Aboriginal Australia: Colonization and the Path to Recognition

Aboriginal Australians have lived on this continent for tens of thousands of years. In 1788, Britain began a colony there. The law treated the land as owned by no one. This lesson follows what that meant, and how the law finally changed.

We see the first peoples, the first European visitors and the First Fleet. Then we see the conflict, the removal of children and the long fight for recognition. The story ends with Mabo in 1992.

1Who were the first peoples of Australia?

Aboriginal ancestors reached Australia about 50,000 to 65,000 years ago. Older teaching said 40,000. Newer evidence pushes the date back. They crossed land bridges and short sea gaps from Southeast Asia.

There were about 600 tribes or nations. They spoke around 250 languages. They were not all alike. Some groups used fire to manage the land and some built fish traps.

Torres Strait Islanders are a separate Indigenous people. Their ancestors came from Papua New Guinea about 2,500 years ago. Exam writers often mix the two groups.

• Arrival: about 50,000 to 65,000 years ago.
• About 600 nations and 250 languages.
• Torres Strait Islanders are a separate group, arriving about 2,500 years ago.

2How did Europeans reach Australia?

Willem Janszoon, a Dutch captain, sighted the coast on his 1605-1606 voyage. He was the first European known to land there. In 1642, Abel Tasman reached the island we now call Tasmania.

James Cook came in 1770. He made his first landfall at Botany Bay on 29 April. Two Gweagal men opposed the landing. Cook stayed about a week. He decided the local people only wanted the British to leave.

Cook then sailed north. He claimed the whole east coast he had charted for Britain. He made the claim on an island he named Possession Island.

• 1606: Janszoon, the first known European landing.
• 1642: Tasman reaches Tasmania.
• 1770: Cook at Botany Bay, then claims the coast.

3What did the First Fleet change?

Britain sent the First Fleet in 1787. It carried over 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors and officials. Captain Arthur Phillip led it. The ships reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788.

Phillip did not like Botany Bay. He chose Port Jackson to the north. The fleet arrived there on 26 January 1788. Sydney grew from that site.

Most ex-convicts stayed in Australia and joined the free settlers. Older tellings said freed convicts could never return home. Our sources do not support that, so we leave it out.

• 1787: the First Fleet sails with over 1,400 people.
• 26 January 1788: arrival at Port Jackson. Leader: Arthur Phillip.
• Most ex-convicts stayed.

4How did conflict shape the frontier?

Fighting began a few months after the First Fleet landed. Historians call these clashes the frontier wars. Some went on into the early twentieth century. The number of people killed is uncertain, and estimates vary a lot.

Tasmania shows the worst case. The Black War ran from the mid-1820s to 1832. In 1803, the Aboriginal population there was about 3,000 to 7,000. In 1830, the British tried a military sweep called the Black Line. It failed. The conflict nearly wiped out the island’s Aboriginal people.

• Frontier wars began months after 1788. Death tolls vary.
• Black War: mid-1820s to 1832 in Tasmania.
• The Black Line of 1830 failed.

5What did gold and the White Australia policy mean?

Gold was found in Victoria in 1851. The rush brought wealth and settlers. Thousands of Chinese miners arrived too. Victoria passed the first laws limiting them in late 1855.

Federation came on 1 January 1901. The new government passed the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901. A dictation test let officials turn people away on racial grounds. Governments dismantled these policies from 1949. The last racial parts of the law were removed in 1973.

• 1851: gold rush in Victoria.
• 1855: first laws limiting Chinese arrivals.
• 1901: Immigration Restriction Act. Last racial rules gone 1973.

6What were the Stolen Generations and the Great Silence?

From about 1905 to 1967, governments and church missions removed many Indigenous children from their families. Some removals went on into the 1970s. In some regions, between one in ten and one in three children were taken between 1910 and 1970.

In 1967, Australians voted in a referendum on 27 May. One change gave the federal government power to make laws for Aboriginal people in the states.

The anthropologist W. E. H. Stanner gave the 1968 Boyer Lectures. He named the Great Australian Silence. He meant historians’ near-total silence on Aboriginal people. Later, Henry Reynolds wrote Why Weren’t We Told? A report called Bringing Them Home was tabled on 26 May 1997. It covered the removal of children.

• 1905 to 1967: children removed, some into the 1970s.
• 27 May 1967: the referendum.
• 1968: Stanner names the Great Australian Silence.
• 1997: Bringing Them Home report.

7How did terra nullius end?

Australia made no treaties with Aboriginal peoples. The law treated the land as terra nullius. Reform came slowly. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act for the Northern Territory passed in 1976. On 26 October 1985, Uluru was returned to its traditional owners. The Anangu leased it back for 99 years and joint management began.

The turning point was Mabo v Queensland (No 2). The High Court decided it on 3 June 1992. Eddie Mabo and others had sued over the Murray Islands. The court rejected the idea that Australia was terra nullius. It recognised native title. The Native Title Act followed in 1993. The Wik decision of 1996 held that pastoral leases did not give exclusive possession.

In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the first national apology for the Stolen Generations.

• 1976: Northern Territory land rights. 1985: Uluru returned.
• 3 June 1992: Mabo rejects terra nullius, recognises native title.
• 1993: Native Title Act. 1996: Wik.
• 2008: Rudd‘s national apology.

8What are the exam traps?

• Terra nullius is not a treaty term. It meant no treaty was needed.
• Torres Strait Islanders are not the same group as Aboriginal peoples.
• Mabo (1992) is the court case. Native Title Act (1993) is the law.
• Stanner (1968) named the Silence. Reynolds wrote Why Weren’t We Told?
• The arrival date is 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, not a fixed 40,000.