Indigenous prehistory Indigenous Australians comprise two broad groups: •
Aboriginal Australians, who are the various
Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, including
Tasmania •
Torres Strait Islanders, who are a distinct
Melanesian people of
Torres Strait Islands Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, with the migration of people by
land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. The
Madjedbebe rock shelter in
Arnhem Land is possibly the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia. The oldest human remains found are the
Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to approximately 42,000 years ago. in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. At the time of first European contact, Aboriginal Australians belonged to wide range of societies, with diverse economies spread across at least
250 different language groups. Aboriginal Australians cultures were (and remain) deeply connected with the land and the environment, with stories of
The Dreaming maintained through
oral tradition,
songs, dance and paintings. Certain groups engaged in
fire-stick farming,
fish farming, and built
semi-permanent shelters. These practices have variously been characterised as "
hunter-gatherer", "
agricultural", "natural cultivation" and "intensification". Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands at least 2,500 years ago. Culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. Agriculture also developed on some islands and villages appeared by the 1300s.
European exploration and colonisation at
Botany Bay on 29 April 1770 In 1606 the crew of the Dutch ship,
Duyfken, captained by
Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia and contact with Aboriginal Australians. Later that year,
Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through
Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast.
Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach
Van Diemen's Land. On his second voyage of 1644, he mapped the north coast of Australia south of New Guinea. Following Tasman's voyages, the Dutch were able to make almost complete maps of Australia's northern and western coasts and much of its southern and south-eastern Tasmanian coasts. They named the continent
New Holland. In 1770, Captain
James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named "
New South Wales" and claimed for Great Britain. in 1786, the British government announced its intention to establish a
penal colony in New South Wales. On 26 January 1788, the
First Fleet commanded by Captain
Arthur Phillip, arrived at
Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. A camp was established and the
Union Flag raised. The date later became
Australia's national day. Most early settlers were
convicts,
transported for petty crimes and
assigned as labourers or servants to "free settlers" (willing immigrants). Once
emancipated, convicts tended to integrate into colonial society. Aboriginal resistance, convict rebellions and
bushranging were sometimes suppressed under martial law. The 1808
Rum Rebellion, carried out by officers of the
New South Wales Corp, led to a temporary
military junta. During the next two decades, social and economic reforms, together with the establishment of a
Legislative Council and
Supreme Court, saw the penal colony transition to a civil society. The indigenous population declined for 150 years following European settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. British colonial authorities did not sign any treaties with
Aboriginal groups. As settlement expanded, tens of thousands of Indigenous people and thousands of settlers were killed in
frontier conflicts, which many historians argue included acts of
genocide by settlers. Settlers dispossessed surviving Indigenous peoples of most of their land. and in 1813,
Gregory Blaxland,
William Lawson and
William Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement. The British claim was extended to the whole Australian continent in 1827 when Major
Edmund Lockyer established a settlement on
King George Sound (modern-day
Albany). The
Swan River Colony (present-day
Perth) was established in 1829, evolving into the largest Australian colony by area,
Western Australia. Separate colonies were carved from New South Wales: Tasmania in 1825,
South Australia in 1836,
Victoria in 1851, and
Queensland in 1859. South Australia and Victoria were founded as free colonies – they never accepted transported convicts. Growing
opposition to the convict system culminated in its abolition in the eastern colonies by the 1850s. Initially a free colony, Western Australia accepted convicts from 1850 to 1868. The six colonies individually gained
responsible government between 1855 and 1890, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the
British Empire. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs. The colonial parliaments progressively extended voting rights to adult men from 1856, with
women's suffrage on equal terms following between the 1890s and 1900s. Some colonies introduced racial restrictions on voting from 1885. In the mid-19th century, explorers such as
Burke and Wills charted Australia's interior. A
series of gold rushes beginning in the early 1850s led to an influx of new migrants from
China, North America and continental Europe, as well as outbreaks of
bushranging and civil unrest; the latter peaked in 1854 when
Ballarat miners launched the
Eureka Rebellion against gold licence fees. The 1860s saw the rise of
blackbirding, where
South Sea Islanders were coerced or abducted into
indentured labour, mainly by Queensland colonists. From 1886, Australian colonial governments began
removing many Aboriginal children from their families and communities, justified on the grounds of child protection and
forced assimilation policies. The
Second Boer War (1899–1902) marked the largest overseas deployment of
Australia's colonial forces.
Federation to the World Wars '', a painting by
Tom Roberts, depicts the opening of the first Australian Parliament in 1901. On 1 January 1901,
federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning,
constitutional conventions and
referendums, resulting in the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia as a nation under the new
Australian Constitution. From 1901, Australia was a self-governing
dominion within the British Empire. It was one of the founding members of the
League of Nations in 1920, and the
United Nations in 1945. The
Statute of Westminster 1931 ended the ability of the UK to legislate for Australia at the federal level without Australia's consent. Australia
adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed during World War II. The
Australian Capital Territory was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of
Canberra. While it was being constructed,
Melbourne served as the temporary capital from 1901 to 1927. The
Northern Territory was transferred from the control of South Australia to the Commonwealth in 1911. Australia took over the administration of the
Territory of Papua (which had previously been a British colony) in 1905 and of the
Territory of New Guinea (formerly
German New Guinea) in 1920. The two were unified as the
Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1949 and gained independence from Australia in 1975. , the first of more than 100
Japanese air raids on Australia during
World War II In 1914, Australia joined the
Allies in the First World War, and took part in the fighting on several fronts. Of the 324,000 men who served overseas, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regard the defeat of the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at
Gallipoli in 1915 as the "baptism of fire" that forged the
new nation's identity. The
beginning of the campaign is commemorated annually on
Anzac Day, a date which rivals
Australia Day as the nation's most important. From 1939 to 1945, Australia joined the
Allies in fighting the Second World War. Australia's
armed forces fought in the
Pacific,
European and
Mediterranean and Middle East theatres. The shock of Britain's
defeat in Singapore in 1942, followed soon after by the
bombing of Darwin and
other Japanese attacks on Australian soil, led to a widespread belief in Australia that
a Japanese invasion was imminent, and a shift from the United Kingdom to the
United States as Australia's principal ally and security partner. Since 1951, Australia has been allied with the United States under the
ANZUS treaty.
Post-war and contemporary eras from Europe arriving in Australia in 1954 In the three decades following World War II, Australia experienced significant increases in living standards, leisure time and suburban development. Governments encouraged a
large wave of immigration from across Europe and called these migrants "
New Australians". High immigration was justified to Australians using the slogan "populate or perish", and from the 1960s the
white Australia policy was gradually relaxed. A member of the
Western Bloc during the
Cold War, Australia participated in the
Korean War and the
Malayan Emergency during the 1950s and the
Vietnam War from 1962 to 1973. Tensions over communist influence in society led to
unsuccessful attempts by the
Menzies Government to ban the
Communist Party of Australia, and a
bitter split in the
Labor Party in 1955. As a result of a
1967 referendum, the federal government gained the power to legislate with regard to Aboriginal Australians, and Aboriginal Australians were fully included in the
census.
Pre-colonial land interests (referred to as
native title in Australia) was recognised in law for the first time when the
High Court of Australia held in
Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that Australia was not
terra nullius () at the time of European settlement. Following the abolition of the last vestiges of the
White Australia policy in 1973, Australia's demography and culture transformed as a result of a large and ongoing wave of non-European immigration, mostly from Asia. The late 20th century also saw an increasing focus on foreign policy ties with other
AsiaPacific nations. The
Australia Acts of 1986 severed the remaining constitutional ties between Australia and the United Kingdom while maintaining the monarch in her independent capacity as
Queen of Australia. In a
1999 constitutional referendum, 55% of voters rejected
abolishing the monarchy and becoming a republic. Following the
September 11 attacks on the United States, Australia joined the United States in fighting the
Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2021 and the
Iraq War from 2003 to 2009. The nation's trade relations also became increasingly oriented towards East Asia in the 21st century, with China becoming the nation's
largest trading partner by a large margin. In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020
lockdowns and other restrictions on public gatherings and movement across the national and state borders were implemented by the Federal, state and territory governments. Following the rollout of vaccines in 2021, these restrictions were gradually eased. In October 2023, Australia declared that COVID-19 was no longer a communicable disease incident of national significance. ==Geography==