Australia is both a country and a continent.
It is, at the same time, the world's smallest continent and its sixth largest
country in area. Australia's name is derived from the Latin word for "southern"
and refers to its location in the Southern Hemisphere. Its location, between
the Pacific and Indian oceans and surrounded by extensive seas, served to
isolate Australia, historically, from other landmasses. One result of this
was the development of forms of animal and plant life that are found nowhere
else on earth.
The Commonwealth of Australia, the country's official name, is made up
of six states. Five are on the mainland — New South Wales, Victoria,
Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. The sixth is the island
state of Tasmania. There are also two federal territories on the mainland
— the large Northern Territory and the small Australian Capital Territory,
which includes Canberra, the national capital.
Australia also administers a number of small islands in the Pacific and
Indian oceans, as well as the Australian Antarctic Territory.
History
Discovery and Exploration. As early as the Middle Ages
(and possibly earlier), stories were told about the existence of a large
continent in the Southern Hemisphere. But Europeans had never seen it,
and they referred to it as terra australis incognita, Latin for
"the unknown southern land."
The Dutch were the first Europeans to see Australia, sighting it while
making journeys between the Netherlands and their colonies in what is
now Indonesia. But although they had seen the western coast of the continent,
they did not know how far to the east it extended. In 1642, the Dutch
navigator Abel Tasman was sent out to discover what lay in the east. Tasman
sailed too far south to see the mainland, but he did visit the island
that is now called Tasmania in his honor but which he named Van Diemen's
Land. Tasman then continued eastward to New Zealand and later explored
Australia's northern coast.
No careful explorations of the continent were made until 1770, when James
Cook, a British naval officer and explorer, sailed along its eastern coast
and named it New South Wales. He visited Botany Bay, near what is now
modern Sydney, and reported that the bay and much of New South Wales looked
suitable for settlement.
First Settlements. The first settlement came about after
Britain had lost its colonies in what is now the United States. Looking
for an alternate place that it could use to relieve its overcrowded prisons,
the government decided to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay. The
first shipload of convicts and a few British soldiers commanded by Captain
Arthur Phillip landed on January 22, 1788. Four days later, Phillip moved
the settlement a little farther north to a better location at Port Jackson,
which he named Sydney. More convicts followed, and new colonies were established
in Tasmania and other parts of the continent.
The Early Colonies. Life was very difficult during the
early years in Sydney. Attempts at farming failed in the poor soil, and
it was not until better land was found along Nepean Bay, to the west,
that successful farms were established and food supplies improved. The
successful breeding of Merino sheep, which proved well suited to the climate,
led to the development of a flourishing wool industry. At the same time,
whaling in the south Pacific brought trading ships to Sydney.
Free English settlers began arriving in the 1820s, and the first free
colony was established at Swan River, in what is now Western Australia,
in 1829. South Australia was settled in 1836, and settlers from Tasmania
crossed Bass Strait and occupied the Port Phillip district from 1835 to
1837. This later became the colony of Victoria.
Nationhood. Realizing the merit of acting together on
matters of common interest, the colonies decided to seek a basis for federation.
A first constitution was drawn up in 1891, and a second in 1898. After
it won approval from Australian voters, the British Parliament passed
a constitution act, and on January 1, 1901, the six colonies became states
in the new Commonwealth of Australia.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Australia joined forces with
Britain and its allies. During World War II (1939–45), Australia
again fought on the side of Britain, and after the entry of the United
States into the war, it became a support base for U.S. forces. Its forces
took part in campaigns first in the Middle East and then in the Pacific.
In 1942 the city of Darwin was bombed by Japanese planes.
Australia became increasingly active in world affairs after World War
II. It was an original member of the United Nations, and in 1950, when
the Korean War erupted, Australian troops were sent to Korea as part of
the United Nations command. In 1951, Australia signed the ANZUS defense
pact with New Zealand and the United States. A significant proportion
of Australia's national income each year is allocated to assisting the
developing countries.
Recent History. In 1988, Australians marked the 200th
anniversary of British settlement. The occasion became one of review and
redirection. This was especially so in relations with the Aboriginal people,
who had suffered dispossession from their lands during the settlement
of the country. Among the government's measures to bring about reconciliation
for past injustices were increased welfare spending and other social programs.
In 1994 legislation was enacted to give Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
authority to claim land under "native title."
Economically, financial deregulation in the mid-1980s led to a speculative
boom, which collapsed in 1990 and was followed by a sharp recession. Many
industries declined, causing high levels of unemployment. The government,
meanwhile, has been advocating the removal of barriers to international
trade. It is also directing its efforts to gaining access to markets in
the fast-growing Asia and Pacific area, where Australian trade is now
increasingly based.
Proposals to replace the constitutional monarchy with a republican form
of government gained ground in the mid-1990s. But in 1999, Australians
voted to keep Great Britain's monarch as their head of state.
In 2000, Sydney hosted the Summer Olympic Games, just as Melbourne had
44 years earlier. And in January 2001, Australia celebrated the centennial,
or 100th, anniversary of its federation.
Charles M. Davis
University of Michigan
R. M. Younger
Author, Australia and the Australians
