939, he made Holt one of four ministers without portfolio. His inclusion was made possible by the collapse of the coalition with the Country Party - previously a certain number of positions had been reserved for Country MPs, but the new ministry was composed solely of UAP members. Although Holt officially had no portfolio, he effectively was an assistant minister to Richard Casey, who headed the Department of Supply and Development. He was given responsibility for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and also acted for periods as Minister for Trade and Customs and Minister for Civil Aviation and Air while the incumbents were overseas. Holt's first stint as a government minister came to an end in March 1940, when the coalition with the Country Party was reinstituted. His replacement was Arthur Fadden, another future prime minister.

World War II

Holt's brief military career came to an end as a result of the Canberra air disaster on 13 August, which killed three senior government ministers. Menzies called an early general election for 21 September, which resulted in a hung parliament and a UAP-Country minority government. Holt was given leave from the army to campaign, and won re-election with a large majority. Menzies subsequently asked him to return to cabinet, to which he agreed. Holt was sworn in as Minister for Labour and National Service on 28 October, and formally resigned from the army the same day. He was placed in charge of the new Department of Labour and National Service, which took over most of the responsibilities of the previous Department of Industry. He also became a member of the bipartisan Advisory War Council, although he personally favoured the establishment of a national unity government with the Labor Party.

As labour minister, Holt's foremost task was to prevent industrial disputes from disrupting the war effort. He met with union leaders and employer groups, and secured their agreement to a streamlining of the arbitration process while the war was underway. He had also been made Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research, which gave him responsibility for the CSIR and its wartime efforts. In April 1941, Holt sponsored and oversaw the passage of the Child Endowment Act, which introduced a universal child endowment scheme; newspapers labelled him "the godfather to a million Australian children". When leadership troubles hit the Coalition later in the year, Holt initially supported Menzies. However, he and five cabinet colleagues eventually transferred their allegiance to Arthur Fadden, the leader of the Country Party, believing this way the only to ensure stable government. Menzies felt he had been betrayed, but forgave Holt and accepted his assurances that he had been acting in the best interests of the country.

Postwar ministerial career

After eight years in opposition, the Coalition won the federal election of December 1949 and Menzies began his record-setting second period as Prime Minister. In a redistribution held ahead of that election, Holt's majority in Fawkner nearly disappeared. He transferred to Higgins, one of several new seats created in the 1949 redistribution. The seat was created as a safe Liberal seat; it had been carved out of the wealthier portions of Fawkner. Holt won it easily. He was appointed to the prestigious portfolios of Minister for Labour and National Service (1949-1958; he had previously served in this portfolio 1940-41) and Minister for Immigration (1949-1956), by which time he was being touted in the press as a "certain successor to Menzies and a potential Prime Minister". In Immigration, Holt continued and expanded the massive immigration programme initiated by his ALP predecessor, Arthur Calwell. However, he displayed a more flexible and caring attitude than Calwell, who was a strong advocate of the White Australia policy. One of his first acts was to intervene in the case of Lorenzo Gamboa, a Filipino man with an Australian wife and children who had been denied entry by Calwell due to his race. Holt reversed the decision, allowing Gamboa to settle in Australia permanently.

Holt excelled in the Labour portfolio and has been described as one of the best Labour ministers since Federation. Although the conditions were ripe for industrial unrest-Communist influence in the union movement was then at its peak, and the right-wing faction in Cabinet was openly agitating for a showdown with the unions-the combination of strong economic growth and Holt's enlightened approach to industrial relations saw the number of working hours lost to strikes fall dramatically, from over two million in 1949 to just 439,000 in 1958. He also had ministerial responsibility for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.

Holt fostered greater collaboration between the government, the courts, employers and trade unions. He enjoyed good relationships with union leaders like Albert Monk, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions; and Jim Healy, leader of the radical Waterside Workers Federation;and he gained a reputation for tolerance, restraint and a willingness to compromise, although his controversial decision to use troops to take control of cargo facilities during a waterside dispute in Bowen, Queensland in September 1953 provoked bitter criticism.

Holt's personal profile and political standing grew throughout the 1950s. He served on numerous committees and overseas delegations, he was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1953, and in 1954 he was named one of Australia's six best-dressed men. In 1956, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and became Leader of the House, and from this point on, he was generally acknowledged as Menzies' heir apparent.

Treasurer (1958-1966)

In December 1958, following the retirement of Arthur Fadden, Holt succeeded him as Treasurer. Holt had little knowledge or interest in economics, but the job cemented his position as Menzies' likely successor. As Treasurer, Holt relied strongly on the advice of Treasury secretary Roland Wilson. His achievements included major reforms to the banking system (originated by Fadden) - including the establishment of the Reserve Bank of Australia - and the planning and preparation for the introduction of decimal currency. It was Holt who convinced Cabinet to call the new currency the "dollar" rather than the "royal".

The economy Holt inherited was growing strongly, aided by the opening of new iron ore mines. However, in 1959, inflation was running at 4.5% and Treasury was alarmed. Holt was reluctant to act, but in November 1960 introduced a deflationary package of tax changes. He also reluctantly agreed to an interest rate rise by the Reserve Bank. The credit squeeze was nicknamed the "Holt jolt". The economy went into recession, and unemployment rose to three percent, which was considered high for the time and contrary to the government's policy of full employment.

The credit squeeze brought the Coalition dangerously close to losing the 1961 election, with the Coalition being returned with a precarious one-seat majority. There were calls for Holt to be sacked, but he retained Menzies' support. He later described 1960-61 as "my most difficult year in public life". Most of the deflationary measures were reversed in 1962, and unemployment dropped down to 1.5 percent by August 1963. In later budgets, Holt retreated to his Queensland holiday home while it was being prepared. He said that the 1965 budget "has had the best reception yet of any in the series I have presented".

Prime Minister (1966-1967)

Holt was sworn in as prime minister on 26 January 1966, following the retirement of Robert Menzies six days earlier. He won the leadership election unopposed, with William McMahon elected as his deputy. His swearing in was delayed by the death of Defence Minister Shane Paltridge; he and Menzies were both pallbearers at Paltridge's state funeral on 25 January. Holt was the first Australian prime minister born in the 20th century and the first born after federation. He was almost fourteen years younger than his predecessor, but, at the age of 57, was still the fourth-oldest man to assume the office.

He had been an MP for over 30 years before becoming prime minister, still the longest wait for any non-caretaker Prime Minister. The only person who had a longer wait was his caretaker successor John McEwen, who had served 33 years before ascending to the post. Stylistically, Holt was more informal and contemporary than Menzies, and his wife accompanied him into the political spotlight. He gave the media an unprecedented level of access, and was the first prime minister to conduct regular press conferences and grant regular television interviews. His press secretary, Tony Eggleton, accompanied him virtually every time he travelled.

On 26 November 1966, Holt fought his first and only general election as prime minister, winning a somewhat unexpected landslide victory. The Coalition secured 56.9 percent of the two-party-preferred vote, gaining 10 seats and bringing its total number of seats in the House of Representatives to 82 out of 124; the Liberal Party was only two seats away from forming majority government in its own right. It was a higher margin victory of victory than Menzies had achieved in eight elections as Liberal leader, and was the Labor Party's worst electoral defeat in 31 years.

In early 1967, Arthur Calwell retired as ALP leader and Gough Whitlam succeeded him. Whitlam proved a far more effective opponent, both in the media and in parliament, and Labor soon began to recover from its losses and gain ground, with Whitlam repeatedly besting Holt in Parliament. By this time, the long-suppressed tensions between the Coalition partners over economic and trade policies were also beginning to emerge. Throughout his reign as Liberal leader, Menzies had enforced strict party discipline but, once he was gone, dissension began to surface. Some Liberals soon became dissatisfied by what they saw as Holt's weak leadership. Alan Reid asserts that Holt was being increasingly criticised within the party in the months before his death, that he was perceived as being "vague, imprecise and evasive" and "nice to the point that his essential decency was viewed as weakness".

Domestic policy

According to his biographer Tom Frame, "Holt's inclinations and sympathies were those of the political centre [...] he was a pragmatist rather than a philosopher, but he nonetheless claimed a philosophical lineage connecting him with Alfred Deakin and approvingly quoted his statement that 'we are liberal always, radical often, and reactionary never'."

Holt as prime minister was sometimes criticised for a failure to be assertive on economic matters. A major drought in 1965 had led to slowdown in growth, but he was unwilling to increase public spending in case it increased inflation. The Australian dollar - a legacy of Holt's period as Treasurer - came into circulation on 14 February 1966, less than a month after his prime ministership began. In November 1967, the British government unexpectedly announced that it would be devaluing the pound sterling by 14 percent. Holt announced that the Australian government would not follow suit, effectively withdrawing Australia from the sterling area. The decision was strongly opposed by the Country Party, who feared it would disadvantage primary industry. John McEwen, the Country Party leader, issued a public statement criticising the government, which caused a breakdown in his relations with Holt and nearly led to the collapse of the Coalition. The Bulletin said that the withdrawal was "quite certain to mean the end of any remaining special relationship between Australia and Britain". There were no other important economic policy reforms made by the Holt Government, although Australia did become a founding member of the Asian Development Bank in 1966.

Immigration

As prime minister, Holt continued the liberalisation of immigration law that he had begun as Minister for Immigration. When he came to office, what remained of the White Australia policy was upheld by ministerial decree rather than by explicit legislation. In March 1966, the residency requirement for naturalisation was changed to a uniform five years; it had previously been 15 years for non-whites. Discriminatory provisions relating to family reunification were also removed. As a result, in the two years after March 1966 around 3,000 Asian immigrants were granted Australian citizenship, compared with 4,100 in the preceding two decades. Additionally, Immigration Minister Hubert Opperman announced that potential immigrants to Australia would be assessed solely "on the basis of their suitability as settlers, their ability to integrate readily, and their possession of qualifications which are in fact positively useful to Australia"; non-whites had previously had to demonstrate that they were "highly qualified and distinguished" to gain entry.

Keith Wilson believed that the Holt Government's reforms ensured that "from now on there will not be in any of our laws or in any of our regulations anything that discriminates against migrants on the grounds of colour or race". However, there would not be a practical change in the composition of Australia's immigration intake for many more years. Holt maintained that "every country reserves to itself the right to decide what the composition of its people shall be", and promised "a community life free from serious minority and racial problems". He was careful to frame his changes as simply a modification of existing policy, in order to avoid alienating organised labour (historically the greatest supporters of restricting non-white immigration). The Labor Party had only removed "White Australia" from its platform in 1965, and Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell stated he was "determined to continue to oppose, for many obvious reasons, any attempt to create a multi-racial society in our midst". However, Holt was less circumspect outside Australia, telling British journalists that no White Australia policy existed and ordering Australian embassies to promote the changes to Asian governments and media outlets.

Constitutional reform

The Holt Government also unsuccessfully attempted to remove section 24 of the constitution (the so-called "nexus clause"), which requires the number of members in the House of Representatives to be "as nearly as practicable, twice the number of senators". The resulting referendum did not come close to passing, with only 40 percent voting in favour nationwide and only one state ( New South Wales) recording a majority. All three major-party leaders campaigned for the "Yes" vote, while opposition came mainly from Coalition backbenchers and Democratic Labor Party senators. Supporters of the "No" vote successfully argued that section 24 protected the influence of the Senate, and thus the interests of less populous states and rural areas. Holt did make one other significant legal reform, albeit one that did not require a constitutional amendment. In September 1967, he announced that his government would use section 74 of the constitution to remove the potential for High Court cases to be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The necessary legislation was not passed until after his death.

In November 1967, in one of his last major policy statements, Holt announced the establishment of the National Gallery of Australia and the Australia Council for the Arts. The National Gallery, which did not open until 1982, was the first arts-related major infrastructure project to be funded by the federal government; previous projects had been funded by state governments or by private subscription. Holt said it would "add significantly to the cultural life of Australia and the national capital". The other element of his announcement, the Australia Council for the Arts, was the first national arts council, intended to provide arms-length advice to the Prime Minister's Department on arts funding. Rupert Myer has suggested that "Holt's legacy ought to be a core belief in, and broad public demand for, the sustained support of cultural activity from all three tiers of government".

Foreign policy

Holt believed it was his responsibility as prime minister "to reflect the modern Australia to my fellow countrymen, to our allies and the outside world at large". His approach to national security emphasised opposition to international communism and the need to engage more with Asia. Holt said that the "great central fact of modern history" was "the tremendous power conflict between the communist world and the free world". He was a strong believer in the domino theory and containment, holding that communism had to be fought wherever it occurred in order to prevent it spreading to neighbouring countries. In April 1967, Holt told parliament that "geographically we are part of Asia, and increasingly we have become aware of our involvement in the affairs of Asia - our greatest dangers and our highest hopes are centred in Asia's tomorrows". Gough Whitlam said that Holt "made Australia better known in Asia and he made Australians more aware of Asia than ever before [...] this I believe was his most important contribution to our future".

Personal diplomacy was Holt's strong point - he believed diplomatic ties could be strengthened by making intimate connections with other world leaders. This approach was disliked by his external affairs minister, Paul Hasluck, who in his memoirs accused him of believing in "instant diplomacy" and crediting his personal charms for advances made by diplomatic officials. As prime minister, Holt's first overseas trip was to South-East Asia in April 1966, where he visited Malaysia, Singapore, South Vietnam, and Thailand. He toured Cambodia, Laos, South Korea, and Taiwan in March and April 1967, and had planned to visit Burma, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Pakistan in 1968. Most of those countries had never before been visited by an Australian prime minister. There were also a number of reciprocal visits from East Asian leaders, including Eisaku Satō of Japan, Souvanna Phouma of Laos, and Thanom Kittikachorn of Thailand. The most controversial of those occurred in January 1967, when Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of South Vietnam visited on Holt's personal invitation - issued without consulting cabinet. Public sentiment was beginning to turn against the war, and Ky's visit was met with large demonstrations; opposition leader Arthur Calwell issued a statement calling him a "miserable little butcher". Ky nonetheless handled himself well, and The Bulletin called his visit a "personal triumph".

Vietnam War

The government's handling of the war initially enjoyed broad public support, and was considered a key contributor to the landslide election victory in 1966 - referred to by some as a " khaki election". By the end of the following year, however, opinion polls were showing that public sentiment had turned against the war, and previously supportive media outlets had begun to criticised Holt's decision-making. He did not live long enough to see the mass demonstrations experienced by his successors. Political opposition to the war was initially led by Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell, who promised a total withdrawal from the conflict and labelled it a "cruel, unwinnable civil war". His replacement, Gough Whitlam, adopted a more pragmatic approach, focusing on policy specifics (particularly the government's apparent lack of an exit strategy) rather than the validity of the war itself.

"All the way with LBJ"

On his first visit to the U.S., Holt made what was widely viewed as a faux pas while delivering a ceremonial address at the White House. Departing from his prepared remarks, he said: "And so, sir, in the lonelier and perhaps even more disheartening moments which come to any national leader, I hope there will be a corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch friend that will be all the way with LBJ." Holt had meant it to be a "light-hearted gesture of goodwill towards a generous host", referencing the slogan used in Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign. It was interpreted as such by his immediate audience, but once it was reported back in Australia it came to be viewed as a "foolish, sycophantic and dangerous statement" that was indicative of Australian subservience. Bill Hayden said Holt's remarks "shocked and insulted many Australians [...] its seeming servility was an embarrassment and a worry". Newspaper editorials generally agreed with Holt's assertion that he had been misinterpreted, but still criticised him for making an error in judgment. His comments intensified anti-war sentiments among those who were already opposed to the war, but had little electoral impact. Nonetheless, "all the way with LBJ" is still remembered as Holt's "best-known utterance".

Britain and the Commonwealth

Disappearance

Main page: Disappearance of Harold Holt

Holt's disappearance sparked "one of the largest search operations in Australian history", but no trace of his body was ever found. At 10 p.m. on 18 December, Governor-General Lord Casey announced he had terminated Holt's commission as prime minister upon his presumed death. A police report released in early 1968 made no definitive findings about Holt's death, while a coronial inquest in 2005 returned a verdict of accidental drowning. It is generally accepted that Holt overestimated his swimming ability. Conspiracy theories have included suggestions that Holt faked his own death, was assassinated by the CIA, or was collected by a submarine so that he could defect to China.

A memorial service for Holt was held at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, on 22 December, and attended by numerous world leaders. Aged 59 at the time of his death, Holt became the third Australian prime minister to die in office, after Joseph Lyons (1939) and John Curtin (1945). John McEwen, the leader of the Country Party, was sworn in as caretaker prime minister on 19 December. The Liberal Party held a leadership election on 9 January 1968, in which John Gorton defeated Paul Hasluck, Billy Snedden, and Les Bury. Gorton was a member of the Senate, and in line with constitutional convention sought and gained election to the House of Representatives at the by-election caused by Holt's death.

Personal life

Relationships

In 1937, Zara returned to Australia to give birth to her first child, Nicholas. She had two more children, twins Sam and Andrew, in 1939. Her marriage with Fell broke down a short time later, and in late 1940 she returned to Australia permanently and resumed a relationship with Holt. Their relationship did not become public for some time, in order to avoid Holt's being implicated in Zara's divorce proceedings. They eventually married on 8 October 1946, at Zara's parents' home on St Georges Road, Toorak. They initially lived on nearby Washington Street, but in 1954 bought the St Georges Road house. Holt legally adopted Zara's three children, and as young men they changed their surname to his.

Zara Holt was a successful businesswoman, owning a chain of dress shops, and out-earned her husband even as prime minister. It was her success that allowed the couple to purchase two holiday homes, one at Portsea, Victoria, and the other at Bingil Bay, Queensland. She nonetheless made sacrifices for her husband's political career, accompanying him on all but one of his overseas trips, which could last for weeks.

After her husband's death, Zara remarried in 1969 to one of his Liberal Party colleagues, Jeff Bate. She was widowed a second time in 1984, and died in 1989.

Personality

Holt was the first Australian Prime Minister born in the twentieth century. He was an enthusiastic sportsman and avid swimmer, in stark contrast to Menzies and the majority of his predecessors and colleagues. Like later successor Bob Hawke, this resonated with positive effect within the electorate. His oratory skills were vastly superior to that of Arthur Calwell, whom Holt resoundingly beat in 1966. Holt's rhetoric was, however, considered a match to that of new Labor leader Gough Whitlam.

Religious beliefs

Holt has been described as an "apathetic agnostic". He was baptised Anglican, attended Methodist schools, and married with Presbyterian forms, but neither he nor his wife had any interest in religion. His lack of religiosity apparently had little impact on his political prospects, and was not generally remarked upon. Alick Downer believed that Holt's thoughts "lay in this world not the next". According to his friend Simon Warrender, he "was an agnostic whose raison d'être was dedication to his career". Holt had a reputation as something of a fatalist, and frequently quoted from Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress". He was also fond of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If-", which Warrender said he used as a "guiding light in his political and private life".

Memorials and other legacies

Harold Holt is commemorated by the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris. The complex was under construction at the time of Holt's disappearance, and since he was the local member, it was named in his memory. The swimming pool within the 1st Australian Support Compound in South Vietnam was also named for him.

In 1968, the newly commissioned United States Navy Knox-class destroyer escort USS Harold E. Holt was named in his honour. It was launched by Holt's widow Dame Zara at the Todd Shipyards in Los Angeles on 3 May 1969, and was the first American warship to bear the name of a foreign leader.

In 1969, a plaque commemorating Holt was bolted to the seafloor off Cheviot Beach after a memorial ceremony.

Other memorials include:

By way of a folk memorial, he is recalled in the Australian vernacular expression "do a Harold Holt" (or "do the Harry"), rhyming slang for "do a bolt" meaning "to disappear suddenly and without explanation", although this is usually employed in the context of disappearance from a social gathering rather than a case of presumed death.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1968, Holt's widow Zara was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, becoming Dame Zara Holt DBE. She later married for a third time, to a Liberal party colleague of Holt's, Jeff Bate, and was then known as Dame Zara Bate.

The mineral holtite is named in his honor. It was discovered in Greenbushes Tinfield, Western Australia and formally described in 1971.

In Spanish: Harold Holt para niños

Declared death in absentia

First Holt Ministry

List of people who disappeared

Second Holt Ministry

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The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia.

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

Aboriginal Australia

Early Indigenous history

The earliest known human remains were found at Lake Mungo, a dry lake in the southwest of New South Wales. Remains found at Mungo suggest one of the world's oldest known cremations, thus indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans. According to Australian Aboriginal mythology and the animist framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, the Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed The Creation. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. It remains a prominent feature of Australian Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art is believed to be the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world. Evidence of Aboriginal art can be traced back at least 30,000 years and is found throughout Australia (notably at Uluru and Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory). In terms of age and abundance, cave art in Australia is comparable to that of Lascaux and Altamira in Europe.

Manning Clark wrote that the ancestors of the Aboriginal Australians were slow to reach Tasmania, probably owing to an ice barrier existing across the South East of the continent. The Aboriginal Australians, he noted, did not develop agriculture, probably owing to a lack of seed bearing plants and animals suitable for domestication. Thus, the population remained low. Clark considered that the three potential pre-European colonising powers and traders of East Asia-the Hindu-Buddhists of southern India, the Muslims of Northern India and the Chinese-each petered out in their southward advance and did not attempt a settlement across the straits separating Indonesia from Australia. But trepang fisherman did reach the north coast, which they called "Marege" or "land of the trepang". For centuries, Makassan trade flourished with Aboriginal Australians on Australia's north coast, particularly with the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land.

The greatest population density for Aboriginal Australians developed in the southern and eastern regions, the River Murray valley in particular. Aboriginal Australians lived and used resources on the continent sustainably, agreeing to cease hunting and gathering at particular times to give populations and resources the chance to replenish. The arrival of Australia's first people nevertheless affected the continent significantly, and, along with climate change, may have contributed to the extinction of Australia's megafauna. The practice of firestick farming amongst northern Aboriginal Australians to increase the abundance of plants that attracted animals, transformed dry rainforest into savanna. The introduction of the dingo by Aboriginal people around 3,000-4,000 years ago may, along with human hunting, have contributed to the extinction of the thylacine, Tasmanian devil, and Tasmanian native-hen from mainland Australia.

One genetic study in 2012 by Irina Pugach and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has suggested that about 4,000 years before the First Fleet landed, some Indian explorers settled in Australia and assimilated into the local population in roughly 2217 BC.

Despite considerable cultural continuity, life was not without significant changes. Some 10-12,000 years ago, Tasmania became isolated from the mainland, and some stone technologies failed to reach the Tasmanian people (such as the hafting of stone tools and the use of the Boomerang). The land was not always kind; Aboriginal people of southeastern Australia endured "more than a dozen volcanic eruptions...(including) Mount Gambier, a mere 1,400 years ago." In southeastern Australia, near present-day Lake Condah, semi-permanent villages of beehive shaped shelters of stone developed, near bountiful food supplies.

By 1788, the population existed as 250 individual nations, many of which were in alliance with one another, and within each nation there existed several clans, from as few as five or six to as many as 30 or 40. Each nation had its own language and a few had multiple, thus over 250 languages existed, around 200 of which are now extinct. "Intricate kinship rules ordered the social relations of the people and diplomatic messengers and meeting rituals smoothed relations between groups", keeping group fighting, sorcery and domestic disputes to a minimum.

Permanent European settlers arrived at Sydney in 1788 and came to control most of the continent by end of the 19th century. Bastions of largely unaltered Aboriginal societies survived, particularly in Northern and Western Australia into the 20th century, until finally, a group of Pintupi people of the Gibson Desert became the last people to be contacted by outsider ways in 1984. While much knowledge was lost, Aboriginal art, music and culture, often scorned by Europeans during the initial phases of contact, survived and in time came to be celebrated by the wider Australian community.

Impact of European settlement
Conflict and disease
According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey, in Australia during the colonial period: "In a thousand isolated places there were occasional shootings and spearings. Even worse, smallpox, measles, influenza and other new diseases swept from one Aboriginal camp to another ... The main conqueror of Aboriginal Australians was to be disease and its ally, demoralisation".

Conflict in the Hawkesbury Nepean river district near the settlement at Sydney continued from 1795-1816.

Even before the arrival of European settlers in local districts beyond coastal New South Wales, Eurasian disease often preceded them. A smallpox epidemic was recorded near Sydney in 1789, which wiped out about half the Aboriginal Australians around Sydney. Opinion is divided as to the source of the smallpox. Some researchers argue that the smallpox was acquired through contact with Indonesian fishermen in the far north and then spread across the continent, reaching the Sydney area in 1789. Other research by Craig Mear, Michael Bennett, and Christopher Warren argues that, despite controversy, it is highly likely that the 1789 outbreak of smallpox was a deliberate act by British marines when they ran out of ammunition and needed to expand the settlement out to Parramatta. Smallpox then spread well beyond the then limits of European settlement, including much of southeastern Australia, reappearing in 1829-30, killing 40-60 percent of the Aboriginal population.

The impact of Europeans was profoundly disruptive to Aboriginal life and, though the extent of violence is debated, there was considerable conflict on the frontier. At the same time, some settlers were quite aware they were usurping the Aboriginal Australians place in Australia. In 1845, settler Charles Griffiths sought to justify this, writing; "The question comes to this; which has the better right-the savage, born in a country, which he runs over but can scarcely be said to occupy ... or the civilized man, who comes to introduce into this ... unproductive country, the industry which supports life."

From the 1960s, Australian writers began to re-assess European assumptions about Aboriginal Australia-with works including Alan Moorehead's The Fatal Impact (1966) and Geoffrey Blainey's landmark history Triumph of the Nomads (1975). In 1968, anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner described the lack of historical accounts of relations between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians as "the great Australian silence." Historian Henry Reynolds argues that there was a "historical neglect" of the Aboriginal Australians by historians until the late 1960s. Early commentaries often tended to describe Aboriginal Australians as doomed to extinction following the arrival of Europeans. William Westgarth's 1864 book on the colony of Victoria observed; "the case of the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria confirms ...it would seem almost an immutable law of nature that such inferior dark races should disappear." However, by the early 1970s historians like Lyndall Ryan, Henry Reynolds and Raymond Evans were trying to document and estimate the conflict and human toll on the frontier.

Many events illustrate violence and resistance as Aboriginal Australians sought to protect their lands from invasion and as settlers and pastoralists attempted to establish their presence. In May 1804, at Risdon Cove, Van Diemen's Land, perhaps 60 Aboriginal Australians were killed when they approached the town. The British established a new outpost in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in 1803. Although Tasmanian history is amongst the most contested by modern historians, conflict between colonists and Aboriginal Australians was referred to in some contemporary accounts as the Black War. The combined effects of disease, dispossession, intermarriage and conflict saw a collapse of the Aboriginal population of Tasmania from a few thousand people when the British arrived, to a few hundred by the 1830s. Estimates of how many people were killed during the period begin at around 300, though verification of the true figure is now impossible. In 1830 Governor Sir George Arthur sent an armed party (the Black Line) to push the Big River and Oyster Bay tribes out of the British settled districts. The effort failed and George Augustus Robinson proposed to set out unarmed to mediate with the remaining tribespeople in 1833. With the assistance of Truganini as guide and translator, Robinson convinced remaining tribesmen to surrender to an isolated new settlement at Flinders Island, where most later died of disease.

In 1838, at least twenty-eight Aboriginal Australians were murdered at the Myall Creek in New South Wales, resulting in the unprecedented conviction and hanging of six white and one African convict settlers by the colonial courts. Aboriginal Australians also attacked white settlers-in 1838 fourteen Europeans were killed at Broken River in Port Phillip District, by Aboriginal Australians of the Ovens River, almost certainly in revenge for the illicit use of Aboriginal women. Captain Hutton of Port Phillip District once told Chief Protector of Aboriginal Australians George Augustus Robinson that "if a member of a tribe offend, destroy the whole." Queensland's Colonial Secretary A.H. Palmer wrote in 1884 "the nature of the blacks was so treacherous that they were only guided by fear-in fact it was only possible to rule...the Australian Aboriginal...by brute force". The most recent massacre of Aboriginal Australians was at Coniston in the Northern Territory in 1928. There are numerous other massacre sites in Australia, although supporting documentation varies.
Co-operation
Frontier encounters in Australia were not universally negative. Positive accounts of Aboriginal customs and encounters are also recorded in the journals of early European explorers, who often relied on Aboriginal guides and assistance: Charles Sturt employed Aboriginal envoys to explore the Murray-Darling; the lone survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition was nursed by local Aboriginal Australians, and the famous Aboriginal explorer Jackey Jackey loyally accompanied his ill-fated friend Edmund Kennedy to Cape York. Respectful studies were conducted by such as Walter Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen in their renowned anthropological study The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899); and by Donald Thomson of Arnhem Land (c. 1935-1943). In inland Australia, the skills of Aboriginal stockmen became highly regarded and in the 20th century, Aboriginal stockmen like Vincent Lingiari became national figures in their campaigns for better pay and improved working conditions.
Removal of children
The removal of indigenous children, by which mixed-race children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent were removed from their families by Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, was a policy actively conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1969. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission argued that these removals constituted attempted genocide and had a major impact on the Indigenous population. Such interpretations of Aboriginal history are disputed by a few historians such as Keith Windschuttle as being exaggerated or fabricated for political or ideological reasons. This debate is part of what is known within Australia as the History Wars.

Early European explorers

Although a theory of Portuguese discovery in the 1520s exists, it lacks definitive evidence. The Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606. That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in nearby waters and led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós had landed in the New Hebrides and, believing them to be the fabled southern continent, named the land "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" ( Southern Land of the Holy Spirit), in honour of his queen Margaret of Austria, the wife of Philip III of Spain. Later that year, Queirós' deputy Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast.

The Dutch, following shipping routes to the Dutch East Indies, or in search of gold, spices or Christian converts proceeded to contribute a great deal to Europe's knowledge of Australia's coast. In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, West Australia. In 1622-23 the Leeuwin made the first recorded rounding of the south west corner of the continent, and gave her name to Cape Leeuwin.

In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by François Thijssen and named ' t Land van Pieter Nuyts, in honour of the highest ranking passenger, Pieter Nuyts, extraordinary Councillor of India, In 1628 a squadron of Dutch ships was sent by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter de Carpentier to explore the northern coast. These ships made extensive examinations, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, named in honour of de Carpentier.

A map of the world inlaid into the floor of the Burgerzaal (" Burger's Hall") of the new Amsterdam Stadhuis ("Town Hall") in 1655 revealed the extent of Dutch charts of much of Australia's coast Based on the 1648 map by Joan Blaeu, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, it incorporated Tasman's discoveries, subsequently reproduced in the map, Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus published in the Kurfürsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great Elector).

In 1664 the French geographer, Melchisédech Thévenot, published in Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux a map of New Holland. Thévenot divided the continent in two, between Nova Hollandia to the west and Terre Australe to the east. Emanuel Bowen reproduced Thevenot's map in his Complete System of Geography (London, 1747), re-titling it A Complete Map of the Southern Continent and adding three inscriptions promoting the benefits of exploring and colonising the country. One inscription said:

It is impossible to conceive a Country that promises fairer from its Situation than this of TERRA AUSTRALIS, no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates, but the Southern Continent Discovered. It lies precisely in the richest climates of the World... and therefore whoever perfectly discovers and settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as Rich, as fruitful, and as capable of Improvement, as any that have hitherto been found out, either in the East Indies or the West.

Bowen's map was re-published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-1748, 1764). This book recommended exploration of the east coast of New Holland, with a view to a British colonisation, by way of Abel Tasman's route to Van Diemen's Land.

With the exception of further Dutch visits to the west, however, Australia remained largely unvisited by Europeans until the first British explorations. John Callander put forward a proposal in 1766 for Britain to found a colony of banished convicts in the South Sea or in Terra Australis to enable the mother country to exploit the riches of those regions. He said: "this world must present us with many things entirely new, as hitherto we have had little more knowledge of it, than if it had lain in another planet".

In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook in command of the HMS Endeavour, travelled to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook also carried secret Admiralty instructions to locate the supposed Southern Continent: "There is reason to imagine that a continent, or land of great extent, may be found to the southward of the track of former navigators." This continent was not found, a disappointment to Alexander Dalrymple and his fellow members of the Royal Society who had urged the Admiralty to undertake this mission. Cook decided to survey the east coast of New Holland, the only major part of that continent that had not been charted by Dutch navigators.

On 19 April 1770, the Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia and ten days later landed at Botany Bay. Cook charted the coast to its northern extent and, along with the ship's naturalist, Joseph Banks, who subsequently reported favourably on the possibilities of establishing a colony at Botany Bay. Cook formally took possession of the east coast of New Holland on 21/22 August 1770, and noted in his journal that he could "land no more upon this Eastern coast of New Holland, and on the Western side I can make no new discovery the honour of which belongs to the Dutch Navigators and as such they may lay Claim to it as their property [italicised words crossed out in the original] but the Eastern Coast from the Latitude of 38 South down to this place I am confident was never seen or viseted by any European before us and therefore by the same Rule belongs to great Brittan [italicised words crossed out in the original].

Colonisation

Plans for colonisation

Matra reasoned that: the country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton and tobacco; New Zealand timber and hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities; it could form a base for Pacific trade; and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists. Following an interview with Secretary of State Lord Sydney in 1784, Matra amended his proposal to include convicts as settlers, considering that this would benefit both "Economy to the Publick, & Humanity to the Individual".

Matra's plan provided the original blueprint for settlement. Records show the government was considering it in 1784. The London newspapers announced in November 1784 that: "A plan has been presented to the [Prime] Minister, and is now before the Cabinet, for instituting a new colony in New Holland. In this vast tract of land....every sort of produce and improvement of which the various soils of the earth are capable, may be expected". The Government also incorporated the settlement of Norfolk Island into their plan, with its attractions of timber and flax, proposed by Banks' Royal Society colleagues, Sir John Call and Sir George Young.

At the same time, humanitarians and reformers were campaigning in Britain against the appalling conditions in British prisons and hulks. In 1777 prison reformer John Howard wrote The State of Prisons in England and Wales, exposing the harsh conditions of the prison system to "genteel society"." Penal transportation was already well-established as a central plank of English criminal law and until the American Revolution about a thousand criminals per year were sent to Maryland and Virginia. It served as a powerful deterrent to law-breaking. According to historian David Hill, "Europeans knew little about the geography of the globe" and to "convicts in England, transportation to Botany Bay was a frightening prospect." Echoing John Callander, he said Australia "might as well have been another planet."

In 1933, Sir Ernest Scott, stated the traditional view of the reasons for colonisation: "It is clear that the only consideration which weighed seriously with the Pitt Government was the immediately pressing and practical one of finding a suitable place for a convict settlement ". In the early 1960s, historian Geoffrey Blainey questioned the traditional view of foundation purely as a convict dumping ground. His book The Tyranny of Distance suggested ensuring supplies of flax and timber after the loss of the American colonies may have also been motivations, and Norfolk Island was the key to the British decision. A number of historians responded and debate brought to light a large amount of additional source material on the reasons for settlement. This has most recently been set out and discussed by Professor Alan Frost.

The decision to settle was taken when it seemed the outbreak of civil war in the Netherlands might precipitate a war in which Britain would be again confronted with the alliance of the three naval Powers, France, Holland and Spain, which had brought her to defeat in 1783. Under these circumstances, the strategic advantages of a colony in New South Wales described in James Matra's proposal were attractive. Matra wrote that such a settlement could facilitate attacks upon the Spanish in South America and the Philippines, and against the Dutch East Indies. In 1790, during the Nootka Crisis, plans were made for naval expeditions against Spain's possessions in the Americas and the Philippines, in which New South Wales was assigned the role of a base for "refreshment, communication and retreat". On subsequent occasions into the early 19th century when war threatened or broke out between Britain and Spain, these plans were revived and only the short length of the period of hostilities in each case prevented them from being put into effect.

Georg Forster, who had sailed under Lieutenant James Cook in the voyage of the Resolution (1772-1775), wrote in 1786 on the future prospects of the British colony: "New Holland, an island of enormous extent or it might be said, a third continent, is the future homeland of a new civilized society which, however mean its beginning may seem to be, nevertheless promises within a short time to become very important." And the merchant adventurer and would-be coloniser of southwestern Australia under the Swedish flag, William Bolts, said to the Swedish Ambassador in Paris, Erik von Staël in December 1789, that the British had founded at Botany Bay, "a settlement which in time will become of the greatest importance to the Commerce of the Globe".

Establishment of British colonies

The territory claimed by Britain included all of Australia eastward of the meridian of 135° East and all the islands in the Pacific Ocean between the latitudes of Cape York and the southern tip of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). The western limit of 135° East was set at the meridian dividing New Holland from Terra Australis shown on Emanuel Bowen's Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-1748, and 1764). It was a vast claim which elicited excitement at the time: the Dutch translator of First Fleet officer and author Watkin Tench's A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay wrote: "a single province which, beyond all doubt, is the largest on the whole surface of the earth. From their definition it covers, in its greatest extent from East to West, virtually a fourth of the whole circumference of the Globe". Spanish naval commander Alessandro Malaspina, who visited Sydney in March-April 1793 reported to his government that: "The transportation of the convicts constituted the means and not the object of the enterprise. The extension of dominion, mercantile speculations and the discovery of mines were the real object". Frenchman François Péron, of the Baudin expedition visited Sydney in 1802 and reported to the French Government: "How can it be conceived that such a monstrous invasion was accomplished, with no complaint in Europe to protest against it? How can it be conceived that Spain, who had previously raised so many objections opposing the occupation of the Malouines ( Falkland Islands), meekly allowed a formidable empire to arise to facing her richest possessions, an empire which must either invade or liberate them?"

The colony included the current islands of New Zealand. In 1817, the British government withdrew the extensive territorial claim over the South Pacific. In practice, the governors' writ had been shown not to run in the islands of the South Pacific. The Church Missionary Society had concerns over atrocities committed against the natives of the South Sea Islands, and the ineffectiveness of the New South Wales government to deal with the lawlessness. As a result, on 27 June 1817, Parliament passed an Act for the more effectual Punishment of Murders and Manslaughters committed in Places not within His Majesty's Dominions, which described Tahiti, New Zealand and other islands of the South Pacific as being not within His Majesty's dominions.

1788: New South Wales

Governor Phillip was vested with complete authority over the inhabitants of the colony. Enlightened for his Age, Phillip's personal intent was to establish harmonious relations with local Aboriginal people and try to reform as well as discipline the convicts of the colony. Phillip and several of his officers-most notably Watkin Tench-left behind journals and accounts of which tell of immense hardships during the first years of settlement. Often Phillip's officers despaired for the future of New South Wales. Early efforts at agriculture were fraught and supplies from overseas were scarce. Between 1788 and 1792 about 3546 male and 766 female convicts were landed at Sydney-many "professional criminals" with few of the skills required for the establishment of a colony. Many new arrivals were also sick or unfit for work and the conditions of healthy convicts only deteriorated with hard labour and poor sustenance in the settlement. The food situation reached crisis point in 1790 and the Second Fleet which finally arrived in June 1790 had lost a quarter of its 'passengers' through sickness, while the condition of the convicts of the Third Fleet appalled Phillip. From 1791 however, the more regular arrival of ships and the beginnings of trade lessened the feeling of isolation and improved supplies.

Phillip sent exploratory missions in search of better soils, fixed on the Parramatta region as a promising area for expansion, and moved many of the convicts from late 1788 to establish a small township, which became the main centre of the colony's economic life. This left Sydney Cove only as an important port and focus of social life. Poor equipment and unfamiliar soils and climate continued to hamper the expansion of farming from Farm Cove to Parramatta and Toongabbie, but a building program, assisted by convict labour, advanced steadily. Between 1788 and 1792, convicts and their gaolers made up the majority of the population-but after this, a population of emancipated convicts began to grow who could be granted land and these people pioneered a non-government private sector economy and were later joined by soldiers whose military service had expired-and finally, free settlers who began arriving from Britain. Governor Phillip departed the colony for England on 11 December 1792, with the new settlement having survived near starvation and immense isolation for four years. On 16 February 1793 the first free settlers arrived. The settlers: Thomas Rose, with his wife and four children, Edward Powell, Thomas Webb, Joseph Webb, and Frederick Meredith.

Establishment of further colonies

After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half, named New South Wales, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney, and a western half named New Holland. The western boundary of 135° East of Greenwich was based on the Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in Emanuel Bowen's Complete System of Geography (London 1747), and reproduced in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-48, and 1764). Bowen's map was based on one by Melchisédech Thévenot and published in Relations des Divers Voyages (1663), which apparently divided New Holland in the west from Terra Australis in the east by a latitude staff situated at 135° East. This division, reproduced in Bowen's map, provided a convenient western boundary for the British claim because, as Watkin Tench subsequently commented in A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, "By this partition, it may be fairly presumed, that every source of future litigation between the Dutch and us, will be for ever cut off, as the discoveries of English navigators only are comprized in this territory". Thévenot said he copied his map from the one engraved in the floor of the Amsterdam Town Hall, but in that map there was no dividing line between New Holland and Terra Australis. Thévenot's map was actually copied from Joan Blaeu's map, Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus, published in 1659 in the Kurfürsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great Elector); this map was a part of Blaeu's world map of 1648, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, which first showed the land revealed by Abel Tasman's 1642 voyage as Hollandia Nova and which served as the basis for the Amsterdam Town Hall pavement map. Longitude 135° East reflected the line of division between the claims of Spain and Portugal established in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which had formed the basis of many subsequent claims to colonial territory. An Historical Narrative of the Discovery of New Holland and New South Wales, published in November 1786, contained "A General Chart of New Holland, including New South Wales & Botany Bay, with The Adjacent Countries, and New Discovered Islands", which showed all the territory claimed under the jurisdiction of the Governor of New South Wales.

Romantic descriptions of the beauty, mild climate, and fertile soil of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific led the British government to establish a subsidiary settlement of the New South Wales colony there in 1788. It was hoped that the giant Norfolk Island pine trees and flax plants growing wild on the island might provide the basis for a local industry which, particularly in the case of flax, would provide an alternative source of supply to Russia for an article which was essential for making cordage and sails for the ships of the British navy. However, the island had no safe harbour, which led the colony to be abandoned and the settlers evacuated to Tasmania in 1807. The island was subsequently re-settled as a penal settlement in 1824.

In 1798, George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land, proving that it was an island. In 1802, Flinders successfully circumnavigated Australia for the first time.

Convicts and colonial society

Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161,700 convicts (of whom 25,000 were women) were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen's land and Western Australia. Historian Lloyd Robson has estimated that perhaps two-thirds were thieves from working class towns, particularly from the Midlands and north of England. The majority were repeat offenders. Whether transportation managed to achieve its goal of reforming or not, some convicts were able to leave the prison system in Australia; after 1801 they could gain "tickets of leave" for good behaviour and be assigned to work for free men for wages. A few went on to have successful lives as emancipists, having been pardoned at the end of their sentence. Female convicts had fewer opportunities.

From the 1820s, increasing numbers of squatters occupied land beyond the fringes of European settlement. Often running sheep on large stations with relatively few overheads, squatters could make considerable profits. By 1834, nearly 2 million kilograms of wool were being exported to Britain from Australia. By 1850, barely 2,000 squatters had gained 30 million hectares of land, and they formed a powerful and "respectable" interest group in several colonies.

In 1835, the British Colonial Office issued the Proclamation of Governor Bourke, implementing the legal doctrine of terra nullius upon which British settlement was based, reinforcing the notion that the land belonged to no one prior to the British Crown taking possession of it and quashing any likelihood of treaties with Aboriginal peoples, including that signed by John Batman. Its publication meant that from then, all people found occupying land without the authority of the government would be considered illegal trespassers.

Massive areas of land were cleared for agriculture and various other purposes in the first 100 years of European settlement. In addition to the obvious impacts this early clearing of land and importation of hard-hoofed animals had on the ecology of particular regions, it severely affected indigenous Australians, by reducing the resources they relied on for food, shelter and other essentials. This progressively forced them into smaller areas and reduced their numbers as the majority died of newly introduced diseases and lack of resources. Indigenous resistance against the settlers was widespread, and prolonged fighting between 1788 and the 1920s led to the deaths of at least 20,000 indigenous people and between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans. During the mid-late 19th century, many indigenous Australians in south eastern Australia were relocated, often forcibly, to reserves and missions. The nature of many of these institutions enabled disease to spread quickly and many were closed as their populations fell.

Free colony at South Australia

A group in Britain led by Edward Gibbon Wakefield sought to start a colony based on free settlement rather than convict labour. In 1831 the South Australian Land Company was formed amid a campaign for a royal charter which would provide for the establishment of a privately financed "free" colony in Australia.

While New South Wales, Tasmania and (although not initially) Western Australia were established as convict settlements, the founders of South Australia had a vision of a colony with political and religious freedoms, together with opportunities for wealth through business and pastoral investments. The South Australia Act 1834, passed by the British Government which established the colony reflected these desires and included a promise of representative government when the population reached 50,000 people. South Australia thus became the only colony authorised by an Act of Parliament, and which was intended to be developed at no cost to the British government. Transportation of convicts was forbidden, and 'poor Emigrants', assisted by an Emigration Fund, were required to bring their families with them. Significantly, the Letters Patent enabling the South Australia Act 1834 included a guarantee of the rights of 'any Aboriginal Natives' and their descendants to lands they 'now actually occupied or enjoyed'.

Exploration of the continent

In 1798-99 George Bass and Matthew Flinders set out from Sydney in a sloop and circumnavigated Tasmania, thus proving it to be an island. In 1801-02 Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator led the first circumnavigation of Australia. Aboard ship was the Aboriginal explorer Bungaree, of the Sydney district, who became the first person born on the Australian continent to circumnavigate the Australian continent. Previously, the famous Bennelong and a companion had become the first people born in the area of New South Wales to sail for Europe, when, in 1792 they accompanied Governor Phillip to England and were presented to King George III.

Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell conducted a series of expeditions from the 1830s to 'fill in the gaps' left by these previous expeditions. He was meticulous in seeking to record the original Aboriginal place names around the colony, for which reason the majority of place names to this day retain their Aboriginal titles.

European explorers made their last great, often arduous and sometimes tragic expeditions into the interior of Australia during the second half of the 19th century-some with the official sponsorship of the colonial authorities and others commissioned by private investors. By 1850, large areas of the inland were still unknown to Europeans. Trailblazers like Edmund Kennedy and the Prussian naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt, had met tragic ends attempting to fill in the gaps during the 1840s, but explorers remained ambitious to discover new lands for agriculture or answer scientific enquiries. Surveyors also acted as explorers and the colonies sent out expeditions to discover the best routes for lines of communication. The size of expeditions varied considerably from small parties of just two or three to large, well-equipped teams led by gentlemen explorers assisted by smiths, carpenters, labourers and Aboriginal guides accompanied by horses, camels or bullocks.

In 1862, John McDouall Stuart succeeded in traversing Central Australia from south to north. His expedition mapped out the route which was later followed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line.

From autonomy to federation

Colonial self-government and the gold rushes

The gold rushes brought many immigrants to Australia from the British Isles, continental Europe, North America and China. The Colony of Victoria's population grew rapidly, from 76,000 in 1850 to 530,000 by 1859. Discontent arose amongst diggers almost immediately, particularly on the crowded Victorian fields. The causes of this were the colonial government's administration of the diggings and the gold licence system. Following a number of protests and petitions for reform, violence erupted at Ballarat in late 1854.

Early on the morning of Sunday 3 December 1854, British soldiers and Police attacked a stockade built on the Eureka lead holding some of the aggrieved diggers. In a short fight, at least 30 miners were killed and an unknown number wounded. O'Brien lists 5 soldiers of the 12th and 40th Regiments killed and 12 wounded. Blinded by his fear of agitation with democratic overtones, local Commissioner Robert Rede had felt "it was absolutely necessary that a blow should be struck" against the miners.

But a few months later, a Royal commission made sweeping changes to the administration of Victoria's goldfields. Its recommendations included the abolition of the licence, reforms to the police force and voting rights for miners holding a Miner's Right. The Eureka Flag that was used to represent the Ballarat miners has been seriously considered by some as an alternative to the Australian flag, because of its controversial association with democratic developments.

In the 1890s, visiting author Mark Twain characterised the battle at Eureka as "The finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution-small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression...it is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle."

Alternatively, in 1999, the Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, dismissed the Eureka Stockade as a "protest without consequence". During the 2004 Australian federal election, Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson stated his view that "I think people have tried to make too much of the Eureka Stockade...trying to give it a credibility and standing that it probably doesn't enjoy."

New South Wales in 1855 was the first colony to gain responsible government, managing most of its own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia followed in 1856; Queensland, from its foundation in 1859; and Western Australia, in 1890. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defence and international shipping.

The gold era led to a long period of prosperity, sometimes called "the long boom." This was fed by British investment and the continued growth of the pastoral and mining industries, in addition to the growth of efficient transport by rail, river and sea. By 1891, the sheep population of Australia was estimated at 100 million. Gold production had declined since the 1850s, but in the same year was still worth £5.2 million. Eventually the economic expansion ended; the 1890s were a period of economic depression, felt most strongly in Victoria, and its capital Melbourne.

The late 19th century had however, seen a great growth in the cities of south eastern Australia. Australia's population (not including Aboriginal Australians, who were excluded from census calculations) in 1900 was 3.7 million, almost 1 million of whom lived in Melbourne and Sydney. More than two-thirds of the population overall lived in cities and towns by the close of the century, making "Australia one of the most urbanised societies in the western world."

Bushrangers

More than 2,000 bushrangers are believed to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and ending after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.

Bold Jack Donahue is recorded as the last convict bushranger. He was reported in newspapers around 1827 as being responsible for an outbreak of bushranging on the road between Sydney and Windsor. Throughout the 1820s he was regarded as the most notorious bushranger in the colony. Leading a band of escaped convicts, Donahue became central to Australian folklore as the Wild Colonial Boy.

The bushrangers' heyday was the Gold Rush years of the 1850s and 1860s.

The increasing push of settlement, increased police efficiency, improvements in rail transport and communications technology, such as telegraphy, made it increasingly difficult for bushrangers to evade capture.

Some bushrangers, most notably Ned Kelly in his Jerilderie Letter, and in his final raid on Glenrowan, explicitly represented themselves as political rebels. Attitudes to Kelly, by far the most well-known bushranger, exemplify the ambivalent views of Australians regarding bushranging.

Development of Australian democracy

Traditional Aboriginal society had been governed by councils of elders and a corporate decision making process, but the first European-style governments established after 1788 were autocratic and run by appointed governors-although English law was transplanted into the Australian colonies by virtue of the doctrine of reception, thus notions of the rights and processes established by the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689 were brought from Britain by the colonists. Agitation for representative government began soon after the settlement of the colonies.

The oldest legislative body in Australia, the New South Wales Legislative Council, was created in 1825 as an appointed body to advise the Governor of New South Wales. William Wentworth established the Australian Patriotic Association (Australia's first political party) in 1835 to demand democratic government for New South Wales. The reformist attorney general, John Plunkett, sought to apply Enlightenment principles to governance in the colony, pursuing the establishment of equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists, then by extending legal protections to convicts, assigned servants and Aboriginal Australians. Plunkett twice charged the colonist perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre of Aboriginal Australians with murder, resulting in a conviction and his landmark Church Act of 1836 disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists.

In 1840, the Adelaide City Council and the Sydney City Council were established. Men who possessed 1,000 pounds worth of property were able to stand for election and wealthy landowners were permitted up to four votes each in elections. Australia's first parliamentary elections were conducted for the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1843, again with voting rights (for males only) tied to property ownership or financial capacity. Voter rights were extended further in New South Wales in 1850 and elections for legislative councils were held in the colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

By the mid-19th century, there was a strong desire for representative and responsible government in the colonies of Australia, fed by the democratic spirit of the goldfields evident at the Eureka Stockade and the ideas of the great reform movements sweeping Europe, the United States and the British Empire. The end of convict transportation accelerated reform in the 1840s and 1850s. The Australian Colonies Government Act [1850] was a landmark development which granted representative constitutions to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and the colonies enthusiastically set about writing constitutions which produced democratically progressive parliaments-though the constitutions generally maintained the role of the colonial upper houses as representative of social and economic "interests" and all established constitutional monarchies with the British monarch as the symbolic head of state.

In 1855, limited self-government was granted by London to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. An innovative secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 1856, in which the government supplied voting paper containing the names of candidates and voters could select in private. This system was adopted around the world, becoming known as the " Australian Ballot". 1855 also saw the granting of the right to vote to all male British subjects 21 years or over in South Australia. This right was extended to Victoria in 1857 and New South Wales the following year. The other colonies followed until, in 1896, Tasmania became the last colony to grant universal male suffrage.

Legally, indigenous Australian males generally gained the right to vote during this period when Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia gave voting rights to all male British subjects over 21. Only Queensland and Western Australia barred Aboriginal people from voting. Thus, Aboriginal men and women voted in some jurisdictions for the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901. Early federal parliamentary reform and judicial interpretation however sought to limit Aboriginal voting in practice-a situation which endured until rights activists began campaigning in the 1940s.

Though the various parliaments of Australia have been constantly evolving, the key foundations for elected parliamentary government have maintained an historical continuity in Australia from the 1850s into the 21st century.

Growth of nationalism

By the late 1880s, a majority of people living in the Australian colonies were native born, although over 90 per cent were of British and Irish heritage. Historian Don Gibb suggests that bushranger Ned Kelly represented one dimension of the emerging attitudes of the native born population. Identifying strongly with family and mates, Kelly was opposed to what he regarded as oppression by Police and powerful Squatters. Almost mirroring the Australian stereotype later defined by historian Russel Ward, Kelly became "a skilled bushman, adept with guns, horses and fists and winning admiration from his peers in the district." Journalist Vance Palmer suggested although Kelly came to typify "the rebellious persona of the country for later generations, (he really) belonged...to another period."

Australian literature was equally developing a distinct voice. The classic Australian writers Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Miles Franklin, Norman Lindsay, Steele Rudd, Mary Gilmore, C J Dennis and Dorothea Mackellar were all forged by-and indeed helped to forge-this period of growing national identity. Views of Australia at times conflicted-Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses to The Bulletin magazine in which they engaged in a literary debate about the nature of life in Australia: Lawson (a republican socialist) derided Paterson as a romantic, while Paterson (a country born city lawyer) thought Lawson full of doom and gloom. Paterson wrote the lyrics of the much-loved folksong Waltzing Matilda in 1895. The song has often been suggested as Australia's national anthem and Advance Australia Fair, the Australian national anthem since the late 1970s, itself was written in 1887. Dennis wrote of laconic heroes in the Australian vernacular, while McKellar rejected a love of England's pleasant pastures in favour of what she termed a "Sunburnt Country" in her iconic poem: My Country (1903).

A common theme throughout the nationalist art, music and writing of the late 19th century was the romantic rural or , ironically produced by one of the most urbanised societies in the world. Paterson's well known poem Clancy of the Overflow, written in 1889, evokes the romantic myth. While bush ballads evidenced distinctively Australian popular medium of music and of literature, Australian artists of a more classical mould-such as the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, and painters John Peter Russell and Rupert Bunny-prefigured the 20th-century expatriate Australians who knew little of 'stockyard and rails' but would travel abroad to influence Western art and culture.

Federation movement

Despite suspicion from some sections of the colonial community (especially in smaller colonies) about the value of nationhood, improvements in inter-colonial transport and communication, including the linking of Perth to the south eastern cities by telegraph in 1877, helped break down inter-colonial rivalries.

Amid calls from London for the establishment of an intercolonial Australian army, and with the various colonies independently constructing railway lines, New South Wales Premier Henry Parkes addressed a rural audience in his 1889 Tenterfield Oration, stating that the time had come to form a national executive government: "Australia [now has] a population of three and a half millions, and the American people numbered only between three and four millions when they formed the great commonwealth of the United States. The numbers were about the same, and surely what the Americans had done by war, the Australians could bring about in peace, without breaking the ties that held them to the mother country."

Though Parkes would not live to see it, his vision would be achieved within a little over a decade, and he is remembered as the "father of federation". Increasing nationalism, a growing sense of national identity, improvements in transport and communications, as well as fears about immigration and defence all combined to encourage the movement, spurred on by organisations like the Australian Natives' Association. Despite the growing calls for unification, loyalties to the British Empire remained strong. At a Federation Conference banquet in 1890, Henry Parkes spoke of blood-kinship linking the colonies to Britain and a "race" for whom "the purpose of settling new countries has never had its equal on the face of the earth"

In 1890, representatives of the six colonies and New Zealand had met in Melbourne and called for the union of the colonies and for the colonial legislatures to nominate representatives to attend a constitutional convention. The following year, the 1891 National Australasian Convention was held in Sydney, with all the future states and New Zealand represented. A draft Constitutional Bill was produced by the Constitution Committee, chiefly drafted by Samuel Griffith, with Inglis Clark and Charles Kingston, as well as the assistance of Edmund Barton. The delegates returned to their parliaments with the Bill, but progress was slow, as Australia faced its 1890s economic Depression. Nevertheless, by 1895 five of the colonies elected representatives for a second Convention, which was conducted in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne over the space of a year, allowing time for consultation. The Constitution Committee this time appointed Barton, Richard O'Connor and John Downer to draft a Bill and after much debate, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania adopted the Bill to be put to their voters. Queensland and Western Australia later moved to do the same, though New Zealand did not participate in the Convention.

July 1898, saw the Bill put to a series of referenda in four colonies, but New South Wales rejected the proposal. In 1899, a second referendum put an amended Bill to the voters of the four colonies and Queensland and the Bill was endorsed.

In March 1900, delegates were dispatched to London, where approval for the Bill was sought from the Imperial Parliament. The Bill was put to the House of Commons and passed on 5 July 1900 and, soon after, was signed into law by Queen Victoria. Lord Hopetoun was dispatched from London, tasked with appointing an interim Cabinet to oversee the foundation of the Commonwealth and conduct of the first elections.

There was a more radical vision for a separate Australia by some colonists, including writer Henry Lawson, trade unionist William Lane and as found in the pages of the Sydney Bulletin. But by the end of 1899, and after much colonial debate, the citizens of five of the six Australian colonies had voted in referendums in favour of a constitution to form a Federation. Western Australia voted to join in July 1900. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed by the British parliament on 5 July 1900 and given Royal Assent by Queen Victoria on 9 July 1900.

Federation

Barton promised to "create a high court, ...and an efficient federal public service... He proposed to extend conciliation and arbitration, create a uniform railway gauge between the eastern capitals, to introduce female federal franchise, to establish a...system of old age pensions." He also promised to introduce legislation to safeguard " White Australia" from any influx of Asian or Pacific Island labour.

The Labor Party (the spelling "Labour" was dropped in 1912) had been established in the 1890s, after the failure of the Maritime and Shearer's strikes. Its strength was in the Australian Trade Union movement "which grew from a membership of just under 100,000 in 1901 to more than half a million in 1914." The platform of the ALP was democratic socialist. As noted by the historian Ross McMullin, "In the national sphere Labor had taken the Protectionists as far in the direction of progressive legislation as possible." In New South Wales, Frank McDonnell dominated the agitation for the early closing of shops, which was achieved with the passage of the Factories and Shops Act of 1900, while also securing the extension of the grammar school scholarship system. In Western Australia, Forrest introduced a conciliation and arbitration bill in 1900 which brought trade unions into the state's social fabric for the first time. In addition, WA Labor scored another victory with the passage of legislation which extended workers' compensation. Under the premierships of Storey and Dooley in New South Wales, various reforms were carried out such as the establishment of the Rural Bank and the elimination of high school fees.

The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was one of the first laws passed by the new Australian parliament. This centrepiece of the 'White Australia Policy' aimed to restrict immigration from Asia (especially China), where the population was vastly greater and the standard of living vastly lower and was similar to measures taken in other settler societies such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It found strong support in the national parliament, arguments ranging from economic protection to simple racism. The law permitted a dictation test in any European language to be used to in effect exclude non-"white" immigrants. While the law allowed for the use of any European language, the English version was standardised and became known as the "Stewart" test after the Federal MP Stewart Parnaby who originally penned the exam. The Labor Party wanted to protect "white" jobs and pushed for clearer restrictions. A few politicians spoke of the need to avoid hysterical treatment of the question. MP Bruce Smith said he had "no desire to see low-class Indians, Chinamen or Japanese...swarming into this country... But there is obligation...not (to) unnecessarily offend the educated classes of those nations". Donald Cameron, a member from Tasmania, expressed a rare note of dissension in the parliament, saying that no race on earth had been "treated in a more shameful manner than have the Chinese...". Outside parliament, Australia's first Catholic cardinal, Patrick Francis Moran was politically active and denounced anti-Chinese legislation as "unchristian". The popular press mocked the cardinal's position and the small European population of Australia generally supported the legislation and remained fearful of being overwhelmed by an influx of non-British migrants from the vastly different cultures of the highly populated empires to Australia's north.

Before 1901, units of soldiers from all six Australian colonies had been active as part of British forces in the Boer War. When the British government asked for more troops from Australia in early 1902, the Australian government obliged with a national contingent. Some 16,500 men had volunteered for service by the war's end in June 1902. But Australians soon felt vulnerable closer to home. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 "allowed the Royal Navy to withdraw its capital ships from the Pacific by 1907. Australians saw themselves in time of war a lonely, sparsely populated outpost." The impressive visit of the US Navy's Great White Fleet in 1908 emphasised to the government the value of an Australian navy. The Defence Act of 1909 reinforced the importance of Australian defence, and in February 1910, Lord Kitchener provided further advice on a defence scheme based on conscription. By 1913, the battlecruiser Australia led the fledgling Royal Australian Navy. Historian Bill Gammage estimates that on the eve of war, Australia had 200,000 men "under arms of some sort".

Historian Humphrey McQueen has it that working and living conditions for Australia's working classes in the early 20th century were of "frugal comfort." While the establishment of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration for industrial disputes was divisive, it was an acknowledgement of the need to set Industrial awards, where all wage earners in one industry enjoyed the same conditions of employment and wages. The Harvester Judgment of 1907 recognised the concept of a basic wage and in 1908 the Federal government also began an old age pension scheme. Together with the White Australia Policy and pioneering social policy, these developments have since been dubbed the Australian settlement. As a result of them, the new Commonwealth gained recognition as a laboratory for social experimentation and positive liberalism.

Catastrophic droughts plagued some regions in the late 1890s and early 20th century and together with a growing rabbit plague, created great hardship in the rural area of Australia. Despite this, a number of writers "imagined a time when Australia would outstrip Britain in wealth and importance, when its open spaces would support rolling acres of farms and factories to match those of the United States. Some estimated the future population at 100 million, 200 million or more." Amongst these was E. J. Brady, whose 1918 book Australia Unlimited described Australia's inland as ripe for development and settlement, "destined one day to pulsate with life."

With the encouragement of Queensland, in 1884, a British protectorate had been proclaimed over the southern coast of New Guinea and its adjacent islands. British New Guinea, was annexed outright in 1888. The possession was placed under the authority of the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia in 1902 and with passage of the Papua Act of 1905, British New Guinea became the Australian Territory of Papua, with formal Australian administration beginning in 1906.

First World War

The outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914 automatically involved "all of Britain's colonies and dominions". Prime Minister Andrew Fisher probably expressed the views of most Australians when during the election campaign of late July he said "Turn your eyes to the European situation, and give the kindest feelings towards the mother country.... I sincerely hope that international arbitration will avail before Europe is convulsed in the greatest war of all time.... But should the worst happen... Australians will stand beside our own to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling."

More than 416,000 Australian men volunteered to fight during the First World War between 1914 and 1918 from a total national population of 4.9 million. Historian Lloyd Robson estimates this as between one third and one half of the eligible male population. The Sydney Morning Herald referred to the outbreak of war as Australia's "Baptism of Fire." 8,141 men were killed in 8 months of fighting at Gallipoli, on the Turkish coast. After the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) was withdrawn in late 1915, and enlarged to five divisions, most were moved to France to serve under British command.

Some forces remained in the Mid-East, including members of the Light Horse Regiment. Light horsemen of the 4th and 12th Regiments captured heavily fortified Beersheba from Turk forces by means of a cavalry charge at full gallop on 31 October 1917. One of the last great cavalry charges in history, the attack opened a way for the allies to outflank the Gaza-Beersheba Line and drive the Ottomans back into Palestine.

Over 60,000 Australians had died during the conflict and 160,000 were wounded, a high proportion of the 330,000 who had fought overseas.

While the Gallipoli campaign was a total failure militarily and 8100 Australians died, its memory was all-important. Gallipoli transformed the Australian mind and became an iconic element of the Australian identity and the founding moment of nationhood. Australia's annual holiday to remember its war dead is held on ANZAC Day, 25 April, each year, the date of the first landings at Gallipoli in 1915. The choice of date is often mystifying to non-Australians; it was after all, an allied invasion that ended in military defeat. Bill Gammage has suggested that the choice of 25 April has always meant much to Australians because at Gallipoli, "the great machines of modern war were few enough to allow ordinary citizens to show what they could do." In France, between 1916 and 1918, "where almost seven times as many (Australians) died,... the guns showed cruelly, how little individuals mattered."

Inter-war years

1920s: men, money and markets

Other significant after-effects of the war included ongoing industrial unrest, which included the 1923 Victorian Police strike. Industrial disputes characterised the 1920s in Australia. Other major strikes occurred on the waterfront, in the coalmining and timber industries in the late 1920s. The union movement had established the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in 1927 in response to the Nationalist government's efforts to change working conditions and reduce the power of the unions.

The consumerism, entertainment culture, and new technologies that characterised the 1920s in the United States were also found in Australia. Prohibition was not implemented in Australia, though anti-alcohol forces were successful in having hotels closed after 6 pm, and closed altogether in a few city suburbs.

The fledgling film industry declined through the decade, over 2 million Australians attending cinemas weekly at 1250 venues. A Royal Commission in 1927 failed to assist and the industry that had begun so brightly with the release of the world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), atrophied until its revival in the 1970s.

Stanley Bruce became Prime Minister in 1923, when members of the Nationalist Party Government voted to remove W.M. Hughes. Speaking in early 1925, Bruce summed up the priorities and optimism of many Australians, saying that "men, money and markets accurately defined the essential requirements of Australia" and that he was seeking such from Britain. The migration campaign of the 1920s, operated by the Development and Migration Commission, brought almost 300,000 Britons to Australia, although schemes to settle migrants and returned soldiers "on the land" were generally not a success. "The new irrigation areas in Western Australia and the Dawson Valley of Queensland proved disastrous"

In Australia, the costs of major investment had traditionally been met by state and Federal governments and heavy borrowing from overseas was made by the governments in the 1920s. A Loan Council was set up in 1928 to co-ordinate loans, three-quarters of which came from overseas. Despite Imperial Preference, a balance of trade was not successfully achieved with Britain. "In the five years from 1924..to..1928, Australia bought 43.4% of its imports from Britain and sold 38.7% of its exports. Wheat and wool made up more than two-thirds of all Australian exports", a dangerous reliance on just two export commodities.

Australia embraced the new technologies of transport and communication. Coastal sailing ships were finally abandoned in favour of steam, and improvements in rail and motor transport heralded dramatic changes in work and leisure. In 1918 there were 50,000 cars and lorries in the whole of Australia. By 1929 there were 500,000. The stage coach company Cobb and Co, established in 1853, finally closed in 1924. In 1920, the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (to become the Australian airline Qantas) was established. The Reverend John Flynn, founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance in 1928. Daredevil pilot, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith pushed the new flying machines to the limit, completing a round Australia circuit in 1927 and in 1928 traversed the Pacific Ocean, via Hawaii and Fiji from the US to Australia in the aircraft Southern Cross. He went on to global fame and a series of aviation records before vanishing on a night flight to Singapore in 1935.

Dominion status

However, Australia did not ratify the Statute of Westminster until 1942. According to historian Frank Crowley, this was because Australians had little interest in redefining their relationship with Britain until the crisis of World War II.

The Australia Act 1986 removed any remaining links between the British Parliament and the Australian states.

Great Depression

Australia was deeply affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s, particularly due to its heavy dependence on exports, especially primary products such as wool and wheat, Exposed by continuous borrowing to fund capital works in the 1920s, the Australian and state governments were "already far from secure in 1927, when most economic indicators took a turn for the worse. Australia's dependence of exports left her extraordinarily vulnerable to world market fluctuations", according to economic historian Geoff Spenceley. Debt by the state of New South Wales accounted for almost half of Australia's accumulated debt by December 1927. The situation caused alarm amongst a few politicians and economists, notably Edward Shann of the University of Western Australia, but most political, union and business leaders were reluctant to admit to serious problems. In 1926, Australian Finance magazine described loans as occurring with a "disconcerting frequency" unrivalled in the British Empire: "It may be a loan to pay off maturing loans or a loan to pay the interest on existing loans, or a loan to repay temporary loans from the bankers..." Thus, well before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Australian economy was already facing significant difficulties. As the economy slowed in 1927, so did manufacturing and the country slipped into recession as profits slumped and unemployment rose.

Australia recovered relatively quickly from the financial downturn of 1929-1930, with recovery beginning around 1932. The Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, favoured the tough economic measures of the Premiers' Plan, pursued an orthodox fiscal policy and refused to accept the proposals of the Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, to default on overseas debt repayments. According to author Anne Henderson of the Sydney Institute, Lyons held a steadfast belief in "the need to balance budgets, lower costs to business and restore confidence" and the Lyons period gave Australia "stability and eventual growth" between the drama of the Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War. A lowering of wages was enforced and industry tariff protections maintained, which together with cheaper raw materials during the 1930s saw a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the chief employer of the Australian economy-a shift which was consolidated by increased investment by the commonwealth government into defence and armaments manufacture. Lyons saw restoration of Australia's exports as the key to economic recovery.

There is debate over the extent reached by unemployment in Australia, often cited as peaking at 29 per cent in 1932. "Trade Union figures are the most often quoted, but the people who were there...regard the figures as wildly understating the extent of unemployment" wrote historian Wendy Lowenstein in her collection of oral histories of the Depression. However, David Potts argues that "over the last thirty years ...historians of the period have either uncritically accepted that figure (29% in the peak year 1932) including rounding it up to 'a third,' or they have passionately argued that a third is far too low." Potts suggests a peak national figure of 25 per cent unemployed.

Second World War

Defence policy in the 1930s

By September 1939 the Australian Army numbered 3,000 regulars. A recruiting campaign in late 1938, led by Major-General Thomas Blamey increased the reserve militia to almost 80,000. The first division raised for war was designated the 6th Division, of the 2nd AIF, there being 5 Militia Divisions on paper and a 1st AIF in the First World War.

On 3 September 1939, the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, made a national radio broadcast: "My fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you, officially, that, in consequence of the persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war."

The war came closer to home when HMAS Sydney was lost with all hands in battle with the German raider Kormoran in November 1941.

With most of Australia's best forces committed to fight against Hitler in the Middle East, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii, on 8 December 1941 (eastern Australia time). The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse sent to defend Singapore were sunk soon afterwards. Australia was ill prepared for an attack, lacking armaments, modern fighter aircraft, heavy bombers, and aircraft carriers. While demanding reinforcements from Churchill, on 27 December 1941 Curtin published an historic announcement: "The Australian Government... regards the Pacific struggle as primarily one in which the United States and Australia must have the fullest say in the direction of the democracies' fighting plan. Without inhibitions of any kind, I make it clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom."

British Malaya quickly collapsed, shocking the Australian nation. British, Indian and Australian troops made a disorganised last stand at Singapore, before surrendering on 15 February 1942. Around 15,000 Australian soldiers became prisoners of war. Curtin predicted that the "battle for Australia" would now follow. On 19 February, Darwin suffered a devastating air raid, the first time the Australian mainland had ever been attacked by enemy forces. Over the following 19 months, Australia was attacked from the air almost 100 times.

Two battle-hardened Australian divisions were already steaming from the Middle East for Singapore. Churchill wanted them diverted to Burma, but Curtin refused, and anxiously awaited their return to Australia. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered his commander in the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur, to formulate a Pacific defence plan with Australia in March 1942. Curtin agreed to place Australian forces under the command of General MacArthur, who became "Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific". Curtin had thus presided over a fundamental shift in Australia's foreign policy. MacArthur moved his headquarters to Melbourne in March 1942 and American troops began massing in Australia. In late May 1942, Japanese midget submarines sank an accommodation vessel in a daring raid on Sydney Harbour. On 8 June 1942, two Japanese submarines briefly shelled Sydney's eastern suburbs and the city of Newcastle.

The Battle of Buna-Gona, between November 1942 and January 1943, set the tone for the bitter final stages of the New Guinea campaign, which persisted into 1945. The offensives in Papua and New Guinea of 1943-44 were the single largest series of connected operations ever mounted by the Australian armed forces. On 14 May 1943, the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, though clearly marked as a medical vessel, was sunk by Japanese raiders off the Queensland coast, killing 268, including all but one of the nursing staff, further enraging popular opinion against Japan.

Australian prisoners of war were at this time suffering severe ill-treatment in the Pacific Theatre. In 1943, 2,815 Australian Pows died constructing Japan's Burma-Thailand Railway In 1944, the Japanese inflicted the Sandakan Death March on 2,000 Australian and British prisoners of war-only 6 survived. This was the single worst war crime perpetrated against Australians in war.

MacArthur largely excluded Australian forces from the main push north into the Philippines and Japan. It was left to Australia to lead amphibious assaults against Japanese bases in Borneo. Curtin suffered from ill health from the strains of office and died weeks before the war ended, replaced by Ben Chifley.

Of Australia's wartime population of seven million, almost one million men and women served in a branch of the services during the six years of warfare. By war's end, gross enlistments totalled 727,200 men and women in the Australian Army (of whom 557,800 served overseas), 216,900 in the RAAF and 48,900 in the RAN. Over 39,700 were killed or died as prisoners-of-war, about 8,000 of whom died as prisoners of the Japanese.

Australian home front

While the Australian civilian population suffered less at the hands of the Axis powers than did other Allied nations in Asia and Europe, Australia nevertheless came under direct attack by Japanese naval forces and aerial bombardments, particularly through 1942 and 1943, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and fuelling fear of Japanese invasion. Axis naval activity in Australian waters also brought the war close to home for Australians. Austerity measures, rationing and labour controls measures were all implemented to assist the war effort.

The Australian economy was markedly affected by World War II. Expenditure on war reached 37 per cent of GDP by 1943-44, compared to 4 per cent expenditure in 1939-1940. Total war expenditure was £2,949 million between 1939 and 1945.

Although the peak of army enlistments occurred in June-July 1940, when over 70,000 enlisted, it was the Curtin Labor Government, formed in October 1941, that was largely responsible for "a complete revision of the whole Australian economic, domestic and industrial life." Rationing of fuel, clothing and some food was introduced, (although less severely than in Britain) Christmas holidays curtailed, "brown outs" introduced and some public transport reduced. From December 1941, the Government evacuated all women and children from Darwin and northern Australia, and over 10,000 refugees arrived from South East Asia as Japan advanced. In January 1942, the Manpower Directorate was set up "to ensure the organisation of Australians in the best possible way to meet all defence requirements." Minister for War Organisation of Industry, John Dedman introduced a degree of austerity and government control previously unknown, to such an extent that he was nicknamed "the man who killed Father Christmas."

In May 1942 uniform tax laws were introduced in Australia, as state governments relinquished their control over income taxation, "The significance of this decision was greater than any other... made throughout the war, as it added extensive powers to the Federal Government and greatly reduced the financial autonomy of the states."

Manufacturing grew significantly because of the war. "In 1939 there were only three Australian firms producing machine tools, but by 1943 there were more than one hundred doing so." From having few front line aircraft in 1939, the RAAF had become the fourth largest allied Air force by 1945. A number of aircraft were built under licence in Australia before the war's end, notably the Beaufort and Beaufighter, although the majority of aircraft were from Britain and later, the US. The Boomerang fighter, designed and built in four months of 1942, emphasised the desperate state Australia found itself in as the Japanese advanced.

Post-war boom

Menzies and Liberal dominance: 1949-72

Post-war immigration

Following World War II, the Chifley Labor government instigated a massive program of European immigration. In 1945, Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell wrote "If the experience of the Pacific War has taught us one thing, it surely is that seven million Australians cannot hold three million square miles of this earth's surface indefinitely." All political parties shared the view that the country must "populate or perish." Calwell stated a preference for ten British immigrants for each one from other countries; however, the numbers of British migrants fell short of what was expected, despite government assistance.

Some 4.2 million immigrants arrived between 1945 and 1985, about 40 per cent of whom came from Britain and Ireland. The 1957 novel They're a Weird Mob was a popular account of an Italian migrating to Australia, although written by Australian-born author John O'Grady. The Australian population reached 10 million in 1959.

In May 1958, the Menzies Government passed the Migration Act 1958 which replaced the Immigration Restriction Act's arbitrarily applied dictation test with an entry permit system, that reflected economic and skills criteria. Further changes in the 1960s effectively ended the White Australia Policy. It legally ended in 1973.

Economic growth and suburban living

Australia enjoyed significant growth in prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, with increases in both living standards and in leisure time. The manufacturing industry, previously playing a minor part in an economy dominated by primary production, greatly expanded. The first Holden motor car came out of General Motors-Holden's Fisherman's Bend factory in November 1948. Car ownership rapidly increased-from 130 owners in every 1,000 in 1949 to 271 owners in every 1,000 by 1961. By the early 1960s, four competitors to Holden had set up Australian factories, employing between 80,000 and 100,000 workers, "at least four-fifths of them migrants."

In the 1960s, about 60 per cent of Australian manufacturing was protected by tariffs. Pressure from business interests and the union movement ensured these remained high. Historian Geoffrey Bolton suggests that this high tariff protection of the 1960s caused some industries to "lapse into lethargy", neglecting research and development and the search for new markets. The CSIRO was expected to fulfil research and development.

Prices for wool and wheat remained high, with wool the mainstay of Australia's exports. Sheep numbers grew from 113 million in 1950 to 171 million in 1965. Wool production increased from 518,000 to 819,000 tonnes in the same period. Wheat, wool and minerals ensured a healthy balance of trade between 1950 and 1966.

The great housing boom of the post war period saw rapid growth in the suburbs of the major Australian cities. By the 1966 census, only 14 per cent lived in rural Australia, down from 31 per cent in 1933 and only 8 per cent lived on farms. Virtual full employment meant high standards of living and dramatic increases in home ownership, and by the Sixties, Australia had the most equitable spread of income in the world. By the beginning of the Sixties, an Australia-wide McNair survey estimated that 94% of homes had a fridge, 50% a telephone, 55% a television, 60% a washing machine, and 73% a vacuum cleaner. In addition, most households now acquired a car. According to one study, "In 1946, there was one car for every 14 Australians; by 1960, it was one to 3.5. The vast majority of families had access to a car."

Car ownership flourished during the postwar period, with 1970/1971 census data estimating that 96.4 per cent of Australian households in the early Seventies owned at least one car. However, not all felt the rapid suburban growth was desirable. Distinguished Architect and designer Robin Boyd, a critic of Australia's built surroundings, described Australia as "'the constant sponge lying in the Pacific', following the fashions of overseas and lacking confidence in home-produced, original ideas." In 1956, dadaist comedian Barry Humphries performed the character of Edna Everage as a parody of a house-proud housewife of staid 1950s Melbourne suburbia (the character only later morphed into a critique of self-obsessed celebrity culture). It was the first of many of his satirical stage and screen creations based around quirky Australian characters: Sandy Stone, a morose elderly suburbanite, Barry McKenzie a naive Australian expat in London and Sir Les Patterson, a vulgar parody of a Whitlam-era politician.

Some writers defended suburban life, however. Journalist Craig Macgregor saw suburban life as a "...solution to the needs of migrants..." Hugh Stretton argued that "plenty of dreary lives are indeed lived in the suburbs... but most of them might well be worse in other surroundings." Historian Peter Cuffley has recalled life for a child in a new outer suburb of Melbourne as having a kind of joyous excitement. "Our imaginations saved us from finding life too humdrum, as did the wild freedom of being able to roam far and wide in different kinds of (neighbouring) bushland...Children in the suburbs found space in backyards, streets and lanes, playgrounds and reserves..."

Alliances 1950-1972

In the early 1950s, the Menzies government saw Australia as part of a "triple alliance" in concert with both the US and traditional ally Britain. At first, "the Australian leadership opted for a consistently pro-British line in diplomacy", while at the same time looking for opportunities to involve the US in South East Asia. Thus, the government committed military forces to the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency and hosted British nuclear tests after 1952. Australia was also the only Commonwealth country to offer support to the British during the Suez Crisis.

Menzies oversaw an effusive welcome to Queen Elizabeth II on the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch, in 1954. He made the following remarks during a light-hearted speech to an American audience in New York, while on his way to attend her coronation in 1953: "We in Australia, of course, are British, if I may say so, to the boot heels...but we stand together-our people stand together -till the crack of doom."

However, as British influence declined in South East Asia, the US alliance came to have greater significance for Australian leaders and the Australian economy. British investment in Australia remained significant until the late 1970s, but trade with Britain declined through the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1950s the Australian Army began to re-equip using US military equipment. In 1962, the US established a naval communications station at North West Cape, the first of several built over the next decade. Most significantly, in 1962, Australian Army advisors were sent to help train South Vietnamese forces, in a developing conflict in which the British had no part.

According to diplomat Alan Renouf, the dominant theme in Australia's foreign policy under Australia's Liberal - Country Party governments of the 1950s and 1960s was anti-communism. Another former diplomat, Gregory Clark, suggested that it was specifically a fear of China that drove Australian foreign policy decisions for twenty years. The ANZUS security treaty, which had been signed in 1951, had its origins in Australia's and New Zealand's fears of a rearmed Japan. Its obligations on the US, Australia and New Zealand are vague, but its influence on Australian foreign policy thinking, at times significant. The SEATO treaty, signed only three years later, clearly demonstrated Australia's position as a US ally in the emerging Cold War.

Vietnam War

By 1965, Australia had increased the size of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), and in April the Government made a sudden announcement that "after close consultation with the United States", a battalion of troops was to be sent to South Vietnam. In parliament, Menzies emphasised the argument that "our alliances made demands on us." The alliance involved was presumably, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), and Australia was providing military assistance because South Vietnam, a signatory to SEATO, had apparently requested it. Documents released in 1971 indicated that the decision to commit troops was made by Australia and the US, not at the request of South Vietnam. By 1968, there were three Australian Army battalions at any one time at the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) base at Nui Dat in addition to the advisors of the AATTV placed throughout Vietnam, and personnel reached a peak total of almost 8,000, comprising about one third of the Army's combat capacity. Between 1962 and 1972 almost 60,000 personnel served in Vietnam, including ground troops, naval forces and air assets. The opposition Labor Party opposed military commitment to Vietnam and the national service required to support this level of commitment.

In July 1966, new Prime Minister Harold Holt expressed his government's support for the US and its role in Vietnam in particular. "I don't know where people would choose to look for the security of this country were it not for the friendship and strength of the United States." While on a visit in the same year to the US, Holt assured President Lyndon B. Johnson "...I hope there is corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch friend, [Australia] that will be all the way with LBJ."

The Liberal-CP Government was returned with a massive majority in elections held in December 1966, fought over national security issues including Vietnam. Arthur Calwell, who had been leader of the Labor Party since 1960, retired in favour of his deputy Gough Whitlam a few months later.

Despite Holt's sentiments and his government's electoral success in 1966, the war became unpopular in Australia, as it did in the United States. The movements to end Australia's involvement gathered strength after the Tet Offensive of early 1968 and compulsory national service (selected by ballot) became increasingly unpopular. In the 1969 elections, the government hung on despite a significant decline in popularity. Moratorium marches held across Australia in mid-1970 attracted large crowds- the Melbourne march of 100,000 being led by Labor MP Jim Cairns. As the Nixon administration proceeded with Vietnamization of the war and began the withdrawal of troops, so did the Australian Government. In November 1970 1st Australian Task Force was reduced to two battalions and in November 1971, 1ATF was withdrawn from Vietnam. The last military advisors of the AATTV were withdrawn by the Whitlam Labor Government in mid December 1972.

The Australian military presence in Vietnam had lasted 10 years, and in purely human cost, over 500 had been killed and more than 2,000 wounded. The war cost Australia $218 million between 1962 and 1972.

Modern Australia emerging 1960s

Arts and the "new nationalism"

By the mid-1960s, a new nationalism was emerging. The National Trust of Australia began to be active in preserving Australia's natural, cultural and historic heritage. Australian TV saw locally-made dramas and comedies appear, and programs such as Homicide developed strong local loyalty while Skippy the Bush Kangaroo became a global phenomenon. Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton, a battle scarred former fighter pilot who described himself as "Australian to the bootheels", established the Australian Council for the Arts, the Australian Film Development Corporation and the National Film and Television Training School.

Significant changes also occurred to Australia's censorship laws after the new Liberal Minister for Customs and Excise, Don Chipp, was appointed in 1969. In 1968, Barry Humphries and Nicholas Garland's cartoon book featuring the larrikin character Barry McKenzie was banned. Only a few years later, the book had been made as a film, partly with the support of government funding. Barry McKenzie both celebrated and parodied Australian nationalism. Historian Richard White also argues that "while many of the plays, novels and films produced in the 1970s were intensely critical of aspects of Australian life, they were absorbed by the 'new nationalism' and applauded for their Australianness."

In 1973, businessman Ken Myer commented; "we like to think we have a distinct style of our own. We have outgrown a lot of our inadequacies.... There was a time when an interest in the arts threw doubts on one's masculinity." In 1973, historian Geoffrey Serle, in his 1973 From Deserts the Prophets Come, argued that while Australia had finally arrived at "mature nationhood," until that time that the "most important study of Australia had been found in creative treatments", rather than academic study at universities and schools.

Civil rights developments

Indigenous people

The 1960s was a key decade for indigenous rights. In 1962, the Menzies Government's Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that all Indigenous people should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections (prior to this, indigenous people in Queensland, Western Australia and "wards of the state" in the Northern Territory had been excluded from voting unless they were ex-servicemen). In 1965, Queensland became the last state to confer state voting rights on Aboriginal people.

A 1967 Referendum called by the Holt Government saw Australians vote by a 90 per cent majority to change the Australian constitution to include all Aboriginal Australians in the national census and allow the Federal parliament to legislate on their behalf. A Council for Aboriginal Affairs was established.

One of the first acts of the Whitlam Government was to establish a Royal Commission into land rights in the Northern Territory under Justice Woodward. Legislation based on its findings was passed into law by the Fraser Government in 1976, as the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.

In 1992, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in the Mabo Case, holding that the legal doctrine of terra nullius did not apply when Australia was settled, and therefore Indigenous native title survived reception of English law. That same year, Prime Minister Paul Keating said in his Redfern Park Speech that European settlers were responsible for the difficulties Australian Aboriginal communities continued to face: 'We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice'. In 1999 Parliament passed a Motion of Reconciliation drafted by Prime Minister John Howard and Aboriginal Senator Aden Ridgeway naming mistreatment of Indigenous Australians as the most "blemished chapter in our national history". In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a public apology to members of the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian Government.

Australia administered Papua New Guinea and Nauru for much of the 20th century. Papua and New Guinea adopted self-government in 1972 and on 15 September 1975, the Territory became the independent nation of Papua New Guinea. Australia had captured the island of Nauru from the German Empire in 1914. After Japanese occupation during World War II, it became a UN Trust Territory under Australia and remained so until achieving independence in 1968.

In 1974, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration granted women the full adult wage. However, resistance to women being employed in certain industries remained until well into the 1970s. Because of obstruction from elements of the Unions movement, it would take until 1975 for women to be admitted as drivers on Melbourne's trams, and Sir Reginald Ansett refused to allow women to train as pilots as late as 1979.

Australia had led the world in bringing women's suffrage rights during the late 19th century, and Edith Cowan was elected to the West Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. Dame Enid Lyons, was the first woman to hold a Cabinet post in the 1949 ministry of Robert Menzies and finally, Rosemary Follett was elected Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory in 1989, becoming the first woman elected to lead a state or territory. By 2010, the people of Australia's oldest city, Sydney had female leaders occupying every major political office above them, with Clover Moore as Lord Mayor, Kristina Keneally as Premier of New South Wales, Marie Bashir as Governor of New South Wales, Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, Quentin Bryce as Governor-General of Australia and Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia.

Whitlam and Fraser

The Whitlam government's agenda endeared it to some Australians, but not all. Some of the state governments were openly hostile to it, and as it did not control the senate, much of its legislation was rejected or amended. The Queensland Country Party government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen had particularly bad relations with the Federal government. Even after it was re-elected at elections in May 1974, the Senate remained an obstacle to its political agenda. At the only joint sitting of parliament, in August 1974, six key pieces of legislation were passed.

At elections held in late 1975, Malcolm Fraser and the Coalition were elected in a landslide victory.

Hawke and Keating: 1983-1996

The Australian Bicentenary was celebrated in 1988 along with the opening of a new Parliament House in Canberra.

The Monarchy in Australia survived the republic debate which was brought to a head at the close of the 20th century, with the successor Howard Government holding a 1998 Constitutional Convention to discuss the change. A subsequent referendum to establish a republic failed to achieve the required dual majorities, with the No case triumphant winning with 54.87 per cent of the popular vote and 6-0 in the state count.

Hawke and Keating abandoned traditional Labor support for tariffs to protect industry and jobs. They moved to deregulate Australia's financial system and 'floated' the Australian dollar. After the initial failure of the Whitlam model and partial dismantling under Fraser, Hawke re-established a new, universal system of health insurance called Medicare.

Unemployment reached 11.4 per cent in 1992-the highest since the Great Depression. The Liberal-National Opposition had proposed an ambitious plan of economic reform to take to the 1993 Election, including the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax. Keating shuffled treasurers, campaigned strongly against the tax, and won the 1993 Election.

With foreign debt, interest rates and unemployment still high, and after a series of ministerial resignations, Keating lost the 1996 Election to the Liberals' John Howard.

Howard government: 1996-2007

John Howard with a Liberal-National Party coalition served as Prime Minister from 1996 until 2007, the second-longest prime ministerial term after Menzies. One of the first programs instigated by the Howard government was a nationwide gun control scheme following a mass shooting at Port Arthur. The government also introduced industrial relations reforms in 1996, and later in 2006 controversially introduced the WorkChoices legislation, which made it easier for small businesses to terminate employment. After the 1996 election, Howard and treasurer Peter Costello proposed a Goods and Services Tax (GST) which they successfully took to the electorate in 1998. In response to the High Court's decision in Wik Peoples v Queensland, the Howard Government introduced legislation which, among other things, introduced a registration test for claimants, gave the government management rights over recognised native title, and imposed stricter time limits on claims.

In 1999, Australia led a United Nations force into East Timor to help establish democracy and independence for that nation, following political violence. During this period Australia committed to a number of other peacekeeping and stabilisation operations: notably in Bougainville, including Operation Bel Isi (1998-2003); as well as Operation Helpem Fren and the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) in the early 2000s; and the 2006 East Timorese crisis.

In 2004, Howard led the response to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, with Australia raising the most money in the least amount of time to help Australia's neighbour, Indonesia, and other countries in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

The Howard Government expanded immigration overall, but instituted often controversial tough immigration policies and laws to discourage people arriving by boat without authorisation. These policies included the Pacific Solution, which involved detaining asylum seekers in detention centres in Naru and Papua New Guinea while their refugee status was determined, as well as a policy of turning back vessels intercepted at sea. Two significant controversies involving asylum seekers were the Children Overboard affair and the Tampa Affair.

While Australia maintained traditional links to the Commonwealth and strong support for the United States alliance, trade with Asia during this period continued to increase dramatically, particularly with China. Australia enjoyed an extended period of economic growth and prosperity.

The Howard Government passed several tax cuts and embarked on a program of privatisation.

21st century

Labor Government: 2007-2013

However, Howard was defeated in 2007 and the Labor Party's Kevin Rudd defeated him and Rudd held the office until June 2010, when he was replaced as the leader of the party. Rudd used his term in office to symbolically ratify the Kyoto Protocol and led an historic parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generation (those Indigenous Australians who had been removed from their parents by the state during the early 20th century to the 1960s). The mandarin Chinese speaking former diplomat also pursued energetic foreign policy and initially sought to instigate a price on carbon, in the Australian economy to combat global warming but which he later reneged on. His prime ministership coincided with the initial phases of the Financial crisis of 2007-2010, to which his government responded quickly through a large package of economic stimulus-the management of which later proved to be controversial but effective in somewhat shielding Australia from the Great Recession but this was owed to a number of factors including the Mining Boom and Asia. The Rudd Government also finalised withdrawing troops from Iraq and focused much more on its relationship with Asia, the Government also tried to formalise an agreement to be made at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, but failed. The Government also embarked on a huge infrastructure project, which was to be fraught with trouble, the National Broadband Network (NBN), this project aims to lift average Australian internet speeds to be on par with the rest of the world, however the most major policy decision was the cancellation of the Howard Government's Pacific Solution, but as Kevin Rudd cancelled the arrangement, the number of boat arrivals swelled and the death toll rose, so in response to this, the Gillard Government created multiple different solutions, including proposing Malaysian resettlement, but eventually settling on Nauru, Manus Island and East Timor as refugee resettlement options.

Liberal-National Coalition Government: 2013-present

The Abbott Government came to office on a platform of "stopping the boats" via Operation Sovereign Borders, increasing army presence in the Indian Ocean and resettling refugees in Cambodia or turning them back to Indonesia or even to their home countries. The government also concluded the Australia Korea Free Trade Agreement and the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement. Abbott responded to multiple foreign policy issues, like the Downing of MH-17, the hosting of the G20 in Brisbane, the trial of an Australian journalist in Egypt and fighting the execution of Australian nationals convicted of drug smuggling, however leadership tensions emerged again and he was ousted by Malcolm Turnbull, who formed the Turnbull Government.

In August 2018, Peter Dutton challenged Malcolm Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party, due to dissatisfaction from the party's conservative wing.

Turnbull defeated Dutton in a leadership ballot, but tensions continued to mount and the party voted in favour of holding a second ballot; Turnbull chose not to be a candidate.

In the second vote, Scott Morrison emerged as a compromise candidate, defeating Dutton and Julie Bishop to become leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Australia.

Images for kids

View of Sydney Cove (Aboriginal: Warrane) by Thomas Watling, 1794-1796

Flinders prepares to circumnavigate Terra Australis - July 1802

Alexander Schramm's A Scene in South Australia (1850) depicts German settlers with Aborigines

The origins of a distinctly Australian style of painting are often associated with the Heidelberg School movement, Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams (1890) being an iconic example.

After World War II and by the 1950s, Australia had a population of 10 million, and the most populous urban centre was its oldest city, Sydney. It has retained its status as Australia's largest city ever since.

A barricade in Coolangatta enforcing the border closure between Queensland and New South Wales in April 2020 that was implemented by the Queensland Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

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The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia. The first Torres Strait Islanders - ethnically and culturally distinct from the Aboriginal people - arrived from what is now Papua New Guinea around 2,500 years ago, and settled in the islands of the Torres Strait and the Cape York Peninsula forming the northern tip of the Australian landmass.

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Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care

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COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Australia was announced on 25 January 2020. COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease.

COVID-19 spreads from person to person by respiratory droplets or small airborne particles when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, and is in close contact with others.

The symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild to severe. Some people recover easily while others get very sick. If you have COVID-19 you can experience:

Some people do not experience any symptoms (are asymptomatic) but can still pass on the virus.

COVID-19 can affect anyone, but is especially serious for:

older people

people with underlying medical conditions

pregnant people.

For more information see Groups at higher risk from COVID-19.

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and a worldwide pandemic on 11 March 2020. On 5 May 2023, the WHO Director-General announced that WHO no longer considered COVID-19 to be a PHEIC. However, the COVID-19 pandemic declaration is still active.

On 20 October 2023, Australia's chief medical officer declared that COVID-19 is no longer a Communicable Disease Incident of National Significance (CDINS). Australia has shifted to managing COVID-19 like other common communicable diseases, focusing on:

prevention

reducing transmission

management of serious illness, hospitalisations and death.

Learn more about the pandemic and how it was managed in Australia.

Case definitions

The COVID-19 national surveillance case definition for laboratory-confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases is embedded in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) - CDNA National Guidelines for Public Health Units.

National guidelines

Prevention

There are steps you can take to make sure you and the people around you stay safe. Wearing a face mask can help protect you and those around you. By keeping good hygiene and practising physical distancing, you can protect yourself and others around you from the virus that causes COVID-19.

For more information, see our Protecting yourself and others from COVID-19 page.

The COVID-19 vaccines will provide you with increased protection against severe illness from COVID-19. Staying up to date with your vaccinations gives you the best protection.

Vaccination

Find out more about getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment

For information about COVID-19 diagnosis, see our Testing for COVID-19 page.

For information about oral COVID-19 treatments, see our Oral treatments for COVID-19 page.

For more information about symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, see healthdirect's COVID-19 page.

Long term effects

Most people who test positive for COVID-19 recover completely, but some people may develop Long COVID.

The symptoms of Long COVID differ from that of COVID-19. You can experience:

extreme fatigue (tiredness)

shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pain or tightness

problems with memory and concentration

changes to taste and smell

joint and muscle pain.

Sometimes these symptoms can last weeks or months.

Learn more about Long COVID.

Surveillance and reporting

COVID-19 is a nationally notifiable disease.

We monitor cases through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) and report through:

For historical information on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surveillance in Australia, see the COVID-19 Australia: Epidemiology Reports.

For more on COVID-19 in Australia, you can:

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About coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

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Find out how we define and monitor cases of COVID-19, how you can get vaccinated, and where you can learn more about this disease.

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How COVID took over the world and (eventually) Australia

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It’s been three years since an unknown virus was detected in China and went on to change the world as we know it. Here’s a timeline of what happened and two animated maps showing how cases spread.

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On January 20, 2020, the smoke was still clearing from the intense bushfires that had ravaged the country. The east coast had been battered by intense hailstorms and flash flooding. And an obscure and as-yet unnamed disease came to Australia.

That date feels like yesterday and a million years ago at once, but today marks 1000 days since authorities confirmed Australia's first COVID-19 case.

On that day, the 2019 novel coronavirus, as it was then called, was listed as a human disease under the Biosecurity Act of 2015.

Discussion was underway as to whether the government would take the drastic step of stopping the three direct flights coming in from Wuhan to Sydney every week.

And five days later four men tested positive to the virus in Sydney, the first cases in Australia.

With so little known of the virus, the initial advice to Australians was to avoid contact with people with flu-like symptoms, cook meat and eggs thoroughly, avoid contact with live wild or farm animals and not travel to Wuhan.

At that point, the idea of a national lockdown was unthinkable. But 100 days later, things had changed dramatically.

On day 100 of Australia's pandemic, the nation had been in lockdown for more than a month.

That day only 19 new cases were diagnosed in the entire country. In Western Australia, there was only one case. In South Australia, there was none at all.

But on that day, more Americans had died of COVID-19 than had died in the Vietnam War.

At the time, a shortfall of testing capacity was a serious concern worldwide.

August 7, 2020 was one of the most dramatic days of the pandemic in Australia.

All non-essential businesses in Melbourne were closed as full lockdown kicked in in the city.

Meanwhile, thousands of people streamed across the border from NSW to Queensland after a border closure was announced.

The closure was announced following the diagnosis of 12 COVID-19 cases in NSW.

People returning to the ACT from Victoria were told they could not drive through NSW to get home.

And Australia's chief medical officer warned there was no guarantee a COVID-19 vaccine would ever be developed.

NSW and Queensland also recorded no new COVID-19 cases.

But in the following days, a cluster in South Australia would snap borders shut again.

As Australia was exiting coronavirus conditions, the virus was spreading rampantly in the United States.

But change was in the air. Donald Trump had lost the election two weeks earlier, partly on the back of America's botched handling of the pandemic.

And days earlier, Pfizer had announced its COVID-19 vaccine was 90 per cent effective.

"It is the beginning of the end of this pandemic," Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese rolled up his sleeve the day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison did so.

"They're safe. They're effective. Do it for Australia," Albanese said.

In pictures: Opposition Leader Albanese has vaccine as rollout continues

With limited stocks, the vaccine was only available to the elderly and vulnerable and those in high-risk jobs.

That day, the COVID-19 death toll hit 500,000 in the United States. New president Joe Biden marked the milestone with a moment of silence.

A hundred days later, the optimism from months earlier had been replaced with dread.

In South Australia, Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier was widely mocked for saying spectators at AFL games should not touch the ball if it was kicked into the crowd.

"This is an object touched by I don't know how many sweaty men on a football field - if you do catch the ball, just sanitise your hands immediately after," she said.

Australians had gone from obsessing over new case numbers to a new figure - the vaccination rate.

Earlier that week, the NSW government had announced the hard lockdown would end when 70 per cent of the population was double vaccinated.

Day 600 marked regional Victorians' first days out of lockdown.

Meanwhile, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced she would no longer be holding daily press conferences on the pandemic.

On Day 700 of the pandemic, most Australians had been vaccinated, but a new variant had taken hold.

On December 20, 2021, Omicron was beginning to spread rapidly around the country.

The Omicron surge overwhelmed PCR testing capacity around the country.

In the following week, the massive backlog of testing samples meant most people who had caught COVID-19 had recovered by the time they got their result back.

Health authorities were considering whether to allow the diagnosis of COVID-19 through rapid antigen tests.

But a rush on pharmacies meant rapid antigen tests were not on shelves.

By March 30, 2022, tens of thousands of Australians were catching COVID-19 every day.

But by then, the public mood had shifted away from concern over the disease.

Instead, the eyes of the nation were on northern NSW, which was being overwhelmed with flooding.

In South Australia, the government announced that unvaccinated teachers would be allowed to return to classrooms.

On July 8, 2022, a surge in COVID-19 cases combined with a winter flu put hospitals under incredible strain.

In Victoria, a one-year-old suspected to have COVID-19 died in an emergency department during the ramping crisis.

"COVID is not over," NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said that day.

But the crisis of COVID-19 was not keeping people indoors. Airports around the country were overwhelmed by a surge of travellers and a shortage of staff.

Health authorities ask people who are symptomatic to stay at home, but they are no longer legally required to.

Nearly all pandemic-related restrictions have ended.

And states are no longer releasing their COVID-19 numbers on a daily basis.

"At the moment, we have very low rates of both cases, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions, aged-care outbreaks and various other measures," Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said last month.

In the past 1000 days, 15,487 Australians have died from the disease, and more than 10 million cases have been reported.

The most triple vaccinated countries on Earth

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A thousand days of COVID-19: How the pandemic unfolded in Australia

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On January 20, 2020, the smoke was still clearing from the intense bushfires that had ravaged the country. ...

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If you've been watching the news lately, chances are you'll have heard lots about an illness that's affecting people around the world, called coronavirus.
It's natural to feel worried about stuff you read in the news. If you're feeling anxious about coronavirus, talk to a trusted grown-up, like a parent, guardian or teacher about how you're feeling. You can also find online support on the Open Minds website.

What is coronavirus?

How did the coronavirus outbreak start?

It's not completely clear how the outbreak started, but it's thought it's likely to have begun in Wuhan, China at a local meat market known to sell wild animal meat.

We still don't know for sure which animal sparked the outbreak, but it's thought that the new virus could have originated in bats. Bats weren't sold at the market, but they may have come into contact with the animals that were.

How is coronavirus spread?

Because we haven't encountered this virus before, scientists have had to work hard to discover exactly how it spreads. Similar viruses, like colds and flu, spread through water droplets in coughs and sneezes. These droplets can live on surfaces and spread when someone touches them with their hands. People become infected when they then touch their hands to their mouth, nose or eyes.

Coronavirus is mostly spread through the air, when people are in close contact with each other. This is why it's very important that we socially distance from other people, and wear a mask. Wearing a mask over your mouth and nose helps to stop your water droplets from reaching other people. If we all wear masks, we all keep our droplets to ourselves!

Being in places with lots of fresh air also helps stop these droplets from reaching other people, which is why we don't have to wear our masks outside. Some places you go to, like your school, might open windows and doors to help with this, too.

What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

For the most people, including kids, this coronavirus isn't dangerous. It will make them feel poorly for a short time, before they make a full recovery. For a few people, like the elderly and people who have long-term health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or asthma, the risk of becoming very ill is more serious. That's why these people are making extra efforts to have less face-to-face contact with others at the moment.

That means you might have to change the way you keep in touch with grandparents, friends or family who are vulnerable, for the time-being. For example, how about video calling your grandparents, or sending them a letter? It's good to keep in touch, but in a way that keeps you and others safe.

Coronavirus symptoms include:

- a high temperature

- a new, continuous cough

- a loss or change to your sense of smell and taste

If you feel poorly, tell a trusted adult like a parent, guardian or teacher.

What can I do?

There are plenty of small, easy things you can do. You probably do some of them already, but at this time, we all just need to be extra sensible and cautious as we go about our daily lives and activities:

- Wash your hands more regularly, for at least 20 seconds - that's about as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice! Dry them with a paper towel and then chuck it in the bin!

- If you can't wash your hands with soap and water, then use hand-sanitiser.

- Avoid touching your face, especially your eyes, nose and mouth.

- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Bin the tissue and wash your hands afterwards.

- Avoid contact with people who feel unwell, or if you feel poorly, let a trusted adult know.

What are people doing about coronavirus?

Scientists have created a vaccine for COVID-19, in record time! Vaccines give people protection from the virus. In the UK, they're being given to the most vulnerable people, like grandparents and hospital staff, first, because they are at the highest risk of catching coronavirus. Some people have already received the vaccine, which is brilliant news!

In the meantime, there are lots of changes being made to help slow the spread of coronavirus. Some of them might feel a bit scary or unusual, but rest assured, they're being made to keep you and others safe:

- Everyone is now ' social distancing' from most other people. This basically means keeping your distance from others, avoiding social gatherings like meeting with friends, going to sporting events or gigs. This is to help prevent the virus from passing from person to person.

- Your parents may be asked to work from home. This might mean your family routine changes while they spend more time than usual at home.

- Cafés, restaurants, events and other public places may be closed.

These changes won't be around forever, but they are important steps towards slowing the spread of coronavirus.

Should I be worried?

You might feel worried about coronavirus, about how it might affect you, your family and friends, and the changes that we are making to our daily lives at this time. The important thing to remember is that we are all in this together. Talk to your friends and family about your worries and work out how you will support each other during the coming weeks, ensuring you all stay happy and healthy.

Things you can do:

- Have a break from talking or thinking about coronavirus. Keep yourself busy and don't overcheck the news.

- Don't believe everything that your friends tell you about coronavirus. Check the facts with a parent or trusted adult.

You can access free online school resources in our Primary Resources section! We cover all of your favourite subjects like Ancient Egypt, rainforests, dinosaurs and space!

Images ⓒ Getty Images: coronavirus structure (1209871896), sneezing boy (1127920667), children handwashing (700709633), girl reading (909239264).

Did you find our coronavirus article helpful? Let us know by leaving a comment below...

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If you've been watching the news lately, chances are you'll have heard lots about an illness that's affecting people around the world, called coronavirus. It's natural to feel worried about stuff you read in the news. If you're feeling anxious about coronavirus, talk to a trusted grown-up, like a parent, guardian or teacher about how you're feeling.

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34,613 Coronavirus Cases in Australia - COVID LIVE

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Live tracking of Coronavirus Cases, Active Cases, Tests, Recoveries, Deaths, ICU and Hospitalisations in Australia

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Australian athletes delivered a stellar performance, the best in Australia's Olympic history to date. They won 13 gold, 8 silver and 13 bronze medals, and came third on the medal table. Many of the medal winners, such as Betty Cuthbert, Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose, went on to become household names.

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The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were held at Melbourne in Victoria, Australia.

Melbourne was chosen as the host city over instead of Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Montreal and six American cities on 28 April 1949 at the 43rd IOC session.

The equestrian events were not held in Australia because of regulations. These events were held five months earlier in Stockholm, Sweden, making it the second time that events of the same Olympics were held in different countries.

Participating nations

A total of 67 nations sent athletes to compete at the Melbourne games.

Five nations competed in the horse riding events in Stockholm; however, athletes from these nations did not take part in the Games in Melbourne. The five were Cambodia, Egypt, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

Related pages

Olympic Games

Summer Games: 1896, 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1912, (1916), 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028

Winter Games: 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022

Athens 2004 - Turin 2006 - Beijing 2008 - Vancouver 2010 - London 2012 - Sochi 2014 - Rio 2016 - Pyeongchang 2018 - Tokyo 2020

Images for kids

Countries that boycotted the 1956 Games are shaded blue

Torch relay monument, Cairns

In Spanish: Juegos Olímpicos de Melbourne 1956 para niños

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Learn 1956 Summer Olympics facts for kids

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Australia has been lucky enough to host the Summer Olympic Games not once, but twice - first in Melbourne (in 1956) and later in Sydney (in 2000).

Both Games were considered a big success.

Many Australians still have happy memories of the Sydney Olympics.

A highlight was undoubtedly Indigenous sprinter Cathy Freeman, dressed in a futuristic hooded body suit, winning gold in the women's 400m sprint while the nation held its breath - and then exploded with joy!
1956 MELBOURNE OLYMPICS
When Melbourne won the bid to host the modern Summer Olympics, it was a massive coup* for Australia.

It was the first time the Games had been held outside of Europe or the US and the first time they had been held in the Southern Hemisphere.

These were the Olympics at which some of Australia's athletes became legends, including swimmers Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose and sprinters Shirley Strickland and "Golden Girl" Betty Cuthbert (who won an outstanding three gold medals).

The record breaking Australian team won so many medals (35, including 13 gold) that Australia ended up coming third on the overall medal table, behind the Soviet Union and the US - still the highest on the table we have ever been!

In total, the Melbourne Olympics saw 3314 athletes from 72 nations taking part in

151 events in 17 sports.

There were fewer participants than other Games. This was because Australia was remote and because some countries boycotted* the Games to protest against invasions in other parts of the world.

Australia, however, had its biggest team up to that point: 325 athletes.

Interestingly, the equestrian events were not held in Melbourne or even Australia. They took place in Stockholm, Sweden, because Australia had strict rules about quarantine* for horses.

It was at the closing ceremony of the Melbourne Games that a new tradition was created. All the athletes walked together for the first time (rather than in their country teams) after an Australian schoolboy suggested the idea to the organisers. This is still a much loved Games tradition, symbolising friendship and connection.

In 1956, television was introduced to Australia - just in time for the Olympics - but not everyone had a TV set. Many people watched the Games on TV in places like shopwindow displays or neighbours' homes.
2000 SYDNEY OLYMPICS
The Sydney Olympics was one of the happiest events in Australian history.

The stunning city of Sydney was showcased* to the world and Australia won more medals than ever before (or since).

We collected 58 medals, including 16 gold, which took us to fourth on the overall medal table, behind the US, Russia and China.

The two most celebrated Australian champions were Cathy Freeman and swimmer Ian "Thorpedo" Thorpe.

Freeman's heart-stopping win in the 400m women's sprint was the pride of the nation, while Thorpe's size-17 feet propelled him to five medal wins (three gold and two silver) and superstar status.

The Sydney Olympics saw 10,651 athletes taking part in 300 events in 28 sports.

More nations than ever took part: 199. And the most tickets ever were sold: 6.7 million.

In an entry for the local record books, the Australian team had 632 athletes - still the largest team we've had.

While not many people around the world had a television during the Melbourne Olympics, by the 2000 Sydney Games things were very different. About 3.7 billion people from 220 countries tuned in to watch the Games on TV.
COMPARING THE TWO
In the 44 years between the Sydney and Melbourne Games, the number of participants and competitions exploded.

Compared to Melbourne, Sydney featured a massive 7337 more athletes, 127 more nations, 149 more events and 11 more sports!

Over the decades, athletes have become faster, higher and stronger, and this can be seen in the event results.

For example, in 1956, the men's 100m sprint was won in 10.62 seconds, while in 2000 it was won in just 9.87 seconds.

In 1956, the winner of the women's long jump had a jump distance of 6.35m, while in 2000, the winning distance was 6.99m.
MUSIC LESSON
It's an image from the Sydney Olympics that many Australians will never forget.

The Australian men's swimming team had just come first in the 4x100m freestyle relay, defeating the Americans.

To mark their victory, the four Australian swimmers played air guitars, which is when you pretend to play a guitar.

The cheeky moment was a response to one of the American swimmers, who had earlier said the Americans wanted to smash the Aussies "like guitars".

Well, the Americans didn't win and the Aussies had the last laugh!
THIRD TIME LUCKY
Australia will hold the Olympics for the third time when Brisbane hosts the Games in 2032.

Other countries, including Qatar, Hungary and China, were interested in hosting the 2032 Games. But, after proceeding through various bidding stages, Brisbane was the only city being considered by the International Olympic Committee, which chooses the host.

A vote by IOC members in Tokyo on July 21 confirmed Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 Olympic Games.

The Queensland capital's good masterplan, public support, great weather and high number of existing venues all helped win over the IOC members.
GLOSSARY

coup: successfully achieve something difficult

boycotted: withdrew, decided not to attend as a protest

showcased: displayed

EXTRA READING How modern Games became biggest show on earth Friendship, respect and excellence drive the Games Olympic medals go green in Tokyo Celebrating Australia's Olympic heroes QUICK QUIZ

1. Which two Australian cities have hosted the Olympic Games?

2. Which years were the Games hosted in Australia?

3. Name one of the Australian stars from each of the Games we have hosted.

4. Which other Australian city is being considered to host the 2032 Games?

5. Why did the men's 4x100m swimming team play air guitars?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Refer to the accompanying Olympics Education Kit classroom workbook with 25 activities. It's free when teachers subscribe to the Kids News newsletter.

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Australia's Olympic Games leave their mark

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Australia has been lucky enough to host the Summer Olympic Games not once, but twice - first in Melbourne (in 1956) and later in Sydney (in 2000).

Both Games were considered a big success.

Many Australians still have happy memories of the Sydney Olympics.

A highlight was undoubtedly Indigenous sprinter Cathy Freeman, dressed in a futuristic hooded body suit, winning gold in the women's 400m sprint while the nation held its breath - and then exploded with joy!
1956 MELBOURNE OLYMPICS
When Melbourne won the bid to host the modern Summer Olympics, it was a massive coup* for Australia.

It was the first time the Games had been held outside of Europe or the US and the first time they had been held in the Southern Hemisphere.

These were the Olympics at which some of Australia's athletes became legends, including swimmers Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose and sprinters Shirley Strickland and "Golden Girl" Betty Cuthbert (who won an outstanding three gold medals).

The record breaking Australian team won so many medals (35, including 13 gold) that Australia ended up coming third on the overall medal table, behind the Soviet Union and the US - still the highest on the table we have ever been!

In total, the Melbourne Olympics saw 3314 athletes from 72 nations taking part in

151 events in 17 sports.

There were fewer participants than other Games. This was because Australia was remote and because some countries boycotted* the Games to protest against invasions in other parts of the world.

Australia, however, had its biggest team up to that point: 325 athletes.

Interestingly, the equestrian events were not held in Melbourne or even Australia. They took place in Stockholm, Sweden, because Australia had strict rules about quarantine* for horses.

It was at the closing ceremony of the Melbourne Games that a new tradition was created. All the athletes walked together for the first time (rather than in their country teams) after an Australian schoolboy suggested the idea to the organisers. This is still a much loved Games tradition, symbolising friendship and connection.

In 1956, television was introduced to Australia - just in time for the Olympics - but not everyone had a TV set. Many people watched the Games on TV in places like shopwindow displays or neighbours' homes.
2000 SYDNEY OLYMPICS
The Sydney Olympics was one of the happiest events in Australian history.

The stunning city of Sydney was showcased* to the world and Australia won more medals than ever before (or since).

We collected 58 medals, including 16 gold, which took us to fourth on the overall medal table, behind the US, Russia and China.

The two most celebrated Australian champions were Cathy Freeman and swimmer Ian "Thorpedo" Thorpe.

Freeman's heart-stopping win in the 400m women's sprint was the pride of the nation, while Thorpe's size-17 feet propelled him to five medal wins (three gold and two silver) and superstar status.

The Sydney Olympics saw 10,651 athletes taking part in 300 events in 28 sports.

More nations than ever took part: 199. And the most tickets ever were sold: 6.7 million.

In an entry for the local record books, the Australian team had 632 athletes - still the largest team we've had.

While not many people around the world had a television during the Melbourne Olympics, by the 2000 Sydney Games things were very different. About 3.7 billion people from 220 countries tuned in to watch the Games on TV.
COMPARING THE TWO
In the 44 years between the Sydney and Melbourne Games, the number of participants and competitions exploded.

Compared to Melbourne, Sydney featured a massive 7337 more athletes, 127 more nations, 149 more events and 11 more sports!

Over the decades, athletes have become faster, higher and stronger, and this can be seen in the event results.

For example, in 1956, the men's 100m sprint was won in 10.62 seconds, while in 2000 it was won in just 9.87 seconds.

In 1956, the winner of the women's long jump had a jump distance of 6.35m, while in 2000, the winning distance was 6.99m.
MUSIC LESSON
It's an image from the Sydney Olympics that many Australians will never forget.

The Australian men's swimming team had just come first in the 4x100m freestyle relay, defeating the Americans.

To mark their victory, the four Australian swimmers played air guitars, which is when you pretend to play a guitar.

The cheeky moment was a response to one of the American swimmers, who had earlier said the Americans wanted to smash the Aussies "like guitars".

Well, the Americans didn't win and the Aussies had the last laugh!
THIRD TIME LUCKY
Australia will hold the Olympics for the third time when Brisbane hosts the Games in 2032.

Other countries, including Qatar, Hungary and China, were interested in hosting the 2032 Games. But, after proceeding through various bidding stages, Brisbane was the only city being considered by the International Olympic Committee, which chooses the host.

A vote by IOC members in Tokyo on July 21 confirmed Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 Olympic Games.

The Queensland capital's good masterplan, public support, great weather and high number of existing venues all helped win over the IOC members.
GLOSSARY

coup: successfully achieve something difficult

boycotted: withdrew, decided not to attend as a protest

showcased: displayed

EXTRA READING How modern Games became biggest show on earth Friendship, respect and excellence drive the Games Olympic medals go green in Tokyo Celebrating Australia's Olympic heroes QUICK QUIZ

1. Which two Australian cities have hosted the Olympic Games?

2. Which years were the Games hosted in Australia?

3. Name one of the Australian stars from each of the Games we have hosted.

4. Which other Australian city is being considered to host the 2032 Games?

5. Why did the men's 4x100m swimming team play air guitars?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Refer to the accompanying Olympics Education Kit classroom workbook with 25 activities. It's free when teachers subscribe to the Kids News newsletter.

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Australia's Olympic Games leave their mark

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The Olympic Games are the world's leading sports event. Athletes from more than 200 countries compete in them. The Olympics include the Summer Games and the Winter Games....

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The Olympic Games are the world's leading sports event. Athletes from more than 200 countries compete in them. The Olympics include the Summer Games and the Winter Games....

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The Melbourne 1956 Games was the first time Australia hosted the Olympics. In many ways, it was the Games that took the Olympics to the world. It was the first Games held outside of Europe or the United States, the first Games held in the southern hemisphere, the first Games where live television broadcasts captured the public's imagination, and the first Games in which all the athletes walked together as one in the Closing Ceremony. This change to procedure had been suggested to organisers by an Australian schoolboy, John Ian Wing, and remains a much-loved tradition of togetherness and friendship.

The Melbourne Olympics also heralded the arrival of Australia as a real sporting force at the Olympics, with stars such as swimmers Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose and sprinters Betty Cuthbert and Shirley Strickland helping Australia rise to third on the medal table .

Australia at these Games

Australia 's team at the 1956 Olympics was a record-breaking crew that remains one of the greatest collections of athletic talent ever to compete under the Australian flag. With 325 athletes participating, including 46 women, the team was almost equal to the combined total of athletes Australia had sent to the previous 12 Olympics. Hence, it was remarkable for both quality and quantity, and its third place on the overall medal table with 35 medals (13 gold, 8 silver, 14 bronze), remains the highest place ever achieved by an Australian team.

Rower Merv Wood, competing at his fourth Olympics, was again chosen to carry the Australian flag in the Opening Ceremony. He remains the only person ever to twice receive this honour. Wood added a bronze medal to his Olympic collection in the double sculls with Murray Riley.

Australia 's Games got off to a flying start on the track thanks to the brilliant performances by our female sprinters (unlike in recent Olympics, athletics was held before swimming in 1956). 'Golden Girl' Betty Cuthbert emerged as the star of Melbourne, winning the 100m and 200m sprint double, and anchoring the 4x100m relay team as it won the gold medal. Cuthbert was the only Australian woman to win three gold medals at a Games until swimmer Shane Gould in 1972. Shirley Strickland won two gold medals at her final Games in the 80m hurdles and the 4x100m relay, ending her career as one of Australia 's greatest Olympic medallists with three gold, one silver and three bronze medals. Among other track medallists were John Landy in the men's 1500m (bronze) and Hec Hogan in the men's 100m (bronze). For Landy, one of the most storied names in Australian athletics, it would be his only Olympic medal.

But it was in the pool that Australia really excelled. Melbourne saw the Olympic debut of two of the Games' true legends, Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose. Fraser won gold medals in the 100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle and a silver in the 400m freestyle, while Rose achieved a golden treble with victories in the 400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle. Adding to the Aussie aura of excellence was dual gold medallist Lorraine Crapp, winner of the 400m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay; David Theile, the champion of the 100m backstroke; and 100m freestyle winner Jon Henricks.

In cycling, Ian Browne and Anthony Marchant won the 2000m tandem, an event that Australia also won at the 1952 Olympics. Australia enjoyed its first medal successes in sailing (yachting) and canoe/kayak. In sailing, Rolly Tasker and John Scott won a silver medal in the 12 square metre class and Doug Buxton, Dev Mytton and Alex 'Jock' Sturrock combined for a bronze medal in the 5.5m class. Kayakers Dennis Green and Wally Brown won a bronze in the exhausting K2 10,000m. Green would later become the first Australian to compete at five Olympics.

The home Games allowed Australia to make its Olympic debut in a number of sports, including team sports such as basketball and football. It would be 40 years before Australia again had such a large contingent of athletes competing at a Games.

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The Melbourne 1956 Games was the first time Australia hosted the Olympics. In many ways, it was the Games that took the Olympics to the world.

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The Games of the XVI Olympiad were held in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, although the equestrian events could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. Therefore, these events were held in Stockholm, Sweden, marking the first, and so far only time, that events of the same Olympics were held in different countries. Melbourne had been elected as the host city over rival bids from Buenos Aires, Mexico and six American cities April 28 1949 on the 43rd IOC session.

Highlights

Because Melbourne is situated in the southern hemisphere, the Olympics were held later in the year than those held in the northern hemisphere.

Two international events lead to nations boycotting the Olympics. The first is the British and French involvement in the Suez Crisis, which leads to the absence of Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq. The Soviet handling of the Hungarian revolution leads to the absence of Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Hungary and the Soviet Union were themselves present, which among others led to a hotly contested and violent water polo encounter between the nations. In total, 45 Hungarians defected to the West after the Olympics. A third boycott came from the People's Republic of China, which protested against presence of the Republic of China (under the name Formosa).

After being banned from the Olympics in 1948, a team of only West German athletes took part in 1952. This year, athletes from both East and West Germany would compete in a combined team. This remarkable combination would disappear at the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Home-runner Betty Cuthbert becomes the "Golden Girl" by winning three track gold medals. Her performance is equalled by sprinter Bobby Joe Morrow.

Another Australian, Murray Rose, also wins three gold medals in the swimming pool.

Soviet runner Vladimir Kuts wins both the 5000 and 10000 m.

Inspired by Australian teenager John Wing, an Olympic tradition begins when athletes of different nations are allowed to parade together at the closing ceremony, instead of with their national teams, as a symbol of world unity... : "During the Games there will be only one nation. War, politics and nationalities will be forgotten. What more could anybody want if the world could be made one nation." - Extract from a letter by John Ian Wing to the Olympic organisers, 1956.

Is nicknamed "the Friendly Games."

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Medal count

Top medal-collecting nations:
(for the full table, see 1956 Summer Olympics medal count)

( Host nation in bold.)

See also

External links

de:Olympische Sommerspiele 1956

et:1956. aasta suveolümpiamängud fr:Jeux Olympiques d'été de 1956 it:XVI Olimpiade ja:メルボルンオリンピック (1956年)nl:Olympische Zomerspelen 1956 no:Sommer-OL 1956 pt:Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 1956 fi:1956 kesäolympialaiset sv:Olympiska sommarspelen 1956

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The Games of the XVI Olympiad were held in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, although the equestrian events could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. Therefore, these events were held in Stockholm, Sweden, marking the first, and so far only time, that events of the same Olympics were held in different countries.

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The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, took place in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from September 15 2000 until October 1 2000.

199 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were in the Sydney Games. Four were in the Olympics for the first time. These were Timor-Leste, Eritrea, Micronesia and Palau.

Returned medals

Marion Jones, winner of three gold and two bronze medals for the United States, gave back her medals in October 2007. She said she took tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a drug that could make her run faster, from September 2000 through July 2001.

On 2 August 2008, the International Olympic Committee took the gold medal from the U.S. men's 4x400-meter relay team. Antonio Pettigrew said he used a banned substance. Besides Pettigrew other athletes used performance-enhancing drugs. These are twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison, and Jerome Young.

On 28 April 2010, the IOC took China's bronze medal from Gymnastics. This was for using an underage gymnast.

Sydney Olympic Park

Olympic Stadium: Ceremonies (opening/closing), Athletics, Football (final)

Sydney International Aquatic Centre: Diving, Modern Pentathlon (swimming) Swimming, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo (medal events)

State Sports Centre: Table Tennis, Taekwondo

NSW Tennis Centre: Tennis

State Hockey Centre: Field Hockey

The Dome and Exhibition Complex: Badminton, Basketball, Gymnastics (rhythmic), Handball (final), Modern Pentathlon (fencing, shooting), Volleyball (indoor)

Sydney SuperDome: Gymnastics (artistic, trampoline), Basketball (final)

Sydney Baseball Stadium: Baseball, Modern Pentathlon (riding, running)

Sydney International Archery Park: Archery

Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre: Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

Sydney Entertainment Centre: Volleyball (indoor final)

Dunc Gray Velodrome: Cycling (track)

Sydney International Shooting Centre: Shooting

Sydney International Equestrian Centre: Equestrian

Sydney International Regatta Centre: Rowing, Canoeing (sprint)

Blacktown Olympic Centre: Baseball, Softball

Fairfield City Farm: Cycling (mountain biking)

Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre: Water Polo

Penrith Whitewater Stadium: Canoeing (slalom)

Bondi Beach: Volleyball (beach)

Sydney Football Stadium: Football

Olympic Sailing Shore Base: Sailing

Centennial Parklands: Cycling (road)

Marathon course: Athletics (marathon)

North Sydney: Athletics (marathon start)

Sydney Opera House: Triathlon

Outside Sydney

Olympic Games

Summer Games: 1896, 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1912, (1916), 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028

Winter Games: 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022

Athens 2004 - Turin 2006 - Beijing 2008 - Vancouver 2010 - London 2012 - Sochi 2014 - Rio 2016 - Pyeongchang 2018 - Tokyo 2020

Images for kids

In Spanish: Juegos Olímpicos de Sídney 2000 para niños

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Learn 2000 Summer Olympics facts for kids

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The Australian Olympic Committee acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of all the lands on which we are located. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present.

We celebrate and honour all of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Olympians.

The Australian Olympic Committee is committed to honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society and sport.

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Facts and figures surrounding the 'Greatest Games Ever'

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Australia at the
Olympics

IOC code

AUS

NOC

Australian Olympic Committee

Medals

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Total

152

168

192

512

Summer appearances

Winter appearances

Other related appearances

1906 Intercalated Games
Australasia (1908-1912)

Australia at the Olympics is a history which includes 45 games in 22 countries and 3,000+ athletes. Since 1895, Australia has contributed to the growth of the " Olympic Movement".

The International Olympic Committee's official abbreviation for Australia is AUS.

The Australia National Olympic Committee was formed in 1895. It was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1895.

Afghanistan's team first competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Australia has sent athletes to almost all of the modern Olympic Games. Australia has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, and most Winter Olympic Games.

In 1908 and 1912, Australia competed with New Zealand under the name Australasia.

Host country

Australia has hosted the Olympics twice:

The 1956 Summer Olympics were at Melbourne in Victoria.

The 2000 Summer Olympics were at Sydney in New South Wales.

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Medals by Winter Games

Medals by sport (both Summer and Winter)

Images for kids

Australian Olympic Team Uniforms unveiled for Rio 2016

Australian Olympic athletes in 1932 wearing the traditional uniform of a dark green blazer trimmed with yellow, still in use at the London 2012 opening ceremony.

In Spanish: Australia en los Juegos Olímpicos para niños

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Australia at the Olympics Facts for Kids

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Learn Australia at the Olympics facts for kids

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Do you remember when Olympic Fever hit Sydney in 2000? The Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Sydney welcomed and hosted over 11,000 athletes from 199 countries. Together with 50,000 volunteers and millions of spectators Sydney captured the attention of the world - a city of sport, festivals, arts, community, friendship and fun

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Sydney is a major city in Australia, a country in Oceania. The greater Sydney area is Australia’s largest metropolitan area. Sydney has a huge and magnificent harbor. It is…

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Dad could very well have lost his driver's licence because of my hero, Ian Thorpe. Sitting in the back seat of a little blue Holden Barina, I used to hassle my old man to pretend our car was Thorpey. He knew exactly what I meant.

On the highway, we'd spot a vehicle ahead of us which, immediately in my seven-year-old mind, became Gary Hall jnr, the American freestyle champion.

A few days earlier we had watched Thorpe, the 17-year-old whiz kid, mow down Hall in the 4x100m relay in the most spectacular fashion at the Sydney Olympics.

Dad, a PE teacher who secretly loved that he'd indoctrinated his eldest son into also living and breathing sport, hit the accelerator and the race call would begin.

Ian Thorpe comes to the wall ahead of Gary Hall jnr in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

"They've got about 15 metres to swim," I'd yell. "Thorpe is over Hall. Thorpe's in front..."

You can imagine the look on the other driver's face as we screamed past.

"Australia win," I exclaimed. "New world record! The Australians have just broken the Americans' stranglehold on this race."

Dad chuckled the other day when I reminded him of our little game.

The Sydney Olympics had a major impact on my childhood and I'm sure the same could be said for thousands of other children born in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Crowds at the Sydney Opera House watch the Olympic Rings light up the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Credit: Andrew Meares

When my editors asked me to write a piece on the Sydney Olympics through the eyes of a child, the nostalgia hit home.

At that age, you don't remember much of general life, but my recollections of those glorious 16 days in September are vivid. Perhaps that says a lot about how big a deal it was for not only the country, but a kid from western Sydney with a plethora of new heroes.

Like many others in 2000, I was completely hooked by the magic of the Olympics.

Everyone has their own awesome stories about Sydney - where they were, what they remember, what memorabilia they still have.

The yarns should be told over and over for years to come. Send them in. I'm all ears.

At the age of seven, everything was new. There were countries you'd never heard of, sports you didn't know existed and Sydney 2000 was all anybody talked about.

Mum says the day I was born there was a big splash on the front page of the paper about the Olympics. Three and a half weeks later, Juan Antonio Samaranch made the announcement that sent Australia - and those on the streets in the early hours of the morning - into a state of euphoria.

The front page of The Sydney Morning Herald from September 24, 1993. Credit: Fairfax Archives

Those of us who were still in nappies at the time can only hope the same occurs if Australia is awarded another Olympics, potentially in Brisbane in 2032.

By the time the Games of the XXVII Olympiad rolled around, our family, like no doubt thousands of others, opted to camp out in the lounge room with fold-out beds so we could absorb absolutely everything across the next 16 days.

My parents, both teachers, were off school and more than happy to give this wide-eyed kid a sporting education.

Watching Australia's Michellie Jones get pipped for gold by Switzerland's Brigitte McMahon at the foot of the Sydney Opera House in the women's triathlon is my first sporting memory.

While that was exciting, bigger and better things were to come that evening at the pool.

At my school, Kurmond Public at the foot of the Blue Mountains, we were encouraged to write diary entries during the Games after the Olympic torch had come to our school.

Meanwhile, the Decent household was going ballistic when Thorpe beat Hall jnr given what I scribbled down.

"When it was the 4x100 metres evryone (sic) was screeming (sic) in the house," I wrote.

Mum also helped dig up this letter (in lead pencil, of course) to Cathy Freeman.

"Dear Cathy. Ceep (sic) up the good work," I wrote. "I'll be watching you on telivision (sic). I hope you win a gold medal. When I grow up I want to win gold for Australia. I will win a gold medal in running, long jump, high jump, swimming and tennis. From Thomas Decent."

Talk about dreams!

Writing about sport now for a living is a great privilege - with improved spelling - but the live matches can lose their glamour and blend into one after the other. Athletes become more industry colleague than messiah.

You do forget that in a crowd, there is very likely a child who is beside themselves with joy at being able watch sport for the first time.

That was me the day my sports-mad grandmother and grandfather, Dawn and Barry, took a kid with a bowl cut, buck teeth, big ears and a blue Sydney Olympics t-shirt to watch the tennis.

We caught the bus from Round Corner, near Dural, and I'll never know if it was funny or annoying for others in earshot to listen to me yelling: "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi".

I got a photo 'holding' the Olympic flame and while I actually can't recall a single player there that day - I was a little disappointed Venus Williams wasn't in action - it was the greatest day of my life at that point.

It was not lost on me, even at that age, the buzz about Olympic Park and my poor grandparents say they had trouble keeping me in sight.

"In the holidays I went to the Olympic Games," I wrote in my school diary. "I went to see the tennis with my Granny and Pa. We parked at a pre-school. A magpie pecked one of my hairs. I got two magnums. I liked watching the tennis. I loved eating lunch. My favourite thing was when I bort (sic) a huge tennis ball."

My Granny still laughs about the fact I was baffled because there wasn't any playground equipment at the 'Park'.

Each day during the Games, Australia Post printed a limited edition of stamps commemorating our athletes who'd won a gold medal.

Of course, I begged mum to race to the post office and bring them home for me. The full collection is still sitting around somewhere and could be worth a few bob now.

I remember Grant Hackett beating another hero of mine, Kieren Perkins, in the 1500m.

I remember crying like Jane Saville when she was disqualified in the dying stages of the women's walk.

I remember watching our beach volleyballers win gold at Bondi while we were in a television shop.

But for some reason, I have no idea where I was for Freeman's race. I doubt I was in bed asleep but I would have watched that glorious run 100 times since and on very few occasions with a dry eye.

But my favourite memory of Sydney was Jai Taurima, the ciggie-smoking long-jumper who came from nowhere to pinch silver.

While American Carl Lewis was my track and field hero, I wanted to be like Taurima and represent Australia in long jump, as I'd made it clear to Cathy.

A few state carnivals was as good as it got but I can thank Jai for the reason why the long jump is the first event I circle on the schedule.

No doubt there are hundreds and hundreds of Australian professional athletes out there now whose inspiration to become the best in the world came from someone who did something special in Sydney.

The 2000 Olympics well and truly ignited my love of sport, as well as a less-than-discreet crush on a 13-year-old Nikki Webster.

My parents bought me her CD We'll Be One, which was one of the songs she performed at the Closing Ceremony.

That year for Christmas, instead of putting in a long list of things I wanted from Santa, the only thing I asked for was the Sydney 2000 Official Souvenir Book.

I am not a religious person but it's the closest thing I've owned to a bible.

Within weeks, I'd show off to our family friends that I could recite every host city going back to Athens in 1896.

Then someone in the family purchased '16 Days in September' on VHS. The intro music I can still hear crystal clear.

I have no doubt the Sydney Olympics planted the seed for me wanting to become a sports journalist.

Since I can remember, covering an Olympics is all I've ever wanted to do.

I got zero school work done during the Beijing Olympics and tried convincing mum to let me take two weeks off. I then covered London 2012 swimming races off the TV in the middle of the night for a start-up website while at university, before blogging the Rio Games for the Herald.

When Australia once again hosts an Olympics, there will naturally be comparisons to Sydney, but there shouldn't be.

It was a moment in time, regardless of what stage of life you were in, that you wish you could bottle up forever.

They truly were the greatest ever.

Sport newsletter

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The magic of the Sydney Olympics through the eyes of a child

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Born as Sydney was announced as the Olympic host, Tom Decent channels his inner seven-year-old to recall a magical 16 days in September 2000.

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The Library contains a wealth of material about the 1956 Olympics, which were a time of great celebration and marked Melbourne's coming-of-age on an international stage. The event left an enduring legacy not only for Australia but for the Olympic movement.

Highlights of the Library's resources on the 'Friendly Games' include:

A detailed list of collection items can be found on the Library's 1956 Melbourne Olympics website. This includes information about sportspeople, events, results and the development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Heidelberg Olympic Village. We also look at some of the controversies surrounding the event, and place the Games in a global context.

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The Library contains a wealth of material about the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, including books, photographs, official programs, bid documents, tape recordings and websites.

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World War II

Clockwise from top left:

Date

1 September 1939 - 2 September 1945 (6 years and 1 day)

Location

Result

Allied victory

Belligerents

Allies
United Kingdom
Soviet Union (from 1941)
United States (from 1941)
China (from 1937)

and more

Axis
Germany
Japan (from 1937)
Italy (from 1940)

and more

Commanders and leaders

Allied leaders Winston Churchill
Joseph Stalin
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Chiang Kai-Shek

Axis leaders Adolf Hitler
Hirohito

Benito Mussolini

Casualties and losses

Over 61,000,000

Over 12,000,000

World War II ( WWII or WW2), in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, and in Japan, the Second Sino-Japanese War, was a global war involving fighting in most of the world and most countries. Most countries fought in the years 1939-1945 but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. World War II was the largest and deadliest conflict in all of history. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history. Between 50 to 85 million people died. The majority were civilians. It included massacres, the deliberate genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.

The two sides were the Allies (at first China, France and Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, United States and others) and the Axis ( Germany, Italy and Japan). The war in Asia began when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937. The war began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. France and Britain reacted by declaring war on Germany. By 1941, much of Europe was under German control, including France. Only Britain remained fighting against the Axis in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. Germany gave up plans to invade Britain after losing an airplane battle. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest area of war in history. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded British and French colonies in Asia, and the two wars became one.

After the war, the United Nations was set up to develop support between countries and to prevent future wars. The Cold War among the major winners soon started, but they did not fight each other in an actual war. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries controlled by European countries were given their independence, happened as well. This was because European power was weakened from the war. Economic recovery and the political integration (the process of uniting countries) were among other results of the war.

The two sides

The countries that joined the war were on one of two sides: the Axis and the Allies.

The Axis Powers at the start of the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. There were many meetings to create the alliance between these countries. Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Thailand joined the Axis later. As the war continued, some Axis countries changed to join the Allies instead, such as Italy.

The Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth members, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium and China at the start of the war. China had been fighting a civil war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In December 1941 came Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor against the United States. These two large, powerful countries then joined the Allies.

Background

World War I had greatly changed the way of diplomacy and politics in Asia, Europe, and Africa with the defeat of the Central Powers. Empires which sided with the Central Powers were destroyed. The Russian Empire, which did not side with the Central Powers, died as well. The war also changed the borders in Eastern Europe, with many new countries born. The war led to strong irredentism and revanchism. These senses were especially strong in Germany, which had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans also had 13% of their homeland area and all colonies taken away, and they had to pay back a very large sum of money to the Allies. The size of their army and navy was also limited, while its air force was banned.

After the Kuomintang (KMT), the governing party of China, unified the country in the 1920s, the civil war between it and its past ally Communist Party of China began. In 1931, Japan used the Mukden Incident as a reason to take Manchuria and set up its puppet state, Manchukuo, while the League of Nations could not do anything to stop it. The Tanggu Truce, a ceasefire, was signed in 1933. In 1936, the KMT and the communists agreed to stop fighting against each other to fight Japan instead. In 1937, Japan started a Second Sino-Japanese War to take the rest of China.

After the German Empire was disestablished, the democratic Weimar Republic was set up. There were disagreements between the Germans which involved many political ideologies, ranging from nationalism to communism. The fascist movement in Germany rose because of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, became the Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, Hitler created a totalitarian state, where there is only one party by law. Hitler wanted to change the world order and quickly rebuilt the army, navy and air force, especially after Saarland was reunited in 1935. In March 1936, Hitler sent the army to Rhineland. The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The war ended with the nationalist victory, supported by Italy and Germany.

In March 1938, Germany sent its army into Austria, known as the Anschluss, which had only a little reaction from European countries. Shortly after that, the Allies agreed to give Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany, so that Hitler would promise to stop taking more land. But the rest of the country was either forced to surrender or invaded by March 1939. The Allies now tried to stop him, by promising to help Poland if it was attacked. Just before the war, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace agreement, agreeing that they would not attack each other for ten years. In the secret part of it, they agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them.

Course of the war

War breaks out

Germany then signed an agreement to work together with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries to allow it to keep Soviet soldiers in their countries. Finland did not accept the Soviet call for its land, so it was attacked in November 1939. With peace, the world war broke out. France and Britain thought that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the side of Germany and drove the Soviet Union out of the League of Nations.

Axis early victories

By June 1940, the Soviet Union moved its soldiers into the Baltic states and took them, followed by Bessarabia in Romania. Although there had been some collaboration between the Soviet Union and Germany earlier, this event made it serious. Later, when the two could not agree to work more closely together, relationships between them became worse to the point of war.

At the same time, Japan's progress in China was still not much, although the nationalist and communist Chinese began fighting each other again. Japan was planning to take over European colonies in Asia while they were weak, and the Soviet Union could feel a danger from Germany, so a non-aggression pact (which was an agreement that both countries would not attack each other) between the two was signed in April 1941. However, Germany kept preparing an attack on the Soviet Union, moving its soldiers close to the Soviet border.

The war becomes global

On June 22, 1941, the European Axis countries attacked the Soviet Union. During the summer, the Axis quickly captured Ukraine and the Baltic regions, which caused huge damage to the Soviets. Britain and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance between them in July. Although there was great progress in the last two months, when winter arrived, the tired German army was forced to delay its attack just outside Moscow. It showed that the Axis had failed its main targets, while the Soviet army was still not weakened. This marked the end of the blitzkrieg stage of the war.

By December, the Red Army facing the Axis army had received more soldiers from the east. It began a counter-attack that pushed the German army to the west. The Axis lost a lot of soldiers but it still saved most of the land it received before.

By November 1941, the Commonwealth counter-attacked the Axis in North Africa and got all the land it lost before. However, the Axis pushed the Allies back again until stopped at El Alamein.

By April 1942, many South East Asian countries: Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, had almost fallen to the Japanese. In May 1942, the Philippines fell. The Japanese navy had many quick victories. But in June 1942, Japan was defeated at Midway. Japan could not take more land after this because a large part of its navy was destroyed during the battle.

Allies are advancing

On the Eastern Front, the Axis defeated Soviet attacks during summer and began its own main offensive to southern Russia along Don and Volga Rivers in June 1942, trying to take over oil fields in Caucasus, critical to the Axis for fueling their war effort, and a great steppe. Stalingrad was in the path of the Axis army, and the Soviets decided to defend the city. By November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad, however the Soviets were able to surround the Germans during winter After heavy losses, the German army was forced to surrender the city in February 1943. Even though the front was pushed back further than it was before the summer attacks, the German army still had become dangerous to an area around Kursk. Hitler devoted almost two-thirds of his armies to The Battle of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in this world's time.

In the Soviet Union, on July 4, 1943, Germany started an attack around Kursk. Many German soldiers were lost because of the Soviets' well-created defenses. Hitler canceled the attack before any clear outcome. The Soviets then started their own counter-attack, which was one of the turning points of the war. After this, the Soviets became the attacking force on the Eastern Front, instead of the Germans.

Late in 1943 Japan conquered some islands in India and began an invasion of the Indian mainland. The Army of India and other forces expelled them in early 1944.

The end in Europe

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began the invasion of Normandy, France. The code name for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The invasion was successful, and led to the defeat of the German forces in France. Paris was freed on August 1944 and the Allies continued eastward while the German front collapsed. Operation Market-Garden was the combined aerial invasion of the Netherlands launched on September 17, 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to seize a series of bridges that included a bridge in Arnhem, which spanned the Rhine river. Market was the name for the airborne invasion. The ground invasion, named Garden, reached the Rhine river, but could not take the Arnhem bridge. .

On June 22, the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, codenamed Operation Bagration, almost destroyed the German Army Group Centre. Soon after, the Germans were forced to retreat and defend Ukraine and Poland. Arriving Soviet troops caused uprisings against the German government in Eastern European countries, but these failed to succeed unless helped by the Soviets. Another Soviet offensive forced Romania and Bulgaria to join the Allies. Communist Serbs partisans under Josip Broz Tito retook Belgrade with some help from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. By early 1945, the Soviets attacked many German-occupied countries: Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Finland switched to the side of the Soviets and Allies.

On December 16, 1944, the Germans tried one last time to take the Western Front by attacking the Allies in Ardennes, Belgium, in a battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German attack of the war, and the Germans were not successful in their attack.

By March 1945, the Soviet army moved quickly from Vistula River in Poland to East Prussia and Vienna, while the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies pushed forward, while the Soviets attacked Berlin. The allied western forces would eventually meet up with the Soviets at the Elbe river on April 25, 1945.

German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945. Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7, 1945, known as V-E Day, and was forced to surrender to the Soviets on May 8, 1945. The final battle in Europe was ended in Italy on May 11, 1945.

The end in the Pacific

The Allies wanted Japan to surrender with no terms, but Japan refused. This resulted in the United States dropping two atomic bombs over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). On August 8, 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria, quickly defeating the primary Imperial Japanese Army there. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies. The surrender documents were formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, ending the war.

After World War II

The United Nations was formed on October 24, 1945, to keep peace between countries in the world. However, the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had worsened during the war and, soon after the war, each power quickly built up their power over controlled area. In Western Europe and West Germany, it was the United States, while in East Germany and Eastern Europe, it was the Soviet Union, in which many countries were turned into Communist states. The Cold War started after the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

In Asia, Japan was put under American occupation. In 1948, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, each claiming to be the legal representative of the Koreans, which led to the Korean War in 1950. Civil war in China continued from 1946 and resulted in the KMT retreating to Taiwan in 1949. The communists won the mainland. In the Middle East, the Arab disagreement on the United Nations plan to create Israel marked the beginning of conflicts between the Arabs and Israel.

Economic recovery was different in many parts of the world. In general, it was quite positive. The United States became richer than any other country and, by 1950, it had taken over the world's economy. It also ordered the Marshall Plan (1948-1951) to help European countries. German, Italian, and French economies recovered. However, the British economy was badly harmed and continued to worsen for more than ten years. The Soviet economy grew very fast after the war was over. This also happened with the Japanese economy, which became one of the largest economies in the 1980s. China returned to the same production level as before the war by 1952.

Concentration camps and slave work

Other than the Holocaust, about 12 million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, were forced to work for the German economy. German concentration camps and Soviet gulags caused a lot of death. Both treated prisoners of war badly. This was even the case for Soviet soldiers who survived and returned home.

Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also caused a lot of deaths. The death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%, seven times that of prisoners under Germans and Italians. More than 10 million Chinese civilians were made slaves and had to work in mines and war factories. Between 4 and 10 million people were forced to work in Java.

Between 1942 and 1945, Roosevelt signed an order which made Japanese Americans go to internment camps. Some Germans and Italians were included too.

The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union could use prisoners of war and civilians for forced labor. Hungarians were forced to work for the Soviet Union until 1955.

Home fronts and production

Before the war, in Europe, the Allies had a larger population and economy than the Axis. If colonies are included, the GDP of the Allies then would be two times of that of the Axis. While in Asia, China had only 38% higher GDP than the Japanese if their colonies are counted.

The Allies' economy and population compared with the Axis' lessened with the early Axis victories. However, this was no longer the case after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941. The Allies were able to have a higher production level compared with the Axis because the Allies had more natural resources. Also, Germany and Japan did not plan for a long war and had no ability to do so. Both tried to improve their economies by using slave laborers.

As men went off to fight, women took over many of the jobs they left behind. At factories, women were employed to make bombs, guns, aircraft, and other equipment. In Britain, thousands of women were sent to work on farms as part of the Land Army. Others formed the Women's Royal Naval Service to help with building and repairing ships. Even Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II, worked as a mechanic to aid the war effort. By 1945 some weapons were made almost entirely by women.

In the beginning, women were rarely used in the labour forces in Germany and Japan. However, Allied bombings and Germany's change to a war economy made women take a greater part.

Occupation

Germany had two different ideas of how it would occupy countries. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Germany set economic policies which would make it rich. During the war, these policies brought as much as 40% of total German income. In the East, the war with the Soviet Union meant Germany could not use the land to gain resources. The Nazis used their racial policy and murdered a lot of people they thought non-human. The Resistance, the group of people who fought Germany secretly, could not harm the Nazis much until 1943.

In Asia, Japan claimed to free colonised Asian countries from European colonial powers. Although they were welcomed at first in many territories, their cruel actions turned the opinions against them within a short time. During the occupation, Japan used 4 million barrels of oil left behind by the Allies at the war's end. By 1943, it was able to produce up to 50 million barrels of oil in the Dutch East Indies. This was 76% of its 1940 rate.

Developments in technology

Other developments included better encryption for secret messages, such as the German Enigma. Another feature of military intelligence was the use of deception, especially by the Allies. Others include the first programmable computers, modern missiles and rockets, and the atomic bombs.

Countries suffering the most warship losses in World War II

Countries suffering the most military losses in World War II

The actual numbers killed in World War II have been the subject heretofore. Most authorities now agree that of the 30 million Soviets who bore arms, there were 13.6 million military deaths.

*total, of which 7,800,000 battlefield deaths
**Inc. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, etc.

Countries suffering the most civilian losses in World War II

Deaths among civilians during this war - many resulting from famine and internal purges, such as those in China and the USSR - were colossal, but they were less well documented than those among fighting forces. Although the figures are the best available from authoritative sources, and present a broad picture of the scale of civilian losses, the precise numbers will never be known.
The Axis Powers
Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
The Allied Powers
U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia

Related pages

Images for kids

In Spanish: Segunda Guerra Mundial para niños

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World War 2: Facts & Information for Kids - History for Kids

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World War 2 was the biggest war in global history. It lasted 6 years, involved over 30 countries and killed millions. Learn all about it!

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ONE OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST LIVING CULTURES
Australia is fast approaching a referendum*. Today in Part 2 of our Voice explainers, we take a look at the culture and history of our nation's First Peoples, including some key struggles and triumphs following Captain Cook's arrival on April 29, 1770 in the now Kamay Botany Bay National Park.

Australia's First Nations peoples have 65,000 years' worth of history in this country, based on archaeological* discoveries, said Australian National University Professor Ann McGrath.

She pointed to University of Queensland archaeologist Associate Professor Chris Clarkson, whose 2017 paper detailed his findings of about 11,000 artefacts* in Kakadu National Park.

"People got here much earlier than we thought, which means of course they must also have left Africa much earlier to have travelled on their long journey through Asia and South-East Asia to Australia," Assoc Prof Clarkson said at the time.
WHAT DID AUSTRALIA LOOK LIKE WHEN CONVICTS ARRIVED?
"It also means the time of overlap with the megafauna*, for instance, is much longer than originally thought - maybe as much as 20,000 or 25,000 years."

It is estimated 750,000 to 1.25 million Aboriginal Australians lived here before British settlement in 1788.

Aboriginal people used firesticks to change the vegetation* to suit their needs.
HOW MANY LANGUAGES ARE THERE?
"There were accounts from the ships that around Sydney looked like a park, and we came to understand that as firestick farming," Prof McGrath said. "They engineered* the landscape to hunt kangaroos and for fire management - the British were amazed by it."

Australian National University languages expert Professor Jane Simpson said there were between 250 and 750 distinct languages or dialects* associated with Indigenous Australians.
COMMON BELIEFS, RITUALS AND PRACTICES
"Working out how many are still spoken is difficult," she said.

Connection to Country, spirits and telling stories is important among Indigenous Australians, Prof McGrath said.

"Song and dance performances, as well as painting and engraving* was a really important way to transmit* culture and for storytelling," she said.

"Some paintings were also a map of Country - helping people find the best water or resources.

"There are songlines, which can travel very long distances. Aboriginal people would be sharing songs, knowledge, trading goods as part of a network. These could be where to get the best resources and how to provide in different seasons.

"Australia has very ancient art all over the country. They knew how to make ochres* to make permanent art and used different sacks from trees and traded ochres."

Indigenous Australians have a "strong respect" and "sense of obligation" to look after the land and waterways, Prof McGrath said.

"There is a symbiotic sense of health and wellbeing - a close relationship between human life, animals, the hills and mountains," she said. "Water is a living force that runs through it. It's a connection that was broken down through colonisation* when people were taken off their land.
AFTER THE FIRST FLEET ARRIVED
"The Country is ... the way an individual would see themselves. The word Country does imply belonging."

British settlement of Australia started in January 1788, when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove. Having been isolated from the world for thousands of years, Aboriginal people had no resistance to viruses such as smallpox* and influenza.
STOLEN GENERATIONS
But infectious diseases were not the only major threat after white settlement. According to University of Newcastle research, Indigenous people were massacred (more than six people killed at one time) at different times in different states and territories from 1794 right up until the 1930s.

The Stolen Generations refer to the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were taken from their families and placed into institutional care or with non-Indigenous foster families, as a result of laws or policies.
INDIGENOUS RIGHT TO VOTE
The 1997 Bringing Them Home report found between one in 10 and three in 10 children were forcibly* removed between 1910 and 1970.

Prior to 1962, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did not have the right to vote in federal elections.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962 granted all Indigenous Australians the option to enrol and vote in federal elections - but it was not compulsory*, as it was for other Australians.
INDIGENOUS REFERENDUM 1967
The states followed and compulsory enrolment for Indigenous Australians was eventually enacted in 1983.
BEING COUNTED IN THE CENSUS
On May 27, 1967, almost 91 per cent of Australians voted Yes to change the Constitution* so Aboriginal people would be counted as part of the population and to acknowledge them as equal citizens, and granted the federal government power to make laws on their behalf.

The 1967 Referendum paved the way for Aboriginal people to be counted as part of the nation's population.

The Census had been running for some time but the 1971 count included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as citizens of the country.

About 116,000 Australians identified themselves as having Aboriginal (106,000) or Torres Strait Islander (10,000) origin.
MABO DECISION
There was a further increase to 160,000 Indigenous Australians in the 1976 Census.

In 1992, the High Court of Australia recognised native title in the Mabo legal case. The decision was a step forward in recognising land rights of Indigenous Australians.

When Captain James Cook took ownership of Australia on behalf of Great Britain, he claimed it was "terra nullius", or "nobody's land", according to British law - meaning Australian Aboriginal people had no claim to the land on which they had lived for tens of thousands of years.

In May 1982, a group of Meriam people from the Eastern Torres Strait, led by Eddie Koiki Mabo, lodged a case with the High Court for legal ownership of the island. Over 10 years, evidence presented showed eight clans of the Mer (Murray Island) people had lived on the island for hundreds of years.
PAUL KEATING'S REDFERN SPEECH
On June 3, 1992, six of the seven judges agreed Meriam were the traditional owners of the lands of Mer.

Then-prime minister Paul Keating delivered an impassioned* speech on December 10, 1992 on the eve of the International Year of the World's Indigenous people.

" ... (If) we can build a prosperous* and remarkably harmonious* multicultural* society in Australia, surely we can find just solutions to the problems which beset* the First Australians, the people to whom the most injustice* has been done," he said.
NATIONAL APOLOGY
" ... We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life ... We practised discrimination* and exclusion*. It was our ignorance and our prejudice*. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us."

On February 13, 2008, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd delivered a formal apology speech in parliament to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian government.

It was close to 10 years in the making, following the Sorry Book campaign and the first National Sorry Day on May 26, 1998, which was described as "the people's apology".
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
Between 1997 and 1999, states and territories apologised to the Stolen Generations before the federal government followed in 2008.
Please note this is an explainer series - curriculum-aligned classroom activities written by our teachers appear below; there is no separate workbook as in a Kids News Education Kit. POLL GLOSSARY

referendum: a national vote on a question about a proposed change to the Constitution

archaeological: relating to archaeology, the study of the human past through material remains

artefacts: human-made objects like tools or decorations, especially ones of historical interest

megafauna: giant animals like the diprotodon, marsupial lion and giant short-faced kangaroo

vegetation: plant life in general or plant cover found in a particular area

engineered: designed and built using scientific principles

dialects: forms of language spoken in a particular part of the country or by a particular group

engraving: picture or design that has been cut into a surface

transmit: to send out or carry signals or messages

ochres: various natural yellow, red and orange clay and sand earth pigments

colonisation: the act or process of sending people to live in and govern another country

smallpox: very serious and highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus

influenza: known as the flu

foster families:

forcibly: influenza is a highly contagious infection of the nose, throat and lungs and can be deadly to high-risk groups

compulsory: required by law

Constitution: a set of rules for governing a country

impassioned: with intense feeling, heartfelt, showing great emotion

prosperous: successful, flourishing, having good fortune

harmonious: friendly and peaceful

multicultural: made up of people of many different nationalities and cultures

beset: to have a persistent difficulty or a lot of trouble with something

injustice: the violation of rights, unfairness

discrimination: treating a person or group less favourably or well than others

exclusion: not allowing someone or something to take part in an activity

prejudice: something that influences you unfairly or inappropriately so that you form an unreasonable or unfair opinion

dialogue: a serious conversation or exchange of opinion, especially among different people or groups

constitutional: relating to the constitution of a particular country or organisation

EXTRA READING What is the Voice referendum? Song to save Indigenous languages Bilingual books take centre stage QUICK QUIZ

1. Australia's First Nations peoples have approximately how many years of history in this country?

2. How many Aboriginal Australians are estimated to have been here before British settlement?

3. What claim did Captain James Cook make about Australia when he took ownership of the country on behalf of Great Britain?

4. What didn't Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have prior to 1962?

5. Who are the Stolen Generations?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
In 2015, Indigenous leaders met with then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and then-opposition leader Bill Shorten. That meeting resulted in the establishment of the Referendum Council, which held 13 First Nations Regional Dialogues* about constitutional* reform, to ensure Indigenous people were at the heart of the reform process.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Indigenous culture
"There is a symbiotic sense of health and wellbeing - a close relationship between human life, animals, the hills and mountains"

Do you think that if the vote is yes for having an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, it might positively alter the way we currently respect and preserve the land for future generations?

List three ways we might be able to positively change the way we respect our land and animals using the perspective of the First Nations peoples:

1.

2.

3.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, History, Civics and Citizenship, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
How could we use the Aboriginal technique of firestick farming to help with Australia's bushfire crisis and fire prevention in general?

Is there a way to incorporate First Peoples' knowledge of the land into modern-day fire prevention to reduce the bushfire risk around the country?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Humanities, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during one of the events discussed in the article.

Create a conversation between two characters - you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don't forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.

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Indigenous Australians' history and culture

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The ANZAC, or Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, was a group of soldiers formed to fight in World War I. The name Anzac was sometimes later used for any soldier from…

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WHAT IS ANZAC DAY?
Anzac Day, on April 25 each year, is a national day of remembrance* for Australians and New Zealanders at home and around the world.

The day marks the anniversary of the first big military action by Australian and New Zealand soldiers in World War I on April 25, 1915.

WHAT DOES THE WORD ANZAC MEAN?
ANZAC is the acronym* formed from the first letters of the words Australian and New Zealand Army Corps*.

It was first written as "A & NZ Army Corps", when Australian and New Zealand soldiers were grouped together in Egypt waiting to go to Gallipoli, in Turkey, to start fighting. The soldiers who fought at Gallipoli became known as ANZACs.

From 1917, soldiers who had fought at Gallipoli wore an "A" badge on their uniform.

When referring to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, it's written as ANZAC (in capital letters), and mostly as Anzac (in lower case letters) for other things such as Anzac Day or Anzac biscuits.

WHERE IS GALLIPOLI? WHAT HAPPENED THERE?
Gallipoli is a narrow peninsula* of land in modern-day Turkey.

When Britain went to war in 1914, Australia went to war to support Britain as an ally*.

In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers were part of the effort to seize the Gallipoli Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). The aim was to move across the land and eventually capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was an ally of Germany.

The Australian and New Zealand soldiers first landed on the beaches of Gallipoli at dawn on April 25, 1915, meeting strong resistance from the Ottoman Turkish soldiers. The fighting dragged on for eight months before the allies were evacuated from the peninsula.

Many soldiers of all nationalities involved in the fighting were killed at Gallipoli, including more than 8000 Australians. Many more were injured and all had endured terrible conditions, including extreme heat, strong wind, rain and snow, loud noises from weapons and the grief* of having people hurt or dying around them.

WHY DO WE STILL REMEMBER GALLIPOLI?
We remember Gallipoli to remember and honour the soldiers who fought and died or were injured there.

Although the goal of seizing Gallipoli and advancing towards Constantinople wasn't achieved, the toughness and the bravery of the ANZACs became well known in Australia and New Zealand and around the world and helped give rise to what has become known as the "Anzac legend".

Many people believe that the Anzac legend - sometimes talked about as meaning being hard working, tough, brave and fair and looking after your mates - is either something that defines us today, or that it is something we should remember, celebrate and aspire to.

WHEN WAS THE FIRST ANZAC DAY?
The first Anzac Day commemorations were held on April 25, 1916. There were services and marches by soldiers and nurses across Australia, a sports day in the Australian military camp in Egypt and a march by more than 2000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers through London. A London newspaper headline called the marching soldiers "the knights of Gallipoli". For the remainder of World War I, Anzac Day was used as an opportunity to recruit more people into the armed forces.

In the 1920s, Anzac Day became a national day to remember the more than 60,000 Australians who died during World War I.

All the traditions of modern Anzac Day commemorations were in place by the 1930s.

Over time the day also commemorated those who served and died during World War II and, later, other military and peacekeeping operations.

HOW DO AUSTRALIANS USUALLY OBSERVE ANZAC DAY?
Australians attend commemorative services around Australia, at Gallipoli and elsewhere around the world at dawn, the time of the original landing. These are called Dawn Services.

Later on Anzac Day, former servicemen and servicewomen meet up and march through towns and cities. If a former serviceman or servicewoman is no longer alive, their family members sometimes march for them, wearing their medals of service.

WHAT HAPPENS AT A DAWN SERVICE?
At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, ACT, the national Dawn Service begins with the traditional order of service, including the veteran's* march, commemorative address, laying of wreaths, hymns*, the sounding of the Last Post, one minute's silence, and the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia.

The bugle call called the Last Post signifies the end of a soldier's day. It is sounded at Anzac Day services and also at military funerals to indicate that the soldier has gone to his final rest.

Most Dawn Services at other locations follow a similar format.

HOW WILL WE OBSERVE ANZAC DAY THIS YEAR?
Full scale Dawn Services and marches will be held around the nation on April 25, following several years of interruptions because of Covid-19 restrictions.

In 2021, Dawn Services and marches were allowed but crowd numbers were restricted so those participating could keep a safe distance apart. Those who attended many of the services also had to register beforehand.

In 2020, public services were cancelled and Australians were encouraged to pay their respects from home.

The RSL* suggested people walk outside their homes and stand in their yard or driveway as the sun came up and the Last Post was played during the Anzac Day Dawn Service.
GLOSSARY

remembrance: the action of remembering something, particularly people who have died

military: armed forces such as army, navy and air force

acronym: first letters from words in a phrase or title that make a new word

Corps: a main group within an army

peninsula: narrow piece of land jutting out into surrounding water

ally: person or group to work alongside for the same goal

grief: emotional response to loss

veteran: someone who has experienced something, especially a soldier who has been to war

hymns: religious songs

RSL: The Returned and Services League supports returned soldiers and their families

EXTRA READING Mystery Aussie WWI soldiers identified Diary of a Gallipoli ANZAC Aussies want mass light salute on Anzac Day Kids told to 'just ask' about war stories Anzac Day marches get the green light from PM QUICK QUIZ

1. What do the letters A.N.Z.A.C stand for?

2. In what year did the Australian and New Zealand soldiers first land at Gallipoli?

3. When was the first Anzac Day and what happened?

4. Explain when the Last Post is played and what it signifies.

5. What city and territory is the Australian War Memorial in?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What have you learnt?
There is a lot of information in this article about Anzac Day. How it began, when it was first celebrated what happens at the services and much more!

Read through the article carefully looking for information that is new to you.

Write five pieces of information from this article, that you already knew about Anzac Day.

Write four pieces of information from the article, that you did not know before.

Write three questions related to Anzac Day that you would still like to find out about

Write two pieces of information related to Anzac Day that you know, that is not in this article.

Write one thing you will do this year to commemorate Anzac Day.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Humanities and Social Sciences - History, Personal and Social Capability

2. Extension
What does Anzac Day mean to you? Do you have a personal connection with someone who was involved in World War I (a grandparent or great grandparent)? Or know someone or of someone who was involved in another war? Is there someone you know who is in the defence forces now? Have you heard stories about the mateship and bravery of our soldiers? Or do you have another perspective? Look through some of the activities suggested by the Australian War Memorial that you can do from home this year.

Write a paragraph that explains how you feel about Anzac Day and what it means to you and why it is an important day for Australians and New Zealanders.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Humanities and Social Sciences - History, Personal and Social Capability

VCOP ACTIVITY
Proper noun police
A proper noun is a noun that names a particular person, place or thing. It always has a capital letter.

How many proper nouns can you find within this article? Find them all and sort them into the category of name, place, time (date/month).

Can you find any proper nouns included in your writing? What are they? Can you sort them into their categories?

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What does Anzac Day mean and how did it begin? Kids News explains

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WHAT IS ANZAC DAY? Anzac Day, on April 25 each year, is a national day of remembrance* for Australians and New Zealanders at home and around the world. The day marks the anniversary of the first big military action by Australian and New Zealand soldiers in World War I on April 25, 1915.

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Anzac Day occurs on 25 April every year. On this day we remember and honour all Australians who have served in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations around the world, including the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Incredibly, more than 100 years have passed since Australia's involvement in the First World War.

The following information about Anzac Day can be found below:

A printable PDF of the information on this page is available in the right-hand column.

World War I

World War I was a defining period in Australian history. Taking place only 13 years after the federation of Australia, it was one of the first major international conflicts in which our young nation had been involved.

World War I began in August 1914 when Britain and Germany declared war on each other. In the same year, Australia followed Britain into war when both the Prime Minister Joseph Cook, and the Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher, declared Australia's support for Britain. At that time 416,809 men enlisted to fight for Australia. Of these men, over 60,000 were killed and 152,000 were injured. One of the most significant events of World War I for Australians was the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli in Turkey.

Gallipoli

Of all the events in Australia's history, the battle at Gallipoli in World War I stands out as having defined the spirit of our nation.

Although Gallipoli represents different things to different people, the story of the ANZACs who fought at Gallipoli is one of perseverance and courage in the face of failure and despair.

After four months of training in Egypt, the ANZAC troops left for Gallipoli. At dawn on 25 April 1915 they landed at a beach now known as ANZAC Cove. The landing was nightmarish; the beach was at the bottom of a steep slope, meaning that the ANZACs had a tough and dangerous struggle to climb up the beach as the well-organised Turkish troops rained shells and gunfire down onto them from the top of the cliff.

Here is the failure and the legend of the ANZACs: they had landed in the wrong position. They had meant to land on a flat beach where they would have had a better chance of reaching the shore to attack enemy troops.

Instead, the ANZACs and the Turkish troops reached a deadlock, with neither able to take any new ground for months. The ANZACs began evacuating on 20 December 1915. The Australians had spent only eight months in Gallipoli, but in this short time had suffered 25,000 casualties, including 8700 deaths.

The bravery and endurance of Australian troops in the face of death is what turned this horrific event into a legend that has helped to shape our country.

The Battle of Fromelles

The Battle of Fromelles was fought between Australian and German troops in France during World War I. It was the first battle involving Australians on the Western Front. The battle began at 6pm on 19 July 1916 and ended the next morning (20 July) at 8am. During this short period, the Australians suffered around 7000 casualties (including 2400 killed) compared to the 1600 German casualties. Although the remains of many Australians were recovered from the battlefield, many were left unaccounted for, even after the war had ended.

Ninety years later, a Melbourne school teacher and amateur historian named Lambis Englezos began compiling evidence to prove that the remains of hundreds of Australian and British troops lay in mass unmarked graves behind the German line at Fromelles. Englezos' research was so compelling that, in 2008, an official investigation was launched. The Oxford Archaeology team set to work recovering the remains of 250 Australian and British soldiers. DNA testing is being used to identify the soldiers and is helping to bring peace to the families of those who remained missing for so long.

The fallen soldiers have been laid to rest with full military honours at the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery in France.

The Somme Offensive

One of the reasons for the Battle of Fromelles was to draw German troops away from the Somme offensive, which was taking place in a region of France called the Somme Valley. The Somme Valley was the backdrop to many of the bloodiest conflicts and terrible conditions in 1916 and 1917.

During the first day of the offensive, 1 July 1916, the British army had 60,000 casualties, with nearly a third of those dead. For Britain, this campaign was terribly costly, and destroyed their volunteer army, meaning that they had to rely on conscription to replenish the army.

The Somme offensive heavily affected the number of Australian troops, as volunteer numbers decreased when people back home realised the true tragedies of war. In 1916, Prime Minister Billy Hughes called for a referendum (a majority rules by the people of Australia) to decide whether conscription should be introduced in Australia or not. The Nation said 'No', however, in 1917, Hughes called for another referendum, where again, Australia's response was 'No'.

The ANZAC Spirit

To cope with the tragic losses our country saw at Gallipoli, the men and women of Australia searched for the positive in the experience. To get through such a horrendous time the soldiers had to develop strong bonds with each other and demonstrate extraordinary courage, endurance and bravery.

So, today, when you hear someone speak about the ANZAC spirit, think of courage, bravery, endurance, mateship, determination and sacrifice. These are the values that were demonstrated so strongly by the soldiers at Gallipoli and are important in defining Australia as a nation.

Simpson and his donkey

One man who exemplified the ANZAC spirit was Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick. Simpson, as he was known, was a stretcher-bearer in the Australian Army Medical Corps. Night or day, he rescued injured men from the battle line at Monash Valley and transported them to safety at ANZAC Cove on the back of his donkey. The donkey had originally been brought to Gallipoli for carrying water but, with Simpson, it found a much greater cause. In only 24 days at Gallipoli, Simpson and his donkey rescued around 300 wounded soldiers.

Honouring the ANZACs

In 1916, one year after the Gallipoli landing, 25 April was officially declared as Anzac Day. In the beginning, Anzac Day honoured the ANZACs. However, after World War II, Anzac Day came to be about honouring all veterans, servicemen and women, alive or dead. Anzac Day commemorates everyone who has been involved in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations, from the Occupation of Japan, to the Korean War, to the Vietnam War, to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Over the years, many Anzac Day traditions have formed. Since 1927, Anzac Day has begun with a Dawn Service. Dawn is a symbolic time. The landing at Gallipoli occurred at dawn, and soldiers are customarily woken before dawn and called to 'stand-to' (meaning to man their positions).

Dawn Services generally incorporate the following elements: veterans are called to 'stand-to', followed by one or two minutes of silence to remember the fallen, then the silence is broken by a single bugle (a brass horn instrument) playing the Last Post. The Last Post was originally played during war to tell soldiers the day was over. When the Last Post is played at memorial services it symbolises that the duty of the dead is over and that they are able to rest in peace. Today, services often include the reading of hymns and poems, a gun salute and Reveille (the bugle call to wake up).

Anzac Day parades are also held, with ex-servicemen and women marching in uniform. Flowers and wreaths are laid on graves or memorials. A poppy or sprig of rosemary is worn on Anzac Day. Rosemary is for remembrance and poppies symbolise the bloodshed in war. During World War I, red poppies were the first plants to grow on the devastated French and Belgian battlefields. Soldiers used to say that their red colour came from all the blood spilt on the ground. On Anzac Day, flags are lowered to half-mast as a sign of honour, respect and mourning.

Some Australians choose to travel to Gallipoli in Turkey for an Anzac Day service by the beach. Others travel to France for the services at Villers-Bretonneux and Bullecourt.

Harefield Park - England

A man who certainly demonstrated the ANZAC spirit was a wealthy Australian named Charles Billyard-Leake who, in 1914, was living at Harefield Park: a large manor house in Middlesex, England. Charles was too old to join the army in 1914 (when World War I began), but he still wanted to support the war effort of his birth country. He did this by allowing his house and its large, sprawling grounds to be used as a hospital for ANZAC soldiers. Throughout the war, and for six months after it finished, 50,000 ANZACs stayed at Harefield Hospital. The King and Queen of England also paid a visit in 1915.

Today the students from a local primary school, Harefield Junior School, are keeping this time in history alive by studying the stories of Australian soldiers who stayed at Harefield Hospital. The local village holds an Anzac Day celebration every year, where children parade through the town before laying wreaths or flowers on some of the 111 graves of Australian soldiers and one nurse.

A flag from Harefield School was used to cover the coffins of the soldiers who died at Harefield Hospital. This flag now hangs in Adelaide High School in South Australia, as a sign of their shared history. During World War I, the Adelaide High School community sent parcels of food and money donations to every student and teacher at Harefield School. The two communities still keep in contact today.

It's not all about history

Anzac Day is not all about history. Even though Australia is not at war, many Australians are currently serving in wars and peacekeeping operations overseas. Anzac Day is a particularly important date to Australians with friends or family members in the Australian Defence Force (ADF). On Anzac Day, many families think of their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers or sisters who are in war zones or on peacekeeping missions overseas.

There are currently thousands of ADF personnel based around the world. In many locations, Australians are working with other nations such as New Zealand, France, Canada and the USA to maintain peace and stability. Peacekeeping is a major role of the ADF.

Some of the tasks performed by ADF personnel can be as simple as providing dental and medical care to locals, or veterinary assistance to livestock on farms. These acts, although seemingly simple, can change people's lives.

Anzac Day fast facts

The ANZAC Centenary was commemorated from 2014 to 2018, with services and events across the country and around the world. On 25 April 2015 (exactly 100 years since the original landing at Gallipoli) the traditional Dawn Service at Gallipoli in Turkey was attended by more than 8,000 Australians, 2,000 New Zealanders and 500 official representatives from other Nations, forming a 10,500 strong crowd.

The mothers, sisters and wives left behind during World War I sent Anzac biscuits made of oats, sugar, flour, coconut, butter and golden syrup to their sons, brothers and husbands at Gallipoli. Anzac biscuits were hard and long-lasting, designed to survive the long journey to the troops. Some men crushed them, mixed them with water and ate them like porridge.

The last surviving ANZAC, Alec Campbell, died on 16 May 2002.

World War I was often referred to as the 'Great War'.

In World War I, Australians not only served at Gallipoli but also on the Western Front (France and Belgium) as well as in the Middle East.

The Australian Imperial Force (AIF), the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Light Horse and the Australian Flying Corps all fought in World War I.

The word ANZAC has been protected by Australian legislation since 1921. This ensures that the word is not misused. To use the word you must seek permission from the Minister for Veterans' Affairs.

Although women were not allowed to fight in World War I, many tended to the injured troops overseas and in Australia as members of the Australian Army Nursing Service.

Simpson's donkey was most often called Duffy, but was also called Abdul or Murphy.

Two decades after the end of World War I, Australia once again followed Britain into war for World War II.

References

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FTfs contains free curriculum-appropriate primary and middle-years education resources that can be easily adapted to individual student learning requirements (https://www.forteachersforstudents.com.au)

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The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps ( ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood commanded the corps, which primarily consisted of troops from the First Australian Imperial Force and 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force, although there were also British and Indian units attached at times throughout the campaign. The corps disbanded in 1916, following the Allied evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula and the formation of I ANZAC Corps and II ANZAC Corps. The corps was reestablished, briefly, in the Second World War during the Battle of Greece in 1941.

Original formation

Plans for the formation began in November 1914 while the first contingent of Australian and New Zealand troops were still in convoy bound for, as they thought, Europe. However, following the experiences of the Canadian Expeditionary Force encamped on Salisbury Plain, where there was a shortage of accommodation and equipment, it was decided not to subject the Australians and New Zealanders to the English winter, and so they were diverted to Egypt for training before moving on to the Western Front in France. The British Secretary of State for War, Horatio Kitchener, appointed General William Birdwood, an officer of the British Indian Army, to the command of the corps and he furnished most of the corps staff from the Indian Army as well. Birdwood arrived in Cairo on 21 December 1914 to assume command of the corps.

It was originally intended to name the corps the Australasian Army Corps, this title being used in the unit diary in line with the common practice of the time which often saw New Zealanders and Australians compete together as Australasia in sporting events. However, complaints from New Zealand recruits led to adoption of the name Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The administration clerks found the title too cumbersome so quickly adopted the abbreviation A. & N.Z.A.C. or simply ANZAC. Shortly afterwards it was officially adopted as the codename for the corps, but it did not enter common usage amongst the troops until after the Gallipoli landings.

At the outset, the corps comprised two divisions; the Australian Division, composed of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Australian Infantry Brigades and the New Zealand and Australian Division, composed of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, Australian 1st Light Horse Brigade and 4th Australian Infantry Brigade. The 2nd and 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigades were assigned as corps level troops, belonging to neither division.

Despite being synonymous with Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC was a multi-national body: in addition to the many British officers in the corps and division staffs, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps contained, at various points, the 7th Brigade of the Indian Mountain Artillery, Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps troops, the Zion Mule Corps, several battalions from the Royal Naval Division, the British 13th (Western) Division, one brigade of the British 10th (Irish) Division and the 29th Indian Brigade.

Later formations

Following the evacuation of Gallipoli in December 1915, the Australian and New Zealand units reassembled in Egypt. The New Zealand contingent expanded to form their own division; the New Zealand Division. The First Australian Imperial Force underwent a major reorganisation resulting in the formation of two new divisions; the 4th and 5th divisions. (The Australian 3rd Division was forming in Australia and would be sent directly to England and then to France.) These divisions were reformed into two corps: I ANZAC Corps and II ANZAC Corps. I ANZAC Corps, under the command of General Birdwood, departed for France in early 1916. II ANZAC Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Alexander Godley, followed soon after.

In January 1916, the 4th (ANZAC) Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps, was formed with Australian and New Zealand troops. The 1st and 3rd Battalions were Australian, while the 2nd Battalion was British. Then in March 1916, the ANZAC Mounted Division with three Australian and one New Zealand brigade, was formed for service in Egypt and Palestine. There was also the 1st (ANZAC) Wireless Signal Squadron, which served with the British expeditionary force in Mesopotamia in 1916-1917.

In early 1916, the Australian and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand governments sought the creation of an Australian and New Zealand Army, which would have included the New Zealand Division and all of the Australian infantry divisions, but this did not occur.

World War II

During World War II, the Australian I Corps HQ moved to Greece in April 1941. As the corps also controlled the New Zealand 2nd Division (along with Greek and British formations), it was officially renamed ANZAC Corps in April. The Battle of Greece was over in weeks and the corps HQ left Greece on 23-24 April, with the name ANZAC Corps no longer being used.

Some troops evacuated to Alexandria, but the majority were sent to Crete to reinforce its garrison against an expected air and sea German invasion. Australians and New Zealanders were respectively deployed around the cities of Rethymno and Chania in western Crete with a smaller Australian force being positioned in Heraklion. The invasion began the morning of 20 May and, after the fierce Battle of Crete, which lasted ten days, Crete fell to the Germans. Most of the defenders of Chania withdrew across the island to the south coast and were evacuated by the Royal Navy from Sfakia. Many others evaded capture for several months, hiding in the mountains with generous assistance from the local Cretan population. Others who were captured and transported to Axis POW camps in mainland Europe were able to escape en route via Yugoslavia. Those who escaped found refuge with Chetniks and Yugoslav Partisans until they were either repatriated or recaptured by Axis forces.

Other conflicts

During the Vietnam War, two companies from the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment were integrated into Royal Australian Regiment battalions. These integrated battalions had the suffix (ANZAC) added to their name (for example, 4 RAR became the 4RAR/NZ (ANZAC) Battalion). An ANZAC battalion served as one of the infantry battalions of the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) from early March 1968 until its withdrawal in December 1971. Due to the rotation of forces there were a total of five combined battalions of this period.

The ANZAC Battle Group was the official designation of Australian and New Zealand units deployed to Timor Leste as part of Operation Astute. The battle group was established in September 2006.

In Spanish: Cuerpos del ejército australiano y neozelandés para niños

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Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Facts for Kids

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Learn Australian and New Zealand Army Corps facts for kids

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New South Wales

In 1848 a man named William Tipple Smith found the first payable gold in Australia. (Payable gold means enough gold to be paid for it.) He found it in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. However, when he told the government about his discovery they did not want the information to get out. England had established the colonies as penal settlements, places where criminals were sent to live. The colonial governments feared the discovery of gold would lead to an increase in crime or a convict uprising. The New South Wales government changed its approach after thousands of people left the colony to head to California in North America for the gold rush of 1848. The loss of colonists caused a shortage of workers and an economic downturn. To reverse these issues, the government offered a reward for the discovery of large amounts of gold in the colony. In 1849 Smith went back to the government to ask for a reward for his discovery. The government then claimed that he had brought the gold from California.

For many years Edward Hammond Hargraves was credited as the first person to find payable gold in Australia. Hargraves went to the Bathurst region in east-central New South Wales to find gold. He assembled a team of miners: John Lister and three brothers, William, James, and Henry Tom. Hargraves taught the team different ways to look for gold. On February 12, 1851, Hargraves discovered flecks of gold in Lewis Ponds Creek. Lister and the Tom brothers later found large gold nuggets. Hargraves bought the nuggets from them. He did not want to share the government reward so he claimed to have found the nuggets himself. Almost 40 years later, in 1890, the government of New South Wales finally acknowledged that Lister and the Tom brothers were the real discoverers of the gold that Hargraves claimed to have found. Meanwhile, news of the 1851 Bathurst discovery spread worldwide. Within a year, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia to find their fortunes.

Smith finally received credit for his discovery in 2020. Some of his descendants worked for years to prove that his story was true. They found evidence to support the story, and in 2020 the government of New South Wales helped create a memorial to Smith in the cemetery where he is buried.

Victoria

Other colonies wanted to attract new settlers as well. The government of Victoria offered a reward to anyone who found gold within 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Melbourne. In August 1851 James Regan and John Dunlop discovered gold in Ballarat. Ballarat became the most productive alluvial goldfield in the world at that time. (Alluvial gold means gold found in riverbeds, streambeds, and floodplains.) Many other discoveries in Victoria followed. Victoria's gold deposits were so rich that the colony accounted for more than one-third of the world's gold production during the 1850s. The largest alluvial gold nugget ever found was in Victoria. On February 5, 1869, miners found the "Welcome Stranger" nugget. It weighed 159 pounds (72 kilograms).

Other Colonies

The first major gold find in Queensland came in 1867. James Nash discovered gold in Gympie, a small town about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Brisbane. The Gympie gold rush brought about 25,000 people to the area. In late 1871 an Aboriginal boy named Jupiter Mosman found gold in a stream in northeast Queensland. The town of Charters Towers was founded at the site, and miners flooded in. In 1882 Edwin and Thomas Morgan made one of Australia's most important gold strikes, at Ironstone Mountain. The mountain, which the brothers renamed Mount Morgan, became known as the "mountain of gold." It was one of Queensland's richest and longest surviving gold mines. Work continued at the site until 1981.

Promising gold rushes occurred in Western Australia in the 1880s and 1890s. Two of the most widely known finds in Western Australia were at what became known as Coolgardie in 1892 and at Kalgoorlie in 1893. However, that colony's goldfields posed great challenges for miners. The desert landscape increased the miners' risks of disease, dehydration, and heatstroke. Other areas of Australia did not produce as much gold as the eastern colonies and Western Australia.

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New South Wales In 1848 a man named William Tipple Smith found the first payable gold in Australia. (Payable gold means enough gold to be paid for it.) He found it in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. However, when he told the government about his discovery they did not want the information to get out.

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Date

May 1851 - c. 1914

Location
Australia

Type

Gold rush

Theme

Significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered

Cause

prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange

Outcome

Changed the convict colonies into more progressive cities with the influx of free immigrants; Western Australia joined Federation

The Australian gold rush was a large number of gold discoveries in Australia. During those gold rushes, significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered. A number of gold finds occurred in Australia prior to 1851, but only the gold found from 1851 onwards created gold rushes. This is mainly because, prior to 1851, the colonial government of New South Wales (Victoria did not become a separate colony until 1 July 1851) had suppressed news of gold finds which it believed would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy.

After the California Gold Rush began in 1848, which caused many people to leave Australia for California to look for gold there, the New South Wales government rethought its position, and sought approval from the Colonial Office in England to allow the exploitation of the mineral resources and also offered rewards for the finding of payable gold.

Thousands of people came to Australia in the hope of finding a lot of gold and becoming rich. The first rush started in 1851 when gold was found near Bathurst, New South Wales and ended with the last rush in 1893 to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. At each place gold was easily found in rivers and creeks. This was known as alluvial gold and could be found by individual miners using very basic equipment such as a spade and a dish. In most places this alluvial gold was taken in the first few months. To get at the gold that was buried deeper in the ground meant that miners needed to work together and dig tunnels. Eventually large companies were started to raise money so that deep gold mines could be built.

The gold rushes happened when alluvial gold was found. Miners would quickly move there in the hope of being the first to find the surface gold. For example, miners rushing to Clunes, Victoria in August 1851, quickly changed their minds and went to Buninyong when they heard of a new gold discovery. Weeks later gold was found at Ballarat a few miles to the north and within six weeks there were more than 10,000 people digging. But by 1852 most miners had left Ballarat and rushed to the new goldfields at Bendigo. In 1854, miners in Ballarat were angry and upset at paying for gold licences. They burned their licences and raised the Eureka Stockade flag in protest. The miners fought soldiers and police officers to protect their rights. This was called the Eureka Stockade. Many people died, but afterwards the miners didn't have to pay for their licences anymore.

Before the gold rush

Gold had been found in Australia before the 1851 gold rush. At first people would not believe the stories. A convict who found gold near Bathurst in 1823 was given 150 lashes with a whip as it was believed he must have stolen it. The explorer Count Paul Strzelecki found gold in the Australian Alps in 1839. The government kept it a secret as they did not want to lose control of the convicts if they went rushing off to search for gold. Gold was also found at:

Gold rushes in New South Wales

The first gold rush was in New South Wales. There were many others during the next 30 years.

Gold rushes in Victoria

Clunes, 28 June 1851

Warrandyte, at Anderson's Creek, July 1851

Castlemaine, 20 July 1851

Buninyong, 2 August 1851

Ballarat, 8 August 1851

Bendigo, October 1851

Beechworth, February 1852

Yackandandah, May 1852

Eaglehawk, May 1852

Omeo, 1852

Heathcote 1852

Walhalla, February 1853

Maldon, June 1853

Buckland River, July 1853

Waranga, 3 August 1853

Creswick, 1853

Ararat, October 1854

Daylesford

Blackwood, February 1855

St Arnaud, 1855

Dunnolly

Tarnagulla

Moliagul

Wedderburn, 1852

Rheola

Inglewood

Kingower

Stawell, 1857

Chiltern 1858

Barkly 1859

Wood's Point, 1862

Gaffney's Creek

Jamieson

Matlock

Gold rushes in South Australia

Onkaparinga, October 1852

Teetulpa, 1886

Gold rushes in Western Australia

Gold rushes in Queensland

Gold rushes in the Northern Territory

Images for kids

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Date May 1851 - c. 1914 Location Australia Type Gold rush Theme Significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered Cause prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange Outcome Changed the convict colonies into more progressive cities with the influx of free immigrants; Western Australia joined Federation The Australian gold rush was a large number of gold discoveries in Australia.

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Gold in Victoria

Mining and migration

The earliest gold in Victoria was found on the surface. Miners used simple picks and pans to separate gold from rock, soil and water.

People rushed to the goldfields from places including the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe and China. Sometimes there was conflict.

The miners needed goods and services and businesses such as butchers and blacksmiths flourished. When the surface gold ran out, miners dug deep into the ground.

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The lure of instant wealth drew people from all over the world to the Victorian goldfields, but life was hard and only a few struck it rich.

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Information for kids K - 6 about Australia’s gold rush 1851 -61, including life and conditions on the goldfields. Includes easy to read section for early readers. For school and homeschooling projects or just reading for interest.

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Introduction
State Library of New South Wales (a1528046)

Most European settlers in Australia in the early colonial years were convicts sent by the British government. There were also some free settlers, however-people who chose to leave their homes in Britain and make a new life in the colony. Those who made the long and difficult journey to Australia received assistance from the British government, which wanted to make the remote colony stable and capable of supporting itself.

The First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788 carrying more than 700 convicts to start a new penal settlement at Sydney. Additional convict ships arrived in 1790 and 1791. Those early fleets also brought hundreds of free people to the colony, mostly soldiers and their families. However, the first people to be considered free settlers-that is, people who made their own decision to migrate to the colony-arrived aboard the Bellona in early 1793. Thomas Rose and his family, plus several others, settled on land that they called Liberty Plains, which is now in the suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Although free settlers continued to arrive in New South Wales in the years that followed, they were outnumbered by convicts for the first few decades.

The first free settlers paid their own way to Australia, meaning that they were typically quite prosperous. To encourage free settlement among the less wealthy, the British colonial government began to pay the transportation costs for many migrants in the early 1800s. It also gave them free land on the condition that it be used for a productive purpose. The offer appealed to people who were suffering from unemployment and poverty in Britain as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The government also provided the settlers with free agricultural tools and convict labor to help them establish farms.

New South Wales was not the only colony with free settlers. The Swan River Colony in western Australia was founded as a free settlement in 1829. It was renamed Western Australia in 1832. The colony struggled, however, and by the 1840s the colonists were in need of additional workers to keep the settlement viable. At their request the British government converted Western Australia to a convict colony in 1849. South Australia, founded in 1836, was the only British colony in Australia to begin as a free settlement and remain that way.

The colonization of Australia happened at the expense of the continent's Indigenous peoples. At first, relations between the Aboriginal peoples and the European newcomers were generally friendly. Conflict soon developed, however, as the Europeans expanded their settlements into Aboriginal territory. Aboriginal resistance to the invasion of their lands led to violent clashes. Ultimately, more than 20,000 Aboriginal people and almost 2,000 Europeans are estimated to have died in the conflicts. Two of the most notorious events were the Myall Creek Massacre in New South Wales and the Pinjarra Massacre in Western Australia. Diseases carried by the colonists killed many more Aboriginal people.

In the 1830s and 1840s both the British public and the Australian colonists grew increasingly critical of transportation-the British practice of shipping convicts to Australia. The British government ended transportation to eastern Australia in 1852. In Western Australia transportation continued until 1868. After that, all of Australia's settlers were free.

Life was very hard for most of Australia's early settlers. The colonists of New South Wales struggled to find fertile land, and the hot, dry climate made farming even more difficult. The seasons were different from Britain's, and most of the plants and animals were unfamiliar. Starvation was a constant concern during the colony's first few years. All of the settlers-men, women, and children-had to contribute to keep the colony from failing. Conditions improved in the early 1800s as settlers expanded inland from the coast, opening up more fertile lands for farming as well as vast tracts for raising livestock.

Most of the early free settlers were farmers. They developed the land that the government granted them with the help of convicts assigned to work for them. The first challenges were to clear the often thickly wooded land and to build a fence around it. Then they did their best to grow crops in the unfamiliar environment, learning from their successes and failures. Wheat became an important crop. They also made great strides in raising cattle and sheep, particularly Merinos. The export of wool became a crucial source of income for the colony.

Some free settlers worked in trades, such as carpentry or blacksmithing. Their skills were highly valued in building the colony. There were also small numbers of doctors, lawyers, and clergy.

Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Women played important roles in the development of colonial Australia. Married women typically managed their households, which included raising and teaching children. Single women often worked as house servants. Some educated women served as tutors or governesses. Women also worked alongside men in doing the hard labor required to build the colony.

In the first years of the New South Wales colony, food was so scarce that everyone-from the convicts to Governor Arthur Phillip -received rations. That means that each person received measured amounts of foods, such as pork, flour, and rice, which were brought to the colony by ship. Anyone caught trying to steal food faced severe punishment. The food shortages eased as the settlers learned to grow crops.

Soon the settlers began to make use of native foods. They adapted recipes from home using local meats such as kangaroo, wombat, and emu. They learned which wild fruits and nuts were good to eat. They also obtained abundant fish and shellfish from the sea, developing an especially strong appetite for Sydney rock oysters.

The first settlers found an abundance of trees, but few were useful for building. The eucalyptus (gum) trees in the Sydney area were large and bulky, and their wood was so hard that it often broke the settlers' tools. Over time the settlers found different kinds of trees that were strong and durable but easier to cut. With wood from those trees they built crude homes known as slab huts. They split pieces of timber from logs, using some to make posts and leaving others as rough slabs. They used the posts to build a frame and the slabs to make walls. The roof was made of thatch, shingles split from trees, or sheets of bark. Bark roofs were modeled on those they saw on the shelters of Aboriginal peoples.

The settlers also built houses using a technique called wattle and daub. They put wooden stakes in the ground and wove branches between them to make walls. They then daubed (smeared) the walls with clay or mud to make them weatherproof. Acacia trees were most commonly used for those houses because of their flexible branches. For that reason Australian acacias are often called wattles. Wattle-and-daub houses usually had two rooms, one with a fireplace and chimney.

The houses of wealthy landowners and government officials were larger and more elaborate. Built by convict laborers, they were typically made from materials such as sandstone or brick and surrounded by gardens. Those homes usually consisted of many rooms, including living quarters for the servants.

Children's Lives
The children of most free settlers had to work hard alongside their mothers and fathers. Typical chores included fetching water from the well or river, washing the dishes, helping with the laundry, and gathering wood. Children also did farm work, such as feeding the hens, gathering eggs, milking the cows, shearing sheep, and harvesting crops. Girls were expected to knit and sew, cook, clean, and make beds as well as look after younger siblings. Boys sometimes helped their fathers in construction work. There were few schools in the early years of settlement, and most children did not attend. Schooling did not become compulsory (required by law) in New South Wales until 1880.

Children in wealthy families had more privileged lives. Servants did the work that occupied so much of the time of children in poorer families. Children of the elite attended school or were educated at home by tutors or governesses. Some wealthy parents sent their children back to England to be educated.

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Most European settlers in Australia in the early colonial years were convicts sent by the British government. There were also some free settlers, however-people who chose to...

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Koalas are marsupials, related to kangaroos.

OFFICIAL NAME: Commonwealth of Australia

FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Federal parliamentary democracy; Commonwealth realm

CAPITAL: Canberra

POPULATION: 23,470,145

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: English

MONEY: Australian dollar

AREA: 2,969,906 square miles (7,692,024 square kilometers)

MAJOR MOUNTAIN RANGES: Great Dividing Range, Macdonnell Ranges

MAJOR RIVERS: Murray-Darling, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan

Australia is the only country in the world that covers an entire continent. It is one of the largest countries on Earth. Although it is rich in natural resources and has a lot of fertile land, more than one-third of Australia is desert.

Most Australian cities and farms are located in the southwest and southeast, where the climate is more comfortable. There are dense rain forests in the northeast. The famous outback (remote rural areas) contains the country's largest deserts, where there are scorching temperatures, little water, and almost no vegetation.

Running around the eastern and southeastern edge of Australia is the Great Dividing Range. This 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) stretch of mountain sends water down into Australia's most important rivers and the Great Artesian Basin, the largest groundwater source in the world.
Map created by National Geographic Maps

PEOPLE & CULTURE

Australia is one of the world's most ethnically diverse nations. Nearly a quarter of the people who live in Australia were born in other countries. They come from the United Kingdom and other European countries, but also from China, Vietnam, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Australia's warm, sunny climate and abundance of open spaces gives the population a love of the outdoors. The people are also passionate about sports, including swimming, surfing, sailing, tennis, soccer, cricket, rugby, and their own invention, Australian rules football.

Australia's ecosystem is an unusual one because of its remote location. As a result, there are many animal species that occur here and nowhere else in the world, such as the platypus, kangaroo, echidna, and koala. Australia has 516 national parks to protect its unique plants and animals.

One of Australia's most amazing sites rises like an enormous whale's back from a flat red-soil desert called the Red Center. This site is called Uluru, and it is a sacred natural formation at the heart of the country. Rising 1,100 feet (335 meters) tall, it is the largest rock in the world!

Australia is home to many of the deadliest species of animals on the planet. There are 36 species of poisonous funnel-web spiders in eastern Australia. There are also 20 types of venomous snakes, including the taipan, which attacks without warning and bites repeatedly, killing its victim in minutes.

There are several types of rain forests in Australia. Tropical rain forests, mainly found in the northeast, are the richest in plant and animal species. Subtropical rain forests are found near the mid-eastern coast, and broadleaf rain forests grow in the southeast and on the island of Tasmania.

GOVERNMENT

As a commonwealth of the United Kingdom, Australia's head of state is the British monarch. Many Australians think the country should end its ties to Britain and become a republic. In a vote in 1999, Australians decided against separating from the UK, but the vote was close, and the debate continues.

Australia is an important exporter of agricultural goods like wool, wheat, beef, fruit, and wine. The country is also rich in minerals and metals and is the world's fourth largest producer of gold.

Aboriginal people arrived in Australia about 50,000 years ago. They may have traveled from Asia across land bridges that were exposed when sea levels were lower. The hardy Aborigines have learned to live in the harsh conditions of the outback.

Dutch explorers first landed in Australia in 1606, and the British began to settle there in 1788. Many settlers were criminals sent to live in Australia as punishment. For a short time, the newcomers lived peacefully with the Aboriginal people. But soon, fighting broke out over who owned the land.

In 1851, gold was discovered in Australia. A rush to find riches brought thousands of new immigrants, and by 1859, six separate colonies existed. In 1901, these colonies joined to form a British commonwealth.

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Australia Country Profile - National Geographic Kids

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Australia is the only country in the world that covers an entire continent. It is one of the largest countries on Earth.

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Disappearance of Harold Holt - Wikipedia

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A search party combing Cheviot Beach after Holt’s disappearance

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Information on records about Harold Holt's disappearance.

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From the Archives, 1967: Harold Holt vanishes during Portsea swim

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In 1967, the Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea. Despite an extensive search, his body was never found.

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Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Sydney Harbour from the central business district to the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. Nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, the bridge carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.[1]
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is featured briefly in the Australian dub of the documentary as a cameo, Decaying and featured again in Waves of Devastation.

It was introduced in 4 years after people when trouble is brewing for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The episode explains that it is nicknamed the Coathanger by locals and is one of the tallest steel arch bridges in the world made with the special ability to expand and contract. The bridge towers 430 feet above the harbour water but in Australia's extreme heat, the steel arch expands to grow a foot taller during the day and shrinking back to size at night. After 4 years in the strong sun and salty air of Sydney Harbour, signs of corrosion are everywhere and corrosion in one particular area could doom the bridge. It has hinges to allow the bridge to grow taller and are at each end of the massive single arch, but corrosion soon cause the hinges to lock together. It concludes the segment by asking that what will happen if the bridge loses the ability to expand & contract.

Its fate is then revealed in 100 years after people when within sight of where the majestic Sydney Opera House once stood, the bridge is nearing it's own end. The aging steel of the bridge is under tremendous stress and the hingers at each end of the arch once allowed the bridge to expand during the hot Australian days have became corroded and locked long ago. The pressure and severe corrosion finally cause a cascade of crumbling supports for the deck to crack and the bridge collapses into the harbor.

the collapse sequence looks stale and the rest of the bridge didn't react or cascade to its collapse, instead each end of the bridge is left dangling while the center section crumbles into the river.

The Sydney Opera House is seen in the background, despite that it sunk 25 years earlier.

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The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Sydney Harbour from the central business district to the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself.

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Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1930

Connecting the city

Sydney Harbour is one of the finest natural harbours in the world. As Sydney expanded in the 1800s, so did the need for a bridge to connect the city and the north shore.

Three design competitions were held from 1900 to 1903, then the project was abandoned. In 1922, the government committed to build an arch-type bridge. In 1924, United Kingdom firm Dorman Long and Co was appointed and work began with the demolition of hundreds of buildings to make way for the bridge and its approach roads.

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Sydney Harbour is one of the finest natural harbours in the world. As Sydney expanded in the 1800s, so did the need for a bridge to connect the city and the north shore. Three design competitions were held from 1900 to 1903, then the project was abandoned.

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Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world's heaviest steel arch bridge. About 53,000 tons of steel were used in its construction. Its total length is about 3,770 feet (1,149 meters), and the top of the bridge stands 440 feet (134 meters) above the harbor. It carries eight lanes of traffic and two rail lines. There is a cycleway for bikes and a walkway for pedestrians.

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Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world's heaviest steel arch bridge. About 53,000 tons of steel were used in its construction. Its total length is about 3,770 feet (1,149 meters), and the top of the bridge stands 440 feet (134 meters) above the harbor. It carries eight lanes of traffic and two rail lines.

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The Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney Harbour, is a bridge that joins north Sydney with south Sydney. People can cross the bridge by car, walking or by train. There is a tunnel that goes underneath. The bridge is an important tourist attraction. The scenery attracts many tourists and people living in or near the city. One of the many attractions of the Harbour Bridge is its famous 'BridgeClimb'. Luna Park Sydney is located next to the bridge.

The bridge is 1,149 metres (3,770 feet) long, and 49 m (161 ft) wide. The highest point of the arch is 134 m (440 ft) tall. Building began on 19 March 1923 and ended in 1932. John Bradfield led the bridge's building.

The total financial cost of the bridge was AU£ 6.25 million, which was not paid off in full until 1988.

The southern end of the bridge is located at Dawes Point in The Rocks area, and the northern end at Milsons Point in the lower North Shore area. There are six original lanes of road traffic through the main roadway, plus an additional two lanes of road traffic on its eastern side, using lanes that were formerly tram tracks. Adjacent to the road traffic, a path for pedestrian use runs along the eastern side of the bridge, whilst a dedicated path for bicycle use only runs along the western side; between the main roadway and the western bicycle path lies the North Shore railway line.

The main roadway across the bridge is known as the Bradfield Highway and is about 2.4 km (1.5 mi) long, making it one of the shortest highways in Australia.

The arch is composed of two 28-panel arch trusses; their heights vary from 18 m (59 ft) at the centre of the arch to 57 m (187 ft) at the ends next to the pylons.

The arch has a span of 504 m (1,654 ft) and its summit is 134 m (440 ft) above mean sea level; expansion of the steel structure on hot days can increase the height of the arch by 18 cm (7.1 in).

The total weight of the steelwork of the bridge, including the arch and approach spans, is 52,800 tonnes (52,000 long tons; 58,200 short tons), with the arch itself weighing 39,000 tonnes (38,000 long tons; 43,000 short tons). About 79% of the steel, specifically those technical sections constituting the curve of the arch, was imported pre-formed from England, with the rest being sourced from Newcastle. On site, the contractors (Dorman Long and Co.) set up two workshops at Milsons Point, at the site of the present day Luna Park, and fabricated the steel into the girders and other required parts.

The bridge is held together by six million Australian-made hand-driven rivets supplied by the McPherson company of Melbourne, the last being driven through the deck on 21 January 1932. The rivets were heated red-hot and inserted into the plates; the headless end was immediately rounded over with a large pneumatic rivet gun. The largest of the rivets used weighed 3.5 kg (8 lb) and was 39.5 cm (15.6 in) long. The practice of riveting large steel structures, rather than welding, was, at the time, a proven and understood construction technique, whilst structural welding had not at that stage been adequately developed for use on the bridge.

At each end of the arch stands a pair of 89 m (292 ft) high concrete pylons, faced with granite. The pylons were designed by the Scottish architect Thomas S. Tait, a partner in the architectural firm John Burnet & Partners.

Some 250 Australian, Scottish, and Italian stonemasons and their families relocated to a temporary settlement at Moruya, NSW, 300 km (186 mi) south of Sydney, where they quarried around 18,000 m ³ (635,664 cu ft) of granite for the bridge pylons. The stonemasons cut, dressed, and numbered the blocks, which were then transported to Sydney on three ships built specifically for this purpose. The Moruya quarry was managed by John Gilmore, a Scottish stonemason who emigrated with his young family to Australia in 1924, at the request of the project managers. The concrete used was also Australian-made and supplied from Kandos, New South Wales.

Abutments at the base of the pylons are essential to support the loads from the arch and hold its span firmly in place, but the pylons themselves have no structural purpose. They were included to provide a frame for the arch panels and to give better visual balance to the bridge. The pylons were not part of the original design, and were only added to allay public concern about the structural integrity of the bridge.

Although originally added to the bridge solely for their aesthetic value, all four pylons have now been put to use. The south-eastern pylon contains a museum and tourist centre, with a 360° lookout at the top providing views across the harbour and city. The south-western pylon is used by the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) to support its CCTV cameras overlooking the bridge and the roads around that area. The two pylons on the north shore include venting chimneys for fumes from the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, with the base of the southern pylon containing the RMS maintenance shed for the bridge, and the base of the northern pylon containing the traffic management shed for tow trucks and safety vehicles used on the bridge.

In 1942 the pylons were modified to include parapets and anti-aircraft guns designed to assist in both Australia's defence and general war effort. The top level of stonework was never removed.

Early proposals

There had been plans to build a bridge as early as 1815, when convict and noted architect Francis Greenway reputedly proposed to Governor Lachlan Macquarie that a bridge be built from the northern to the southern shore of the harbour. In 1825, Greenway wrote a letter to the then "The Australian" newspaper stating that such a bridge would "give an idea of strength and magnificence that would reflect credit and glory on the colony and the Mother Country".

Nothing came of Greenway's suggestions, but the idea remained alive, and many further suggestions were made during the nineteenth century. In 1840, naval architect Robert Brindley proposed that a floating bridge be built. Engineer Peter Henderson produced one of the earliest known drawings of a bridge across the harbour around 1857. A suggestion for a truss bridge was made in 1879, and in 1880 a high-level bridge estimated at $850,000 was proposed.

In 1900, the Lyne government committed to building a new Central railway station and organised a worldwide competition for the design and construction of a harbour bridge. Local engineer Norman Selfe submitted a design for a suspension bridge and won the second prize of £500. In 1902, when the outcome of the first competition became mired in controversy, Selfe won a second competition outright, with a design for a steel cantilever bridge. The selection board were unanimous, commenting that, "The structural lines are correct and in true proportion, and... the outline is graceful". However due to an economic downturn and a change of government at the 1904 NSW State election construction never began.

A unique three-span bridge was proposed in 1922 by Ernest Stowe with connections at Balls Head, Millers Point, and Balmain with a memorial tower and hub on Goat Island.

In 1914 John Bradfield was appointed "Chief Engineer of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Metropolitan Railway Construction", and his work on the project over many years earned him the legacy as the "father" of the bridge. Bradfield's preference at the time was for a cantilever bridge without piers, and in 1916 the NSW Legislative Assembly passed a bill for such a construction, however it did not proceed as the Legislative Council rejected the legislation on the basis that the money would be better spent on the war effort.

Following World War I, plans to build the bridge again built momentum. Bradfield persevered with the project, fleshing out the details of the specifications and financing for his cantilever bridge proposal, and in 1921 he travelled overseas to investigate tenders. On return from his travels Bradfield decided that an arch design would also be suitable and he and officers of the NSW Department of Public Works prepared a general design for a single-arch bridge based upon New York City's Hell Gate Bridge. In 1922 the government passed the Sydney Harbour Bridge Act No. 28, specifying the construction of a high-level cantilever or arch bridge across the harbour between Dawes Point and Milsons Point, along with construction of necessary approaches and electric railway lines, and worldwide tenders were invited for the project.

As a result of the tendering process, the government received twenty proposals from six companies; on 24 March 1924 the contract was awarded to British firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd, of Middlesbrough well known as the contractors who later built the similar Tyne Bridge of Newcastle Upon Tyne, for an arch bridge at a quoted price of AU£4,217,721 11s 10d. The arch design was cheaper than alternative cantilever and suspension bridge proposals, and also provided greater rigidity making it better suited for the heavy loads expected.

Bradfield and his staff were ultimately to oversee the bridge design and building process as it was executed by Dorman Long and Co, whose Consulting Engineer, Sir Ralph Freeman of Sir Douglas Fox and Partners, and his associate Mr. G.C. Imbault, carried out the detailed design and erection process of the bridge. Architects for the contractors were from the British firm John Burnet & Partners of Glasgow, Scotland. Lawrence Ennis, of Dorman Long, served as Director of Construction and primary onsite supervisor throughout the entire build, alongside Edward Judge, Dorman Long's Chief Technical Engineer, who functioned as Consulting and Designing Engineer.

The building of the bridge coincided with the construction of a system of underground railways in Sydney's CBD, known today as the City Circle, and the bridge was designed with this in mind. The bridge was designed to carry six lanes of road traffic, flanked on each side by two railway tracks and a footpath. Both sets of rail tracks were linked into the underground Wynyard railway station on the south (city) side of the bridge by symmetrical ramps and tunnels. The eastern-side railway tracks were intended for use by a planned rail link to the Northern Beaches; in the interim they were used to carry trams from the North Shore into a terminal within Wynyard station, and when tram services were discontinued in 1958, they were converted into extra traffic lanes. The Bradfield Highway, which is the main roadway section of the bridge and its approaches, is named in honour of Bradfield's contribution to the bridge.

Construction

Bradfield visited the site sporadically throughout the eight years it took Dorman Long to complete the bridge. Despite having originally championed a cantilever construction and the fact that his own arched general design was used in neither the tender process nor as input to the detailed design specification (and was anyway a rough copy of the Devil's Gate bridge produced by the NSW Works Department), Bradfield subsequently attempted to claim personal credit for Dorman Long's design. This led to a bitter argument, with Dorman Long maintaining that instructing other people to produce a copy of an existing design in a document not subsequently used to specify the final construction did not constitute personal design input on Bradfield's part. This friction ultimately led to a large contemporary brass plaque being bolted very tightly to the side of one of the granite columns of the bridge in order to makes things clear

The official ceremony to mark the "turning of the first sod" occurred on 28 July 1923, on the spot at Milsons Point on the north shore where two workshops to assist in building the bridge were to be constructed.

An estimated 469 buildings on the north shore, both private homes and commercial operations, were demolished to allow construction to proceed, with little or no compensation being paid. Work on the bridge itself commenced with the construction of approaches and approach spans, and by September 1926 concrete piers to support the approach spans were in place on each side of the harbour.

As construction of the approaches took place, work was also started on preparing the foundations required to support the enormous weight of the arch and loadings. Concrete and granite faced abutment towers were constructed, with the angled foundations built into their sides.

Once work had progressed sufficiently on the support structures, a giant "creeper crane" was erected on each side of the harbour. These cranes were fitted with a cradle, and then used to hoist men and materials into position to allow for erection of the steelwork. To stabilise works while building the arches, tunnels were excavated on each shore with steel cables passed through them and then fixed to the upper sections of each half-arch to stop them collapsing as they extended outwards.

Arch construction itself began on 26 October 1928. The southern end of the bridge was worked on ahead of the northern end, to detect any errors and to help with alignment. The cranes would "creep" along the arches as they were constructed, eventually meeting up in the middle. In less than two years, on Tuesday, 19 August 1930, the two halves of the arch touched for the first time. Workers riveted both top and bottom sections of the arch together, and the arch became self-supporting, allowing the support cables to be removed. On 20 August 1930 the joining of the arches was celebrated by flying the flags of Australia and the United Kingdom from the jibs of the creeper cranes.

Once the arch was completed, the creeper cranes were then worked back down the arches, allowing the roadway and other parts of the bridge to be constructed from the centre out. The vertical hangers were attached to the arch, and these were then joined with horizontal crossbeams. The deck for the roadway and railway were built on top of the crossbeams, with the deck itself being completed by June 1931, and the creeper cranes were dismantled. Rails for trains and trams were laid, and road was surfaced using concrete topped with asphalt. Power and telephone lines, and water, gas, and drainage pipes were also all added to the bridge in 1931.

The pylons were built atop the abutment towers, with construction advancing rapidly from July 1931. Carpenters built wooden scaffolding, with concreters and masons then setting the masonry and pouring the concrete behind it. Gangers built the steelwork in the towers, while day labourers manually cleaned the granite with wire brushes. The last stone of the north-west pylon was set in place on 15 January 1932, and the timber towers used to support the cranes were removed.

On 19 January 1932, the first test train, a steam locomotive, safely crossed the bridge. Load testing of the bridge took place in February 1932, with the four rail tracks being loaded with as many as 96 steam locomotives positioned end-to-end. The bridge underwent testing for three weeks, after which it was declared safe and ready to be opened. The construction worksheds were demolished after the bridge was completed, and the land that they were on is now occupied by Luna Park.

The standards of industrial safety during construction were poor by today's standards. Sixteen workers died during construction, but surprisingly only two from falling off the bridge. Several more were injured from unsafe working practices undertaken whilst heating and inserting its rivets, and the deafness experienced by many of the workers in later years was blamed on the project. Henri Mallard between 1930 and 1932 produced hundreds of stills and film footage which reveal at close quarters the bravery of the workers in tough Depression-era conditions.

Interviews were conducted between 1982-1989 with a variety of tradesmen who worked on the building of the bridge. Among the tradesmen interviewed were drillers, riveters, concrete packers, boilermakers, riggers, ironworkers, plasterers, stonemasons, an official photographer, sleepcutters, engineers and draughtsmen.

The total financial cost of the bridge was AU£ 6.25 million, which was not paid off in full until 1988.

The bridge was formally opened on Saturday, 19 March 1932. Among those who attended and gave speeches were the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game, and the Minister for Public Works, Lawrence Ennis. The Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, was to open the bridge by cutting a ribbon at its southern end.

However, just as Lang was about to cut the ribbon, a man in military uniform rode up on a horse, slashing the ribbon with his sword and opening the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the name of the people of New South Wales before the official ceremony began. He was promptly arrested. The ribbon was hurriedly retied and Lang performed the official opening ceremony and Game thereafter inaugurated the name of the bridge as 'Sydney Harbour Bridge' and the associated roadway as the 'Bradfield Highway'. After they did so, there was a 21-gun salute and an RAAF flypast. The intruder was identified as Francis de Groot. He was convicted of offensive behaviour and fined £5 after a psychiatric test proved he was sane, but this verdict was reversed on appeal. De Groot then successfully sued the Commissioner of Police for wrongful arrest, and was awarded an undisclosed out of court settlement. De Groot was a member of a right-wing paramilitary group called the New Guard, opposed to Lang's leftist policies and resentful of the fact that a member of the Royal Family had not been asked to open the bridge. De Groot was not a member of the regular army but his uniform allowed him to blend in with the real cavalry. This incident was one of several involving Lang and the New Guard during that year.

A similar ribbon-cutting ceremony on the bridge's northern side by North Sydney's mayor, Alderman Primrose, was carried out without incident. It was later discovered that Primrose was also a New Guard member but his role in and knowledge of the de Groot incident, if any, are unclear. The pair of golden scissors used in the ribbon cutting ceremonies on both sides of the bridge was also used to cut the ribbon at the dedication of the Bayonne Bridge, which had opened between Bayonne, New Jersey, and New York City the year before.

Despite the bridge opening in the midst of the Great Depression, opening celebrations were organised by the Citizens of Sydney Organising Committee, an influential body of prominent men and politicians that formed in 1931 under the chairmanship of the Lord Mayor to oversee the festivities. The celebrations included an array of decorated floats, a procession of passenger ships sailing below the bridge, and a Venetian Carnival. A message from a primary school in Tottenham, 515 km (320 mi) away in rural New South Wales, arrived at the bridge on the day and was presented at the opening ceremony. It had been carried all the way from Tottenham to the bridge by relays of school children, with the final relay being run by two children from the nearby Fort Street Boys' and Girls' schools. After the official ceremonies, the public was allowed to walk across the bridge on the deck, something that would not be repeated until the 50th anniversary celebrations. Estimates suggest that between 300,000 and one million people took part in the opening festivities, a phenomenal number given that the entire population of Sydney at the time was estimated to be 1,256,000.

There had also been numerous preparatory arrangements. On 14 March 1932, three postage stamps were issued to commemorate the imminent opening of the bridge. Several songs were composed for the occasion. In the year of the opening, there was a steep rise in babies being named Archie and Bridget in honour of the bridge.

The bridge itself was regarded as a triumph over Depression times, earning the nickname "the Iron Lung", as it kept many Depression-era workers employed.

Operations

In 2010, the average daily traffic included 204 trains, 160,435 vehicles and 1650 bicycles.

Images for kids

The opening sequence to the 2008-09 Midnight Fireworks, using the Sun for its bridge effect.

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The Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney Harbour, is a bridge that joins north Sydney with south Sydney. People can cross the bridge by car, walking or by train. There is a tunnel that goes underneath. The bridge is an important tourist attraction. The scenery attracts many tourists and people living in or near the city.

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Matildas At Home: Round 11 - Goal and assist for Alex Chidiac in vital Melbourne Victory win

Alex Chidiac contributed a goal and assist in one of the best individual performances of the A League Women so far against Adelaide United, as the A League Women ticks over into the second half of the season. The Western Sydney Wanderers were unable to keep up their wi

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CommBank Matildas | Home of the Australian Women's National Football Team

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Alex Chidiac contributed a goal and assist in one of the best individual performances of the A League Women so far against Adelaide United, as the A League Women ticks over into the second half of the season. The Western Sydney Wanderers were unable to keep up their wi

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With the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™ taking place in Australia and New Zealand, there's never been a better time to brush up on your knowledge about our own Aussie team.

Better yet, Disney+ has released its Australian Original series, Matildas: The World at Our Feet, which follows the CommBank Matildas on their journey to the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™.

As one of our country's most celebrated sport teams, it's exciting to watch these stars take to the world stage!

Here are six fun facts about the team to get you hyped about the new six-part series and upcoming tournament.

Fun Facts about the Matildas football team

1. The team's name comes from the folk song 'Waltzing Matilda'.

2. The first Australian woman's team was established in 1978 to participate in the first World Women's Invitational Tournament.

3. In 2007, the CommBank Matildas qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time.

4. In 2019, with 20,029 spectators watching them play against Chile, the team set a record for the highest attendance at a standalone women's football match in Australian history.

5. Team captain Sam Kerr is the only female football player to have won the Golden Boot in three different leagues and on three different continents.

6. Up until 2008, the team shared the name 'Socceroos' with the men's national football team. Having their own name has cemented the Matildas as their own team with their own skills, rather than sitting in the shadows of their male counterparts.

If you want to learn even more about the Matildas, check out What Makes a Matilda, a book for readers aged eight and up that explores exactly what it takes to be one of Australia's top female footballers.

Going back to where it all began, the book follows the journey of our national team from their first international competition to their preparations for FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™ and everything in between.

From tips to capturing the Matilda spirit to in-depth player profiles, the amazing information inside is sure to delight young football fans.
Love football? See more football books from Puffin, here.

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6 Fun facts about the Matildas football team

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Excited about the new Matildas documentary on Disney+? Check out these fun facts to learn even more about Australia's women's national football team.

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The Matildas Have Changed the Game - Behind the News

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While records of women's football in Australia date back to the 1920's, the historic first Australian women's team was established in 1978 to take part in the first World Women's Invitational Tournament in Chinese Taipei. Australia was the only national team in the tournament with the other 12 countries represented by club or district teams.

Australia's squad for the 1978 tournament, selected by first Australian women's team coach Jim Selby, consisted of players mainly from NSW and Western Australia. Captain Connie Byrnes had the honour of captaining the first Australian senior national women's team.

In the first round of matches Australia was missed sixth place only on goal difference. The Australians then competed in the second round for teams placed seventh to thirteenth, ultimately finishing eighth in the tournament.

Australia's results of the 1978 World Women's Invitational Tournament in Chinese Taipei: W1-0 v Austria, D1-1 v USA, L0-1 v Sweden, D0-0 v Denmark and W5-0 v Thailand. Young Australian Anna Senjuschenko (who tragically died in a car accident in 1979 aged 17) was voted a star player of the tournament by the media, while Connie Byrnes was awarded 'Miss Football' for Australia.

The women's team played on sporadic occasions throughout the 1980s, with only a limited number of major international competitions enticing much attention to the team.

The introduction of the FIFA Women's World Cup and women's football at the Olympic Games in the 1990s, combined with a surge in participation levels throughout the country, sparked renewed interest in the national women's team, now called the Commonwealth Bank Matildas.

On 6 October 1979, the Matildas played New Zealand in their first full 'A' international at Seymour Shaw Park in Sydney, in a game that finished 2-2. Julie Dolan AM, who was the captain of the team for that game, was bestowed the honour of cap number one for the Matildas.
Julie Dolan's image from the first ever Matildas match in 1979 is projected onto the Sydney Opera House in 2020.
After barely being beaten out of a place at the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup in China in 1991 on goal difference (by New Zealand in the Oceania qualifiers), the Australian women's national team has never failed to qualify for the World Cup, finishing as top team in Oceania in the 1995, 1999 and 2003 Oceania World Cup qualifiers.

The Matildas qualified for the 2007 finals via Asia for the first time, after reaching the final of the 2006 AFC Asian Women's Championship in Adelaide. Australia qualified for the following year's World Cup after defeating Japan in the semi-final 2-0 (top three nations in the tournament qualified for the World Cup); the final however saw the Matildas go down to China only after a penalty shoot-out, to finish runners-up in the tournament.

The Aussies went that one better in a memorable 2010 AFC Asian Women's Cup in China, defeating the highly-fancied DPR Korea side on penalties in the final following a 1-1 scoreline after 120 minutes of play, and earning the country another shot at the World Cup.
The Matildas celebrate after winning Australia's first piece of silverware in Asia.
Australia appeared to gradually learn and improve throughout each of its first few World Cup forays, as the aggregate goal differences over each World Cup shows: a goals for-and-against record of 3-13 (minus 10) in its 1995 World Cup matches reduced to minus 4 in 1999, and went down to minus 2 in the 2003 campaign. By the 2007 tournament, a positive goal difference over the four matches, which included Australia's first World Cup finals win (4-1 over Ghana) and quarter-final appearance (a 2-3 loss to Brazil) displayed how far the Aussie women's team had come over the previous 12 years. Further testament to the team was provided when coach Tom Sermanni was named 2007 AFC Coach of the Year.

In 2011 Australia put in arguably their best FIFA Women's World Cup performance to date with a strong showing in Group D where the team came out of the group with six points following wins against Equatorial Guinea and Norway as well as a narrow 1-nil loss to Brazil. In a tournament where Australia had the third youngest team, with an average age of 22, the team performed strongly and received many plaudits for their style of play and character. Australia were knocked out in the quarter final by eventual third-placed Sweden, losing 3-1 to the world's fifth ranked nation.

2015 saw Australia start their FIFA Women's World Cup campaign against eventual winners the United States in their opening Group D clash. Playing some scintillating football, the Matildas pushed the Americans all the way before losing 3-1.

Next up was Nigeria, and a Kyah Simon double was enough to earn Australia a crucial 2-0 win, setting up a clash with Sweden, the side that had knocked them out four years earlier. Despite a 1-1 draw Australia finished second in their group and would face an imposing Brazil side in the Round of 16.
Kyah Simon and Lisa De Vanna celebrate the former's massive goal against Brazil in 2015.
That match in Moncton would go on to become part of Australian football folklore, as the Matildas shocked the more-fancied Brazilians. Another Kyah Simon goal, this time in the 80 th minute, sealed a memorable result.

A quarter-final against eventual runners-up Japan would prove a bridge too far, with the Green and Gold going down 1-0 in Edmonton.

Drawn in Group C, the Matildas began their FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 against the fast-improving Italy. It was a bright start for Australia as captain Sam Kerr opened her FIFA Women's World Cup account with a penalty conversion in the first half. However, it wasn't enough for victory as the Italians recorded a late winner to take the three points.

A familiar opponent was next for Australia as, for the fifth major tournament in a row, they were to met Brazil. It was a match befitting the rivalry built between the two nations with the Matildas coming back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a famous 3-2 victory in Montpellier.
Celebrating another famous win over Brazil at the FIFA Women's World Cup.
A superstar prior to the tournament, Kerr made Australian history in the final group match against Jamaica. The prolific striker netted all of Australia's goals, becoming the first Aussie to score a FIFA World Cup hat-trick, in their 4-1 win over the Reggae Girlz to set up a Round of 16 clash with Norway.

After Norway took a first half lead in the Round of 16 encounter, Australia worked their way into the match and put pressure on the Norwegians. That pressure finally told in the second half with Elise Kellond-Knight scoring straight from a corner to bring the Matildas level. A back and forth struggle resulted in penalties with Australia ending their tournament in Nice.

Australia was swept with Matildas fever, and in late 2019 set a record for the highest attended standalone women's football match in the country's history. 20,029 fans turned out at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney on 9 November to support the Green & Gold in a friendly match against Chile.
20,029 fans turned out at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney on 9 November to support the Matildas in a friendly match against Chile.
In 2021, the Matildas were drawn against USA, Sweden & New Zealand in their group for the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games.

A win against New Zealand and draw with USA was enough for the team to get out of the group, before defeated Great Britain 4-3 after extra time in a thrilling Quarter Final.

The side was guaranteed a top-4 finish - the Matildas' best ever result at an Olympic Games - but narrow defeats to Sweden & USA in the Semi Finals & Bronze Medal matches respectively meant Australia just missed out on a first-ever football medal.

Off the back of their historic Tokyo 2020 tournament, the Matildas returned home to Australia in October 2021 for a two-match series against Brazil at CommBank Stadium, resulting in an Australia win in the first game and a 2-2 draw in the second.

But just a month later, the Matildas broke their home attendance record when a massive 35,109 fans turned out at Stadium Australia to see them face World Number One United States.

2023 will see the CommBank Matildas compete in a home FIFA Women's World Cup TM. Co-hosted with New Zealand, the tournament will be the first in the Southern Hemisphere, the first in the Asia-Pacific region, the first co-confederation FIFA tournament and the first time Australia will host a senior FIFA tournament.

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While records of women's football in Australia date back to the 1920's, the historic first Australian women's team was established in 1978 to take part in the first World Women's Invitational Tournament in Chinese Taipei.

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Australia has done it - making the World Cup semi-finals for the first time with a heart-stopping penalty shootout win over France at Suncorp Stadium.

After a scoreless draw in 120 minutes, the shootout was as tense as it could be.

It was the longest shootout in World Cup history - men's or women's - going 10 rounds with Australia coming out on top 7-6. The previous longest was the Sweden-USA shootout earlier in this World Cup which went seven rounds, while the longest men's shootout was six rounds between West Germany and France in the 1982 semi-final and the 1994 quarterfinal between Sweden and Romania.

With Mackenzie Arnold saving four shots, including a replayed shot, it came down to Cortnee Vine slotting what will instantly go into Australian sporting folklore*.

John Aloisi was on comments for Channel 7 and when told he'd be relegated* to the second most epic penalty shootout in history for his goal that ended the Socceroos' World Cup drought, he said: "I'm happy to be relegated. We're in a semi-final".

"This is what a World Cup does on home soil: it brings everyone together," he said. "The nation together. Everyone's following the Matildas. Everyone's behind them. Everyone's believing they can go all the way and just this, this winning penalty from Vine, it gives you that belief that they can go all the way."

Channel 7's David Basheer said the result was "unbelievable" and described Arnold's performance as "spine-tingling".

Aloisi added: "Wow. I don't think I have ever seen a penalty shootout like that before. It ebbed and flowed. Drama, drama. This is what sport does, though."

Matildas star Elise Kellond-Knight said: "I'm speechless. What have we just witnessed? I don't have words. How everyone just stood up right there, I don't think I have seen a penalty shootout go to 10 penalty-takers at this level before."

The result means the Matildas will now play England, with the semi-final on Wednesday night at 8pm at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

It comes after a wild 120 minutes which almost had it all - except goals.

There were two golden chances each in the first half but it was Australia's Mary Fowler who had the best.

A desperate goal line save from French defender Elisa De Almeida denied Fowler an effectively empty net late in the first half as the Matildas turned the momentum*.

Sam Kerr came off the bench in the 55th minute and seemed to spark the Matildas but it was to no avail* as Australia played out the first scoreless draw after 90 minutes in our World Cup history.

It looked as though France had scored in extra-time when Alanna Kennedy appeared to head the ball into our own goal after a dodgy call handed France a corner, but it was denied after French captain Wendie Renaud was pinged* for dragging down Caitlin Foord.

The Matildas' penalty-shootout heart-stopper smashed TV ratings records, knocking off Ash Barty's Australian Open win, State of Origin and the NRL and AFL grand finals.

Channel 7's coverage topped 4.2 million viewers, a phenomenal* figure considering so many fans watched the game in venues where figures are not included.

The network's executives have been told the free-to-air figure will be 3.8 million and another 427,000 watched on streaming service 7plus - which is how it has topped Barty's Australian Open victory, which averaged 3.577 million.
POLL GLOSSARY

folklore: stories, customs and habits of a community or nation

relegated: given a lower position

momentum: force or speed of movement, impetus, events going in your favour

no avail: without any effect, without success

pinged: caught, penalised for an infringement

phenomenal: extremely good, successful or special

EXTRA READING FIFA Women's World Cup guide What's happened to Barbie? Matildas into the quarterfinals QUICK QUIZ

1. How many rounds was the penalty shootout?

2. What was the penalty final score?

3. Who kicked the winning ball for Australia?

4. Who are the Matildas playing in Wednesday night's semi-final?

5. How many people are estimated to have watched the Matildas' quarter-final against France?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. News: condensed
Identify the most important pieces of information in this article and write a condensed version of it using 50 words or less.

Draw a picture or diagram to support your condensed news story.

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science

2. Extension
Compare your condensed news story with a classmate. Did you both include the same information or are your stories quite different? Discuss your choices and then work together to create a final condensed version of the story that you both agree tells the important parts that a reader would need or want to know.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

VCOP ACTIVITY
Show you have read and understood the article by writing three sentences using the connectives "because'', "and", and "but" (BAB). Your sentences can share different facts or opinions, or the same ones but written about in different ways.

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Matildas madness in overdrive with penalty shootout win

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Why was Mahina Australia's deadliest cyclone?

At the end of the 1800s meteorologists could forecast storms. But radio technology was not yet developed enough to contact ships at sea when a large storm was on the way. Early in March 1899 meteorologists predicted that a large cyclone was going to hit north Queensland. They sent warnings to coastal towns, but they couldn't warn people who were on ships.

Cyclone Mahina hit Bathurst Bay at about 11pm on Saturday 4 March. When Mahina struck, there were about 1000 men, women and children on board around 100 pearling ships in Princess Charlotte Bay and Bathurst Bay. More than half of these ships were destroyed by the cyclone, and at least 307 people were killed. Some people swam for days to reach land after the storm had passed.

The cyclone also created large waves and a surge of water which swept far inland. There were some reports that Indigenous people were swept out to sea. Witnesses also reported finding dolphin carcasses on land after the cyclone.

Mahina was a Category 5 cyclone, the strongest and most dangerous category of cyclone. It still holds the record as Australia's deadliest cyclone.

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Cyclone Mahina | Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom | National Museum of Australia

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Cyclone Mahina was the deadliest tropical cyclone in Australia's recorded history, and probably one of the most intense. More than 300 people died during the cyclone. Most of the victims were pearl divers and seamen from South-East Asia, the Torres Strait and the Pacific islands, who worked in the pearl shell industry.

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Cyclone Mahina was the deadliest cyclone in recorded Australian history, and also likely the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, on 4 March 1899, and its winds and enormous storm surge combined to kill more than 300 people.

While the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, which is the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre of the basin, estimates Mahina's peak central pressure to be 914 hPa (26.99 inHg), the World Meteorological Organization is currently considering an application from Queensland scientists and researchers to have this value upgraded to 880 hPa (25.99 inHg), based on data from post-storm analysis. This would officially make Mahina the most intense cyclone recorded to have hit the Australian mainland, and the most intense tropical cyclone recorded making landfall anywhere in the world, as well as the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, a title currently held by Cyclone Winston. Cyclone Mahina also produced the largest storm surge on record, generating a 13-metre (43-foot)-high surge.

Tropical Cyclone Mahina struck Australia on 4 March 1899, with a likely minimum central pressure of 880 millibars (26 inHg). Mahina ranks among the most intense cyclones ever observed in the Southern Hemisphere and almost certainly as the most intense cyclone ever observed off the Eastern states of Australia in recorded history. Clement Lindley Wragge, Government Meteorologist for Queensland, pioneered the naming of such storms and gave this storm its name, Mahina.

Storms of such intensity occur extremely rarely. Scientists identified two other Category 4 or 5 super-cyclones that struck Australia, in the first half of the 19th century, from their effects on the Great Barrier Reef and the Gulf of Carpentaria. This same research shows that on average, such super-cyclones occur in the region only once every two or three centuries.

A pearling fleet, based at Thursday Island, Queensland, was anchored in or near the bay before the storm. Within an hour, the storm drove much of the fleet ashore or onto the Great Barrier Reef; other vessels sank at their anchorages. Four schooners and the manned Channel Rock lightship were lost. A further two schooners were wrecked but later re-floated. The fleets lost 54 luggers, and a further 12 were wrecked but re-floated. People later rescued more than 30 survivors of the wrecked vessels from the shore; however, the storm killed more than 400 people, mostly non-European immigrant crew members. A depiction of the schooner Crest of the Wave in the storm was later sketched in a painting.

A large storm surge, reportedly 13 metres (43 ft) high, swept across Princess Charlotte Bay and then inland about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi), destroying anything left of the Bathurst Bay pearling fleet and the settlement.

An eyewitness, constable J. M. Kenny, reported that a 48-foot (15 m) storm surge swept over their camp at Barrow Point atop a 40-foot (12 m)-high ridge and reached 3 miles (4.8 km) inland, the largest storm surge ever recorded. However, reviewing the evidence for this surge, some scientists modeled a surge only 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) to 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height, based on the official 914-hectopascal (27.0 inHg) central pressure. They also surveyed the area, seeking wave-cut escarpments and deposits characteristic of storm events, but found none higher than 5 metres (16 ft). Of the 48-foot (15 m) surge, they suggested an incorrectly cited ground level or an involvement of freshwater (rain) flooding. A later study considers this conclusion likely premature and questions the barometer reading as unreliable and not representative of the actual lowest pressure. This subsequent study also examined new evidence of exceptionally high storm surge and inundation.

The cyclone continued southwest over Cape York Peninsula, emerging over the Gulf of Carpentaria, before doubling back and dissipating on 10 March.

The exact number of casualties is not known, as many deaths were not recorded. Estimates range between 307 and 410.

In September 1899, the Queensland Marine Department published a list of 247 known fatalities. The Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages has 283 registered deaths attributed to the cyclone, including 250 on pearling ships. One of the pearling fleet owners estimated another 30 people not officially registered as crew were killed and not reported to the Cooktown Registrar.

Around 100 Aboriginal Australians were killed but not recorded, as Aboriginal people were not counted as part of the population at the time. They had tried to help shipwrecked men, but the back surge caught them and swept them into the sea. Only eight Aboriginal people were recorded among the casualties, all of whom died on shore.

The Queensland Historical Atlas reported the death toll as "307 pearl divers and sailors and an unreported number of Aborigines".

People found thousands of fish and some sharks and dolphins several kilometres (miles) inland, and the storm embedded rocks into trees. On Flinders Island (Queensland), people found dolphins on the 15.2-metre (50 ft) cliffs; however, this finding does not necessarily indicate a surge of this height; on this exposed site, wave run-up readily can produce these results even within the more modest calculated surge.

At Cape Melville, survivors erected a memorial stone to "The Pearlers" lost to the cyclone, naming 11 Europeans but only citing "over 300 coloured men" for the other seamen. The Anglican church on Thursday Island, Queensland, also commemorates this disaster.

Contemporary reports vary considerably in the reported lowest barometric pressures. The pressure recorded on the schooner Olive reasonably consistently show her lowest pressure recorded: 29.60 inches of mercury (1,002 hPa) to 29.10 inches of mercury (985 hPa) or between 29.00 inches of mercury (982 hPa) and 29.10 inches of mercury (985 hPa). In a further variant, "during the lull in the hurricane, the barometer on the Olive recorded" 29.70 inches of mercury (1,010 hPa) to 29.10 inches of mercury (985 hPa).

Most sources record the schooner Crest of the Wave observation as 27 inches of mercury (914 hPa). More modern reports of an 18 inches of mercury (610 hPa) observation on a vessel in the eye of Mahina are unrealistic (the most intense tropical cyclone, Typhoon Tip, had a central pressure 260 hectopascals (7.68 inHg) higher).

One author accepted the 29.1 inches of mercury (985 hPa) report from the Olive and the 27 inches of mercury (914 hPa) report from the Crest of the Wave, seemingly unaware of the discrepant reports. He estimated the track of the cyclone from the damage reports, placing it directly over the position of the Crest of the Wave. The Olive to the north missed the centre. The separation between these schooners explains the difference between their respective pressure measurements. He calculated the centre pressure, standardised for temperature, as 914 hectopascals (13.26 psi).

A study in 2014 found that the actual lowest pressure of the storm was around 880 hectopascals (26 inHg), based upon modeling of meteorological variables needed to induce the potentially world-record-setting surge height of 13 metres (43 ft). This surge closely matches new evidence on storm depositions and accounts actually reported to two other captains, and in a letter from an eyewitness to his parents, of a reading of 26 inches of mercury (880 hPa). This study considers the apparently third-hand report of 27 inches of mercury (914 hPa) an unreliable measurement made possibly five hours prior to passage of the eye.

In comparison, the tiny Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin in 1974, with a central pressure of 950 hectopascals (28 inHg). Barometric pressure this low at mean sea level also likely caused Cyclone Mahina to create such an intense, phenomenal, claimed world-record storm surge that was not immediately known afterward.

In 2008, Ian Townsend published The Devil's Eye: a novel as a historical fiction novel based on Cyclone Mahina. The novel was developed as part of his research fellowship at the State Library of Queensland.

1. ^ Kerr, Jack (26 December 2014). "Tropical Cyclone Mahina: Bid to have deadly March 1899 weather event upgraded in record books". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.

2. ^ "Natural Disasters". Australia's cultural portal. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009.

3. "Australia's deadliest natural disaster revealed - from 1899". The Sidney Morning Herald. 4 March 2015. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018.

4. "Tropical Cyclones in Queensland". Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 20 May 2016.

5. ^ "Cyclone - Cyclone Mahina". Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018.

6. *Michael Allaby, Richard Garratt, ^ Hurricanes, page 98, Infobase Publishing, 2003 ISBN 0816047952.

7. ^ Whittingham, H. E. 1958, The Bathurst Bay Hurricane and associated storm surge. Australian Meteorological Magazine 23: 14-36. Available on line at http://reg.bom.gov.au/amoj/docs/1958/whittingham2.pdf Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine

8. Pixley, N S, Pearlers of North Australia: the romantic story of the diving fleets. Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland 9(3): 9-29. Available online at ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2012.

9. ^ Nott, Jonathon; Hayne, Matthew (12 June 2000). "How high was the storm surge from Tropical Cyclone Mahina?" (PDF). Australian Journal of Emergency Management. Emergency Management Australia (Autumn 2000): 11-13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 September 2018.

10. Jonathan Nott and Matthew Hayne (2000). "How high was the storm surge from Tropical Cyclone Mahina? North Queensland, 1899" (PDF). Emergency Management Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2008.

11. Nott, Jonathan; C. Green; I. Townsend; J. Callaghan (2014). "The World Record Storm Surge and the Most Intense Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone: New Evidence and Modeling". Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 95 (5): 757-65. Bibcode:2014BAMS...95..757N. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00233.1.

12. ^ Bathurst Bay, Qld: Cyclone (incl Storm Surge) Archived 16 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine Emergency Management Australia Disasters Database. Accessed 29 December 2008.

13. Ian Townsend (7 November 2015). "A Queensland disaster uncovered - Cyclone Mahina". BDM Family History Journal. Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. 7: 3.

14. ^ Tropical Cyclones: Hazard Modelling and Risk Assessment, GeoscienceAustralia Report no. 68013, 2006

15. ^ "Tropical cyclones". University of Queensland and Queensland Museum. 27 October 2010. Archived from the original on 22 November 2017.

16. ^ "The Australian Tropical Cyclone Database" (CSV). Australian Bureau of Meteorology. A guide on how to read the database is available here.

17. ^ "Queensland". The Advertiser. South Australia. 14 March 1899. p. 5. Archived from the original on 27 November 2017 - via National Library of Australia.

18. ^ "The Late Hurricane". The Brisbane Courier. Vol. LV, no. 12, 845. Queensland, Australia. 14 March 1899. p. 5. Archived from the original on 27 November 2017 - via National Library of Australia.

19. ^ "The Hurricane in the North". Kalgoorlie Western Argus. Vol. V, no. 225. Western Australia. 16 March 1899. p. 22. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017 - via National Library of Australia.

20. "The Queensland Hurricane". ^ The Sydney Morning Herald, p5 13 March 1899. on line at

21. "The Queensland Hurricane". ^ South Australian Register, p6, 14 March 1899. Available on line at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54427620 Archived 17 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine

22. "Hurricane in the North". ^ The Brisbane Courier, p8, 18 March 1899. Available on line at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3690283 Archived 17 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine

Callaghan, Jeff (2011), Case study : the Bathurst Bay Hurricane, March 1899 (PDF), Brisbane, Qld Harden Up Protecting Queensland, archived (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2017

The pearling disaster, 1899 : a memorial, 1899

How high was the storm surge from Tropical Cyclone Mahina? by Jonathan Nott, James Cook University, & Matthew Hayne, Australian Geological Survey Organisation

Video: The 1899 Pearling fleet disaster - an account by Ian Townsend. Created as part of the Queensland Stories project, State Library of Queensland, Australia. (4 minutes; Windows Media Player, RealPlayer)

Natural disasters in Australia

Australia's worst cyclone disasters - Queensland State Disaster Management Group

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Cyclone Mahina was the deadliest cyclone in recorded Australian history, and also likely the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, on 4 March 1899, and its winds and enormous storm surge combined to kill more than 300 people.

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Why was Mahina Australia's deadliest cyclone?

At the end of the 1800s meteorologists could forecast storms. But radio technology was not yet developed enough to contact ships at sea when a large storm was on the way. Early in March 1899 meteorologists predicted that a large cyclone was going to hit north Queensland. They sent warnings to coastal towns, but they couldn't warn people who were on ships.

Cyclone Mahina hit Bathurst Bay at about 11pm on Saturday 4 March. When Mahina struck, there were about 1000 men, women and children on board around 100 pearling ships in Princess Charlotte Bay and Bathurst Bay. More than half of these ships were destroyed by the cyclone, and at least 307 people were killed. Some people swam for days to reach land after the storm had passed.

The cyclone also created large waves and a surge of water which swept far inland. There were some reports that Indigenous people were swept out to sea. Witnesses also reported finding dolphin carcasses on land after the cyclone.

Mahina was a Category 5 cyclone, the strongest and most dangerous category of cyclone. It still holds the record as Australia's deadliest cyclone.

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Cyclone Mahina | Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom | National Museum of Australia

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Cyclone Mahina was the deadliest tropical cyclone in Australia's recorded history, and probably one of the most intense. More than 300 people died during the cyclone. Most of the victims were pearl divers and seamen from South-East Asia, the Torres Strait and the Pacific islands, who worked in the pearl shell industry.

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The deadliest cyclone in recorded Australian history could be upgraded to the most intense one to ever hit the southern hemisphere.

About 300 people died when Cyclone Mahina made landfall at Bathurst Bay, a popular spot for pearling fleets on Queensland's Cape York, in March 1899.

"It was almost a perfect cyclone," says Ian Townsend, an ABC journalist whose dramatisation of Cyclone Mahina, The Devil's Eye, was published in 2008.

Mahina's wind, waves and storm surge annihilated dozens of ships and left the landscape scoured.

Dead porpoises were later found lying on clifftops, thrown there by the massive swells the cyclone had stirred up.

People on Thursday Island, hundreds of kilometres away, say lightning from Mahina lit up the sky from one end of the horizon to the other.

On board the only ship to make it through the cyclone, Mahina's intensity was recorded at 880 hectopascals.

"This was an incredible storm, phenomenal in so many ways. It was like a ball of energy that was spinning across the Coral Sea," Townsend said.

"Nobody believed that a storm could be so intense."

He said that scepticism led to Mahina's intensity being entered into official records at a less extreme, more believable level of 914 hectopascals.

More intense than previously thought

Townsend is part of a group of scientists and researchers from Queensland that has approached the World Meteorological Organisation to have the records amended.

Another of those pushing for the change is James Cook University's Professor Jon Nott, who has been using field evidence and computer modelling to try to set the record straight.

"We think that the evidence now probably leans towards this cyclone really being more intense than we previously thought," he said.

Professor Nott's field research has uncovered evidence like shells and coral well above sea level consistent with a storm surge of about nine metres.

His modelling shows a cyclone of Mahina's official intensity could not produce a storm surge that big.

But a cyclone of 880 hectopascals - the intensity recorded on board the surviving ship - could.

He said a nine-metre surge explains how porpoises came to be left so high and dry, and how a police officer camped on a tall ridge at Bathurst Bay had his horses washed away in the middle of the night.

It took the constable a week to walk back to Cooktown, where he reported a world record storm surge of 13 metres.

Wave height and storm surge level are not the same thing, but it was an understandable overestimation, Professor Nott said, given the circumstances.

In any case, it's further evidence the cyclone was more intense than the records show.

How many died?

While it's the deadliest natural disaster in recorded Australian history, the exact death toll is yet another point of contention in the story of Cyclone Mahina.

Through his postgraduate research for the University of Queensland, Townsend has found records of 282 people who died, most of them from drowning. He said the actual number was likely to be over 300.

The majority of those killed were part of a Thursday Island pearling fleet that was working in the area. They were enjoying end-of-week drinks when the barometers started to drop.

Mahina caught them totally by surprise. Cyclone detection and warning systems were obviously far more basic in those days, but Bathurst Bay was also considered close enough to the equator to be out of the cyclone zone.

The pearlers then made the mistake of thinking the bay would shelter them from the approaching storm. They could not have been more wrong.

Townsend dismissed claims the death toll was over 400. He said there was no evidence to support stories of 100 local Aboriginal people being washed away while trying to help the pearlers.

In fact, he said, local communities actually moved to higher ground to avoid the storm surge, though eight people were killed by falling timber.

'It would be utterly catastrophic today'

A once in a century storm? Townsend thinks not.

"I don't know if anyone has discovered a storm of this magnitude," he said.

If Mahina was as big as the new research suggests, it's a dangerous sign for the coastal communities of northern Queensland today, he said.

"It's important to know about this particular storm, because if the Coral Sea can produce a storm that is 880 hectopascals, that's significantly stronger than anything that's known at the moment," he said.

"Cyclone Yasi, Cyclone Tracy in Darwin were nowhere near this central pressure."

Professor Nott agreed. "(The research) shows we can get storms of that intensity in north Queensland," he added.

"(If a cyclone of that intensity hit now) it would be utterly catastrophic. It would be beyond any planning or mitigation measures that we've considered.

"The reality is that it can occur. Under a changing climate, it increases the possibility of it occurring as well."

Why is this story not more widely known?

The tragedy of Cyclone Mahina was widely reported at the time, but quickly slipped out of national consciousness.

"It was considered at the time to be more a foreign disaster than an Australian disaster," Townsend said. "So we never quite owned it."

One newspaper article he has seen spoke of how the tragedy would have been even worse if all those killed were white.

All up, people of more than two dozen nationalities lost their lives, with many coming from Japan, the Pacific Islands, South America, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

"It resonated at the time, but it didn't continue to resonate. Probably because you didn't have 300 families in Queensland that were affected.

"For that reason, it's not as well known as it should be. It was probably a bigger disaster for communities in Japan, for instance, but we don't really know what impact it had on them."

An amazing story of survival

There were more than 50 schooners and luggers anchored at Bathurst Bay, on the northern tip of Cape Melville, when Mahina struck.

Only one of them, the Crest of the Wave, survived, and even then, only just. Its captain used the cyclone's southerly winds to move out to sea and avoid being smashed against the shore.

Those on board included the captain's wife and baby.

"You can just imagine, one of the strongest most powerful storms on earth, she was in the hold of the ship, standing, with a baby in her arms, trying to ride the storm out," Townsend said.

"And she was just constantly seasick. For hours she just had to stand there. It must have been torture.

"The captain came down at one point and said 'This is it. We are all going to die', and kissed his baby and his wife goodbye, went back upstairs and by a miracle managed to save the ship that was sinking.

"It's just an amazing story of survival."

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Bid to have deadly Tropical Cyclone Mahina upgraded in record books

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The deadliest cyclone in recorded Australian history could be upgraded to the most intense one to ever hit the southern hemisphere.

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First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on March 14, 1899 THE QUEENSLAND HURRICANE.
RETURN OF THE WARREGO TO COOKTOWN.

Map taken from the book 'The Pearling Disaster, 1899: A Memorial' Credit: National Library of Australia

14 WHITE MEN AND 400 COLOURED MEN DROWNED.
DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £50,000.
BRISBANE, Monday.

The steamer Warrego, which was despatched to the scene of the recent hurricane for the pur-
pose of rendering assistance to any of the shipwrecked crews, has returned to Cooktown. She
reports that the schooners Sagitta, Silvery Wave, and Admiral were totally wrecked, also the Meg Merrilies. The Tarwara was ashore, but was refloated. The Crest of the Wave was dis-masted. The Olive and Aladdin stood the gale and are safe. It is estimated that the loss of life was 400.

The whites drowned are E. J. Jefferson of Hull ; J. Nicholas, A. H. Outridge, R.B. Murray, H. Outridge, E. Atthow, of the Olive.

The glass during the storm receded from 29-60 to 29-10 deg. The hurricane came at first from the south-east by east, changed during the storm from east, north, south-west, then to west, and finally died away in north-east. N. G. Vidged, of the Olive, is searching the beach from Flinders to Barron Point, and reports that the natives are burying the dead at Bathurst Bay, and there is a forest of sunken luggers' masts.

The Silvery Wave went down at 5 o'clock on Sunday morning. One Malay stayed aboard. He came ashore on a plank. All the Sagitta's boats were lost. Thirteen porpoises were found 15ft. up the cliff at Flinders. The storm was raging on Saturday night and Sunday morning, extending from Howick's Group to Channel Rocks Lightship.

Story on Cyclone Mahina from SMH, May 15, 1899 Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

The local manager of the A.U.S.N. Company received a telegram from the agent at Townsville as follows :-" Warrego, which arrived this morning, reports having searched the islands and reefs, and found that 87 boats, five schooners, and lightship, with about 400 lives, were lost during the late hurricane. The Warrego found 36 boats and three schooners anchored safely in Flinders Bay. Jefferson, who was reported to be drowned, was a managing partner of the Silvery Wave fleet."

The following telegram has been received by the Under Secretary and Superintendent of Telegraphs from the officer in charge at Cooktown :- " The Warrego returned from the scene of the wrecks this morning. Authentic reports state that 14 white men and about 400 coloured men were drowned. Eighty luggers and six schooners were wrecked. The damage is estimated at £50,000. Channel Island lightship and four men were lost at Douglas Spit. A coloured man reached shore with two women after swimming four days. The beach is strewn with dead fish, snakes, and birds."

The following telegram from the Harbour Master at Cooktown was received about 5 o'clock
this afternoon by the Postmaster, Captain Almond. The message appears to have been de-
layed in transmission, as it was despatched at 10 o'clock in the morning. It runs as follows :-
" I considered, after conferring with Bennett, officer on board the White Star, that the Warrego could accomplish no good going further north than Flinders Island, and instructed the captain of the Warrego to return to Cooktown, where he arrived at midnight. The White Star left
Flinders Island for Cape Melville at 7 a.m. on Sunday. It was arranged to go from there to-
wards the reef north-east from Piper Island and search north. This was not done, because we
passed her at 6.30 on Sunday evening between Murdock and Lookout Point steaming south. It
was useless searching south of Barrow Point.

At 12.40 on Saturday sighted the steamer Victory.Bade her stay, and signalled 'Come along-
side.' On receiving the report of Pilot Coles, I instructed the captain to proceed south along the coast as far as Barrow Point, searching the beach.

If any bodies were found the instructions were to bury them. If white bodies, to obtain full par-ticulars for indentification ; also instructions were given to give flour to the blacks for burying the dead, and then return if time permitted to Channel Rock and anchor for the night. Next morning to proceed to C Reef, off Flinder's Point, examine the lugger ashore on the reef, and also proceed to King Island, looking for wreckage, afterwards to proceed to Cooktown.

Captain Porter (Crest of the Wave) reports he saw the lightship at 11 p.m. on Saturday at anchorage. The barometer was then 27in. The consensus of opinion is that the lightship foundered at her moorings. The water was too dirty to send a diver down. If not at her moorings, then she foundered at Bathurst Bay, but the opinion is she sank at her moorings. All hands were drowned. The captains of the pearling fleets say they never experienced such weather.

"I believe 360 to 400 coloured men are drowned, besides the following white men :- Captain Jefferson (Silvery Wave), Captain Murray (of the Sagitta), A. J. Outridge, H. Outridge, one man name unknown, Captain Powell (of the schooner North Wales), two men, Captain of the Channel Rock Lightship, also H. Atthow, J. Nicholas (Silvery Wave). The following vessels are reported lost :-Schooners North Wales, Sagitta, Silvery Wave, Admiral, Waiwera, Meg Merilees, 45 luggers belonging to the fleet and 15 belonging to various owners, and about 20 swimming boats and the Channel Rock lightship.

"Fully 60 bodies have been buried, but only one white man (H. Outridge). I suggest a further search of the beach north of Barrow Point for the bodies for burial."

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From the Archives, 1899: Cyclone Mahina kills hundreds in Queensland

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Cyclone Mahina produced a world-record storm surge and killed an estimated 410 people as it tore ashore in March 1899. It was Australia's deadliest natural disaster.

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Aboriginal peoples lived in Australia for at least 45,000-50,000 years before Europeans arrived. They came from Asia by boat or by land that is now underwater. Aboriginal peoples lived in groups that had their own language, culture, and traditional lands. These lands, known as Country, were central to the survival of each group. The people knew how to protect and use the environment of their specific Country. This is what Europeans encountered when they first landed on Australia.

Portuguese and Spanish explorers may have landed in Australia in the 1500s. In the 1600s several Dutch explorers reached the continent. They included Dirck Hartog and Abel Tasman. Hartog discovered the west coast, and Tasman sailed along the southern tip of what is now called Tasmania. Because of all these voyages, the Dutch named the continent New Holland in 1644. But they did not settle there.

William Dampier, an English pirate turned explorer, landed on the west coast twice in the late 1600s. In 1770 Captain James Cook landed in southeastern Australia and claimed it for Great Britain. He named the region New South Wales. Others later explored the continent further, including Matthew Flinders, who suggested the name Australia.

First Fleet and Settlement

Captain Cook thought that New South Wales was a good place for settlement. At the time, England's prisons were overcrowded. So the English government decided to send prisoners to Australia to start a penal colony-a place where criminals are sent to live.

Captain Arthur Phillip was in charge of the First Fleet. He led 11 ships carrying about 200 marines, a few free settlers, more than 700 convicts, food stores, and farm animals. The trip took eight months and conditions were very hard. They reached Australia in January 1788 and settled in a bay that they named Sydney Cove. Phillip became the first governor of the colony.

Convicts and settlers worked to clear land and to establish farms. They were not used to the climate, which was different from England, so the colonists struggled to survive. But soon more convicts and settlers arrived. The settlement grew bigger and stronger. In the 1800s other parts of the country were settled. Some were also penal colonies. In 1851 the discovery of gold drew thousands of new immigrants to Australia. The settlements grew and became colonies separate from New South Wales. They became Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia.

The flood of settlers nearly wiped out the Aboriginal population. Many Aboriginal people died while fighting for their land or from European diseases.

Independence and War

By the late 1800s the six separate colonies each had an elected assembly. In 1901 they became states when they joined together to form a federation. The new Commonwealth of Australia had a national parliament and six state parliaments. It kept ties with Britain, however, as part of the British Commonwealth (a group of former British colonies).

When World War I began, Australians fought alongside the British Army. Many Australians died during the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. Australia also supported Britain when World War II began in 1939. In the 1940s the Japanese attacked several Australian cities. Their airplanes bombed Darwin, and submarines fired on Sydney. After the war Australia's population grew rapidly. Many immigrants came from war-torn Europe.

Recent Events

In the 1970s Australia started to focus less on Europe and more on its Asian neighbors. Many Asian immigrants arrived, and trade increased between Australia and Asian countries.

In the 1990s Indigenous Australians won some rights to land. They also won more respect from white Australians. Many still face hardships, however. In 2008 the country's prime minister issued a formal apology to Aboriginal Australians for abuses they suffered under earlier Australian administrations.

The British monarch is still the head of state in Australia. Some Australians have called for change. They want the country to become a republic with a president as head of state. In 1999, however, Australians voted against a complete separation from Britain.

The main political parties in Australia are the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia, and the National Party. The Liberal and National parties shared power for much of the second half of the 1900s. In 2007 the Labor Party was elected with Kevin Rudd as prime minister. Three years later Julia Gillard took over as leader of the Labor Party. She therefore became the country's first woman prime minister.

Shortly after taking office, Gillard called for a new election, which took place in late August 2010. The results were extremely close. Neither Labor nor the Liberals won a majority in the House of Representatives. Several independent members of Parliament eventually agreed to support the Labor Party. This allowed Gillard to form a minority government in early September. In 2013, however, the members of the Labor Party voted to replace her as leader of the party. Rudd once again became the leader of the party and the prime minister.

Less than three months later, the Labor Party lost the next general election. A coalition of the National and Liberal parties, led by Tony Abbott, won the election. Rudd stepped down as leader of the Labor Party, although he kept his seat in Parliament. In 2015 Malcolm Turnbull challenged Abbott for the Liberal Party leadership. Turnbull won and became prime minister. He resigned in 2018. Scott Morrison was then elected the new leader of the Liberal Party and became prime minister.

Australia suffered several major natural disasters in the early 2000s. In early 2009 a series of bushfires killed 173 people, injured 500, and destroyed numerous homes in the state of Victoria. Almost two years later torrential rains caused massive flooding in Queensland and other states. In late 2019 and early 2020 the country faced another series of devastating bushfires. In 2021 and 2022 eastern Australia was once again devastated by flooding.

Morrison and his party were partly blamed for the bushfires and floods that occurred during his term in office. Many people thought that climate change led to the disasters and that Morrison did not do enough to combat climate change. In 2022 Morrison and the Liberal Party were voted out of office. Anthony Albanese became the new prime minister. He faced continuing problems with climate change and with the disease known as COVID-19. The disease, caused by a coronavirus, had killed more than 8,000 people since the beginning of the outbreak in 2020.

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Prime ministers of AustraliaAustralia is the only nation that takes up a whole continent. It is known for its vast Outback, the Great Barrier Reef, and its unique wildlife....

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The government of Gough Whitlam is plagued by resignations and the blocking of its budget by the upper house of the parliament. In an unprecedented move, the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismisses the government. A caretaker administration under Malcolm Fraser is installed, and goes on to win the general election.

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A chronology of key events in the history of Australia

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The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia.

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

Aboriginal Australia

Early Indigenous history

The earliest known human remains were found at Lake Mungo, a dry lake in the southwest of New South Wales. Remains found at Mungo suggest one of the world's oldest known cremations, thus indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans. According to Australian Aboriginal mythology and the animist framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, the Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed The Creation. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. It remains a prominent feature of Australian Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art is believed to be the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world. Evidence of Aboriginal art can be traced back at least 30,000 years and is found throughout Australia (notably at Uluru and Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory). In terms of age and abundance, cave art in Australia is comparable to that of Lascaux and Altamira in Europe.

Manning Clark wrote that the ancestors of the Aboriginal Australians were slow to reach Tasmania, probably owing to an ice barrier existing across the South East of the continent. The Aboriginal Australians, he noted, did not develop agriculture, probably owing to a lack of seed bearing plants and animals suitable for domestication. Thus, the population remained low. Clark considered that the three potential pre-European colonising powers and traders of East Asia-the Hindu-Buddhists of southern India, the Muslims of Northern India and the Chinese-each petered out in their southward advance and did not attempt a settlement across the straits separating Indonesia from Australia. But trepang fisherman did reach the north coast, which they called "Marege" or "land of the trepang". For centuries, Makassan trade flourished with Aboriginal Australians on Australia's north coast, particularly with the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land.

The greatest population density for Aboriginal Australians developed in the southern and eastern regions, the River Murray valley in particular. Aboriginal Australians lived and used resources on the continent sustainably, agreeing to cease hunting and gathering at particular times to give populations and resources the chance to replenish. The arrival of Australia's first people nevertheless affected the continent significantly, and, along with climate change, may have contributed to the extinction of Australia's megafauna. The practice of firestick farming amongst northern Aboriginal Australians to increase the abundance of plants that attracted animals, transformed dry rainforest into savanna. The introduction of the dingo by Aboriginal people around 3,000-4,000 years ago may, along with human hunting, have contributed to the extinction of the thylacine, Tasmanian devil, and Tasmanian native-hen from mainland Australia.

One genetic study in 2012 by Irina Pugach and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has suggested that about 4,000 years before the First Fleet landed, some Indian explorers settled in Australia and assimilated into the local population in roughly 2217 BC.

Despite considerable cultural continuity, life was not without significant changes. Some 10-12,000 years ago, Tasmania became isolated from the mainland, and some stone technologies failed to reach the Tasmanian people (such as the hafting of stone tools and the use of the Boomerang). The land was not always kind; Aboriginal people of southeastern Australia endured "more than a dozen volcanic eruptions...(including) Mount Gambier, a mere 1,400 years ago." In southeastern Australia, near present-day Lake Condah, semi-permanent villages of beehive shaped shelters of stone developed, near bountiful food supplies.

By 1788, the population existed as 250 individual nations, many of which were in alliance with one another, and within each nation there existed several clans, from as few as five or six to as many as 30 or 40. Each nation had its own language and a few had multiple, thus over 250 languages existed, around 200 of which are now extinct. "Intricate kinship rules ordered the social relations of the people and diplomatic messengers and meeting rituals smoothed relations between groups", keeping group fighting, sorcery and domestic disputes to a minimum.

Permanent European settlers arrived at Sydney in 1788 and came to control most of the continent by end of the 19th century. Bastions of largely unaltered Aboriginal societies survived, particularly in Northern and Western Australia into the 20th century, until finally, a group of Pintupi people of the Gibson Desert became the last people to be contacted by outsider ways in 1984. While much knowledge was lost, Aboriginal art, music and culture, often scorned by Europeans during the initial phases of contact, survived and in time came to be celebrated by the wider Australian community.

Impact of European settlement
Conflict and disease
According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey, in Australia during the colonial period: "In a thousand isolated places there were occasional shootings and spearings. Even worse, smallpox, measles, influenza and other new diseases swept from one Aboriginal camp to another ... The main conqueror of Aboriginal Australians was to be disease and its ally, demoralisation".

Conflict in the Hawkesbury Nepean river district near the settlement at Sydney continued from 1795-1816.

Even before the arrival of European settlers in local districts beyond coastal New South Wales, Eurasian disease often preceded them. A smallpox epidemic was recorded near Sydney in 1789, which wiped out about half the Aboriginal Australians around Sydney. Opinion is divided as to the source of the smallpox. Some researchers argue that the smallpox was acquired through contact with Indonesian fishermen in the far north and then spread across the continent, reaching the Sydney area in 1789. Other research by Craig Mear, Michael Bennett, and Christopher Warren argues that, despite controversy, it is highly likely that the 1789 outbreak of smallpox was a deliberate act by British marines when they ran out of ammunition and needed to expand the settlement out to Parramatta. Smallpox then spread well beyond the then limits of European settlement, including much of southeastern Australia, reappearing in 1829-30, killing 40-60 percent of the Aboriginal population.

The impact of Europeans was profoundly disruptive to Aboriginal life and, though the extent of violence is debated, there was considerable conflict on the frontier. At the same time, some settlers were quite aware they were usurping the Aboriginal Australians place in Australia. In 1845, settler Charles Griffiths sought to justify this, writing; "The question comes to this; which has the better right-the savage, born in a country, which he runs over but can scarcely be said to occupy ... or the civilized man, who comes to introduce into this ... unproductive country, the industry which supports life."

From the 1960s, Australian writers began to re-assess European assumptions about Aboriginal Australia-with works including Alan Moorehead's The Fatal Impact (1966) and Geoffrey Blainey's landmark history Triumph of the Nomads (1975). In 1968, anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner described the lack of historical accounts of relations between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians as "the great Australian silence." Historian Henry Reynolds argues that there was a "historical neglect" of the Aboriginal Australians by historians until the late 1960s. Early commentaries often tended to describe Aboriginal Australians as doomed to extinction following the arrival of Europeans. William Westgarth's 1864 book on the colony of Victoria observed; "the case of the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria confirms ...it would seem almost an immutable law of nature that such inferior dark races should disappear." However, by the early 1970s historians like Lyndall Ryan, Henry Reynolds and Raymond Evans were trying to document and estimate the conflict and human toll on the frontier.

Many events illustrate violence and resistance as Aboriginal Australians sought to protect their lands from invasion and as settlers and pastoralists attempted to establish their presence. In May 1804, at Risdon Cove, Van Diemen's Land, perhaps 60 Aboriginal Australians were killed when they approached the town. The British established a new outpost in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in 1803. Although Tasmanian history is amongst the most contested by modern historians, conflict between colonists and Aboriginal Australians was referred to in some contemporary accounts as the Black War. The combined effects of disease, dispossession, intermarriage and conflict saw a collapse of the Aboriginal population of Tasmania from a few thousand people when the British arrived, to a few hundred by the 1830s. Estimates of how many people were killed during the period begin at around 300, though verification of the true figure is now impossible. In 1830 Governor Sir George Arthur sent an armed party (the Black Line) to push the Big River and Oyster Bay tribes out of the British settled districts. The effort failed and George Augustus Robinson proposed to set out unarmed to mediate with the remaining tribespeople in 1833. With the assistance of Truganini as guide and translator, Robinson convinced remaining tribesmen to surrender to an isolated new settlement at Flinders Island, where most later died of disease.

In 1838, at least twenty-eight Aboriginal Australians were murdered at the Myall Creek in New South Wales, resulting in the unprecedented conviction and hanging of six white and one African convict settlers by the colonial courts. Aboriginal Australians also attacked white settlers-in 1838 fourteen Europeans were killed at Broken River in Port Phillip District, by Aboriginal Australians of the Ovens River, almost certainly in revenge for the illicit use of Aboriginal women. Captain Hutton of Port Phillip District once told Chief Protector of Aboriginal Australians George Augustus Robinson that "if a member of a tribe offend, destroy the whole." Queensland's Colonial Secretary A.H. Palmer wrote in 1884 "the nature of the blacks was so treacherous that they were only guided by fear-in fact it was only possible to rule...the Australian Aboriginal...by brute force". The most recent massacre of Aboriginal Australians was at Coniston in the Northern Territory in 1928. There are numerous other massacre sites in Australia, although supporting documentation varies.
Co-operation
Frontier encounters in Australia were not universally negative. Positive accounts of Aboriginal customs and encounters are also recorded in the journals of early European explorers, who often relied on Aboriginal guides and assistance: Charles Sturt employed Aboriginal envoys to explore the Murray-Darling; the lone survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition was nursed by local Aboriginal Australians, and the famous Aboriginal explorer Jackey Jackey loyally accompanied his ill-fated friend Edmund Kennedy to Cape York. Respectful studies were conducted by such as Walter Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen in their renowned anthropological study The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899); and by Donald Thomson of Arnhem Land (c. 1935-1943). In inland Australia, the skills of Aboriginal stockmen became highly regarded and in the 20th century, Aboriginal stockmen like Vincent Lingiari became national figures in their campaigns for better pay and improved working conditions.
Removal of children
The removal of indigenous children, by which mixed-race children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent were removed from their families by Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, was a policy actively conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1969. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission argued that these removals constituted attempted genocide and had a major impact on the Indigenous population. Such interpretations of Aboriginal history are disputed by a few historians such as Keith Windschuttle as being exaggerated or fabricated for political or ideological reasons. This debate is part of what is known within Australia as the History Wars.

Early European explorers

Although a theory of Portuguese discovery in the 1520s exists, it lacks definitive evidence. The Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606. That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in nearby waters and led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós had landed in the New Hebrides and, believing them to be the fabled southern continent, named the land "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" ( Southern Land of the Holy Spirit), in honour of his queen Margaret of Austria, the wife of Philip III of Spain. Later that year, Queirós' deputy Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast.

The Dutch, following shipping routes to the Dutch East Indies, or in search of gold, spices or Christian converts proceeded to contribute a great deal to Europe's knowledge of Australia's coast. In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, West Australia. In 1622-23 the Leeuwin made the first recorded rounding of the south west corner of the continent, and gave her name to Cape Leeuwin.

In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by François Thijssen and named ' t Land van Pieter Nuyts, in honour of the highest ranking passenger, Pieter Nuyts, extraordinary Councillor of India, In 1628 a squadron of Dutch ships was sent by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter de Carpentier to explore the northern coast. These ships made extensive examinations, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, named in honour of de Carpentier.

A map of the world inlaid into the floor of the Burgerzaal (" Burger's Hall") of the new Amsterdam Stadhuis ("Town Hall") in 1655 revealed the extent of Dutch charts of much of Australia's coast Based on the 1648 map by Joan Blaeu, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, it incorporated Tasman's discoveries, subsequently reproduced in the map, Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus published in the Kurfürsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great Elector).

In 1664 the French geographer, Melchisédech Thévenot, published in Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux a map of New Holland. Thévenot divided the continent in two, between Nova Hollandia to the west and Terre Australe to the east. Emanuel Bowen reproduced Thevenot's map in his Complete System of Geography (London, 1747), re-titling it A Complete Map of the Southern Continent and adding three inscriptions promoting the benefits of exploring and colonising the country. One inscription said:

It is impossible to conceive a Country that promises fairer from its Situation than this of TERRA AUSTRALIS, no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates, but the Southern Continent Discovered. It lies precisely in the richest climates of the World... and therefore whoever perfectly discovers and settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as Rich, as fruitful, and as capable of Improvement, as any that have hitherto been found out, either in the East Indies or the West.

Bowen's map was re-published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-1748, 1764). This book recommended exploration of the east coast of New Holland, with a view to a British colonisation, by way of Abel Tasman's route to Van Diemen's Land.

With the exception of further Dutch visits to the west, however, Australia remained largely unvisited by Europeans until the first British explorations. John Callander put forward a proposal in 1766 for Britain to found a colony of banished convicts in the South Sea or in Terra Australis to enable the mother country to exploit the riches of those regions. He said: "this world must present us with many things entirely new, as hitherto we have had little more knowledge of it, than if it had lain in another planet".

In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook in command of the HMS Endeavour, travelled to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook also carried secret Admiralty instructions to locate the supposed Southern Continent: "There is reason to imagine that a continent, or land of great extent, may be found to the southward of the track of former navigators." This continent was not found, a disappointment to Alexander Dalrymple and his fellow members of the Royal Society who had urged the Admiralty to undertake this mission. Cook decided to survey the east coast of New Holland, the only major part of that continent that had not been charted by Dutch navigators.

On 19 April 1770, the Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia and ten days later landed at Botany Bay. Cook charted the coast to its northern extent and, along with the ship's naturalist, Joseph Banks, who subsequently reported favourably on the possibilities of establishing a colony at Botany Bay. Cook formally took possession of the east coast of New Holland on 21/22 August 1770, and noted in his journal that he could "land no more upon this Eastern coast of New Holland, and on the Western side I can make no new discovery the honour of which belongs to the Dutch Navigators and as such they may lay Claim to it as their property [italicised words crossed out in the original] but the Eastern Coast from the Latitude of 38 South down to this place I am confident was never seen or viseted by any European before us and therefore by the same Rule belongs to great Brittan [italicised words crossed out in the original].

Colonisation

Plans for colonisation

Matra reasoned that: the country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton and tobacco; New Zealand timber and hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities; it could form a base for Pacific trade; and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists. Following an interview with Secretary of State Lord Sydney in 1784, Matra amended his proposal to include convicts as settlers, considering that this would benefit both "Economy to the Publick, & Humanity to the Individual".

Matra's plan provided the original blueprint for settlement. Records show the government was considering it in 1784. The London newspapers announced in November 1784 that: "A plan has been presented to the [Prime] Minister, and is now before the Cabinet, for instituting a new colony in New Holland. In this vast tract of land....every sort of produce and improvement of which the various soils of the earth are capable, may be expected". The Government also incorporated the settlement of Norfolk Island into their plan, with its attractions of timber and flax, proposed by Banks' Royal Society colleagues, Sir John Call and Sir George Young.

At the same time, humanitarians and reformers were campaigning in Britain against the appalling conditions in British prisons and hulks. In 1777 prison reformer John Howard wrote The State of Prisons in England and Wales, exposing the harsh conditions of the prison system to "genteel society"." Penal transportation was already well-established as a central plank of English criminal law and until the American Revolution about a thousand criminals per year were sent to Maryland and Virginia. It served as a powerful deterrent to law-breaking. According to historian David Hill, "Europeans knew little about the geography of the globe" and to "convicts in England, transportation to Botany Bay was a frightening prospect." Echoing John Callander, he said Australia "might as well have been another planet."

In 1933, Sir Ernest Scott, stated the traditional view of the reasons for colonisation: "It is clear that the only consideration which weighed seriously with the Pitt Government was the immediately pressing and practical one of finding a suitable place for a convict settlement ". In the early 1960s, historian Geoffrey Blainey questioned the traditional view of foundation purely as a convict dumping ground. His book The Tyranny of Distance suggested ensuring supplies of flax and timber after the loss of the American colonies may have also been motivations, and Norfolk Island was the key to the British decision. A number of historians responded and debate brought to light a large amount of additional source material on the reasons for settlement. This has most recently been set out and discussed by Professor Alan Frost.

The decision to settle was taken when it seemed the outbreak of civil war in the Netherlands might precipitate a war in which Britain would be again confronted with the alliance of the three naval Powers, France, Holland and Spain, which had brought her to defeat in 1783. Under these circumstances, the strategic advantages of a colony in New South Wales described in James Matra's proposal were attractive. Matra wrote that such a settlement could facilitate attacks upon the Spanish in South America and the Philippines, and against the Dutch East Indies. In 1790, during the Nootka Crisis, plans were made for naval expeditions against Spain's possessions in the Americas and the Philippines, in which New South Wales was assigned the role of a base for "refreshment, communication and retreat". On subsequent occasions into the early 19th century when war threatened or broke out between Britain and Spain, these plans were revived and only the short length of the period of hostilities in each case prevented them from being put into effect.

Georg Forster, who had sailed under Lieutenant James Cook in the voyage of the Resolution (1772-1775), wrote in 1786 on the future prospects of the British colony: "New Holland, an island of enormous extent or it might be said, a third continent, is the future homeland of a new civilized society which, however mean its beginning may seem to be, nevertheless promises within a short time to become very important." And the merchant adventurer and would-be coloniser of southwestern Australia under the Swedish flag, William Bolts, said to the Swedish Ambassador in Paris, Erik von Staël in December 1789, that the British had founded at Botany Bay, "a settlement which in time will become of the greatest importance to the Commerce of the Globe".

Establishment of British colonies

The territory claimed by Britain included all of Australia eastward of the meridian of 135° East and all the islands in the Pacific Ocean between the latitudes of Cape York and the southern tip of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). The western limit of 135° East was set at the meridian dividing New Holland from Terra Australis shown on Emanuel Bowen's Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-1748, and 1764). It was a vast claim which elicited excitement at the time: the Dutch translator of First Fleet officer and author Watkin Tench's A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay wrote: "a single province which, beyond all doubt, is the largest on the whole surface of the earth. From their definition it covers, in its greatest extent from East to West, virtually a fourth of the whole circumference of the Globe". Spanish naval commander Alessandro Malaspina, who visited Sydney in March-April 1793 reported to his government that: "The transportation of the convicts constituted the means and not the object of the enterprise. The extension of dominion, mercantile speculations and the discovery of mines were the real object". Frenchman François Péron, of the Baudin expedition visited Sydney in 1802 and reported to the French Government: "How can it be conceived that such a monstrous invasion was accomplished, with no complaint in Europe to protest against it? How can it be conceived that Spain, who had previously raised so many objections opposing the occupation of the Malouines ( Falkland Islands), meekly allowed a formidable empire to arise to facing her richest possessions, an empire which must either invade or liberate them?"

The colony included the current islands of New Zealand. In 1817, the British government withdrew the extensive territorial claim over the South Pacific. In practice, the governors' writ had been shown not to run in the islands of the South Pacific. The Church Missionary Society had concerns over atrocities committed against the natives of the South Sea Islands, and the ineffectiveness of the New South Wales government to deal with the lawlessness. As a result, on 27 June 1817, Parliament passed an Act for the more effectual Punishment of Murders and Manslaughters committed in Places not within His Majesty's Dominions, which described Tahiti, New Zealand and other islands of the South Pacific as being not within His Majesty's dominions.

1788: New South Wales

Governor Phillip was vested with complete authority over the inhabitants of the colony. Enlightened for his Age, Phillip's personal intent was to establish harmonious relations with local Aboriginal people and try to reform as well as discipline the convicts of the colony. Phillip and several of his officers-most notably Watkin Tench-left behind journals and accounts of which tell of immense hardships during the first years of settlement. Often Phillip's officers despaired for the future of New South Wales. Early efforts at agriculture were fraught and supplies from overseas were scarce. Between 1788 and 1792 about 3546 male and 766 female convicts were landed at Sydney-many "professional criminals" with few of the skills required for the establishment of a colony. Many new arrivals were also sick or unfit for work and the conditions of healthy convicts only deteriorated with hard labour and poor sustenance in the settlement. The food situation reached crisis point in 1790 and the Second Fleet which finally arrived in June 1790 had lost a quarter of its 'passengers' through sickness, while the condition of the convicts of the Third Fleet appalled Phillip. From 1791 however, the more regular arrival of ships and the beginnings of trade lessened the feeling of isolation and improved supplies.

Phillip sent exploratory missions in search of better soils, fixed on the Parramatta region as a promising area for expansion, and moved many of the convicts from late 1788 to establish a small township, which became the main centre of the colony's economic life. This left Sydney Cove only as an important port and focus of social life. Poor equipment and unfamiliar soils and climate continued to hamper the expansion of farming from Farm Cove to Parramatta and Toongabbie, but a building program, assisted by convict labour, advanced steadily. Between 1788 and 1792, convicts and their gaolers made up the majority of the population-but after this, a population of emancipated convicts began to grow who could be granted land and these people pioneered a non-government private sector economy and were later joined by soldiers whose military service had expired-and finally, free settlers who began arriving from Britain. Governor Phillip departed the colony for England on 11 December 1792, with the new settlement having survived near starvation and immense isolation for four years. On 16 February 1793 the first free settlers arrived. The settlers: Thomas Rose, with his wife and four children, Edward Powell, Thomas Webb, Joseph Webb, and Frederick Meredith.

Establishment of further colonies

After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half, named New South Wales, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney, and a western half named New Holland. The western boundary of 135° East of Greenwich was based on the Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in Emanuel Bowen's Complete System of Geography (London 1747), and reproduced in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-48, and 1764). Bowen's map was based on one by Melchisédech Thévenot and published in Relations des Divers Voyages (1663), which apparently divided New Holland in the west from Terra Australis in the east by a latitude staff situated at 135° East. This division, reproduced in Bowen's map, provided a convenient western boundary for the British claim because, as Watkin Tench subsequently commented in A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, "By this partition, it may be fairly presumed, that every source of future litigation between the Dutch and us, will be for ever cut off, as the discoveries of English navigators only are comprized in this territory". Thévenot said he copied his map from the one engraved in the floor of the Amsterdam Town Hall, but in that map there was no dividing line between New Holland and Terra Australis. Thévenot's map was actually copied from Joan Blaeu's map, Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus, published in 1659 in the Kurfürsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great Elector); this map was a part of Blaeu's world map of 1648, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, which first showed the land revealed by Abel Tasman's 1642 voyage as Hollandia Nova and which served as the basis for the Amsterdam Town Hall pavement map. Longitude 135° East reflected the line of division between the claims of Spain and Portugal established in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which had formed the basis of many subsequent claims to colonial territory. An Historical Narrative of the Discovery of New Holland and New South Wales, published in November 1786, contained "A General Chart of New Holland, including New South Wales & Botany Bay, with The Adjacent Countries, and New Discovered Islands", which showed all the territory claimed under the jurisdiction of the Governor of New South Wales.

Romantic descriptions of the beauty, mild climate, and fertile soil of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific led the British government to establish a subsidiary settlement of the New South Wales colony there in 1788. It was hoped that the giant Norfolk Island pine trees and flax plants growing wild on the island might provide the basis for a local industry which, particularly in the case of flax, would provide an alternative source of supply to Russia for an article which was essential for making cordage and sails for the ships of the British navy. However, the island had no safe harbour, which led the colony to be abandoned and the settlers evacuated to Tasmania in 1807. The island was subsequently re-settled as a penal settlement in 1824.

In 1798, George Bass and Matthew Flinders circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land, proving that it was an island. In 1802, Flinders successfully circumnavigated Australia for the first time.

Convicts and colonial society

Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161,700 convicts (of whom 25,000 were women) were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen's land and Western Australia. Historian Lloyd Robson has estimated that perhaps two-thirds were thieves from working class towns, particularly from the Midlands and north of England. The majority were repeat offenders. Whether transportation managed to achieve its goal of reforming or not, some convicts were able to leave the prison system in Australia; after 1801 they could gain "tickets of leave" for good behaviour and be assigned to work for free men for wages. A few went on to have successful lives as emancipists, having been pardoned at the end of their sentence. Female convicts had fewer opportunities.

From the 1820s, increasing numbers of squatters occupied land beyond the fringes of European settlement. Often running sheep on large stations with relatively few overheads, squatters could make considerable profits. By 1834, nearly 2 million kilograms of wool were being exported to Britain from Australia. By 1850, barely 2,000 squatters had gained 30 million hectares of land, and they formed a powerful and "respectable" interest group in several colonies.

In 1835, the British Colonial Office issued the Proclamation of Governor Bourke, implementing the legal doctrine of terra nullius upon which British settlement was based, reinforcing the notion that the land belonged to no one prior to the British Crown taking possession of it and quashing any likelihood of treaties with Aboriginal peoples, including that signed by John Batman. Its publication meant that from then, all people found occupying land without the authority of the government would be considered illegal trespassers.

Massive areas of land were cleared for agriculture and various other purposes in the first 100 years of European settlement. In addition to the obvious impacts this early clearing of land and importation of hard-hoofed animals had on the ecology of particular regions, it severely affected indigenous Australians, by reducing the resources they relied on for food, shelter and other essentials. This progressively forced them into smaller areas and reduced their numbers as the majority died of newly introduced diseases and lack of resources. Indigenous resistance against the settlers was widespread, and prolonged fighting between 1788 and the 1920s led to the deaths of at least 20,000 indigenous people and between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans. During the mid-late 19th century, many indigenous Australians in south eastern Australia were relocated, often forcibly, to reserves and missions. The nature of many of these institutions enabled disease to spread quickly and many were closed as their populations fell.

Free colony at South Australia

A group in Britain led by Edward Gibbon Wakefield sought to start a colony based on free settlement rather than convict labour. In 1831 the South Australian Land Company was formed amid a campaign for a royal charter which would provide for the establishment of a privately financed "free" colony in Australia.

While New South Wales, Tasmania and (although not initially) Western Australia were established as convict settlements, the founders of South Australia had a vision of a colony with political and religious freedoms, together with opportunities for wealth through business and pastoral investments. The South Australia Act 1834, passed by the British Government which established the colony reflected these desires and included a promise of representative government when the population reached 50,000 people. South Australia thus became the only colony authorised by an Act of Parliament, and which was intended to be developed at no cost to the British government. Transportation of convicts was forbidden, and 'poor Emigrants', assisted by an Emigration Fund, were required to bring their families with them. Significantly, the Letters Patent enabling the South Australia Act 1834 included a guarantee of the rights of 'any Aboriginal Natives' and their descendants to lands they 'now actually occupied or enjoyed'.

Exploration of the continent

In 1798-99 George Bass and Matthew Flinders set out from Sydney in a sloop and circumnavigated Tasmania, thus proving it to be an island. In 1801-02 Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator led the first circumnavigation of Australia. Aboard ship was the Aboriginal explorer Bungaree, of the Sydney district, who became the first person born on the Australian continent to circumnavigate the Australian continent. Previously, the famous Bennelong and a companion had become the first people born in the area of New South Wales to sail for Europe, when, in 1792 they accompanied Governor Phillip to England and were presented to King George III.

Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell conducted a series of expeditions from the 1830s to 'fill in the gaps' left by these previous expeditions. He was meticulous in seeking to record the original Aboriginal place names around the colony, for which reason the majority of place names to this day retain their Aboriginal titles.

European explorers made their last great, often arduous and sometimes tragic expeditions into the interior of Australia during the second half of the 19th century-some with the official sponsorship of the colonial authorities and others commissioned by private investors. By 1850, large areas of the inland were still unknown to Europeans. Trailblazers like Edmund Kennedy and the Prussian naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt, had met tragic ends attempting to fill in the gaps during the 1840s, but explorers remained ambitious to discover new lands for agriculture or answer scientific enquiries. Surveyors also acted as explorers and the colonies sent out expeditions to discover the best routes for lines of communication. The size of expeditions varied considerably from small parties of just two or three to large, well-equipped teams led by gentlemen explorers assisted by smiths, carpenters, labourers and Aboriginal guides accompanied by horses, camels or bullocks.

In 1862, John McDouall Stuart succeeded in traversing Central Australia from south to north. His expedition mapped out the route which was later followed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line.

From autonomy to federation

Colonial self-government and the gold rushes

The gold rushes brought many immigrants to Australia from the British Isles, continental Europe, North America and China. The Colony of Victoria's population grew rapidly, from 76,000 in 1850 to 530,000 by 1859. Discontent arose amongst diggers almost immediately, particularly on the crowded Victorian fields. The causes of this were the colonial government's administration of the diggings and the gold licence system. Following a number of protests and petitions for reform, violence erupted at Ballarat in late 1854.

Early on the morning of Sunday 3 December 1854, British soldiers and Police attacked a stockade built on the Eureka lead holding some of the aggrieved diggers. In a short fight, at least 30 miners were killed and an unknown number wounded. O'Brien lists 5 soldiers of the 12th and 40th Regiments killed and 12 wounded. Blinded by his fear of agitation with democratic overtones, local Commissioner Robert Rede had felt "it was absolutely necessary that a blow should be struck" against the miners.

But a few months later, a Royal commission made sweeping changes to the administration of Victoria's goldfields. Its recommendations included the abolition of the licence, reforms to the police force and voting rights for miners holding a Miner's Right. The Eureka Flag that was used to represent the Ballarat miners has been seriously considered by some as an alternative to the Australian flag, because of its controversial association with democratic developments.

In the 1890s, visiting author Mark Twain characterised the battle at Eureka as "The finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution-small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression...it is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle."

Alternatively, in 1999, the Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, dismissed the Eureka Stockade as a "protest without consequence". During the 2004 Australian federal election, Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson stated his view that "I think people have tried to make too much of the Eureka Stockade...trying to give it a credibility and standing that it probably doesn't enjoy."

New South Wales in 1855 was the first colony to gain responsible government, managing most of its own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia followed in 1856; Queensland, from its foundation in 1859; and Western Australia, in 1890. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defence and international shipping.

The gold era led to a long period of prosperity, sometimes called "the long boom." This was fed by British investment and the continued growth of the pastoral and mining industries, in addition to the growth of efficient transport by rail, river and sea. By 1891, the sheep population of Australia was estimated at 100 million. Gold production had declined since the 1850s, but in the same year was still worth £5.2 million. Eventually the economic expansion ended; the 1890s were a period of economic depression, felt most strongly in Victoria, and its capital Melbourne.

The late 19th century had however, seen a great growth in the cities of south eastern Australia. Australia's population (not including Aboriginal Australians, who were excluded from census calculations) in 1900 was 3.7 million, almost 1 million of whom lived in Melbourne and Sydney. More than two-thirds of the population overall lived in cities and towns by the close of the century, making "Australia one of the most urbanised societies in the western world."

Bushrangers

More than 2,000 bushrangers are believed to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and ending after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.

Bold Jack Donahue is recorded as the last convict bushranger. He was reported in newspapers around 1827 as being responsible for an outbreak of bushranging on the road between Sydney and Windsor. Throughout the 1820s he was regarded as the most notorious bushranger in the colony. Leading a band of escaped convicts, Donahue became central to Australian folklore as the Wild Colonial Boy.

The bushrangers' heyday was the Gold Rush years of the 1850s and 1860s.

The increasing push of settlement, increased police efficiency, improvements in rail transport and communications technology, such as telegraphy, made it increasingly difficult for bushrangers to evade capture.

Some bushrangers, most notably Ned Kelly in his Jerilderie Letter, and in his final raid on Glenrowan, explicitly represented themselves as political rebels. Attitudes to Kelly, by far the most well-known bushranger, exemplify the ambivalent views of Australians regarding bushranging.

Development of Australian democracy

Traditional Aboriginal society had been governed by councils of elders and a corporate decision making process, but the first European-style governments established after 1788 were autocratic and run by appointed governors-although English law was transplanted into the Australian colonies by virtue of the doctrine of reception, thus notions of the rights and processes established by the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689 were brought from Britain by the colonists. Agitation for representative government began soon after the settlement of the colonies.

The oldest legislative body in Australia, the New South Wales Legislative Council, was created in 1825 as an appointed body to advise the Governor of New South Wales. William Wentworth established the Australian Patriotic Association (Australia's first political party) in 1835 to demand democratic government for New South Wales. The reformist attorney general, John Plunkett, sought to apply Enlightenment principles to governance in the colony, pursuing the establishment of equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists, then by extending legal protections to convicts, assigned servants and Aboriginal Australians. Plunkett twice charged the colonist perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre of Aboriginal Australians with murder, resulting in a conviction and his landmark Church Act of 1836 disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists.

In 1840, the Adelaide City Council and the Sydney City Council were established. Men who possessed 1,000 pounds worth of property were able to stand for election and wealthy landowners were permitted up to four votes each in elections. Australia's first parliamentary elections were conducted for the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1843, again with voting rights (for males only) tied to property ownership or financial capacity. Voter rights were extended further in New South Wales in 1850 and elections for legislative councils were held in the colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

By the mid-19th century, there was a strong desire for representative and responsible government in the colonies of Australia, fed by the democratic spirit of the goldfields evident at the Eureka Stockade and the ideas of the great reform movements sweeping Europe, the United States and the British Empire. The end of convict transportation accelerated reform in the 1840s and 1850s. The Australian Colonies Government Act [1850] was a landmark development which granted representative constitutions to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and the colonies enthusiastically set about writing constitutions which produced democratically progressive parliaments-though the constitutions generally maintained the role of the colonial upper houses as representative of social and economic "interests" and all established constitutional monarchies with the British monarch as the symbolic head of state.

In 1855, limited self-government was granted by London to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. An innovative secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in 1856, in which the government supplied voting paper containing the names of candidates and voters could select in private. This system was adopted around the world, becoming known as the " Australian Ballot". 1855 also saw the granting of the right to vote to all male British subjects 21 years or over in South Australia. This right was extended to Victoria in 1857 and New South Wales the following year. The other colonies followed until, in 1896, Tasmania became the last colony to grant universal male suffrage.

Legally, indigenous Australian males generally gained the right to vote during this period when Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia gave voting rights to all male British subjects over 21. Only Queensland and Western Australia barred Aboriginal people from voting. Thus, Aboriginal men and women voted in some jurisdictions for the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901. Early federal parliamentary reform and judicial interpretation however sought to limit Aboriginal voting in practice-a situation which endured until rights activists began campaigning in the 1940s.

Though the various parliaments of Australia have been constantly evolving, the key foundations for elected parliamentary government have maintained an historical continuity in Australia from the 1850s into the 21st century.

Growth of nationalism

By the late 1880s, a majority of people living in the Australian colonies were native born, although over 90 per cent were of British and Irish heritage. Historian Don Gibb suggests that bushranger Ned Kelly represented one dimension of the emerging attitudes of the native born population. Identifying strongly with family and mates, Kelly was opposed to what he regarded as oppression by Police and powerful Squatters. Almost mirroring the Australian stereotype later defined by historian Russel Ward, Kelly became "a skilled bushman, adept with guns, horses and fists and winning admiration from his peers in the district." Journalist Vance Palmer suggested although Kelly came to typify "the rebellious persona of the country for later generations, (he really) belonged...to another period."

Australian literature was equally developing a distinct voice. The classic Australian writers Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Miles Franklin, Norman Lindsay, Steele Rudd, Mary Gilmore, C J Dennis and Dorothea Mackellar were all forged by-and indeed helped to forge-this period of growing national identity. Views of Australia at times conflicted-Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses to The Bulletin magazine in which they engaged in a literary debate about the nature of life in Australia: Lawson (a republican socialist) derided Paterson as a romantic, while Paterson (a country born city lawyer) thought Lawson full of doom and gloom. Paterson wrote the lyrics of the much-loved folksong Waltzing Matilda in 1895. The song has often been suggested as Australia's national anthem and Advance Australia Fair, the Australian national anthem since the late 1970s, itself was written in 1887. Dennis wrote of laconic heroes in the Australian vernacular, while McKellar rejected a love of England's pleasant pastures in favour of what she termed a "Sunburnt Country" in her iconic poem: My Country (1903).

A common theme throughout the nationalist art, music and writing of the late 19th century was the romantic rural or , ironically produced by one of the most urbanised societies in the world. Paterson's well known poem Clancy of the Overflow, written in 1889, evokes the romantic myth. While bush ballads evidenced distinctively Australian popular medium of music and of literature, Australian artists of a more classical mould-such as the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, and painters John Peter Russell and Rupert Bunny-prefigured the 20th-century expatriate Australians who knew little of 'stockyard and rails' but would travel abroad to influence Western art and culture.

Federation movement

Despite suspicion from some sections of the colonial community (especially in smaller colonies) about the value of nationhood, improvements in inter-colonial transport and communication, including the linking of Perth to the south eastern cities by telegraph in 1877, helped break down inter-colonial rivalries.

Amid calls from London for the establishment of an intercolonial Australian army, and with the various colonies independently constructing railway lines, New South Wales Premier Henry Parkes addressed a rural audience in his 1889 Tenterfield Oration, stating that the time had come to form a national executive government: "Australia [now has] a population of three and a half millions, and the American people numbered only between three and four millions when they formed the great commonwealth of the United States. The numbers were about the same, and surely what the Americans had done by war, the Australians could bring about in peace, without breaking the ties that held them to the mother country."

Though Parkes would not live to see it, his vision would be achieved within a little over a decade, and he is remembered as the "father of federation". Increasing nationalism, a growing sense of national identity, improvements in transport and communications, as well as fears about immigration and defence all combined to encourage the movement, spurred on by organisations like the Australian Natives' Association. Despite the growing calls for unification, loyalties to the British Empire remained strong. At a Federation Conference banquet in 1890, Henry Parkes spoke of blood-kinship linking the colonies to Britain and a "race" for whom "the purpose of settling new countries has never had its equal on the face of the earth"

In 1890, representatives of the six colonies and New Zealand had met in Melbourne and called for the union of the colonies and for the colonial legislatures to nominate representatives to attend a constitutional convention. The following year, the 1891 National Australasian Convention was held in Sydney, with all the future states and New Zealand represented. A draft Constitutional Bill was produced by the Constitution Committee, chiefly drafted by Samuel Griffith, with Inglis Clark and Charles Kingston, as well as the assistance of Edmund Barton. The delegates returned to their parliaments with the Bill, but progress was slow, as Australia faced its 1890s economic Depression. Nevertheless, by 1895 five of the colonies elected representatives for a second Convention, which was conducted in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne over the space of a year, allowing time for consultation. The Constitution Committee this time appointed Barton, Richard O'Connor and John Downer to draft a Bill and after much debate, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania adopted the Bill to be put to their voters. Queensland and Western Australia later moved to do the same, though New Zealand did not participate in the Convention.

July 1898, saw the Bill put to a series of referenda in four colonies, but New South Wales rejected the proposal. In 1899, a second referendum put an amended Bill to the voters of the four colonies and Queensland and the Bill was endorsed.

In March 1900, delegates were dispatched to London, where approval for the Bill was sought from the Imperial Parliament. The Bill was put to the House of Commons and passed on 5 July 1900 and, soon after, was signed into law by Queen Victoria. Lord Hopetoun was dispatched from London, tasked with appointing an interim Cabinet to oversee the foundation of the Commonwealth and conduct of the first elections.

There was a more radical vision for a separate Australia by some colonists, including writer Henry Lawson, trade unionist William Lane and as found in the pages of the Sydney Bulletin. But by the end of 1899, and after much colonial debate, the citizens of five of the six Australian colonies had voted in referendums in favour of a constitution to form a Federation. Western Australia voted to join in July 1900. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed by the British parliament on 5 July 1900 and given Royal Assent by Queen Victoria on 9 July 1900.

Federation

Barton promised to "create a high court, ...and an efficient federal public service... He proposed to extend conciliation and arbitration, create a uniform railway gauge between the eastern capitals, to introduce female federal franchise, to establish a...system of old age pensions." He also promised to introduce legislation to safeguard " White Australia" from any influx of Asian or Pacific Island labour.

The Labor Party (the spelling "Labour" was dropped in 1912) had been established in the 1890s, after the failure of the Maritime and Shearer's strikes. Its strength was in the Australian Trade Union movement "which grew from a membership of just under 100,000 in 1901 to more than half a million in 1914." The platform of the ALP was democratic socialist. As noted by the historian Ross McMullin, "In the national sphere Labor had taken the Protectionists as far in the direction of progressive legislation as possible." In New South Wales, Frank McDonnell dominated the agitation for the early closing of shops, which was achieved with the passage of the Factories and Shops Act of 1900, while also securing the extension of the grammar school scholarship system. In Western Australia, Forrest introduced a conciliation and arbitration bill in 1900 which brought trade unions into the state's social fabric for the first time. In addition, WA Labor scored another victory with the passage of legislation which extended workers' compensation. Under the premierships of Storey and Dooley in New South Wales, various reforms were carried out such as the establishment of the Rural Bank and the elimination of high school fees.

The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was one of the first laws passed by the new Australian parliament. This centrepiece of the 'White Australia Policy' aimed to restrict immigration from Asia (especially China), where the population was vastly greater and the standard of living vastly lower and was similar to measures taken in other settler societies such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It found strong support in the national parliament, arguments ranging from economic protection to simple racism. The law permitted a dictation test in any European language to be used to in effect exclude non-"white" immigrants. While the law allowed for the use of any European language, the English version was standardised and became known as the "Stewart" test after the Federal MP Stewart Parnaby who originally penned the exam. The Labor Party wanted to protect "white" jobs and pushed for clearer restrictions. A few politicians spoke of the need to avoid hysterical treatment of the question. MP Bruce Smith said he had "no desire to see low-class Indians, Chinamen or Japanese...swarming into this country... But there is obligation...not (to) unnecessarily offend the educated classes of those nations". Donald Cameron, a member from Tasmania, expressed a rare note of dissension in the parliament, saying that no race on earth had been "treated in a more shameful manner than have the Chinese...". Outside parliament, Australia's first Catholic cardinal, Patrick Francis Moran was politically active and denounced anti-Chinese legislation as "unchristian". The popular press mocked the cardinal's position and the small European population of Australia generally supported the legislation and remained fearful of being overwhelmed by an influx of non-British migrants from the vastly different cultures of the highly populated empires to Australia's north.

Before 1901, units of soldiers from all six Australian colonies had been active as part of British forces in the Boer War. When the British government asked for more troops from Australia in early 1902, the Australian government obliged with a national contingent. Some 16,500 men had volunteered for service by the war's end in June 1902. But Australians soon felt vulnerable closer to home. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 "allowed the Royal Navy to withdraw its capital ships from the Pacific by 1907. Australians saw themselves in time of war a lonely, sparsely populated outpost." The impressive visit of the US Navy's Great White Fleet in 1908 emphasised to the government the value of an Australian navy. The Defence Act of 1909 reinforced the importance of Australian defence, and in February 1910, Lord Kitchener provided further advice on a defence scheme based on conscription. By 1913, the battlecruiser Australia led the fledgling Royal Australian Navy. Historian Bill Gammage estimates that on the eve of war, Australia had 200,000 men "under arms of some sort".

Historian Humphrey McQueen has it that working and living conditions for Australia's working classes in the early 20th century were of "frugal comfort." While the establishment of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration for industrial disputes was divisive, it was an acknowledgement of the need to set Industrial awards, where all wage earners in one industry enjoyed the same conditions of employment and wages. The Harvester Judgment of 1907 recognised the concept of a basic wage and in 1908 the Federal government also began an old age pension scheme. Together with the White Australia Policy and pioneering social policy, these developments have since been dubbed the Australian settlement. As a result of them, the new Commonwealth gained recognition as a laboratory for social experimentation and positive liberalism.

Catastrophic droughts plagued some regions in the late 1890s and early 20th century and together with a growing rabbit plague, created great hardship in the rural area of Australia. Despite this, a number of writers "imagined a time when Australia would outstrip Britain in wealth and importance, when its open spaces would support rolling acres of farms and factories to match those of the United States. Some estimated the future population at 100 million, 200 million or more." Amongst these was E. J. Brady, whose 1918 book Australia Unlimited described Australia's inland as ripe for development and settlement, "destined one day to pulsate with life."

With the encouragement of Queensland, in 1884, a British protectorate had been proclaimed over the southern coast of New Guinea and its adjacent islands. British New Guinea, was annexed outright in 1888. The possession was placed under the authority of the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia in 1902 and with passage of the Papua Act of 1905, British New Guinea became the Australian Territory of Papua, with formal Australian administration beginning in 1906.

First World War

The outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914 automatically involved "all of Britain's colonies and dominions". Prime Minister Andrew Fisher probably expressed the views of most Australians when during the election campaign of late July he said "Turn your eyes to the European situation, and give the kindest feelings towards the mother country.... I sincerely hope that international arbitration will avail before Europe is convulsed in the greatest war of all time.... But should the worst happen... Australians will stand beside our own to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling."

More than 416,000 Australian men volunteered to fight during the First World War between 1914 and 1918 from a total national population of 4.9 million. Historian Lloyd Robson estimates this as between one third and one half of the eligible male population. The Sydney Morning Herald referred to the outbreak of war as Australia's "Baptism of Fire." 8,141 men were killed in 8 months of fighting at Gallipoli, on the Turkish coast. After the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) was withdrawn in late 1915, and enlarged to five divisions, most were moved to France to serve under British command.

Some forces remained in the Mid-East, including members of the Light Horse Regiment. Light horsemen of the 4th and 12th Regiments captured heavily fortified Beersheba from Turk forces by means of a cavalry charge at full gallop on 31 October 1917. One of the last great cavalry charges in history, the attack opened a way for the allies to outflank the Gaza-Beersheba Line and drive the Ottomans back into Palestine.

Over 60,000 Australians had died during the conflict and 160,000 were wounded, a high proportion of the 330,000 who had fought overseas.

While the Gallipoli campaign was a total failure militarily and 8100 Australians died, its memory was all-important. Gallipoli transformed the Australian mind and became an iconic element of the Australian identity and the founding moment of nationhood. Australia's annual holiday to remember its war dead is held on ANZAC Day, 25 April, each year, the date of the first landings at Gallipoli in 1915. The choice of date is often mystifying to non-Australians; it was after all, an allied invasion that ended in military defeat. Bill Gammage has suggested that the choice of 25 April has always meant much to Australians because at Gallipoli, "the great machines of modern war were few enough to allow ordinary citizens to show what they could do." In France, between 1916 and 1918, "where almost seven times as many (Australians) died,... the guns showed cruelly, how little individuals mattered."

Inter-war years

1920s: men, money and markets

Other significant after-effects of the war included ongoing industrial unrest, which included the 1923 Victorian Police strike. Industrial disputes characterised the 1920s in Australia. Other major strikes occurred on the waterfront, in the coalmining and timber industries in the late 1920s. The union movement had established the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in 1927 in response to the Nationalist government's efforts to change working conditions and reduce the power of the unions.

The consumerism, entertainment culture, and new technologies that characterised the 1920s in the United States were also found in Australia. Prohibition was not implemented in Australia, though anti-alcohol forces were successful in having hotels closed after 6 pm, and closed altogether in a few city suburbs.

The fledgling film industry declined through the decade, over 2 million Australians attending cinemas weekly at 1250 venues. A Royal Commission in 1927 failed to assist and the industry that had begun so brightly with the release of the world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), atrophied until its revival in the 1970s.

Stanley Bruce became Prime Minister in 1923, when members of the Nationalist Party Government voted to remove W.M. Hughes. Speaking in early 1925, Bruce summed up the priorities and optimism of many Australians, saying that "men, money and markets accurately defined the essential requirements of Australia" and that he was seeking such from Britain. The migration campaign of the 1920s, operated by the Development and Migration Commission, brought almost 300,000 Britons to Australia, although schemes to settle migrants and returned soldiers "on the land" were generally not a success. "The new irrigation areas in Western Australia and the Dawson Valley of Queensland proved disastrous"

In Australia, the costs of major investment had traditionally been met by state and Federal governments and heavy borrowing from overseas was made by the governments in the 1920s. A Loan Council was set up in 1928 to co-ordinate loans, three-quarters of which came from overseas. Despite Imperial Preference, a balance of trade was not successfully achieved with Britain. "In the five years from 1924..to..1928, Australia bought 43.4% of its imports from Britain and sold 38.7% of its exports. Wheat and wool made up more than two-thirds of all Australian exports", a dangerous reliance on just two export commodities.

Australia embraced the new technologies of transport and communication. Coastal sailing ships were finally abandoned in favour of steam, and improvements in rail and motor transport heralded dramatic changes in work and leisure. In 1918 there were 50,000 cars and lorries in the whole of Australia. By 1929 there were 500,000. The stage coach company Cobb and Co, established in 1853, finally closed in 1924. In 1920, the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (to become the Australian airline Qantas) was established. The Reverend John Flynn, founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance in 1928. Daredevil pilot, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith pushed the new flying machines to the limit, completing a round Australia circuit in 1927 and in 1928 traversed the Pacific Ocean, via Hawaii and Fiji from the US to Australia in the aircraft Southern Cross. He went on to global fame and a series of aviation records before vanishing on a night flight to Singapore in 1935.

Dominion status

However, Australia did not ratify the Statute of Westminster until 1942. According to historian Frank Crowley, this was because Australians had little interest in redefining their relationship with Britain until the crisis of World War II.

The Australia Act 1986 removed any remaining links between the British Parliament and the Australian states.

Great Depression

Australia was deeply affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s, particularly due to its heavy dependence on exports, especially primary products such as wool and wheat, Exposed by continuous borrowing to fund capital works in the 1920s, the Australian and state governments were "already far from secure in 1927, when most economic indicators took a turn for the worse. Australia's dependence of exports left her extraordinarily vulnerable to world market fluctuations", according to economic historian Geoff Spenceley. Debt by the state of New South Wales accounted for almost half of Australia's accumulated debt by December 1927. The situation caused alarm amongst a few politicians and economists, notably Edward Shann of the University of Western Australia, but most political, union and business leaders were reluctant to admit to serious problems. In 1926, Australian Finance magazine described loans as occurring with a "disconcerting frequency" unrivalled in the British Empire: "It may be a loan to pay off maturing loans or a loan to pay the interest on existing loans, or a loan to repay temporary loans from the bankers..." Thus, well before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Australian economy was already facing significant difficulties. As the economy slowed in 1927, so did manufacturing and the country slipped into recession as profits slumped and unemployment rose.

Australia recovered relatively quickly from the financial downturn of 1929-1930, with recovery beginning around 1932. The Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, favoured the tough economic measures of the Premiers' Plan, pursued an orthodox fiscal policy and refused to accept the proposals of the Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, to default on overseas debt repayments. According to author Anne Henderson of the Sydney Institute, Lyons held a steadfast belief in "the need to balance budgets, lower costs to business and restore confidence" and the Lyons period gave Australia "stability and eventual growth" between the drama of the Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War. A lowering of wages was enforced and industry tariff protections maintained, which together with cheaper raw materials during the 1930s saw a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the chief employer of the Australian economy-a shift which was consolidated by increased investment by the commonwealth government into defence and armaments manufacture. Lyons saw restoration of Australia's exports as the key to economic recovery.

There is debate over the extent reached by unemployment in Australia, often cited as peaking at 29 per cent in 1932. "Trade Union figures are the most often quoted, but the people who were there...regard the figures as wildly understating the extent of unemployment" wrote historian Wendy Lowenstein in her collection of oral histories of the Depression. However, David Potts argues that "over the last thirty years ...historians of the period have either uncritically accepted that figure (29% in the peak year 1932) including rounding it up to 'a third,' or they have passionately argued that a third is far too low." Potts suggests a peak national figure of 25 per cent unemployed.

Second World War

Defence policy in the 1930s

By September 1939 the Australian Army numbered 3,000 regulars. A recruiting campaign in late 1938, led by Major-General Thomas Blamey increased the reserve militia to almost 80,000. The first division raised for war was designated the 6th Division, of the 2nd AIF, there being 5 Militia Divisions on paper and a 1st AIF in the First World War.

On 3 September 1939, the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, made a national radio broadcast: "My fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you, officially, that, in consequence of the persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war."

The war came closer to home when HMAS Sydney was lost with all hands in battle with the German raider Kormoran in November 1941.

With most of Australia's best forces committed to fight against Hitler in the Middle East, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii, on 8 December 1941 (eastern Australia time). The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse sent to defend Singapore were sunk soon afterwards. Australia was ill prepared for an attack, lacking armaments, modern fighter aircraft, heavy bombers, and aircraft carriers. While demanding reinforcements from Churchill, on 27 December 1941 Curtin published an historic announcement: "The Australian Government... regards the Pacific struggle as primarily one in which the United States and Australia must have the fullest say in the direction of the democracies' fighting plan. Without inhibitions of any kind, I make it clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom."

British Malaya quickly collapsed, shocking the Australian nation. British, Indian and Australian troops made a disorganised last stand at Singapore, before surrendering on 15 February 1942. Around 15,000 Australian soldiers became prisoners of war. Curtin predicted that the "battle for Australia" would now follow. On 19 February, Darwin suffered a devastating air raid, the first time the Australian mainland had ever been attacked by enemy forces. Over the following 19 months, Australia was attacked from the air almost 100 times.

Two battle-hardened Australian divisions were already steaming from the Middle East for Singapore. Churchill wanted them diverted to Burma, but Curtin refused, and anxiously awaited their return to Australia. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered his commander in the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur, to formulate a Pacific defence plan with Australia in March 1942. Curtin agreed to place Australian forces under the command of General MacArthur, who became "Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific". Curtin had thus presided over a fundamental shift in Australia's foreign policy. MacArthur moved his headquarters to Melbourne in March 1942 and American troops began massing in Australia. In late May 1942, Japanese midget submarines sank an accommodation vessel in a daring raid on Sydney Harbour. On 8 June 1942, two Japanese submarines briefly shelled Sydney's eastern suburbs and the city of Newcastle.

The Battle of Buna-Gona, between November 1942 and January 1943, set the tone for the bitter final stages of the New Guinea campaign, which persisted into 1945. The offensives in Papua and New Guinea of 1943-44 were the single largest series of connected operations ever mounted by the Australian armed forces. On 14 May 1943, the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, though clearly marked as a medical vessel, was sunk by Japanese raiders off the Queensland coast, killing 268, including all but one of the nursing staff, further enraging popular opinion against Japan.

Australian prisoners of war were at this time suffering severe ill-treatment in the Pacific Theatre. In 1943, 2,815 Australian Pows died constructing Japan's Burma-Thailand Railway In 1944, the Japanese inflicted the Sandakan Death March on 2,000 Australian and British prisoners of war-only 6 survived. This was the single worst war crime perpetrated against Australians in war.

MacArthur largely excluded Australian forces from the main push north into the Philippines and Japan. It was left to Australia to lead amphibious assaults against Japanese bases in Borneo. Curtin suffered from ill health from the strains of office and died weeks before the war ended, replaced by Ben Chifley.

Of Australia's wartime population of seven million, almost one million men and women served in a branch of the services during the six years of warfare. By war's end, gross enlistments totalled 727,200 men and women in the Australian Army (of whom 557,800 served overseas), 216,900 in the RAAF and 48,900 in the RAN. Over 39,700 were killed or died as prisoners-of-war, about 8,000 of whom died as prisoners of the Japanese.

Australian home front

While the Australian civilian population suffered less at the hands of the Axis powers than did other Allied nations in Asia and Europe, Australia nevertheless came under direct attack by Japanese naval forces and aerial bombardments, particularly through 1942 and 1943, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and fuelling fear of Japanese invasion. Axis naval activity in Australian waters also brought the war close to home for Australians. Austerity measures, rationing and labour controls measures were all implemented to assist the war effort.

The Australian economy was markedly affected by World War II. Expenditure on war reached 37 per cent of GDP by 1943-44, compared to 4 per cent expenditure in 1939-1940. Total war expenditure was £2,949 million between 1939 and 1945.

Although the peak of army enlistments occurred in June-July 1940, when over 70,000 enlisted, it was the Curtin Labor Government, formed in October 1941, that was largely responsible for "a complete revision of the whole Australian economic, domestic and industrial life." Rationing of fuel, clothing and some food was introduced, (although less severely than in Britain) Christmas holidays curtailed, "brown outs" introduced and some public transport reduced. From December 1941, the Government evacuated all women and children from Darwin and northern Australia, and over 10,000 refugees arrived from South East Asia as Japan advanced. In January 1942, the Manpower Directorate was set up "to ensure the organisation of Australians in the best possible way to meet all defence requirements." Minister for War Organisation of Industry, John Dedman introduced a degree of austerity and government control previously unknown, to such an extent that he was nicknamed "the man who killed Father Christmas."

In May 1942 uniform tax laws were introduced in Australia, as state governments relinquished their control over income taxation, "The significance of this decision was greater than any other... made throughout the war, as it added extensive powers to the Federal Government and greatly reduced the financial autonomy of the states."

Manufacturing grew significantly because of the war. "In 1939 there were only three Australian firms producing machine tools, but by 1943 there were more than one hundred doing so." From having few front line aircraft in 1939, the RAAF had become the fourth largest allied Air force by 1945. A number of aircraft were built under licence in Australia before the war's end, notably the Beaufort and Beaufighter, although the majority of aircraft were from Britain and later, the US. The Boomerang fighter, designed and built in four months of 1942, emphasised the desperate state Australia found itself in as the Japanese advanced.

Post-war boom

Menzies and Liberal dominance: 1949-72

Post-war immigration

Following World War II, the Chifley Labor government instigated a massive program of European immigration. In 1945, Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell wrote "If the experience of the Pacific War has taught us one thing, it surely is that seven million Australians cannot hold three million square miles of this earth's surface indefinitely." All political parties shared the view that the country must "populate or perish." Calwell stated a preference for ten British immigrants for each one from other countries; however, the numbers of British migrants fell short of what was expected, despite government assistance.

Some 4.2 million immigrants arrived between 1945 and 1985, about 40 per cent of whom came from Britain and Ireland. The 1957 novel They're a Weird Mob was a popular account of an Italian migrating to Australia, although written by Australian-born author John O'Grady. The Australian population reached 10 million in 1959.

In May 1958, the Menzies Government passed the Migration Act 1958 which replaced the Immigration Restriction Act's arbitrarily applied dictation test with an entry permit system, that reflected economic and skills criteria. Further changes in the 1960s effectively ended the White Australia Policy. It legally ended in 1973.

Economic growth and suburban living

Australia enjoyed significant growth in prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, with increases in both living standards and in leisure time. The manufacturing industry, previously playing a minor part in an economy dominated by primary production, greatly expanded. The first Holden motor car came out of General Motors-Holden's Fisherman's Bend factory in November 1948. Car ownership rapidly increased-from 130 owners in every 1,000 in 1949 to 271 owners in every 1,000 by 1961. By the early 1960s, four competitors to Holden had set up Australian factories, employing between 80,000 and 100,000 workers, "at least four-fifths of them migrants."

In the 1960s, about 60 per cent of Australian manufacturing was protected by tariffs. Pressure from business interests and the union movement ensured these remained high. Historian Geoffrey Bolton suggests that this high tariff protection of the 1960s caused some industries to "lapse into lethargy", neglecting research and development and the search for new markets. The CSIRO was expected to fulfil research and development.

Prices for wool and wheat remained high, with wool the mainstay of Australia's exports. Sheep numbers grew from 113 million in 1950 to 171 million in 1965. Wool production increased from 518,000 to 819,000 tonnes in the same period. Wheat, wool and minerals ensured a healthy balance of trade between 1950 and 1966.

The great housing boom of the post war period saw rapid growth in the suburbs of the major Australian cities. By the 1966 census, only 14 per cent lived in rural Australia, down from 31 per cent in 1933 and only 8 per cent lived on farms. Virtual full employment meant high standards of living and dramatic increases in home ownership, and by the Sixties, Australia had the most equitable spread of income in the world. By the beginning of the Sixties, an Australia-wide McNair survey estimated that 94% of homes had a fridge, 50% a telephone, 55% a television, 60% a washing machine, and 73% a vacuum cleaner. In addition, most households now acquired a car. According to one study, "In 1946, there was one car for every 14 Australians; by 1960, it was one to 3.5. The vast majority of families had access to a car."

Car ownership flourished during the postwar period, with 1970/1971 census data estimating that 96.4 per cent of Australian households in the early Seventies owned at least one car. However, not all felt the rapid suburban growth was desirable. Distinguished Architect and designer Robin Boyd, a critic of Australia's built surroundings, described Australia as "'the constant sponge lying in the Pacific', following the fashions of overseas and lacking confidence in home-produced, original ideas." In 1956, dadaist comedian Barry Humphries performed the character of Edna Everage as a parody of a house-proud housewife of staid 1950s Melbourne suburbia (the character only later morphed into a critique of self-obsessed celebrity culture). It was the first of many of his satirical stage and screen creations based around quirky Australian characters: Sandy Stone, a morose elderly suburbanite, Barry McKenzie a naive Australian expat in London and Sir Les Patterson, a vulgar parody of a Whitlam-era politician.

Some writers defended suburban life, however. Journalist Craig Macgregor saw suburban life as a "...solution to the needs of migrants..." Hugh Stretton argued that "plenty of dreary lives are indeed lived in the suburbs... but most of them might well be worse in other surroundings." Historian Peter Cuffley has recalled life for a child in a new outer suburb of Melbourne as having a kind of joyous excitement. "Our imaginations saved us from finding life too humdrum, as did the wild freedom of being able to roam far and wide in different kinds of (neighbouring) bushland...Children in the suburbs found space in backyards, streets and lanes, playgrounds and reserves..."

Alliances 1950-1972

In the early 1950s, the Menzies government saw Australia as part of a "triple alliance" in concert with both the US and traditional ally Britain. At first, "the Australian leadership opted for a consistently pro-British line in diplomacy", while at the same time looking for opportunities to involve the US in South East Asia. Thus, the government committed military forces to the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency and hosted British nuclear tests after 1952. Australia was also the only Commonwealth country to offer support to the British during the Suez Crisis.

Menzies oversaw an effusive welcome to Queen Elizabeth II on the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch, in 1954. He made the following remarks during a light-hearted speech to an American audience in New York, while on his way to attend her coronation in 1953: "We in Australia, of course, are British, if I may say so, to the boot heels...but we stand together-our people stand together -till the crack of doom."

However, as British influence declined in South East Asia, the US alliance came to have greater significance for Australian leaders and the Australian economy. British investment in Australia remained significant until the late 1970s, but trade with Britain declined through the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1950s the Australian Army began to re-equip using US military equipment. In 1962, the US established a naval communications station at North West Cape, the first of several built over the next decade. Most significantly, in 1962, Australian Army advisors were sent to help train South Vietnamese forces, in a developing conflict in which the British had no part.

According to diplomat Alan Renouf, the dominant theme in Australia's foreign policy under Australia's Liberal - Country Party governments of the 1950s and 1960s was anti-communism. Another former diplomat, Gregory Clark, suggested that it was specifically a fear of China that drove Australian foreign policy decisions for twenty years. The ANZUS security treaty, which had been signed in 1951, had its origins in Australia's and New Zealand's fears of a rearmed Japan. Its obligations on the US, Australia and New Zealand are vague, but its influence on Australian foreign policy thinking, at times significant. The SEATO treaty, signed only three years later, clearly demonstrated Australia's position as a US ally in the emerging Cold War.

Vietnam War

By 1965, Australia had increased the size of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), and in April the Government made a sudden announcement that "after close consultation with the United States", a battalion of troops was to be sent to South Vietnam. In parliament, Menzies emphasised the argument that "our alliances made demands on us." The alliance involved was presumably, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), and Australia was providing military assistance because South Vietnam, a signatory to SEATO, had apparently requested it. Documents released in 1971 indicated that the decision to commit troops was made by Australia and the US, not at the request of South Vietnam. By 1968, there were three Australian Army battalions at any one time at the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) base at Nui Dat in addition to the advisors of the AATTV placed throughout Vietnam, and personnel reached a peak total of almost 8,000, comprising about one third of the Army's combat capacity. Between 1962 and 1972 almost 60,000 personnel served in Vietnam, including ground troops, naval forces and air assets. The opposition Labor Party opposed military commitment to Vietnam and the national service required to support this level of commitment.

In July 1966, new Prime Minister Harold Holt expressed his government's support for the US and its role in Vietnam in particular. "I don't know where people would choose to look for the security of this country were it not for the friendship and strength of the United States." While on a visit in the same year to the US, Holt assured President Lyndon B. Johnson "...I hope there is corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch friend, [Australia] that will be all the way with LBJ."

The Liberal-CP Government was returned with a massive majority in elections held in December 1966, fought over national security issues including Vietnam. Arthur Calwell, who had been leader of the Labor Party since 1960, retired in favour of his deputy Gough Whitlam a few months later.

Despite Holt's sentiments and his government's electoral success in 1966, the war became unpopular in Australia, as it did in the United States. The movements to end Australia's involvement gathered strength after the Tet Offensive of early 1968 and compulsory national service (selected by ballot) became increasingly unpopular. In the 1969 elections, the government hung on despite a significant decline in popularity. Moratorium marches held across Australia in mid-1970 attracted large crowds- the Melbourne march of 100,000 being led by Labor MP Jim Cairns. As the Nixon administration proceeded with Vietnamization of the war and began the withdrawal of troops, so did the Australian Government. In November 1970 1st Australian Task Force was reduced to two battalions and in November 1971, 1ATF was withdrawn from Vietnam. The last military advisors of the AATTV were withdrawn by the Whitlam Labor Government in mid December 1972.

The Australian military presence in Vietnam had lasted 10 years, and in purely human cost, over 500 had been killed and more than 2,000 wounded. The war cost Australia $218 million between 1962 and 1972.

Modern Australia emerging 1960s

Arts and the "new nationalism"

By the mid-1960s, a new nationalism was emerging. The National Trust of Australia began to be active in preserving Australia's natural, cultural and historic heritage. Australian TV saw locally-made dramas and comedies appear, and programs such as Homicide developed strong local loyalty while Skippy the Bush Kangaroo became a global phenomenon. Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton, a battle scarred former fighter pilot who described himself as "Australian to the bootheels", established the Australian Council for the Arts, the Australian Film Development Corporation and the National Film and Television Training School.

Significant changes also occurred to Australia's censorship laws after the new Liberal Minister for Customs and Excise, Don Chipp, was appointed in 1969. In 1968, Barry Humphries and Nicholas Garland's cartoon book featuring the larrikin character Barry McKenzie was banned. Only a few years later, the book had been made as a film, partly with the support of government funding. Barry McKenzie both celebrated and parodied Australian nationalism. Historian Richard White also argues that "while many of the plays, novels and films produced in the 1970s were intensely critical of aspects of Australian life, they were absorbed by the 'new nationalism' and applauded for their Australianness."

In 1973, businessman Ken Myer commented; "we like to think we have a distinct style of our own. We have outgrown a lot of our inadequacies.... There was a time when an interest in the arts threw doubts on one's masculinity." In 1973, historian Geoffrey Serle, in his 1973 From Deserts the Prophets Come, argued that while Australia had finally arrived at "mature nationhood," until that time that the "most important study of Australia had been found in creative treatments", rather than academic study at universities and schools.

Civil rights developments

Indigenous people

The 1960s was a key decade for indigenous rights. In 1962, the Menzies Government's Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that all Indigenous people should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections (prior to this, indigenous people in Queensland, Western Australia and "wards of the state" in the Northern Territory had been excluded from voting unless they were ex-servicemen). In 1965, Queensland became the last state to confer state voting rights on Aboriginal people.

A 1967 Referendum called by the Holt Government saw Australians vote by a 90 per cent majority to change the Australian constitution to include all Aboriginal Australians in the national census and allow the Federal parliament to legislate on their behalf. A Council for Aboriginal Affairs was established.

One of the first acts of the Whitlam Government was to establish a Royal Commission into land rights in the Northern Territory under Justice Woodward. Legislation based on its findings was passed into law by the Fraser Government in 1976, as the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.

In 1992, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in the Mabo Case, holding that the legal doctrine of terra nullius did not apply when Australia was settled, and therefore Indigenous native title survived reception of English law. That same year, Prime Minister Paul Keating said in his Redfern Park Speech that European settlers were responsible for the difficulties Australian Aboriginal communities continued to face: 'We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice'. In 1999 Parliament passed a Motion of Reconciliation drafted by Prime Minister John Howard and Aboriginal Senator Aden Ridgeway naming mistreatment of Indigenous Australians as the most "blemished chapter in our national history". In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a public apology to members of the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian Government.

Australia administered Papua New Guinea and Nauru for much of the 20th century. Papua and New Guinea adopted self-government in 1972 and on 15 September 1975, the Territory became the independent nation of Papua New Guinea. Australia had captured the island of Nauru from the German Empire in 1914. After Japanese occupation during World War II, it became a UN Trust Territory under Australia and remained so until achieving independence in 1968.

In 1974, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration granted women the full adult wage. However, resistance to women being employed in certain industries remained until well into the 1970s. Because of obstruction from elements of the Unions movement, it would take until 1975 for women to be admitted as drivers on Melbourne's trams, and Sir Reginald Ansett refused to allow women to train as pilots as late as 1979.

Australia had led the world in bringing women's suffrage rights during the late 19th century, and Edith Cowan was elected to the West Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. Dame Enid Lyons, was the first woman to hold a Cabinet post in the 1949 ministry of Robert Menzies and finally, Rosemary Follett was elected Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory in 1989, becoming the first woman elected to lead a state or territory. By 2010, the people of Australia's oldest city, Sydney had female leaders occupying every major political office above them, with Clover Moore as Lord Mayor, Kristina Keneally as Premier of New South Wales, Marie Bashir as Governor of New South Wales, Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, Quentin Bryce as Governor-General of Australia and Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia.

Whitlam and Fraser

The Whitlam government's agenda endeared it to some Australians, but not all. Some of the state governments were openly hostile to it, and as it did not control the senate, much of its legislation was rejected or amended. The Queensland Country Party government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen had particularly bad relations with the Federal government. Even after it was re-elected at elections in May 1974, the Senate remained an obstacle to its political agenda. At the only joint sitting of parliament, in August 1974, six key pieces of legislation were passed.

At elections held in late 1975, Malcolm Fraser and the Coalition were elected in a landslide victory.

Hawke and Keating: 1983-1996

The Australian Bicentenary was celebrated in 1988 along with the opening of a new Parliament House in Canberra.

The Monarchy in Australia survived the republic debate which was brought to a head at the close of the 20th century, with the successor Howard Government holding a 1998 Constitutional Convention to discuss the change. A subsequent referendum to establish a republic failed to achieve the required dual majorities, with the No case triumphant winning with 54.87 per cent of the popular vote and 6-0 in the state count.

Hawke and Keating abandoned traditional Labor support for tariffs to protect industry and jobs. They moved to deregulate Australia's financial system and 'floated' the Australian dollar. After the initial failure of the Whitlam model and partial dismantling under Fraser, Hawke re-established a new, universal system of health insurance called Medicare.

Unemployment reached 11.4 per cent in 1992-the highest since the Great Depression. The Liberal-National Opposition had proposed an ambitious plan of economic reform to take to the 1993 Election, including the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax. Keating shuffled treasurers, campaigned strongly against the tax, and won the 1993 Election.

With foreign debt, interest rates and unemployment still high, and after a series of ministerial resignations, Keating lost the 1996 Election to the Liberals' John Howard.

Howard government: 1996-2007

John Howard with a Liberal-National Party coalition served as Prime Minister from 1996 until 2007, the second-longest prime ministerial term after Menzies. One of the first programs instigated by the Howard government was a nationwide gun control scheme following a mass shooting at Port Arthur. The government also introduced industrial relations reforms in 1996, and later in 2006 controversially introduced the WorkChoices legislation, which made it easier for small businesses to terminate employment. After the 1996 election, Howard and treasurer Peter Costello proposed a Goods and Services Tax (GST) which they successfully took to the electorate in 1998. In response to the High Court's decision in Wik Peoples v Queensland, the Howard Government introduced legislation which, among other things, introduced a registration test for claimants, gave the government management rights over recognised native title, and imposed stricter time limits on claims.

In 1999, Australia led a United Nations force into East Timor to help establish democracy and independence for that nation, following political violence. During this period Australia committed to a number of other peacekeeping and stabilisation operations: notably in Bougainville, including Operation Bel Isi (1998-2003); as well as Operation Helpem Fren and the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) in the early 2000s; and the 2006 East Timorese crisis.

In 2004, Howard led the response to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, with Australia raising the most money in the least amount of time to help Australia's neighbour, Indonesia, and other countries in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

The Howard Government expanded immigration overall, but instituted often controversial tough immigration policies and laws to discourage people arriving by boat without authorisation. These policies included the Pacific Solution, which involved detaining asylum seekers in detention centres in Naru and Papua New Guinea while their refugee status was determined, as well as a policy of turning back vessels intercepted at sea. Two significant controversies involving asylum seekers were the Children Overboard affair and the Tampa Affair.

While Australia maintained traditional links to the Commonwealth and strong support for the United States alliance, trade with Asia during this period continued to increase dramatically, particularly with China. Australia enjoyed an extended period of economic growth and prosperity.

The Howard Government passed several tax cuts and embarked on a program of privatisation.

21st century

Labor Government: 2007-2013

However, Howard was defeated in 2007 and the Labor Party's Kevin Rudd defeated him and Rudd held the office until June 2010, when he was replaced as the leader of the party. Rudd used his term in office to symbolically ratify the Kyoto Protocol and led an historic parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generation (those Indigenous Australians who had been removed from their parents by the state during the early 20th century to the 1960s). The mandarin Chinese speaking former diplomat also pursued energetic foreign policy and initially sought to instigate a price on carbon, in the Australian economy to combat global warming but which he later reneged on. His prime ministership coincided with the initial phases of the Financial crisis of 2007-2010, to which his government responded quickly through a large package of economic stimulus-the management of which later proved to be controversial but effective in somewhat shielding Australia from the Great Recession but this was owed to a number of factors including the Mining Boom and Asia. The Rudd Government also finalised withdrawing troops from Iraq and focused much more on its relationship with Asia, the Government also tried to formalise an agreement to be made at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, but failed. The Government also embarked on a huge infrastructure project, which was to be fraught with trouble, the National Broadband Network (NBN), this project aims to lift average Australian internet speeds to be on par with the rest of the world, however the most major policy decision was the cancellation of the Howard Government's Pacific Solution, but as Kevin Rudd cancelled the arrangement, the number of boat arrivals swelled and the death toll rose, so in response to this, the Gillard Government created multiple different solutions, including proposing Malaysian resettlement, but eventually settling on Nauru, Manus Island and East Timor as refugee resettlement options.

Liberal-National Coalition Government: 2013-present

The Abbott Government came to office on a platform of "stopping the boats" via Operation Sovereign Borders, increasing army presence in the Indian Ocean and resettling refugees in Cambodia or turning them back to Indonesia or even to their home countries. The government also concluded the Australia Korea Free Trade Agreement and the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement. Abbott responded to multiple foreign policy issues, like the Downing of MH-17, the hosting of the G20 in Brisbane, the trial of an Australian journalist in Egypt and fighting the execution of Australian nationals convicted of drug smuggling, however leadership tensions emerged again and he was ousted by Malcolm Turnbull, who formed the Turnbull Government.

In August 2018, Peter Dutton challenged Malcolm Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party, due to dissatisfaction from the party's conservative wing.

Turnbull defeated Dutton in a leadership ballot, but tensions continued to mount and the party voted in favour of holding a second ballot; Turnbull chose not to be a candidate.

In the second vote, Scott Morrison emerged as a compromise candidate, defeating Dutton and Julie Bishop to become leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Australia.

Images for kids

View of Sydney Cove (Aboriginal: Warrane) by Thomas Watling, 1794-1796

Flinders prepares to circumnavigate Terra Australis - July 1802

Alexander Schramm's A Scene in South Australia (1850) depicts German settlers with Aborigines

The origins of a distinctly Australian style of painting are often associated with the Heidelberg School movement, Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams (1890) being an iconic example.

After World War II and by the 1950s, Australia had a population of 10 million, and the most populous urban centre was its oldest city, Sydney. It has retained its status as Australia's largest city ever since.

A barricade in Coolangatta enforcing the border closure between Queensland and New South Wales in April 2020 that was implemented by the Queensland Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

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The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia. The first Torres Strait Islanders - ethnically and culturally distinct from the Aboriginal people - arrived from what is now Papua New Guinea around 2,500 years ago, and settled in the islands of the Torres Strait and the Cape York Peninsula forming the northern tip of the Australian landmass.

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Defining moments timeline | National Museum of Australia

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Kids learn about the history and timeline of the country of Australia including Captain James Cook, early settlers, British penal colony, independence, and recent events.

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Australian History Timeline
Timeline Description: Australia has been the home to humans for thousands of years, even though it wasn't officially a country until the last few centuries. This is a timeline of its existence.

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Australian History Timeline Timeline Description: Australia has been the home to humans for thousands of years, even though it wasn't officially a country until the last few centuries. This is a timeline of its existence.

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History of Australia Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

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History of Australia facts. People have lived in Australia for over 65,000 years.[1][2] The first people who arrived in Australia were the Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander people’s.[3] They lived in all parts of Australia. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering.

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Grab your suncream, shades and snorkels, gang - because we're heading Down Under with these fab Australia facts!

Australia facts

OFFICIAL NAME: Commonwealth of Australia
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Federal parliamentary democracy
CAPITAL: Canberra
POPULATION: 23, 856, 103
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: English
MONEY: Australian dollar
AREA: 7,692,024 square kilometres
MAJOR MOUNTAIN RANGES: Great Dividing Range, Macdonnell Ranges
MAJOR RIVERS: Murray-Darling, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan

Australian flag

Map of Australia

Australia: geography and landscape

Australia is one of the largest countries on Earth, and the only country that covers an entire continent. Although it is rich in natural resources and has a lot of fertile land, more than one-third of Australia is desert.

Most Australian cities and farms are located in the southwest and southeast, where the climate is more comfortable. The famous outback (remote rural areas) contains the country's largest deserts, where there are scorching temperatures, little water and almost no vegetation. In the northeast, there are dense rainforests where lush vegetation grows.

Running around the eastern and southeastern edge of Australia is the Great Dividing Range. This 3,700-kilometre stretch of mountain sends water down into Australia's most important rivers and the Great Artesian Basin, the largest groundwater source in the world.

Australia's amazing nature!

Australia's ecosystem is an unusual one. Because of its remote location, many animal species that occur here are found nowhere else on Earth, such as the platypus, kangaroo, echidna and koala. Australia has 516 national parks to protect its unique plants and animals.

There are several types of rainforests in Australia. Tropical rainforests, mainly found in the northeast, are the richest in plant and animal species. Subtropical rainforests are found near the mid-eastern coast, and broadleaf rainforests grow in the southeast and on the island of Tasmania.

Australia also boasts the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island, which stretches over 120km along the southern coast of Queensland. You can check out our cool fascinating Fraser Island facts, here!

One of Australia's most amazing sites is called Uluru (or Ayers Rock) - a sacred natural rock which rises like an enormous whale's back from a flat red-soil desert called the Red Centre. Standing a massive 335 metres tall, it's one of the largest rocks in the world!

Did you know Australia is home to many of the deadliest species of animals on the planet? There are 36 species of poisonous funnel-web spiders found in this incredible country and 20 species of venomous snakes, including the world's most venomous snake - the taipan. This slithery reptile releases enough venom in one bite to kill 100 people. Yikes!

Australian history

Aboriginal people arrived in Australia about 50,000 years ago. It's believed they travelled from Asia across land bridges that were exposed when sea levels were lower. The hardy Aborigines have learned to live in the harsh conditions of the outback.

Dutch explorers first landed in Australia in 1606, and the British began to settle there in 1788. Many settlers were criminals sent to live in Australia as punishment. For a short time, the newcomers lived peacefully with the Aboriginal people. But soon, fighting broke out over who owned the land.

In 1851, gold was discovered in Australia. A rush to find riches came as a result, bringing thousands of new immigrants to the country. By 1859 six separate colonies existed, and in 1901 these colonies joined to form the Federation of Australia.

Australia: people and culture

Australia is one of the world's most ethnically diverse nations. Nearly a quarter of the people who live in Australia were born in other countries. Many come from the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as from China, Vietnam, North Africa and the Middle East.

Australia's warm, sunny climate and abundance of open spaces give the population a love of the outdoors. The people are also passionate about sports, including swimming, surfing, sailing, tennis, soccer, cricket, rugby and their own invention - Australian rules football!

Australia's government and economy

As a commonwealth of the United Kingdom, Australia's head of state is the British monarch. Many Australians think the country should end its ties to Britain and become a republic. In a vote in 1999, Australians decided against separating from the UK, but the vote was close and the debate continues.

Australia is an important exporter of agricultural goods like wool, wheat, beef and fruit. The country is also rich in minerals and metals and is the world's fourth largest producer of gold.

Picture Credits: Opera House in Sydney Harbour, Australia: Xvaldes, Dreamstime. People swimming at Bondi Beach, Australia: Dan Breckwoldt, Dreamstime. Picture of people snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: Liverbird, Dreamstime. All other images: Getty Images UK

What do you think of these cool facts about Australia? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

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Australia facts for kids: let's head down under! | National Geographic Kids

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Learn fascinating facts about Australia, from Australian history, culture, wildlife and geography, stunning pictures plus, see a map of Australia!

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Here are some interesting Australia Facts which were chosen and researched by kids especially for kids.

Name: Commonwealth of Australia

Government: Democracy

Population: About 26.4 million (2023)

Urban Population: 90%

Capital: Canberra with 472,000 people

Language: English

Unemployment: 12%

Currency: 1 Australian dollar ($) = 100 cents

Religion: mainly Christians

Timezones: 3

National Symbols: Golden wattle (flower), opal (gemstone), green and gold (colours) and the Commonwealth Star (a seven-pointed star)

National Animals: Kangaroo, emu

National Holiday: 26 January (Australia Day)

National Anthem: Advance Australia Fair

Australia Geography
Australia Maps

Australia is an island country in the Southern hemisphere and belongs to Oceania/Australia. Australia is referred to as country and as continent as the country sits on its own continental shelf. The country is surrounded by the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Australia is the smallest continent of the seven continents. The continent is often referred to as Oceania. Australia is one of the largest countries in the world while Greenland is considered the biggest island in the world.

Australia is also the driest inhabited continent of the world.

Did you know that Australia is the largest country in the Southern hemisphere and the largest country without land borders?

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, USA, China and Brazil.

The country is divided into six states (Southern Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania) and two self-governing territories: Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (which is around Canberra, the capital city).

The country's interior consists of arid and semi-arid areas which are referred to as 'outback'. About 70% of Australia are outback, while the coastal plains are more fertile and house the majority of Australia's population. About 35% of Australia's land area are covered by deserts.

Most of Australia's population live in the eastern and southern parts of the country and along the coastline.

Australia is roughly the same size as the USA without the states of California and Texas.

Australia belongs to the Commonwealth countries. Read more here.

10 Australia Superlatives

1. The highest mountain of Australia is Mount Kosciuszko with 2,228 m/ 7,310 ft. This mountain is in the Great Dividing Range.

2. The Great Dividing Range is the longest mountain range in Australia stretching over 3,500 km/ 2,175 miles.

3. Uluru, previously referred to also as Ayers Rock, is located in the centre of the country and is the largest alone standing rock in the world.

4. The longest river of Australia is the Murray River with 2,508 km/ 1,558 miles.

5. The Great Barrier Reef in Eastern Australia is the biggest coral reef system in the world. The reef consists of more than 3,000 reefs and 900 islands. The Barrier Reef is home to over 350 species of corals and over 1,500 species of fish.

6. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal.

7. Sydney is Australia's biggest city with more than 5 million inhabitants.

8. Australia's largest desert is the Great Victoria Basin which covers most of Western Australia and South Australia.

9. New South Wales is the most populous state of Australia. 65% of the country's population live in New South Wales.

10. The largest state of Australia is Western Australia.

More about the most famous Landmarks of Australia here.
Australia Facts | Australian Cities

The biggest cities in Australia are Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. These cities are all located at the coast or close to the coast and are the only metropolitan cities in Australia with more than one million inhabitants.

Canberra is Australia's capital city and the only major city of the country further away from the coast. Canberra is located about 150 km/ 93 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean coastline and about 280 km/ 173 miles to the southwest of Sydney.
Read more about Australia's landmarks and attractions.
Australia Facts: Sydney is Australia's largest city with about 5 million inhabitants, which means that about 20% of all Australians live in this metropolitan city.

The main city in the country's interior is Alice Springs while Darwin is the biggest city in the Northern Territory.

Australia Facts
Australia Attractions for Kids

There are many great attractions in the country. Some of these are - listed in alphabetical order:

Adelaide: the main city in South Australia is home to about half a million people. Adelaide is surrounded by fertile agricultural land and wine regions. Did you know that Adelaide is also known for one of the largest Christmas parades in the world?

Arnhem Land: The Northern Territory is home to a large population of aboriginal people who have a deep spiritual connection with the land and proudly will share their experiences with visitors.

Australian Alps: Experience mountain landscapes with snowy mountain tops even in summer and enjoy the fascinating remote wilderness. There are lovely hiking tracks especially near lake Jindabyne.

Brisbane: the city with over two million inhabitants is the centre of the Australian Gold Coast with numerous resorts for an exciting beach holiday and a bit further to the north, there is the wonderful coral reef you cannot miss!

Great Barrier Reef: The world's largest coral reef is great for snorkelling and diving. Cairns is a popular beach resort town on the Northern Coast and Lady Elliott Island and Hamilton Island are wonderful family holiday islands.

Melbourne: The second largest city of Australia is the main city of the state of Victoria and has lots of trendy restaurants, shops and art galleries along the Yarra River.

Kakadu National Park: Experience the excitement of a real jungle in Australia's biggest national park and one of the world's most unique forests and woodlands and one of Australia's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There you can also admire the Northern Territories highest waterfalls, the Jim Jim Falls.

Perth: The biggest city in Western Australia also housing about two million people is known for its cultural scene and is close to lovely Fremantle which has historic quarters to explore. And don't forget Rottnest Island where you can meet the friendly quokkas, the unique wallabies. Read more here.

Pinnacles Desert Park: Hundreds of limestone pinnacles can be seen in Nambung National Park in Western Australia. There you can also spot wild emus.
To read about Australian landmarks and the Top 10 Visitor Attractions in Australia, click here
Australia Facts | Australian People

Australia's first or indigenous people, are usually referred to as the aboriginal people of Australia. They make up 2% of Australia's population today. The indigenous Australians are said to be direct descendants of migrants from Africa who left the African continent about 75,000 years ago. They have migrated over the Australasian continent until they settled in Australia around 60,000 years ago.

Today aboriginal people live in all main cities in Australia but most of them still live in the desert areas of the Australian outback. On the image above, you can see a man playing the didgeridoo, a kind of wooden trumpet, which is really difficult to play. The aboriginal people are highly skilled in arts and crafts and share with visitors their vast knowledge about the land and the environment.

The 'outback' is the vast, dry and remote inland parts of the Australian continent. Some aboriginal people live still in the sacred area around Uluru, a huge rock formation in the centre of the continent.

Uluru was formerly referred to as Ayers Rock. Many groups of aboriginal people also live in the Northern Territory in Kakadu National Park, which they call 'Arnhem Land', the land of their ancestors.

Australia Facts | Australian Animals

Australia is home to many animal species. In fact, Australia houses more than 10% of the world's biodiversity (animals and plant varieties).

Among the most well-known Australian animals are kangaroos, wombats, koalas and the dingos.

Roadsigns in Australia warn drivers about wild animals mainly kangaroos that might cross the roads.

Kangaroos are marsupials, which means, they carry their babies in their pouches. See the cute little joey (this is how baby kangaroos are called).

Wombats are also marsupials. Wombats have sharp teeth, but are herbivores. This means they eat grasses, bark and roots. Wombats are mainly night-active, but can also be seen out looking for food on cool and overcast days, such as this wombat on the picture below.

Read more about the fascinating Australian wildlife on our special page here.
Australia Facts | Australia Quiz
Test your knowledge

Read more about Australia Popular Pages

We hope you enjoyed these updated Australian facts:-)
Image credits on Australia Facts: Shutterstock.com and own images

Resources for Australia Facts Page:
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Central Intelligence Agency. "Australia." World Fact Book. Last update 21 June 2023. Last accessed 30 June 2023

The Commonwealth. "Australia Facts." Commonwealth Secretariat. Last accessed 30 June 2023

The Nature Conservancy. "Meet the Quokka." NatureAustralia.org. Last accessed 30 June 2023

Tammy Solonec. Why saying 'Aborigine' isn't ok. 8 Facts about indigenous people in Australia. Amnesty International. 9 August 2015. Last accessed 30 June 2023

Australia Government. Australia Covid and Travel Information. www.australia.gov.au. Last accessed 30 June 2023

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Australia Facts for Kids | Australia for Kids | Geography | Animals

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Our Australia Facts for Kids inform about Australian superlatives, attractions and people, Australian animals and so much more

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Timeline of Australian history - Wikipedia

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This is a timeline of Australian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Australia and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Australia. See also the list of Prime Ministers of Australia.

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Olympic Games, Melbourne, Australia, 1956

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The discovery of gold in the 1850s started a series of rushes that transformed Australia. See this defining moment in Australia's history brought to life, as written by historian David Hunt.

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The discovery of gold in the 1850s started a series of rushes that transformed Australia. See this defining moment in Australia's history brought to life, as written by historian David Hunt.

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Extract from Australia's Mineral Resources (1953)

A look at the various minerals excavated around Australia, including the origins of gold mining.

When gold was discovered in Australia in the 1850s it brought gold-seekers from around the world to the colonies. The first big discoveries of gold were at Ophir in New South Wales, and then at Ballarat and Bendigo Creek in Victoria. The gold rushes led to growth in Australia's population and economy, as well as new ideas about how Australia should be organised and governed.

Film Australia Collection NFSA: 28003 Documentary courtesy National Film and Sound Archive

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Extract from Australia's Mineral Resources (1953) A look at the various minerals excavated around Australia, including the origins of gold mining. When gold was discovered in Australia in the 1850s it brought gold-seekers from around the world to the colonies.

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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Watch a World War 2 Documentary for Children. World War 2 for Kids in Elementary School Cartoon

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World War 2 in 7 Minutes - Manny Man Does History