The White Australia

The discovery of Australia

The first 'official' explorer was Captain Willem Jansz from The Netherlands. He arrived in Queensland in 1606. In the next few years other Captains from The Netherlands arrived in Australia and they called the new continent New Holland. In these days no-one had an idea, that the new found continent was that huge, and so no-one was interested in it.

In 1642 Abel Tasman arrived in Tasmania, but he didn't know that it was just an island and so he called it Van Diemen's Land. He also saw New Zealand and thought it was the western coast of the new continent.

To prove Abel Tasman's assumption the British James Cook went to Australia. He found the eastern coast and went past Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. On April, 29 James Cook arrived at the Botany Bay, not far from today's Sydney.

Sir Joseph Banks had the idea of sending British prisoners to the new continent, and so the first fleet left England to arrive at the Botany Bay in Australia on January, 18. Captain Arthur Phillip didn't want to stay at Botany Bay, so he shipped to Port Jackson where Sydney was founded on January, 26, today's national holiday.

The first years were really hard. The European plants the whites had taken with them didn't grow and a lot of people starved.

Under governor Lachlan Macquarie the economic and social situation got better. He told Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson to find a way through the Blue Mountains, to gain new arable land. They are one of the first men exploring Australia.

In 1802/03 Matthew Flinders met the French Nicolas Baudin on the south coast. That's why the British started to populate Australia in 1827, to prevent the continent from becoming French.

Between 1825 and 1890 Van Diemen's Land, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia became independent colonies. In 1901 the Australian colonies united to the Commonwealth of Australia.

Australia became an economical strong land. In the middle of the 19. Century a gold rush started because of the Victorian goldmines and Melbourne became bigger than Sydney (today Sydney is the biggest city of Australia).

The development of Australia

When the Commonwealth of Australia was founded there was a problem with choosing the capital city. Both Sydney and Melbourne thought they should become the most important Australian city. In the end Canberra, which is exactly in between the two cities was selected.

In the First World War Australia and New Zealand formed the 'Australian and New Zealand Army Corps', the ANZAC and fought for the British. In 1915 they tried to fight the Turkish position near Gallipolli, but they weren't able to win and a lot of solders didn't return to their families.

Australia became more and more independent, economically and politically, but still the Queen was the political leader.

In the Second World War America helped Australia fighting the Japanese. That was when the 'British way of life' was mixed with the 'American way of life'.

When England joined the EU the European market became less important and the Australians started exporting their wool and steaks to the Asian market.

In 1988 there was a huge 200-year celebration. While the whites were celebrating the Aborigines were protesting and made the people think about the things the British explorers did to their ancestors.

In 1956 the Olympic games were organised in Melbourne. In 2000 Sydney was the Olympic city.

The Australian immigration policy

Around 1920 was the first period of high migration because of the First World War in Europe. A lot of Europeans especially from Britain migrated to Australia.

Then around 1930 the immigration tended to be very low because of the Great Depression people couldn't afford to migrate.

After the Second World War thousands of Europeans left their home country to go to Australia. The 'Assisted Passage Scheme' was formed, which helped migrants to come to Australia as long as they worked for at least two years.

Around 1990 was a time of a high unemployment rate, so the number of permitted new settlers was reduced.

In the beginning of the 60's there were some racial problems between the Australians and the Asian population. A lot of Australians wanted to stop the immigration to Australia, but economically that was impossible.

There are only 18 million people on the whole continent. About 73% are British and Irish, 5,5% are Asian, 3,8% are German and Italian, 2% are Greek and about 1,5% are from the Netherlands,

Nowadays it is quite hard to immigrate to Australia. The immigration policy depends on the labour market, only people with a good education in for Australia useful jobs, people who spend a lot of money in Australia and people who create jobs for Australians are allowed to immigrate to Australia.

Australian politics

In Australia there are three levels. The federal lead by the prime minister, the state headed by the premier and the local the major leading it.

To make a law, there first has to be a bill. That goes to the lower house, the House Of Representation, then it is passed on to the upper house, the Senate, then it finally becomes a law.

Three major political Parties dominate Australian politics. The oldest is the ALP(Australian Labor Party) and the Liberal and National Parties often form a coalition to oppose the ALP. The Australian Democrats, Greens and Independents sometimes have influence by holding the balance of power in the Senate. When the numbers of ALP and the Coalition Senators are almost evenly matched, the votes of these smaller Parties and Independents is crucial to the passage of legislation.

The minor parties often represent specific interests and their lobbying is a major part of the Australian political process. Currently only the Australian Democrats and the Greens are represented in parliament but when the numbers of ALP and the Coalition Senators are almost evenly matched, the votes of these smaller Parties and the Independents is crucial to the passage of legislation.

The queen of England is still the head of Australia, followed by the Prime Minister. In 1999 there have been votes if Australia should become independent but the majority of the Australians voted for the queen wanting to hold up the old tradition.

The Australian way of life - The Australian stereotype

The Australians life according to the principle 'no worries'. That's their way of solving problems. The Australians just love the beach for the outback doesn't seem to be to interesting as long as you are not interested in nature. The 'Aussies' are known for their barbecues. 

Their motto 'no worries' can also be seen in their language. The Australians use words like barby, tinny, footy and veggies instead of barbecue, tin, football - 'Aussie' rules and vegetables.

Another quite typical thing for 'Aussies' is vegemite, every Australian likes it on toast with butter, but no-one coming from a foreign county can even smell it.

A typical thing for most Australians is that they are sportive or at least interested in 'footy', rugby or cricket. Also horseracing is important. The most important horserace of the year is the Melbourne cup on the first Tuesday of November. In Victoria the day of the Melbourne cup is even an official holiday.