Australia – national flag
The flag dates from 1901. In 1908 it was decided that the big star under Union Jack, the Commonwealth star, should be seven-pointed corresponding to the six states as well as the so-called territories; a similar star sits at the top of the coat of arms. The five smaller stars form the constellation Southern Cross.
- Countryaah: What does the flag of Australia look like? Follow this link, then you will see the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
Australia – history
Man immigrated to Australia about 60,000 years ago when New Guinea was landlocked with Australia.
Prehistory
According to a2zgov, 32,000-year-old settlements have been found on Lake Mungo in New South Wales, using clay kilns and feeding on reptiles, emu eggs, fish and plants.
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Burial sites have been found in the area with both burnt and unburned corpses, some of which are sprinkled with redheads. 30,000-26,000 year old bone finds show a relatively slender physique in humans. Younger skeletal finds, from Kow Swamp in Victoria, is 15,000-9000 years old and has a more robust appearance.
| Historical overview | |
| The original residents, Aborigines, living in Australia from for approximately 40,000 years ago. | |
| 1600-t. | Dutch seafarers probably see Australia as the first Europeans. |
| 1770 | Captain Cook takes possession of the east coast of Great Britain. |
| 1788 | New South Wales is established as a penal colony. |
| 1804 | Penal colony is established in Tasmania (until 1855 Van Diemen’s Land). |
| 1808 | Rum Rebellion in New South Wales, under which Governor William Bligh is deposed. |
| 1829 | The Swan River Colony in Western Australia is founded. |
| 1836 | South Australia is established as a colony. The Myall Creek Massacre, which was the only massacre of the indigenous people for which a large number of colonists were executed. |
| 1840 | Penalties to New South Wales are abolished. |
| 1851 | Victoria is being separated from New South Wales. Finds of gold in New South Wales and Victoria with subsequent pervasive gold rush. |
| 1853 | Penalties to Tasmania cease. |
| 1854 | Gold digger uprising at Eureka. |
| 1855 | New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia get their own parliaments. |
| 1859 | Queensland becomes a separate colony with its own government. |
| 1867 | Penalties to Western Australia cease. |
| 1890 | Western Australia gets its own government. |
| 1892-93 | Bank failures especially in New South Wales and Victoria. |
| 1901 | The Federation of Australian Colonies enters into force. |
| 1914-19 | Australia participates in World War I on the British side. |
| 1927 | Founding of the capital Canberra. |
| 1930’s | Australia is hit by the Depression. |
| 1939-45 | Australia participates in World War II. |
| 1942 | The Japanese bomb the city of Darwin. |
| 1950-54 | Australian participation in the Korean War. |
| 1951 | The ANZUS Pact between Australia, New Zealand and the United States is signed. |
| 1954 | The SEATO agreement is acceded to by Australia. |
| 1960 | Aborigines become Australian citizens and gain the right to vote in 1962. |
| 1965-71 | Australian participation in the Vietnam War. |
| 1975 | Government crisis as the Whitlam government is ousted by the Governor-General. |
| 1999 | Proposals to establish the republic are rejected by a referendum. |
| 2003 | Australia is participating in the US-led invasion of Iraq. |
The land bridge to New Guinea was interrupted 8000-6500 years ago. Simple cutting tools and scrapers were made of flint, quartz or quartzite. In Koonaldahulen in South Australia, flint quarries were exploited 20,000 years ago. Sharpened stone axes, which are among the oldest in the world, were used 22,000-18,000 years ago.
The population lived as hunters and gatherers and had light wooden hunting tools, such as the boomerang, which has been known for more than 10,000 years. Actual arable farming was not practiced, but for 18,000 years millstones have been used for crushing nuts and seeds of wild grasses. The dog, the dingo, was the only domestic animal. At the shores, large quantities of shellfish were collected, the remains of which are found in meter-high kitchen manure in Arnhem Land and Cape York. The similarity in culture between the indigenous people and the Aborigines who have survived to the present is striking. In the North Territory, there are 20,000-year-old rock paintings with animal motifs side by side with contemporary ones. See also Aborigines (art).
Tasmania was populated at least 30,000 years ago and cut off from the mainland at the end of the last ice age. The population here developed its own racial character. The cultural pattern shows kinship with the population on the mainland, but the Tasmanians did not use cast wood and boomerang. Kitchen manure on the shores testifies to the exploitation of marine resources for at least 8700 years. The last original Tasmanians became extinct in the 1800’s.
Australia’s history until 1900
After the last ice age, Australia was further isolated, but was not cut off from contact with the outside world. Indonesian sailors visited the north coast for centuries to collect sea sausages, which they sold to China. The Chinese may have found their way to Australia in the 15th century, and it is likely that the Aborigines had contact with New Guinea.
Australia’s history from 1900
The establishment of the federation in 1901 did not put an end to the mutual rivalry of the colonies, but became the beginning of the strife of the individual states with the federal government. Thus, for a long time, the states maintained different widths of railway tracks, and the jealousy between Melbourne and Sydney did not even cease with the founding of the capital Canberra, which in 1927 was newly constructed on “neutral” territory.