The Aborigines arrived in Australia 50 000 Years

The Aborigines arrived in Australia 50, 000 Years Ago

They have one of the longest running continuous cultures in the world.

For 50, 000 years, they lived as hunter-gatherers, which means they lived off of the land, hunting animals and eating wild plants. Traditional Aboriginal groups had a deep knowledge of their land, sources of water, and the affects of seasonal cycles on plant foods and game. Explorers observed that people were

In 1770, Captain James Cook charts the east coast in his ship HM Endeavour. Cook claims it as a British possession and names eastern Australia "New South Wales".

• In 1788, British Navy captain Arthur Phillip founds a penal settlement at Sydney. He had arrived with a fleet of 11 ships, carrying nearly 800 convicts. There were close to 300, 000 Aborigines in Australia already.

• In the 1850 s, gold is found at several locations leading to gold rushes throughout the decade. The English population triples in 10 years to one million people. Many Aborigines are killed or thrown in jail because the English settlers wanted their land.

In 1901, Australia becomes its own country, unifying six British Colonies on the Island. Today, their government is a Federal Parliamentary Democracy with six states.

In 1948, after World War II, Australia began taking many immigrants from Europe. Over the next 30 years, more than two million people arrive, about one-third of them from Britain, and hundreds of thousands from Italy, Greece and Germany.

Unfortunately, the Aborigines were badly mistreated through most of the 1900 s…. . • And some are still discriminated against today

Today, Australia is very culturally diverse, most people live near the beach, and they have a high literacy rate, which leads to a higher standard of living.