Alex McDermott - Australian History For Dummies

This flags things in Australian history that go directly to explaining the distinctive society that we can recognise today as tellingly Australian.

These are the bits that, if books came with batteries, would flash and buzz ‘Important!’ when you got near them. These are the things that give an essential understanding of exactly how or why Australia has developed the way it did, and by keeping them in mind, you’ll never lose your historical bearings.

This icon highlights further information, such as statistics, that can deepen your understanding of the topic, but aren’t essential reading. Read the information so you have some extra facts to impress your mates with, or feel free to skip it.

The short answer to this, of course, is the beauty of a Dummies book — anywhere! Anywhere at all you darn well please. You can start at the start and motor along right through the various parts until you get down to the contemporary scene, or you can just jump to a point that explains what you really want to know about right now. If you want to see exactly what Australia did with its new federated nation powers after 1901, then Chapter 12at the start of Part 3is your next stop. If you want to see the colonial world that emerged in the wake of the massive gold finds of the 1850s, then Chapter 8is a good place to start. If the very first years of convict settlement make you curious, head for Chapter 3, with the following decades of settling in and teething troubles also worth checking out in Chapters 4and 5.

Remember that aside from the table of contents, you’ve also got an index that alphabetically lists the main events and subject areas. Using all this, you can go pretty much anywhere in Australian history without having to wait around to be told which parts should be considered before first, second and 23rd. It’s there for you to read and use when you need it, as you see fit.

Part 1

IN THIS PART …

Find out more about Australia’s unlikely set of origins and why the highly problematic mix of Indigenous Australians and newly arriving British settlers was not one that spelt much in the way of recognition, respect or rights for the Indigenous peoples.

Discover why the new colony of Australia unexpectedly became a place to start again for the convicted criminals, soldiers and officials who arrived here.

Understand why by the time British authorities got around to noticing the widespread laxness in their convict colony, it was too late — the ex-cons had already established themselves as major players in Australian life.

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Considering the realities of Australia’s Indigenous and convict origins

Seeing the transformation created by the discovery of gold

Creating an ‘ideal’ society after Federation

Getting knocked around by two world wars and a Great Depression

Growing up and making changes with the baby boomers

Opening up Australia’s economy and its borders

Seeing in the new millennium

The first thing about Australian history that probably strikes you — aside from the very obvious exception of millennia of successful Indigenous adaptation — is that practically all of it is modern history. Getting your head around Australian history — what the big events were, and what the major forces shaping people’s actions, reactions and various ideas were — means you also get your head around the major shifts and changes of the modern era. Australian history provides an invaluable window onto the flow of the modern era, while also being a pretty interesting story of the emergence of a distinctive nation in its own right.

The contrast between Australia being home to one of the longest continuing societies and most people thinking of Australian history in terms of only recent events is one thing. But another striking thing about Australia is that it is a land and society of many more contrasts. The country was colonised as a place to punish people, yet being sent here often turned out to be the convicts’ greatest opportunity. Australia was a place where British convicts were sent to be deprived of their rights, yet was one of the first places to bestow on men an almost universal right to vote (and, a few decades later, to almost all women). And, after Federation, Australia was set up as something of a ‘new society,’ yet was one that refused entry to non-Brits for most of the 20th century. The playing out of these contrasts adds to the depth and colour of the Australian story.

Australian modern history largely begins with the strange encounter between the oldest continuing culture in the world and the most rapidly changing one. The first Australians were Indigenous Aboriginals (see Chapter 2for more on their way of life pre-European settlement). They were brought into contact with an invading group of settlers from an island on the other side of the world and off the west coast of Europe — Great Britain.

Explorer James Cook had been given a secret set of instructions to open only after he’d done his scientific work in Tahiti: Search for the elusive Terra Australis Incognita . If he found it, according to the instructions, he was then to ‘with the consent of the natives take possession of convenient situations in the name of the King … or if you find the land uninhabited, take possession for His Majesty’.

Cook found the land inhabited — he even observed that, despite their apparent material lack, Aboriginals may be the happiest people on earth — but he then went ahead and claimed possession of the whole east coast of Australia anyway. As far as intercultural harmony went, this set an ominous tone for how Australia’s first inhabitants would be viewed by the colonisers. Britain established the convict colony of New South Wales (NSW) shortly after. (See Chapter 3for more on Cook and the decision to settle NSW.)