Australian Facts
Give the English name for the place where the First Fleet arrived in January 1788.
Botany Bay.
The local First Nations people - the Gweagal- called in "Ka-may"
Name the first place Lieutenant Cook's expedition set foot on the Australian mainland?
1770.
How long have Australia's First Nations people lived in Australia?
Between 60,000 and 90,000 years.
What year did the British first arrive in Australia?
1770.
What is the name of mainland Australia's highest mountain?
Mt. Kosciuszko
In the Ngarigo language:
Kunama Namadgi, or Tar-gan-gil
Why did the British come to Australia?
To use it as a prison, and to expand their Empire.
How many First Nations languages were spoken in Australia in 1788?
250 languages
How many years later did the British arrive to colonise/invade Australia, and what year was that?
Eighteen years, in 1788.
How long ago was Tasmania cut off from mainland Australia by rising waters?
10,000 years ago (8000 BCE).
What year did the Portuguese first visit Australia?
Between 1521 and 1524 (500 years ago)
What is the name of the First Nations people who lived (and still live) here, in the Caloundra area, on the Sunshine Coast?
The Gubbi Gubbi people.
What was the legal justification that the British used for taking the land from First Nations people of Australia?
The legal term is "Terra Nullius", which means "Empty Land".
Basically, the British pretended that the First Nations peoples were either;
A: Not sufficiently civilised or intelligent enough to use agriculture.
or
B: Did not exist
Did First Nations people in Australia practice agriculture?
Yes.
In what year were First Nations people of Australia recognised in the Australian constitution.
1967.
179 years after the British arrived and seized control of the land.
How did the ancestors of Australia's First Nations people come to Australia?
They walked across a landbridge between Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia (the sea level was about 130m lower than today, around 20,000 years ago. The last time sea levels were higher than today was about 130,000 years ago.)
At what location did the British arrive in Australia in 1788?
Botany Bay.
When did Chinese migrants first come to Australia?
1850s.
Between 1853 and 1854 31,000 Chinese migrant workers arrived on the goldfields.
What year did Dutch first come to Australia?
1606 (415 years ago in 2021)
In what year did the last group of First Nations people of Australia encounter Caucasian people?
1984.
The Pintupi Nine were living a nomadic lifestyle in Central Australia.
Which European power arrived in Australia less than a week after the British?
The French.
Yes, Australia was almost colonised/invaded by the French!