The Austrailian People
Credit: Unofficial Survivor Site
The original inhabitants of Australia are the Aborigines who are thought to have migrated about 40,000 years ago.
Although Dutch, Portuguese and English explorers likely visited Australia earlier, Captain Cook explored the eastern coast and claimed Australia for the United Kingdom in 1770. He named it New South Wales. One of Cook's companions thought that Australia would be a good place to relocate prisoners from England's crowded jails. In 1787 ships containing 750 male and female prisoners became the first non-native colonists in Australia.
The population of Australia from free and imprisoned immigrants grew very slowly until gold was discovered in 1850 producing a rapid influx of Europeans. The current population is 94% European, 4% Asian and 1.5% Aboriginal. Although the Aborigines have suffered much in the hands of European settlers, Aboriginal culture has been maintained. The Aboriginal population was estimated at 300,000 when European settlers arrived in the 18th century.
Due to disease and persecution, the population decreased to approximately 120,000 in 1920 but has returned to the 300,000 level. The native population has been engaged in longstanding court battles to return land which they claim as their own.
