Life was
very hard
for most of Australia's early settlers. The colonists of New South Wales struggled to find fertile land, and the hot, dry climate made farming even more difficult. The seasons were different from Britain's, and most of the plants and animals were unfamiliar.
What was life like in Australian colonies in the late 1800s?
Factory owners were keen to exploit children as cheap labour
.In the 1800's children had to work in Factories and mines. Children were often hired at the same time as their parents and worked as young as 4 for up to 14 hours a day.
What happened in the Australian colonies?
The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony
, the first colony on the Australian mainland. … The colonies voted by referendum to unite in a federation in 1901, and modern Australia came into being.
What is an Australian colony?
Australia was
a collection of British colonies from 1788 until 1901
. The first colonies were established as places where criminals were sent to live and work. These were known as convict settlements or penal colonies. Later, colonies were established by free settlers.
What is Australia's colonial past?
The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early colonial period of Australia's history, from the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney, who established the
penal colony
, the scientific exploration of the continent and later, the establishment of other Australian colonies.
What did child convicts do in Australia?
The majority of convict or orphaned boys aged between 9 and 18 worked
as labourers and herdsmen assigned to settlers
, as they were usually too small for the rough work of clearing the land, quarrying stone and building roads.
Why did China migrate to Australia?
The Australian Colonies
Go to
Gold rush
& bushrangers! By the early 1850s, news of a gold rush in Australia had reached southern China, sparking an influx in Chinese migration to Australia. It is thought that approximately 7000 Chinese people came to work at the Araluen gold fields in southern NSW.
Is Australia still a British colony?
The final constitutional ties between the United Kingdom and Australia ended in 1986 with the passing of the Australia Act 1986. … Due to
Australia's history as a colony of Britain
, the two nations retain significant shared threads of cultural heritage, many of which are common to all English-speaking countries.
What was Britain's most important use for Australia?
By colonising Australia Britain gained an important base for
its ships in the Pacific Ocean
. It also gained an important resource in terms of being somewhere to send convicts. Until the American Revolution Britain could send convicts to the Thirteen Colonies.
How did Colonisation affect aboriginal life?
Colonisation severely disrupted Aboriginal society and economy—epidemic disease caused an immediate loss of life, and the occupation of land by settlers and the
restriction of Aboriginal people
to ‘reserves' disrupted their ability to support themselves.
What was the richest colony in Australia?
These developments made
New South Wales
not only the oldest colony in Australia, but also the wealthiest and most populated. However, there were also times of economic hardship for the colony and its people, especially in the 1890s. An economic depression and drought affected all of the eastern colonies in that decade.
What was Australia called before?
After British colonisation, the name
New Holland
was retained for several decades and the south polar continent continued to be called Terra Australis, sometimes shortened to Australia.
Who came to Australia first?
While Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, and traded with nearby islanders, the first documented landing on Australia by a European was in 1606.
The Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon
landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline.
What did the aboriginals call Australia?
The nations of Indigenous Australia were, and are, as separate as the nations of Europe or Africa. The Aboriginal English words ‘
blackfella' and ‘whitefella'
are used by Indigenous Australian people all over the country — some communities also use ‘yellafella' and ‘coloured'.
How many Aboriginal were killed in Australia?
Reports vary with from
60 to 200 Aboriginal Australians killed
, including women and children. An 1842 report on the incident notes that the Gunditjmara people believed that only two members of the Kilcarer clan survived.
Who was in Australia before the aboriginal?
Researchers say the findings overturn a 2001 paper that argued the oldest known Australian human remains found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales were from an
extinct lineage of modern humans
that occupied the continent before Aboriginal Australians.
