The first human inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines. They came here about 60,000 years ago. Nobody is quite sure how they came to Australia. They may have walked (during the ice ages) and sailed here from Asia.

It is estimated that there were about 300,000 aborigines living in Australia before Europeans arrived.

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In 1779 the British government decided it needed a new penal colony (place to send convicts) as far away as possible from Britain. John Banks who had been with Captain Cook when he visited Australia suggested just the place: Australia. Then known as New South Wales.

On the 13th May 1787 a fleet of eleven ships left Britain with two years provision and a cargo of 759 unwilling convicts, their guards,and ships crew numbering - 1530 people in all. They were to colonise the new land.

After a eight month journey they sailed into Botany Bay in New South Wales on the 18th of January 1788. The captain of the fleet Arthur Phillip decided Botany Bay wasn't a very good place to start a settlement and moved to Port Jackson further up the coast. The site of the city of Sydney today.

Life in the new settlement was very hard and most of the people didn't have the skills (like farming, carpentry, etc.) to tame the new land. Starvation was always a major problem.

Not too many people wanted to come to Australia in the early days because life was very hard. The sort of people who were needed (farmers, carpenters, builders, etc) didn't want to leave the comforts of home for the hardships of this new land.

During the early 1800's as poverty and unemployment increased in Britain the British government tried to encourage people to come to Australia by agreeing to pay for their passage (this was called "assisted passage"). These settlers were called "Free Settlers". Life on board these ships was squalid. Disease in these cramped surroundings was always a problem.

The discovery of gold in 1850 changed Australia radically. In the space of a few years the population increased astronomically. People came from England, Ireland, Scotland, China and even the USA in search of gold. Cities emptied as people rushed off to the gold fields. New shops, factories and farms were opened up to cater for the new people.

These people digging for gold came to be called the"Diggers".

The potato famine in Ireland in the 1850s brought an influx of Irish immigrants.

After the end of World War 2 many displaced people from Europe found their way to Australia.They came mainly from Britain, Holland, Germany, and Italy.

Rapid industrialisation in the early 1960's meant that there was a great demand for unskilled labour for the new factories, industries and civil engineering projects opening up in Australia. A large number of new immigrants arrived from Britain, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

The new immigrants also brought with them their cultures, customs and cuisines. Australia started to become cosmopolitan - a truly multicultural society.

More than 500,000 refugees have settled in Australia since 1945.

The latest groups being from war ravaged Bosnia.

Australia currently accepts around 80,000 new immigrants a year. The present criteria for immigration are:

• skills, qualifications and abilities in demand in Australia
• capital and business expertise
• close family ties
• refugees and humanitarian needs

Copyright © Senani Ponnamperuma, 1996-2010