9781422283516

1 Exploring Australia

The Story of Australia

F or centuries before they actually ‘discovered’ and settled the mysterious continent of Australia, European people imagined that great riches were to be found there. But Aborigines had been living in Australia for more than 50,000 years by the time Europeans treked across the continent in search of gold and land for grazing animals and growing crops. Different Histories Different peoples have different ways of remembering and recording the past. There is no single history of a country or its peoples—what you believe depends upon your point of view and your present circumstances. Many Australians think of the heroism of white explorers and settlers as being their history. But the Aboriginal groups who lost their land when white people came to explore and settle Australia think of these explorers as invaders rather than brave heroes. Until recently, almost all Australian history was about the experiences of white immigrants . Today, new history books are being written that include the experiences of Aboriginal peoples and non-European people who traveled to Australia to live and work. This book looks at some of the different histories of the exploration of Australia. Exploring this Book This book is divided into seven chapters. Chapters one and two explore the lives of Aboriginal peoples before white people settled in Australia in 1788. Chapters three and four follow the journeys of European and Asian visitors to Australia up to the late 1700s. Chapter five follows the journeys of the people who explored Australia’s interior (middle). The conflict between white settlers and Aborigines is the subject of chapter six, and the book ends by looking at Australia’s recent explorers.

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