HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA

Australia is an island that covers 2,974,000 sq. miles, the continent has a coastline of about 8000 miles. It extends for about 2000 miles from north to south and rather more from east to west. Much of the country is a great plain, but there is a considerable mountain range the Australian Alps in the east. Mt. Kosciusko, 7300 ft., is the highest point. The three great rivers are the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee, all in the east. Torrens is the largest of many lakes. Sydney and Melbourne are the greatest centres of population, and Sydney the principal seaport. Agriculture suffers from the want of water on vast areas, but irrigation has helped to overcome this problem . The railway system covers over 26,000 miles and is mainly owned by the nation .

It is doubtful when Australia was first discovered by Europeans. Between 1531 and 1542 the Portuguese published the existence of land which they called Great Java, and which corresponded to Australia and probably the first discovery of the country was made by them early in the sixteenth century. Australia's first authenticated discovery was in the beginning of the 17th century said to have been made in 1601, by a Portuguese named Manoel Godinho de Eredia . In 1606 Torres, a Spaniard, passed through the strait that now bears his name between New Guinea and Australia. In the course of the 17th century Tasmania was discovered by the Dutch, a large portion of the coast-line of Australia surveyed by various Dutch navigation and in 1664 the continent was named New Holland by the Dutch government. In 1685 Australia was visited by the famous English buccaneer, Captain William Dampier who coasted along part of west of Australia, and the north west coasts. In 1700 Dampier explored part of the west and north west coasts.

But not till 1770, when Captain James Cook, after exploring New Zealand, sailed along 2,000 miles of the more fertile eastern coast, were the possibilities for European settlement realized.

Cook,had been sent out in 1769, by the Royal Society, to make certain astronomical observations which could only be taken in the South Seas. He sailed in a ship named the Endeavour. He it was who finally exploded the "Terra Australis" myth, by sailing round New Zealand and thoroughly exploring both islands. Landing in New South Wales, Captain Cook gave the name of Botany Bay - where the convict station was afterwards founded.to the natural harbour where the Endeavour anchored, for he found there many strange and interesting plants hitherto unknown to science.

When he returned home, Captain Cook wrote up from the entries in his log an exciting book which was published in 1773. The "Voyages of Captain Cook" immediately became a "best-seller," and the book did much to stimulate interest in Australia and New Zealand.

Dampier, too, had written a book about his voyages, but be pictured the country as singularly unattractive and said that the natives were the most unpleasant human beings he had ever met. But his book was forgotten long before Cook's "Voyages" made its appearance.

Eighteen years after Cook's exploration - the year before the French Revolution broke out - the first British expedition arrived at Port Jackson and laid the foundation of the colony of New South Wales.

The colony, like other colonies, had its initial difficulties; but in 1797 Macarthur, by buying at the Cape some of the Merino sheep that the King of Spain had presented to the Dutch government, laid the foundation of the gigantic wool industry of Australia. 'The history of Australia is one of peaceful settlement and penetration.

The first Australian settlements of Britain were penal colonies. New South Wales, discovered in 1770, was established as a penal colony in 1788, eighteen years after Captain Cook's arrival; Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land), discovered by Tasman in 1642, followed in 1803; West Australia, was also first used as a penal settlement, became a free colony in 1829; Victoria (Port Philip) was colonized in 1835, and made an independent colony under its present name in 1851; South Australia was settled in 1836; . By settling at Sydney the English obtained possession of the continent but for a time it was only used for convicts who were sent to Botany Bay.

Cook was followed by William Bligh who was born at Plymouth in 1753, Bligh, was the commander of the ship Bounty, which had been fitted out for the purpose of procuring plants of the bread-fruit tree, an introducing these into the West Indies. Bligh left Tahiti in 1789, and was proceeding on his voyage for Jamaica when the crew mutinied in the South Seas. He was seized, and, with eighteen men supposed to be well affected to him, forced into the launch, sparingly provisioned, and cast adrift not far from the island of Tofoa (Tonga Islands), in lat.19° south. and lon. 184° east. By admirable skill and perseverance, though not without enduring fearful hardships, they managed to reach the island of Timor in forty-one days, after running nearly 4000 miles. Bligh, with twelve of his companions, arrived in England in 1790, while the mutinies settled on Pitcairn Island, where their descendants still exist. Bligh became governor of New South Wales in 1806, but his harsh and despotic conduct caused him to be deposed and sent back to England. He afterwards rose to the rank of admiral.He died at London 1817.

About 1790 free settlers began to arrive, and these made their homes on or near the coast, a penal settlement was formed (1788) at Port Jackson. In this way was laid the foundation of the future colony of New South Wales. The Moreton Bay district (Queensland) was settled in 1825 ; in 1835 the Port Philip district. In 1851 the latter district was erected into a separate colony under the name of Victoria. Previous to this time the colonies both of Western Australia and of South Australia had been founded - the former in 1829, the latter in 1836. The latest of the colonies is Queensland, which only took an independent existence in 1859.

In 1851 the population was then only about 350,000, and was slowly increasing; New Zealand, discovered by Tasman in 1642, began to used for whale-fishery about 1790, was settled in 1839, and made a colony in 184O. In 1851 the discovery of Victoria gave great impetus to the prosperity of the Australia colonies, and led to an increase in the population. Convicts were long sent to Australia from the mother country, but transportation to Now South Wales practically ceased in 1840, and the last convict vessel to west Australia arrived in 1868. Altogether about 70,000 convicts were landed in Australia (besides almost as many in Tasmania).

The record of interior exploration forms an interesting part of Australian history. This has been going on since early in the century, various subsequent explorations have also been made. There is still areas of the continent of which little or nothing is known, comprising especially a vast territory belonging to Western Australia, and a portion of South Australia. Among the men who have won fame in the field of Australian exploration are Oxley (1817 - 23), who partly explored the Lachlan and Macquarie, discovered the Briabane, &c.; Hume and Hovell (1824),who crossed what is now the colony of Victoria from north to south; Cunningham (1827), who discovered the Darling Downs; Sturt (1828 - 29), who examined the Macquarie, part of the Darling, and the Murrumbidgee, which he traced to the Murray, sailing down the latter to Lake Alexandrina; in 1844 he penetrated to near the middle of the continent from the south Mitchell (1831 - 36), made extensive explorations in New south Wales and Victoria; M'Millan (1839), explored and traversed Gippsland ; Eyre (1840), traveled by the coast from Adelaide to King George's Sound; Leichhardt in 1844 - 45 traveled from Brisbane to Port Essington, discovering fine tracts of territory and the numerous rivers flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria ; in 1848 he was lost in the northern interior, in attempting to cross Australia from east to west, and nothing further regarding his late has been discovered; Kennedy (1848) was killed in exploring Cape York Peninsula; A. C. Gregory (1855 - 56) explored part of Northwestern Australia, and crossed from that to the Brisbane district, an important exploring journey; M'Douall Stuart (1859 - 60 - 62) crossed the continent from south to north and back again nearly in the line of the present overland telegraph; Burke, Wills, Gray, and King (1860 - 61), crossed from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but Burke, Wills, and Gray perished on the return journey; F. T. Gregory (1861) explored the region of the Ashburton, Fortesque and other rivers of north-west Australia; Warburton (1873), traveled with camels from the centre of the continent to the north-west coast; J. Forrest (1874), made an important journey in Western Australia; Giles (1874 - 76) explored Central Western Australia; Favenc (1878-9), traveled from Brisbane to Port Darwin; A. Forrest (1879), explored part of Northern Australia; Mills (1883) traversed with camels a considerable stretch of new ground in Western Australia; Winnicke (1883 - 4), also with camels, explored and mapped about 40,000 sq. miles of the unknown interior; Lindsay (l885 - 6) traveled northwest from Lake Eyre, and then north-east to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He had hoped to find traces of Leichhardt, but was unsuccessful.

From the five states that came into being New South Wales the senior, and Australia the last to secure in 1890, came a movement in favour of Australian federation . A federal convention sat at Adelaide in 1897-98 and drafted a Constitution Bill for the formation of an Australian Commonwealth, which in 1900 was actually established by act of the British Parliament.

In 1901 the colonies or states included in the Commonwealth comprised,Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Northern Territory, not being a state, came under the rule of the Commonwealth which, in 1928. divided it into two parts. North and Central. The Commonwealth had a foreign possession in Papua. and under mandate from the League of Nations administered the Bismarck Archipelago, part of New Guinea and certain of the Solomon Islands former German colonies. To serve as the federal capital a new city called Canberra was laid out. In May 1927, the Parliament buildings there were Opened by the Duke of York.

Altogether the machinery of government very much resembles that of the home country, the Commonwealth was governed by a governor-general representing the crown and a cabinet which is responsible to a parliament of two houses corresponding to the British House of Lords and House of Commons, the lower house being elected. one of these is the Senate to which each state sends six representatives. The members of the other, the house of representatives, vary in number according to the populations of the several states, but it is now 72 double the number of senators.

The banking system followed the English model, of coinage and weights and measures, the Commonwealth Bank a state institution controlled the issue of bank notes. The Law system is also of English origin, and includes a court of appeal .There is no established church in the colonies. The denomination which numbers most adherents is the English or Anglican Church, next to which comes the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Methodists. Education is well provided for, instruction in the primary schools being in some cases free and compulsory, and the higher education being more and more attended to.

Compulsory military training was introduced in 1907 : In 1914 Australia sent a large contingent to assist in the war against Germany. Conscription was rejected. but 400,000 men volunteered and nearly 60,000 were killed. The Australian corps did splendid service in Gallipoli and Palestine, but its feats there were more than equaled by those on the Western, Front in 1917 and 1918, especially in and around Pozieres . The Australia Navy though small, did good service to the allied cause .

One of the outstanding features of Australia's political life, has been organised labours protection, against external competition, which was tested by several costly strikes. After 1901 the Government of the Commonwealth was conducted by the party under Sir E. Barton and Alfred Deakin that represented the more conservative elements in the country, although for a time the latter was only able to remain in office by an alliance with labour. In 1908 - 09 Andrew Fisher, the leader of the labor party was Premier as he was again in 1910 and 1914-15. In 1915 he was succeeded by his colleague W. M. Hughes, who remained in power until 1922 and represented Australia at the peace conference. His government was however, in practice a national one.

In 1922 Hughes was defeated and a Conservative. S. M. Bruce, became Premier. He was in office until 1929 when Labour again was successful at an election and its leader, J. H. Scullin, took charge of affairs. His Period of office was marked by grave economic difficulties. the culmination of a policy of excessive borrowing coupled with serious falls in the prices of the commodities produced. The credit of Australia gave way and drastic measures taken to support it : taxation was increased, expenditure reduced imports restricted . The interest on loans was reduced, and agreements made for balancing the Commonwealth and the state budgets.

In 1931 the population of Australia was estimated at 6,531,000 .

In 1931 New South Wales refused to meet the interest due on its loans in London and New York, but the Commonwealth shouldered the burden and in 1932 passed legislation for the attachment of revenues in New South Wales to cover the payment made. Before this Mr. Scullin had been defeated at a general election in 1931, and a Coalition Government had been formed under Mr. Lyons a former colleague. In Western Australia at this time there was an agitation for secession from the Commonwealth. Australia is represented in England by a High Commissioner whose headquarters are at Australia House, Strand, London, W.C. In 1932 a new departure was the appointment of a cabinet minister, Mr. S. M. Bruce, to reside in London.