When did the first Europeans settle in Australia? History of Australia. Europeans on the Continent. History of Australia after Independence

“Very often great events taking place in one part of the world affect the lives of people living thousands and thousands of kilometers away. This happened with the colonization of Australia and the transformation of the Green Continent into one of the most interesting, comfortable countries for living on our planet.

It began with a revolution in America, during which a new state appeared on the world map - the United States, uniting 13 states under a common flag, in which emigrants from Europe lived. Having lost the war in which the United States gained independence, England lost most of its possessions in North America.

The British government thought - where, in fact, to exile criminals? English prisons are overcrowded, you can no longer send dashing people to America ... And the British decided to populate distant Australia with condemned robbers.

On the one hand, a similar method of colonization of overseas territories was proposed not by anyone, but by Christopher Columbus. On the other hand, the farther from London the prison is, the calmer London will feel.

This landmark decision was made in 1786. And two years later, on January 18, 1788, at the height of the southern summer, a squadron of ships arrived to the shores of Australia, in the holds of which languished 778 criminals - the first settlers of the Australian continent. On the same ships, a team of overseers and the governor of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Philip, arrived. On January 26, the first prisoners and their guards descended to the ground - this day is celebrated by Australians as a national holiday.

Through the efforts of Arthur Philip, the first city of Australia, Sydney, was laid. It was founded on the shores of the same Port Jackson Bay, in which the expedition stood, literally 10 kilometers from the place where he met the first natives. The name of the city was chosen in honor of the then Minister of the Interior and the Colonies, Lord T. Sidney. On February 7, 1788, the governor of New South Wales established the administration of the colony, which stretched from Sydney to Cape York, including both the nearest islands and the adjacent inland territories. On February 14, a detachment of soldiers led by Lieutenant Philip King is sent to Norfolk for its development, since it was decided to arrange a colony for exiles there as well. A few years later, in 1794, one of the research expeditions equipped by the authorities reaches the mountains on the eastern side of the mainland. In October 1798, the doctor Basho and Lieutenant Flinders circled the island of Tasmania and partially explored its territory ...

Sydney at the end of the 18th century was a few dirty streets, but later the authorities decided to ennoble the city, giving it a typical British look. Years after the founding of Sydney, the Royal Botanic Gardens were laid out - one of the main attractions of the city. And then the whole old Sydney, which is now the Roque area, was rebuilt.

The history of the appearance of the main observation deck of the city is interesting. The then Governor McGuire could not refuse anything to his capricious wife, who loved beautiful views. Especially for her, a special seat was carved into the rock on the picturesque coast, which was later nicknamed "Ms. McGuire's chair."

Australia is an amazing continent. The smallest of all existing, but at the same time huge for one country. The most remote from the centers of world civilizations, but with a favorable climate for living. The greenest because of the luxurious eucalyptus forests in the eastern part and completely deserted in the western part (moreover, the deserts of Australia are considered the most lifeless on the planet). There are almost no dangerous predators on the territory of Australia (except for crocodiles), but there are a lot of poisonous spiders (and the real scourge of the northwestern regions of the continent is ... ordinary flies!). Thanks to tens of thousands of years of absolute isolation from other continents, a unique animal world has developed in Australia, consisting of the most ancient species that have become extinct on other continents (we are talking primarily about marsupials). But all these features of Australia had to be learned.

Melbourne was founded in 1835. It is curious that the two largest cities in Australia (and Sydney today is home to 3.5 million people - 20 percent of the total population of the country) competed for the status of the capital for many years. Fuel was added to the fire by the decision of the Constitutional Assembly to hold meetings in Melbourne, and not in Sydney. The dispute was resolved in a non-trivial way - in 1909, small Canberra, located between Sydney and Melbourne, was chosen as the capital.

For half a century, ships filled with convicts went to Australia from England. There were few free settlers in the country - even the very first settlement, founded by Arthur Philip, consisted of 70 percent of convicts. Only the discovery of gold deposits in the early 50s of the XIX century caused an influx of free colonists. Prospectors poured into Australia, and the population of the colonies quadrupled in just a few years. Free colonists are fighting to stop the deportations of criminals that continued in individual states until 1868. If by the end of the 19th century in Australia it was difficult to find a person whose immediate ancestors would not have been connected with the prison - as prisoners, exiles or guards, then today it is considered a special privilege to be a descendant of a criminal exiled to Australia. And this is also one of the features of this amazing country.

And what about New Zealand? The first settlement of Europeans here was created only in 1820. The fauna of New Zealand is less rich than that of Australia.

Nadezhdin N.Ya., Encyclopedia of geographical discoveries, M., "Belfry-MG", 2008, p. 335-337.

On July 29, 1938, the Federal Capital Territory was renamed the Australian Capital Territory. "Amateur" tells the story of the conquest of the continent by Europeans.

First steps in the discovery of Australia by Europeans

The first Europeans to enter Australia were probably the Portuguese navigators. There is evidence that they visited the western, northern and northeastern coasts of Australia as early as the first half of the 16th century.
Sections of the coast of Australia are already depicted on some maps of the 16th century. (for example, on the map of the Atlas of Nicholas Vallard of 1547). However, before the beginning of the XVII century. these visits to Australia were most likely accidental.

The first Europeans to enter Australia were the Portuguese.

From the beginning of the 17th century the continent attracts the attention of several European powers at once.

In 1606, a Spanish expedition led by Luis Vaes Torres discovered the strait separating Australia from New Guinea (Torres Strait).

At the same time, Dutch navigators also joined the exploration of Australia. In 1606, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the coast of the Cape York Peninsula were surveyed by the expedition of the Dutchman Willem Jansson. The purpose of the expedition was to explore the southern part of New Guinea.


In 1616, another Dutchman, Derk Hartog, landed on the coast of Western Australia. Further expeditions to the coast of Australia were equipped by Dutch sailors in 1623, 1627, 1629. By the beginning of the 18th century, the efforts of Dutch, English and French navigators had explored and mapped the western coast of Australia. No attempts were made to settle the territory during this period. The open lands were named New Holland.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the western coast of Australia was mapped

In 1642-1643. the Dutchman Abel Tasman sailed with the aim of further exploring Australia. In this expedition, Tasman could not come close to the shores of the continent, but discovered the western coast of the island of Tasmania.

In 1644, Tasman made a second voyage, during which he mapped 4.7 thousand km of the northern coast of Australia and proved that all the lands discovered by the Dutch earlier were part of one mainland.

British Exploration Australia

The English artist, writer and pirate William Dampier, sailing under a pirate flag, in 1688 accidentally stumbled upon the west coast of Australia.

Upon returning to his homeland, W. Dampier published notes about his journey, where he spoke about what he saw. From that moment on, the British also began to show interest in New Holland. U. Dampiru was allocated a ship from the Royal Navy, and he led an expedition to the shores of the mainland.

However, this attempt by the British ended unsuccessfully, except for the discovery of pearl shells, which subsequently brought significant benefits to the English treasury. In 1768
preparations began for a large Pacific scientific expedition led by James Cook. It started in 1769 on the ship Endeavor, and in 1770 Cook discovered the southeast coast of Australia, declared the entire east coast of Australia discovered by him a British possession and called it New South Wales.

After Cook's voyage in England, they decided to colonize the open country

Shortly after Cook's voyage to England, it was decided to colonize the country he had discovered. Of decisive importance was the independence of the 13 North American colonies.

Thus, England lost not only the vast territories of the New World, but also the opportunity to send exiles there. That is why the initial development of Australia took place in the form of the organization of hard labor settlements there.

The settlement of Australia by Europeans and the continuation of the "development" of the continent

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, appointed Governor of New South Wales, founded the settlement of Sydney Cove, which became the predecessor of the city of Sydney. With his squadron, the first European settlers arrived on the mainland - 850 prisoners and 200 soldiers. Currently, this event is celebrated as the beginning of the history of modern Australia and a national holiday - Australia Day.


The first group of "free" settlers from England arrived in 1793, but until the middle of the 19th century. their proportion among Europeans in Astralia was small. Thus began the gradual settlement of Australia. The British colony included not only Australia, but also New Zealand. The settlement of Tasmania began in 1803. At the beginning of the 19th century. The British opened the strait separating Tasmania from Australia. In 1814, navigator Matthew Flinders suggested calling the southern mainland Australia (Terra Australis). From the end of the XVIII century. and throughout the 19th century. continued exploration of the interior of the continent.

In 1827, the government of England officially announced the establishment of British sovereignty over the entire continent. The center of the British presence was the southeast coast of the mainland with the islands, the colony of New South Wales. In 1825, a new colony, Tasmania, was separated from its composition. In 1829, the Swan River Colony was founded, which became the core of the future state of Western Australia.

Initially, it was a free colony, but then, due to an acute shortage of labor, it also began to accept convicts.

Later there are: South Australia (in 1836), New Zealand (in 1840), Victoria (in 1851), Queensland (in 1859). In 1863, the Northern Territory was founded, formerly part of the province of South Australia.

Sending convicts to Australia was reduced only in 1840.

Sending convicts to Australia was reduced only in 1840, and completely stopped by 1868.

Colonization was accompanied by the founding and expansion of settlements across the continent. The largest of them are Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During this colonization, large areas were cleared of forests and shrubs and began to be used for agricultural purposes.

The fate of the aboriginal population

The arrival of Europeans in Australia proved detrimental to the Aborigines. Aborigines were driven away from water sources and hunting grounds, especially in the most attractive and favorable areas for life in the south and east of the mainland. Many of the natives died of hunger and thirst or were killed in clashes with white settlers.

Aborigines were pushed back from water sources and hunting grounds

Many died from diseases introduced by the Europeans to which they had no immunity. The aboriginal population was used as cheap labor in the livestock farms (ranches) of white settlers in the interior of the country.

In the middle of the XIX century. the remaining native population was moved, partly voluntarily, partly by force, to missions and reservations. By 1921, the total number of Australian Aborigines had decreased to 60 thousand people.

Self-government of Australian territories

In 1851, the "gold rush" began in Australia.
This has seriously changed the demographic situation in Australia. An influx of immigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, other European countries, North America and China began. In the 1850s alone, the population of the colonies almost tripled, from 405,000 to 1.2 million people. This created the prerequisites for the development of self-government here.


The first Australian territory to receive self-government within the British Empire was New South Wales in 1855.

This happened after the uprising in the gold fields of Victoria. The rebels demanded the introduction of universal suffrage and the abolition of special permits for the right to mine gold. Somewhat later, in 1856, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia received self-government, in 1859 - Queensland, in 1890 - Western Australia.

In addition, the uprising of 1855 gave impetus to the development of the labor movement.

Trade unions of urban and agricultural workers began to emerge, who fought for higher wages and shorter working hours. It was here in Australia that for the first time in the world, skilled workers achieved the establishment of an eight-hour day.


In 1900, the Australian colonies united to form the Commonwealth of Australia, a dominion of the British Empire.

Melbourne became the capital of the Union. Uniform postal rules were established in the Union, armed forces were created. All this contributed to the acceleration of the economic development of Australia.


In the same year, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia was presented to the House of Commons and signed by Queen Victoria of England. In 1911, the construction of a new capital, Canberra, began. Between the First and Second World Wars, Australia received from Great Britain some territories previously directly subordinate to London: Norfolk Island (1914), Ashmore and Cartier Islands (1931) and claims to the Australian Antarctic Territory (1933).

Independent Australia within the British Commonwealth

Australia received its independence under the Statute of Westminster in 1931, which was ratified by it only in 1942. The British king remained the head of state.

In World War II, Australia fought as a member of the British Commonwealth on two fronts: in Europe against Germany and Italy, and in the Pacific against Japan.

Australia fought in World War II as a member of the British Commonwealth.

Although Japan was unable to conduct a ground operation in Australian territory, it constantly threatened to invade, and Japanese aircraft bombed cities in northern Australia.
After the Second World War, the Australian government began a massive program to receive immigrants from Europe.

Between 1948 and 1975 two million immigrants arrived in Australia. Since 1973, the flow of Asian migrants began, which significantly changed the demographic and cultural life of the country. After the Second World War, in connection with this, the Australian economy began to develop dynamically.

Since 1986, Australia has finally ceased constitutional ties with Great Britain, but the British Queen is still considered the formal head of state. The de facto head of state is the Prime Minister of Australia.

The main direction of Australia's modern foreign policy is interaction with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

For a long time, the lands discovered by Captain Cook in the South Pacific were not used in any way. Only when the American colonies declared their independence and refused to accept further exiles, England was forced to look for new lands for its prisoners.

On January 26, 1788, a caravan of ships moored to the deserted shores of Australia. This was the first English fleet under the command of Sir Arthur Phillip. On 11 ships of the fleet there were 750 settlers, men and women, four crews of sailors and a supply of food for two years. Philip arrived in Botany Bay on 26 January, but he soon moved the colony to Sydney Harbour, where the water and land were better. The colony of New South Wales was formally inaugurated by the raising of the flag in Sydney on February 7, 1788.

For the new arrivals, New South Wales was a terrible place and the threat of starvation hung over the colony for 16 years. Governor Phillip constantly solves one problem - how to provide food for the prisoners. Life there is very harsh, and the first two years the colony survived only by a miracle. The discipline was very tough, physical punishments were used.

The first of the colonial administration of New South Wales to pay attention to New Zealand was Philip King, Arthur Phillip's assistant in managing the exile settlement on Norfolk Island. In November 1793, the ship Britannia arrived at Norfolk. King decided to use the opportunity and get acquainted with New Zealand with a view to organizing a British settlement there. The indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand - the Maori were friendly and hospitable. But distrust of the pale-faced, they could not overcome in themselves, despite the rich gifts of the British.

In subsequent years, whaling ships entered New Zealand more frequently. In early 1775, the first sperm whale was killed in the South Pacific, and after that, whaling gradually began to develop here.

The South Seas also attracted attention as a place to catch seals. It was in connection with this that the first, short-lived British settlement in New Zealand was created.

New Zealand also began to visit the ships sailing to Australia from India. After delivering the cargo to Sydney, they entered the waters of New Zealand on the way back and filled their holds with goods, which they then sold in China and India. At the same time, the number of visits to New Zealand harbors by whaling ships and cat hunters increased.

There were more and more British trading expeditions to New Zealand. But the British were by no means monopolists in contacts with the Maori. From the very first steps, they met strong competition from the Americans, who began their whaling operations in the Pacific Ocean in 1791. The French were also very active in Pacific waters.

The colonization of Australia took place in three stages: prisoners deported until 1851, farmers and squatters in 1850, and gold seekers in 1880. There were approximately 123,000 male convicts and 25,000 women. Two-thirds of them were from England, a third from Ireland and a few people from Scotland.

As the colonization of Australia developed and expanded, some of the prisoners were sometimes used as draft animals in the farms of the new colonists. Others were sent to a new colony on Norfolk Island, located in the Pacific Ocean, 1,600 km northeast of Sydney. Today's Norfolk is under the jurisdiction of the Australian federal government. Now it is a busy tourist center. By 1820, prisoners and their descendants made up the bulk of the population and most of the laborers who built Australia.

The first free colonists appeared in Sydney in 1793. At first there were few of them, but gradually the number of colonists increased and increased sharply by 1850 - the time of the "gold rush". Just like Sydney, the first cities were created at the landing site of the colonists. Melbourne was founded in 1835, Adelaide in 1836.

Between the departure of Governor Phillip in 1792 and the arrival in 1795 of a new governor, John Hunter, a small group of officers from an army corps called the "Rum Corps" from New South Wales took over the administration. These officers and their assistants created many difficulties for the authorities. They wanted to have prisoners at their disposal, as well as a monopoly on imports, in particular on rum, which became a bargaining chip - they were paid wages. This rule, based on tyranny and Roma, proved disastrous for the small community, for its future.

The most interesting episode in the reign of officers from New South Wales is connected with Captain Blythe. In 1805 he was appointed governor and tried to forbid the use of rum as payment. A year and a half later, he was dismissed by the Rum Corps. Everything calmed down only when this corps was sent to England. A statue of Captain Blythe and a replica of the Bounty are located on Circular Quay in Sydney.

Lachlan Macquarie, appointed governor in 1810, received permission to impose his own regime on the colony. His policy favored the release of prisoners, they had a chance to free themselves and become small farmers. This man, whom everyone unanimously calls the father of Australia, built public buildings, founded a bank, invested a lot of effort in the development of the continent and the development of sheep breeding. He introduced money into circulation to break the Roma monopoly. He also contributed to the expansion of the colony.

In 1813, they managed to cross the Blue Mountains, beyond which there were pastures suitable for livestock. There are still official buildings built by Macquarie in Sydney. Lady Macquarie's chair, carved into the rock at the end of the Royal Botanic Gardens, is a favorite place for tourists. From here you have one of the best views of Sydney.

Beginning in 1788, for more than 50 years, the British government used Australia as a place of exile for criminals and political offenders. The administration of the penal colony seized vast areas of fertile land, which were cultivated by the forced labor of exiled settlers. The indigenous population was pushed back into the deserts of central Australia, where it died out or was exterminated. Its number, reaching by the time the British appeared at the end of the 18th century. 250-300 thousand, decreased by the end of the next century to 70 thousand people

Gradually, English colonies were formed in Australia, representing the continuation of the capitalist metropolis in terms of language, economy and culture. At first, these colonies were not connected with each other in any way, and only by the beginning of the 20th century. formed the Australian Federation, which received the rights of the English dominion.

The ideologues of colonialism usually seek to prove that the colonization of overseas territories was objectively necessary due to the overpopulation of European states. However, the history of British colonization of Australia refutes this claim. Only eighteen years after J. Cook's visit to the eastern shores of Australia, the British government remembered its "rights" to this mainland and began to colonize it.

But in the 80s of the XVIII century. It was not the inhabitants of English cities who began to move to Australia, but the inhabitants of English prisons. The development of capitalism in England was accompanied by a terrible impoverishment of the masses. From the end of the XV century. in agriculture in England there was a rapid development of sheep breeding. Large landowners were turning their lands into pastures on an ever larger scale. Moreover, they seized communal lands and drove the peasants from their allotments. At the same time, not only individual peasant houses were demolished, but entire villages.

The peasants, having lost their land, unable to find work, joined the huge army of vagabonds who wandered around the country without a livelihood. Those of them who managed to find work on manufactories or large farms fell into conditions of ruthless exploitation. The working day in a centralized manufactory lasted 14-16 hours or more. The arbitrariness of the owner was unlimited. Wages were not enough even for bread, so begging became widespread. Manufactories used child labor. "Unfortunate children as young as six or seven had to work twelve hours a day, six days a week, in the terrible noise of weaving mills or underground in dark as night coal mines." "Hungry women even "sold" their children to mines and factories, because they themselves were unable to find work for themselves. Thousands and thousands of unemployed, homeless people faced a dilemma:" steal or die "". The result of social disasters was an increase in crime. "Gangs of robbers terrified the cities. The ruling caste, fearing uncontrollable crowds of men and women, fell upon them with all the force of barbaric criminal laws."

The English penal laws of that time were distinguished by extraordinary cruelty. The death penalty was provided for 150 types of crimes - from murder to theft from a pocket of a handkerchief. It was allowed to hang children who had reached the age of seven.

To unload prisons, the authorities sent convicts to North America. Planters willingly paid for the delivery of free labor: from 10 to 25l. Art. per person, depending on his qualifications. Between 1717 and 1776. approximately 30,000 prisoners from England and Scotland and 10,000 from Ireland were deported to the American colonies.

When the American colonies achieved independence, the British government tried to send prisoners to their possessions in West Africa. The consequences were catastrophic. The disastrous climate led to colossal mortality among the exiles. In 1775-1776. 746 prisoners were sent to West Africa. Of these, 334 people died, 271 people died while trying to escape, the Ministry of the Interior had no information about the rest. The British government had to abandon the use of the West African colonies as a place of exile.

Many years passed before the British government came up with the idea of ​​sending prisoners to Australia. Botanist J. Banks, a member of the expedition of J. Cook, in 1779 spoke before a special committee of the House of Commons, created to study the issue of creating overseas settlements for prisoners in British prisons.

According to the record, “Joseph Banks, when asked in what remote place on the globe can a colony for convicts be established, from where escape would be difficult and where fertile soil would enable them to exist after the first year during which the homeland will provide them with little help...informed the committee that, in his opinion, the most suitable place was Botany Bay in New South Wales...which takes about seven months to sail from England and where there is very little chance of opposition from the natives.Banks visited this bay in late April and early May, 1770, when the weather was mild and temperate, as in Toulouse, in the south of France.The area of ​​fertile soils, in comparison with barren spaces, is small, but quite sufficient to feed a large population.There are no domestic animals, and during his ten-day stay, Banks did not see any wild animals, except for kangaroos ... He did not doubt that a sheep and a bull, if and deliver them there, take root and give offspring. The grass is tall and juicy, there are some edible plants, one of which resembles wild spinach. The area is well supplied with water, there is a lot of forest, which is enough for the construction of any number of buildings.

When J. Banks was asked if the homeland would benefit in any way from the colony established at Botany Bay, he replied: "If a civil government is established, the population of the colony will inevitably increase, and this will make it possible to import many European goods there; and no there is no doubt that a country like New Holland, which is larger than Europe, will give much needed in return.

J. Banks was supported by J. Matra, who also took part in Cook's expedition. His family fought with the American colonists on the side of the British troops. J. Matra offered to provide the colonists of the former British possessions in America, who remained loyal to Great Britain, with land plots in the territory of New South Wales. “I want to submit to the decision of our government a proposal that will eventually help to compensate for the loss of our American colonies,” J. Matra wrote in December 1784 to Lord Sydney, who served as Home Secretary. “Captain Cook was the first to land and explore the eastern part of that beautiful country (New South Wales - K. M.) from 38 ° to 10 ° south latitude, of which he gave the most favorable report. This territory is inhabited by a few black inhabitants who are at the lowest level of social development and lead an animal existence ... The climate and soils are so good that they will make it possible to produce all kinds of products, both European and Indian. If well managed, this will allow in 20-30 years to make a revolution in the whole system of European trade and provide England with a monopoly on a large part of it ".

Matra emphasized that flax could be grown in the new colony, pointed out the high quality of the pine that grew on Norfolk Island. These arguments were very weighty, for flax and timber were as important at that time as steel and oil are today.

To maintain its dominant position in the world, England had to have the most powerful fleet, and timber and flax were the most important components of the then shipbuilding. England annually bought flax from Russia in the amount of about 500 thousand pounds. Art. Having lost American possessions, England lost the most important supplier of timber.

Matra also drew attention to the important military significance of the future colony. "In the event of a war with Holland or Spain, we will be able to deliver very big trouble to these states from our new settlement," he wrote. To implement his plan, J. Matra asked the Admiralty to allocate a frigate.

However, the first Lord of the Admiralty, Howe, did not share the enthusiasm of J. Matra. In a letter to Lord Sydney, he wrote: "I believe that if it is considered desirable to increase the number of our settlements according to the plan proposed by Mr. Matra, it will be necessary to use ships of a different design. Frigates are unsuitable for this kind of service." Lord Howe went on to point out the great difficulties involved in organizing a colony at such a great distance from England: "The duration of navigation is such that one can hardly hope to obtain any advantages in trade or war, which Mr. Matra has in mind."

However, Matra was not discouraged by the position of the First Lord of the Admiralty. Early in 1785, he asked Admiral J. Young to support his project, which the latter willingly did. In his letter to the government, Young emphasized that the establishment of a colony in New South Wales would expand trade with Japan and China, and would also be of great military importance. Young, like Matra, considered it expedient to send prisoners from English prisons to the colony, since its remoteness practically excluded the possibility of escape. The intervention of Admiral Young hastened the decision to establish a colony in New South Wales. It should be said that the American colonists, who remained loyal to England, by that time received land plots in Canada.

On August 18, 1786, the British government prepared a plan to establish a colony in New South Wales. Lord Sidney wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pointing out that British prisons were severely overcrowded and that this posed a threat to society, that attempts to find a suitable area for organizing a settlement in Africa were unsuccessful. Therefore, wrote Lord Sidney, funds should be made available to send 750 prisoners to Botany Bay "with as much food, necessary household items, and agricultural implements as they might need upon arrival." In January 1787, King George III announced the plan in a speech to Parliament. Captain A. Phillip was entrusted with the command of the transportation of the first batch of exiles to the Australian "colony of dishonor", as it was then expressed, by order of the Minister of the Interior, Lord Sydney. At his disposal were allocated 2 military and 9 transport ships.

It should not be thought that the most dangerous and hardened criminals were sent to the most distant exile. On the contrary, it was mostly people who were convicted of petty crimes, such as stealing two bales of wool, a loaf of bread, four yards of cloth, a rabbit, or ten shillings, who were sent there. For the most part, they were emaciated, weak and sick people, among them several dozen old people, one woman was 87 years old.

Preparations for the expedition began in March 1787, and on May 13 the flotilla left England. The voyage continued for more than eight months. On January 26, 1788, the ships approached Port Jackson. Phillip found there, as he wrote to Lord Sidney, "the most beautiful harbor in the world, in which a thousand ships can be in perfect safety."

1026 people left England, including officials, their wives and children, as well as soldiers - 211, exiled men - 565, women - 192, children - 18. During the trip, 50 people died, 42 were born. Sailors were the first to land on the shore . They hoisted the British flag and fired their guns.

Thus was founded the first settlement of the colony of New South Wales, named Sydney in honor of the British Minister of the Interior. For the sailors, male prisoners went ashore (women were landed only on February 6). They were surrounded by a virgin eucalyptus forest. The land turned out to be infertile. There were no wild fruits and vegetables. Kangaroos after the appearance of people went to such a great distance that it became impossible to hunt them. When they set about setting up a colony, they saw how poorly selected people were for this. Among the exiles there were only 12 carpenters, one bricklayer and not a single person versed in agriculture or horticulture. Phillip wrote to Sydney: "It is necessary to supply the colony regularly for four or five years with food, as well as clothing and shoes."

The grand opening of the colony of New South Wales took place on February 7, 1788. Judge D. Collins read a royal decree, according to which Captain Phillip was appointed governor of the colony of New South Wales. This act determined the boundaries of the colony: from north to south - from the Cape York Peninsula to the South Cape with all the islands and to the west - up to 135 ° east longitude. Then decrees were announced on the appointment of officials of the colony and its legislation.

The governor was endowed with such broad powers as no other administrator in the British colonies had. He was in charge of foreign and domestic trade, had the right to distribute land at his own discretion, commanded the armed forces, made all appointments to positions in the colonial administration, had the right to impose fines, impose punishments, up to the death penalty, and release from them.

In February 1788, Phillip first exercised his right to punish the colonists with the death penalty. T. Barrett was hanged for stealing butter, pork and peas. Two days later, J. Freeman and his friend were sentenced to death for stealing flour. Phillip promised to release them from punishment if Freeman agreed to take the post of executioner. The latter accepted the offer and became the first state executioner in Australian history.

The colonists met in Australia with great difficulty. Exhausted people were unable to cut down giant trees and loosen the stony soil. Phillip reported that it takes five days for twelve people to cut down and uproot one tree.

Phillip had other concerns as well. Six days after the British landed, two French warships entered Botany Bay under the command of Captain La Pérouse. It must be said that France followed the progress of the British in the South Seas with great jealousy. Having learned about the intention of England to start colonizing Australia, the French government sent La Perouse there to capture part of the Australian mainland. No matter how fast the French were, they lagged behind the British here too.

The appearance of La Perouse excited the exiles, who saw a real opportunity to escape from this place that seemed disastrous to them. A group of prisoners turned to the French captain with a request to take them on the ships. They promised to bring with them the prettiest women from among the convicts. La Perouse refused the British. But when the French ships left Botany Bay, Governor Phillip missed two of the most attractive women in the colony. The gallant French captain took them with him.

In order to provide better supervision of the colonists, almost all of them were concentrated in a small area. Only small groups went to the Parramatta area and Norfolk Island, where the land was more suitable for agriculture than in Sydney. However, even there it was not possible to collect any tangible harvest. At Parramatta, for example, in November 1788, 200 bushels of wheat and 35 bushels of barley were obtained. All this harvest went to seeds for the next sowing. Things were even worse in Sydney. Wheat, maize, as well as the seeds of some vegetables, sown somehow by people who had no agricultural experience, did not germinate at all. The brought food was quickly depleted. There was famine in the colony. Ships with supplies, as promised by the government, did not come from England. At the beginning of 1789, the governor sent the Sirius frigate to the Dutch colony near the Cape of Good Hope for food. The ship delivered 127 thousand pounds of flour, but it did not last long. The crop harvested in December 1789 was again very small, and it was decided to leave it for new sowing in the hope that ships from England would soon arrive. But they still didn't exist.

Then Phillip, believing that a good harvest had been gathered in Norfolk, decided to send a part of the exiles there. In February 1790, the ships "Sepplyai" and "Sirius" set off for the island, on which there were 184 adults and 27 children. On March 13, the arrivals landed on the shore. But the storm forced the ships to go to sea; six days later they again approached the shore, while the "Sirius" stumbled upon a reef and sank. People who got ashore learned that even the population of Norfolk could not provide for the harvest harvested on the island. The Seppley was forced to bring a consignment of exiles back to Sydney. The colonists' weekly ration was reduced to three pounds of flour and half a pound of corned beef.

Together with the first batch of exiles, European domestic animals were brought to Sydney, which were to become the basis for the development of cattle breeding in the new colony. Many animals died on the way. The census made in May 1788 showed that there were 7 heads of cattle and the same number of horses, 29 rams and sheep, 19 goats, 25 pigs, 50 pigs, 5 rabbits, 18 turkeys, 35 ducks, 29 geese left in the colony. , 122 hens and 97 chickens. All of them, except for horses, sheep and cows, were eaten by the colonists. The rest of the animals mostly died due to the lack of their usual food. A small number of sheep that survived and adapted to Australian pastures were torn apart by dingoes.

Famine in the colony intensified. No punishment could be used to keep hungry people from looting shops and stealing food. And these measures were very severe. For stealing a pair of potatoes, for example, they were punished with 500 lashes and deprived of their portion of flour for 6 months.

With the ships of the First Fleet returning to England, Phillip sent letters to the British government, asking them to urgently send food and agricultural implements, as well as free settlers to organize farms, promising to give the latter prisoners as labor. But there was no answer.

Finally, on June 3, 1890, the Australian colonists saw the British ship Lady Juliana entering the bay. It was the first of the ships of the Second Fleet sent by the British government to Australia. Great was the disappointment of the colonists when they learned that there was no food on the ship, but there were 222 female convicts.

Later, other ships of the Second Fleet arrived, delivering over 1,000 more exiles to New South Wales. This fleet included a ship loaded with food, but on December 23, 1789, at the Cape of Good Hope, it ran into an iceberg. To save the ship that had begun to sink, all food supplies had to be thrown into the sea.

The conditions for transporting the exiles were appalling. Shipowners received 17l. 7s. 6p per person, whether brought to Australia alive or dead. Therefore, they tried to load as many prisoners as possible onto the ships.

To prevent the exiles from escaping during the voyage, they were chained up in rows, and in this position they were in the holds of the ships for many months of the journey. There were cases when the dead remained for a long time among the living, who hid the death of their comrades in order to receive their portions of food. 267 people died on the way. Of the survivors, 488 were seriously ill. Within six weeks of arriving in Sydney, about 100 more people died.

Until August 1791, 1,700 exiles arrived in the colony, and in September of the same year, about 1,900 more people arrived. Thus, the population of New South Wales exceeded 4 thousand people (together with soldiers and officials).

As before, it was not possible to collect any satisfactory crops. And if it were not for the food delivered on several ships from England, the population of the colony would have starved to death.

The transport of convicts continued. The conditions of their transportation remained very difficult. Even in the 30s of the XIX century. mortality on the way was quite high. So, out of 4981 exiles sent to Australia in 1830, 45 people died on the way, in 1831 - 41 out of 5303, in 1832 - 54 out of 5117, in 1833 - 63 out of 5560, in 1835 - 37 out of 5315, in 1837 - 63 out of 6190. And in the first decade of the settlement of Australia, mortality was even greater. For example, a ship that arrived in Sydney in 1799 delivered only 200 out of 300 exiles. About 100 people died on the way.

The situation in New South Wales continued to be deplorable. Captain Phillip was supposed to create a self-sustaining colony in Australia, but during the five years of his governorship, New South Wales was completely dependent on supplies from England. During this time the colony cost the British government £500,000. Art. . As already noted, Phillip urged the government to arrange for the dispatch of free settlers to New South Wales in order to create a more stable basis for the colonization of the distant mainland. In one of his letters, the governor wrote: "Fifty farmers with their families in one year will do more to create a self-sustaining colony than a thousand exiles" (quoted from). But there were very few people who wanted to voluntarily go to the "colony of dishonor" in England.

During the first five years of the existence of the colony, only 5 families of free colonists arrived there, although the British government assumed all the costs of moving, provided free food for two years, donated land and provided exiles at the disposal of the settlers for cultivating the land, and even these exiles were fed at the expense of the treasury.

Phillip gave land to prisoners who had served their sentences, soldiers and sailors. But they were very few (in 1791 - only 86 people), and they cultivated a little more than 900 acres of land. Only after the governor received the right to reduce the terms of punishment, he managed to bring the total size of the plots cultivated by the released exiles to 3.5 thousand acres.

In 1792 Phillip returned to England. Together with him, a detachment of military sailors, who carried out security service, was returned to their homeland. The New South Wales Regiment remained in the colony, whose soldiers began to arrive in Australia from 1791. This regiment was mainly formed from soldiers and officers who compromised themselves at their former place of service by theft, drunkenness, etc., or released from military prisons, where they were serving sentences for various criminal offenses.

After his departure, the duties of the governor of the colony began to be performed by the regiment commander, Major F. Grose. He appointed officers to all civil positions, distributed land and prisoners to the military to cultivate the plots received. He gave away over 10,000 acres in total.

250 acres of first-class land in the Parramatta area was received by officer J. MacArthur, who later became the "father of Australian sheep breeding." At that time he held the post of inspector of public works, and at his disposal was the entire labor force of the colony. MacArthur sent prisoners to the farms and tried them as he saw fit. He did not forget his own interests, widely using the labor of prisoners on the lands that belonged to him. No wonder that two years later J. McArthur became the richest man in New South Wales. Leaving England, he had 500l. Art. debt, by 1801 his property was estimated at 20 thousand pounds. Art.

Soon the actions of F. Grose led to the fact that power in New South Wales passed into the hands of the officers of the regiment. They monopolized all trading operations of the colony, and above all the trade in alcoholic beverages. The officers forced the prisoners to drive alcohol for them and sold it at fabulous prices. The income from the sale of alcohol reached 500%. Seeing this, the prisoners who served their sentences and received land plots, as well as the soldiers of the regiment, took up the manufacture of alcohol. Grain intended for the production of bread was used for these purposes.

The only real currency in the colony was rum, for the sake of acquiring it, people went to any crimes. “In this new little earthly hell that was early Sydney, people craved rum above all else. For it, the most cruel of the prisoners killed and robbed those who had it at night. They paid public women with rum ... For the sake of rum, they spied on each other each other and betrayed each other."

The officers pooled all the goods brought to the colony by British ships and resold them to the population, receiving up to 300% of the profit from these operations. Almost all the prisoners worked on the lands owned by the officers of the regiment. In essence, it was slave labor, with the only difference that the slave owners themselves fed their slaves, and the prisoners who worked for the officers of the regiment were on state support.

J. MacArthur wrote to his brother: "The changes that have taken place since the departure of Governor Phillip are so great and unusual that the story of them may seem implausible."

M. Twain, who visited Australia in the 90s of the 19th century, when the memories of these events were still fresh in the memory of the population, wrote in the book "On the Equator": "Officers took up trade and, moreover, in the most lawless way ... They became to import rum, and also to make it in their own factories... They united and subjugated the market... They created a closed monopoly and firmly held it in their hands... They made rum the currency of the country - after all, there was almost no money there - and retained their pernicious power, keeping the colony under the heel of eighteen or twenty years... They taught the whole colony to drink. skins for a sip of rum. There is a case when a farmer gave a piece of land for a gallon of rum worth two dollars, which a few years later was sold for a hundred thousand dollars ".

The new governor, Navy Captain D. Hunter, arrived in the colony on September 11, 1795. But he could not break the dominance of the officers of the regiment, nicknamed the "Rum Corps". The next governor, Captain W. Bligh, who was known for his courage and perseverance, did not succeed either. The rebellious sailors of the ship "Bounty" landed him in May 1789 among the raging waves of the Pacific Ocean in a small boat with 18 crew members devoted to him. Left to the will of providence, people did not die. After 48 days of terrible hardship, Captain Bligh brought the boat to the island of Timor, which was a thousand miles from the place where they were disembarked from the ship. From this Dutch colony, Bligh and his comrades were taken to England.

Bligh entered into a fight with the officers of the New South Wales Regiment: he forbade them duty-free trade in alcoholic beverages, he did not allow McCarthur to build a distillery. Then the officers decided to overthrow the governor. They gathered a regiment and with unfolded banners went to his house. Bligh was arrested half an hour later and imprisoned in the barracks. The administration of the colony was taken over by the commander of the regiment, Major Johnston. MacArthur was appointed secretary of the colony.

This happened on January 26, 1808, 20 years after the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia. Over the next two years, power in New South Wales belonged undividedly to the "rum corps". Bly spent a year under arrest, and then was sent to Van Diemen's Land.

Only on December 31, 1809, L. Macquarie, sent by the British government to restore order, arrived in the colony, and with him the 73rd Infantry Regiment. L. Macquarie had the following instructions: to reinstate Bligh, but only for one day, in order to accept the governorship from him; becoming governor of the colony, L. Macquarie had to cancel all appointments, court decisions and distribution of land that had taken place since the arrest of Bligh.

L. Macquarie carried out these instructions with scrupulous precision. When Bligh returned from Van Diemen's Land to Sydney on January 17, 1810, Macquarie gave him a magnificent reception - with fireworks, a parade, illuminations and a ball in the governor's house. After that Bligh was sent to England. Together with him, the "rum corps" left New South Wales, led by their commander Johnston. MacArthur was also forced to leave Australia. Upon their arrival in England, Johnston and MacArthur were put on trial.

First steps in the study of the Australian continent

Two decades had passed since the creation of the colony, but the inhabitants of New South Wales were not aware of what constituted the entire fifth continent. By this time, only isolated sites in the Sydney area, a small piece of land located 90 miles north of Sydney, and the Hobart area on Van Diemen's Land had been explored. Australia, as you know, covers an area of ​​​​3 million square meters. miles, i.e., almost equal to the area of ​​the United States and 50 times the territory of England.

The first attempt to pass the Blue Mountains, located 40 miles west of Sydney, was made only in May 1813. The expedition consisted of three employees of the colony - G. Blaxland, W. Winworth, W. Lawson - and five prisoners. Two weeks later they reached the western slopes of the Blue Mountains and discovered excellent pastures on which, as the expedition members claimed, they could "feed all the cattle of the colony for the next thirty years." Blacksland, Winworth and Lawson were generously rewarded for their discovery. Each of them received a plot of land measuring 1,000 acres.

By order of the governor, the prisoners began to hastily build a road to the newly opened areas. In January 1815, L. Macquarie was already able to drive along it to the new city of Bathurst, built "120 miles west of Sydney.

Three circumstances contributed to the intensification of the study by the British of the Australian mainland: the attempts of the French to settle in Australia, the need to resettle the arriving exiles, and the lack of pastures and water.

In 1801, the French ships "Geographer" and "Naturalist" under the command of Admiral N. Boden explored the southern and western parts of Australia. After that, the British hurried to claim their formal ownership of Van Diemen's Land, and then proceeded to establish settlements at Macquarie Harbor and Launceston. Settlements also appeared on the east and south coasts of the mainland - on the site of the current cities of Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Melbourne. D. Oxley's research in 1822 in the northeastern part of Australia led to the creation of a settlement in the area of ​​the Brisbane River.

The expedition of the French captain J. Dumont-Durville prompted the governor of New South Wales to create the Western Port settlement on the southern coast of Australia in 1826 and send Major E. Lockyer to the King George Sound in the southwestern part of the mainland, where he founded the settlement, which later received the name of Albany, and announced the extension of the power of the British king to the entire Australian mainland. The British settlement of Port Essington was founded at the extreme northern point of the continent.

The population of the new outposts of Britain on the Australian mainland consisted of exiles. Their transportation from England was more intensive year by year. It is believed that from the time of the founding of the colony until the middle of the XIX century. 130-160 thousand prisoners were sent to Australia. Since the settlements were located at a great distance from each other, in addition to the actual capture of the territory, another goal was also achieved - the dispersal of the exiles.

Due to the rapid growth in the number of sheep, new pastures and sources of fresh water were required. In 1810 the colony produced only 167 pounds of wool, and in 1829 about 2 million pounds. "Just as it is impossible to force the Arabs of the desert to live within a circle drawn in the sand," said the governor of the colony Gipps, "so it is impossible to limit the movement of sheep breeders of New South Wales to certain boundaries; it is quite obvious that if this were done ... herds of cattle and the sheep of New South Wales would perish and the welfare of the country would be ended."

The southeastern and southern parts of Australia, their river system was explored in the 20s of the XIX century. D. Oxley, G. Hume, A. Cunningham and C. Sturt. The contribution of the latter is especially significant.

In 1826-1828. there was a severe drought in the colony. From the lack of fodder, livestock fell, crops perished. The colonists rushed about in search of new pastures and water. "Huge trees were dying. Emu, stretching their necks, greedily grabbed the air, suffering from thirst. The native dogs were so thin that they could hardly move. The natives themselves were dying of exhaustion. They brought their children to the white people, asking for some food ".

The then governor of New South Wales, R. Darling, sent Captain C. Sturt in search of new rivers, and perhaps large inland seas, which, according to the then widespread opinion, should have existed in the depths of the Australian mainland.

Sturt's expedition lasted from November 1828 to April 1829. While exploring the Macquarie River, Sturt discovered that it ended in a large swamp overgrown with reeds and reeds. But he soon found a stream to the west of Macquarie, flowing north. Moving along it, Sturt reached a wide, full-flowing river, which he named after the governor of the Darling colony. The water in the river turned out to be salty, its banks were completely bare, very stunted vegetation was found only in swampy places.

The results of the expedition could not, of course, satisfy the governor of the colony. In September 1829, Sturt, at the head of a small detachment, undertook a new expedition. On 25 September he reached the Murrumbidgee River. The locals who met him claimed that it was a tributary of another large river. Then Sturt, taking six men with him, began to investigate Murrumbidgee. Expedition: moved with great difficulty along an unfamiliar river. On January 14, 1830, travelers reached its mouth and entered another large river. So Sturt opened one of the largest rivers in Australia, naming it Murray - in honor of the then British Minister of Colonies.

Before Sturt and his comrades had time to rejoice at their discovery, they were met with trouble that almost cost them their lives. Unexpectedly, their boat ran aground, and soon they were surrounded by a crowd of natives, very belligerent. A clash seemed inevitable, the British prepared for a deadly battle. But suddenly a native of gigantic growth appeared on the shore. He jumped into the river and swam to the shallows. Having reached it, he scattered the people who were there, went up to the boat with the English and greeted them as friends. Throughout the further journey, the British met only a friendly attitude from the locals.

After 33 days of travel, having traveled 1000 miles on a boat, Sturt and his companions discovered a lake, which they called Alexandrina, after the name of the British princess. Moving on, they found a way out to the open sea. It was a big win. Only on May 25, 1830, Sturt and his comrades returned to Sydney.

The expedition, which explored the river system of South Australia, proved that it was possible to reach the southern tip of the mainland by water, and also discovered large expanses of fertile land, extremely convenient for colonization. “I,” Sturt reported, “never saw a country that would have a more advantageous position ... we received five million acres of beautiful land.” His message led to the colonization of South Australia.

Sturt's discoveries haunted Major T. Mitchell. This ambitious man could not come to terms with the fact that he, the eldest in rank, was not appointed head of the expeditions. When in 1831 Darling, who was a patron of Sturt, left the colony, T. Mitchell undertook his first expedition. He was going to find a river that supposedly flowed into the Gulf of Carpentaria, about which he was told by the exiled D. Clark, who lived for some time among the natives. The expedition ended in failure: Mitchell did not find the river flowing to the northwest, but reached the Namoi and Gvidir rivers. In a skirmish with local residents, he lost two people and all food supplies, so he was forced to return. It should be noted that all Mitchell's expeditions, unlike Sturt's, were accompanied by numerous skirmishes with the natives. The reason for this, of course, was Mitchell's unfriendly attitude towards the latter.

On the second trip, Mitchell reached the Darling River near where Sturt was approaching. Interestingly, Mitchell found Darling's water to be completely fresh. A fortified camp was built, called Fort Burke, after which the expedition moved on along the river, which, as Sturt Mitchell, who did not believe, was convinced of this, flowed into the Murray River. The further course of the expedition was stopped by a new bloody skirmish with the natives, which forced the travelers to turn back.

Mitchell's third expedition led to the discovery of territory south of the Murray River. This land, which, as Mitchell claimed, "could give birth to wheat even in the driest seasons and never become a swamp in the rainiest time", was called "Happy Australia".

Continuing the expedition, Mitchell went to the seashore in the area of ​​Portland Bay. The expedition members were very surprised to find a ship in the bay, and European settlers on the shore. They were colonists who had come from Van Diemen's Land two years earlier.

Among the discoverers of the southeastern part of Australia there are two Polish explorers - J. Lhotsky and P. Strzelecki. J. Lkhotsky, who arrived in Sydney in 1833, gave the first description of the area where Canberra is now located, and the mountain range now called the Australian Alps. P. Strzelecki, who appeared in Sydney in 1839, explored in 1840 the southernmost part of the continent, which he named Gippsland, in honor of the then governor of the colony, and was the first to climb the highest mountain in the Australian Alps, which he called Mount Kosciuszko.

Around the same time, exploration of the western part of Australia began. The first expedition, led by D. Eyre, left Adelaide on June 18, 1840, on the day of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, so seeing it off was especially solemn. 6 people set off on the road with two wagons, 13 horses and 40 sheep. On June 7, 1841, only Eyre came to the final destination of the journey - the British settlement of Albany on the shores of the King George Strait, accompanied by an aborigine named Willie. The following month, Air sailed back to Adelaide, arriving on 26 July.

In 1844, already fifty-year-old C. Sturt resumed his expeditions. This time he wanted to explore the central part of the continent. On August 15, 1844, he left Adelaide, heading north. The journey continued until 1846. Sturt became convinced that the center of Australia was a real desert, which he could not overcome. Seriously ill, blind, he returned to Adelaide.

The already mentioned T. Mitchell was the first to try to explore the northern part of Australia. In 1845, he reached the Barku River basin, but due to a lack of food supplies, he returned back. The greatest contribution to the study of the north of the country was made by L. Leichhardt and E. Kennedy.

The authorities of New South Wales strongly encouraged exploration of the northern part of the continent, hoping that they would lead to the opening of the shortest and most convenient trade route connecting the colony with India.

L. Leichhardt, a native of Germany, met the Englishman D. Nicholson while still at the university in Göttingen; in the future, he accompanied him on trips to France, Italy and England. Unable to find work in England, Leichhardt went to Australia in October 1841. He arrived in Sydney in February 1842 and soon established himself as a capable naturalist. On his first trip he went in August 1844 through. 16 months Leichhardt reached Port Essington. The journey was very difficult. For many months, Leichhardt and his companions did without flour, sugar, salt and tea, for a whole quarter of the year they ate only dried beef.

Returning to Sydney, Leichhardt began to prepare a new expedition. He intended to reach the north of the continent by skirting the desert found by Sturt in its central part. It was assumed that the journey would be very long, so provisions were seized for two years.

On December 12, 1846, an expedition of seven Europeans and two Aborigines left the Darling Downs. The travelers had 15 horses, 13 mules, 40 cows, 270 goats, 100 pigs and 4 dogs. However, most of the livestock fell, food supplies were almost completely used up, people suffered from fever. Having achieved nothing, Leichhardt returned back after 7 months.

Failure didn't stop him. In April 1848, Leichhardt went north again. He was accompanied by 6 people. This time it ended in complete disaster: the expedition disappeared into the depths of the mainland. During the first two years, the lack of information about it did not cause much concern in New South Wales, since it was designed for a long time. In 1851, the authorities of the colony began searching, which did not yield results. The fate of the expedition members remained unknown.

In April 1848, another expedition left Sydney, which was supposed to explore the north of the mainland, find the most convenient route to South Asia and choose a site for building a port on the northern coast of Australia for trade with Asian countries. The expedition was led by E. Kennedy, who had previously taken part in the expeditions of T. Mitchell. In order to shorten the time, part of the journey was made by ship.

On May 21, 1848, the travelers reached Rockhampton Harbor and disembarked. Terrible heat, swampy terrain, impenetrable thickets forced them to abandon their intended route - to the northwest, to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They went along the northeast coast of the mainland, but here they met with the same difficulties. In addition, a month later, frequent skirmishes with local residents began.

In August, the expedition was supposed to reach Princess Charlotte Bay, where a ship specially sent there was waiting for it. But Kennedy and his companions reached the bay only in October, when the ship had already left. The salvation was to get to Port Albany. But the exhausted, hungry and sick travelers could no longer do this. Only one member of the expedition came to Port Albany in December 1848 - an aborigine named Jackie-Jackie. The ship was immediately equipped to search for the surviving members of the expedition. On December 30, the ship reached Princess Charlotte Bay. Of the eight people who made it here, only two survived. Everyone else, including Kennedy, died.

Expeditions to explore the Australian mainland, which took place with such difficulties and losses, were of great importance for the expansion and strengthening of British rule in Australia.

Formation of the colonies Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland

At the beginning of the 19th century, after the Peace of Amiens in 1802, Napoleonic France resumed exploration of the Pacific Ocean. As noted above, the ships "Geographer" and "Naturalist" successfully explored the southern and western coasts of the Australian continent and Van Diemen's Land. April 8, 1802 they met with a British ship commanded by M. Flinders. Baudin assured Flinders that the French had a purely scientific interest in the area. But when a map was published in Paris, on which the area located between the Wilsons-Promontory peninsula and the Spencer Gulf was designated as "Napoleon's Land", and rumors spread that the French government intended to create a settlement on Van Diemen's Land, the British government and the authorities of the New The South Wales decided that both the formal and actual takeover of Van Diemen's Land needed to be accelerated.

Governor of New South Wales King sent Lieutenant Robbins to Bass Strait. It was officially announced that Robbins should study the coast of the Australian mainland and Van Diemen's Land in more detail. The secret instruction obliged the lieutenant to monitor the actions of the French and, if necessary, officially declare British dominance in the Bass Strait area.

Robbins met the French on King Island. Landing with three sailors, he, to the surprise of the French, immediately proclaimed the island the property of the British king, raised the English flag, gave a triple salute and left the island. Robbins then visited Port Phillip on the Continent, as well as the Derwent River region in Van Diemen's Land, and left two soldiers each to confirm British ownership of these lands.

The year before, English officer D. Murray had visited Port Phillip. He recommended that the government use this place as an additional exile colony. Based on Murray's report, Lord Hobart, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, ordered Lieutenant Colonel D. Collins to lead an expedition for. organizing a new colony. In October 1803, 330 prisoners were brought to Port Phillip on two ships. Collins didn't like the place. In accordance with the instructions given to him by the British government, he had the right to choose another territory for the colony, provided that the search for a new, more convenient place would not be delayed. Therefore, in February 1804, Collins moved all the colonists to Van Diemen's Land and landed them where the city of Hobart is now located. Here he met nineteen-year-old Lieutenant D. Bowen, who, by order of Governor King, with a small party of free colonists and prisoners in September 1803, founded a British settlement in this place - Collins took over the leadership of the united colony.

In the early years of the colony on Van Diemen's Land, the settlers faced difficulties that the colonists of New South Wales did not know. The British government believed that the supply of the new colony should be carried out from Sydney, while the governor of New South Wales believed that this was the business of the British government. Communication between Sydney and Hobart was maintained only by small ships belonging to the colony of New South Wales and was sporadic. If it were not for emu and kangaroo meat, which abounded on the island, the population of Hobart would soon have died out.

The British government populated Van Diemen's Land with prisoners and free colonists, without caring about the appropriate material basis. Already in November 1804, on the northern coast of the island, not far from the place where the city of Launceston is now located, a second colony arose, headed by Colonel Peterson. In 1813 both colonies were independent of each other and were subject to New South Wales. Relations between Peterson and Collins escalated to such an extent that Governor King was forced to administratively divide the island into two parts - the northern one, called Cornwall Land, and the southern one, called Buckinghamshire. In 1813, an official was sent to Hobart with the rank of assistant to the governor of New South Wales, who became the de facto leader on the island.

Gradually, new colonies began to fortify. If in 1813 2,000 acres of land were cultivated in Hobart, then in 1819 - yes, 8,000 acres. In 1820 Van Diemen's Land was already exporting wheat and meat to New South Wales. At that time, 5,500 people lived on the island, of which 2,538 were prisoners, 2,880 were free settlers; the number of cows was 30 thousand, sheep - 180 thousand,

In December 1825, Van Diemen's Land officially became an independent colony. In the same year, the Van Diemen Land Company was established in England, which was supposed to promote the development of agriculture and cattle breeding on the island. By the middle of the XIX century. here 170 thousand acres of land were cultivated, there were 1.7 million sheep and 80 thousand heads of cattle.

However, the colony continued to largely bear the features of an exiled settlement. This was due to the fact that even at the beginning of the second half of the XIX century. prisoners made up one-third of the island's population. Their transportation to this colony was stopped only in 1853.

The power of the head of the administration of the island was virtually unlimited. She, wrote at that time the English historian X. Melville, "exceeded the power of any sovereign in the Christian world." Conditions for prisoners were worse than in other British colonies in Australia. It is not surprising, therefore, that at the first opportunity the exiles tried to flee. Runaway convicts united in detachments of "bushrangers", which terrified the entire colony. To catch and destroy these detachments, the authorities organized numerous bloody expeditions.

The free population of the colony demanded to stop the transportation of exiles to the island. In 1845, the British government promised to fulfill this requirement: not to send prisoners to Van Diemen's Land for two years. At the end of this period, the Minister for the Colonies, Lord Gray, announced that the government would no longer use Van Diemen's Land for exile settlements. But in fact, prisoners continued to arrive on the island in subsequent years. So, in 1845-1847. 3 thousand people were delivered. Only since 1854, Van Diemen's Land was classified as a colony, to which it was forbidden to send prisoners. At the same time, the colony was renamed Tasmania, in honor of the discoverer of the island A. Tasman. The name Van Diemen's Land disappeared, which the exiles changed to Devil's Land, using a play on words - Van Diemen's Land and Van Demonians Land.

If New South Wales and Tasmania emerged as exiled colonies, then South Australia was from the beginning a colony of free settlers. Its organizers tried to put into practice the ideas of one of the most prominent ideologues of British colonialism in the first half of the 19th century, E. Wakefield, formulated by him in his work "Letters from Sydney", which was published in 1829. K. Marx devoted an analysis of the theory of E. Wakefield separate section in the first volume of "Capital".

Ambition was the main feature of Wakefield's character. It took him to Newgate Prison in London. Thirty-year-old Wakefield served as secretary of the British embassy in Paris, was a widow, had two children and cherished the ambitious dream of becoming a member of the British Parliament, for which he did not have enough money. In order to get rich, he decided to marry a rich woman. Wakefield learned that fifteen-year-old Ellen Tarner was the sole heiress of a major industrialist.

Wakefield had never seen the girl, but that didn't bother him at all. He arrived at the Liverpool school and demanded that the director let Ellen go with him on the pretext that her mother was seriously ill. He told the girl that her father had suddenly gone bankrupt and that in order to save the family, she must marry him. Apparently, Wakefield was very eloquent, since they got married immediately. Then the newlyweds hurriedly left for France. However, their honeymoon was interrupted at the very beginning. Ellen's two uncles arrived in France and took her home. Wakefield also soon returned to England, but was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. So his dream of becoming a member of parliament was shattered.

And then he chose a different field of activity, which glorified his name: he became the creator of the theory of "systematic colonization" and "sufficient" land prices in the colonies. Wakefield argued that overseas territories should be colonized not by sending convicts there, but by attracting quite "respectable" people. Land prices in the colonies should be so high that the colonists did not acquire it immediately upon arrival, but only after working for a number of years. A "sufficient" land price will prevent the colonists from becoming independent peasants; when they become them, others will appear ready to take their place in the wage labor market.

The money from the sale of land, according to Wakefield, should go mainly to attract new settlers, and partly to the needs of the colonies themselves, where a layer of small colonists will gradually grow and strengthen, which will form the solid basis of Britain's outposts in various parts of the globe. Thus, that part of English society, which, as a result of the industrial development of the country, remained without work and was a real threat to the existing order of things, turned into an environment cementing the British Empire.

In 1830, Wakefield launched an active work on the practical implementation of his ideas. He contributed greatly to the rapid organization of the National Colonization Society, which published a pamphlet in the same year entitled "A Statement of the Principles and Purposes of a Proposed National Society for the Cure and Prevention of Pauperism by Systematic Colonization."

At about the same time that E. Wakefield's book was published, information came to England about fertile lands in the Murray River valley, discovered by Sturt. The business circles of England, on which Wakefield's book made a great impression, became interested in the possibility of implementing his ideas. In 1831, negotiations began on the creation of a company whose purpose would be the colonization of lands located in the south of the Australian mainland.

At a meeting of the National Colonization Society, held on August 3 under the chairmanship of Colonel Torrens, a plan for the colonization of South Australia was approved, which provided for the creation of a company with a capital of 500 thousand pounds. Art., divided into 10 thousand shares, each worth 50l. Art. The company was to acquire land in the southern part of the Australian mainland and establish a colony there, taking on all the financial responsibility associated with its organization and existence.

Soon a proposal to the government to establish a colony on the south coast of Australia was sent to the Colonial Office, which replied that it did not intend to consider the plan on the merits until the funds necessary for the implementation of the planned company had been raised. Thus, the decision to establish a colony in South Australia was up in the air.

However, this circumstance did not discourage E. Wakefield and his friends. He founded the South Australian Association, which in December 1833 developed a new project for the colonization of South Australian lands. This plan provided for the organization of the South Australian Land Company, with the funds from which it was supposed to create a colony. This time the Ministry of the Colonies reacted positively to the project. On April 15, 1837, Colonial Secretary Stanley replied to the association that its project was approved, although with significant additions and corrections.

On June 3, 1834, the South Australian Association called the first public meeting, attended by 2,500 people. The participants were introduced to the plan for creating a colony. At the same time, the English Parliament was discussing the project developed by the association, which was approved by both chambers. Executed into law, the project was signed by the king and put into effect by royal decree of August 15, 1834.

The Act emphasized that the establishment of the colony was to be carried out by the South Australian Land Company. It was envisaged that the power in the colony would belong to the governor, appointed by the king, and authorized by the company. Captain D. Hindmarsh became the governor of the colony, X. Fisher, the authorized representative of the company, and Colonel Torrens, the representative of the board of the South Australian Land Company. The basis of the capital of the South Australian Land Company was the contribution of the wealthy businessman D. Enges in the amount of 320 thousand pounds. Art. The company raised additional capital by selling rights to land plots in an area that at that time, not only in London, but also in Sydney, had essentially no idea. The company sold shares that gave their owners the right to 120 acres of land in the territory of the proposed colony and 1 acre in its future capital.

To attract colonists in England, special brochures were issued and lectures were given. Torrens himself wrote the book "The Colonization of South Australia", which was published in June 1835. The first batch of colonists was supposed to be sent to South Australia as early as September 1835. However, the sale of plots was delayed until November, and it was decided to postpone the expedition to next year. It began in March 1836.

In July 1836, three ships of the company approached Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, with 546 colonists on board. They remained on the island until the arrival there in August of Colonel Leith, who chose the site for the capital. Now there is Adelaide.

The organization of the colony proceeded quickly. In December, the governor of the colony, D. Hindmarsh, arrived. He did not like the place chosen for the capital, and he tried to find another. This caused serious friction between him and the officials of the administration of the colony, which ended with the resignation of Hindmarsh and his replacement in 1838 as governor by Gawler.

The early years of the colony were characterized by huge land speculation. Actually, the main goal of both the South Australian Land Company itself and the colonists was the desire for quick enrichment precisely through speculative resales of the land they acquired. There was a widespread system that gave the right to 15,000 acres of land to a person who bought from this amount at least 4,000 acres at 1l. Art. per acre The rest of the land was bought by him gradually at a price of 5s. 4d per acre. Very soon, this led to the fact that all the fertile lands fell into the hands not of hardworking farmers, who, as E. Wakefield assumed, would create the wealth of the colony with their hard work, but of land speculators, most of whom lived not in Australia, but in England.

Four years have passed since the founding of the colony, but nothing has been done to develop agriculture and cattle breeding. The colony produced almost nothing. In 1837, of the 3,700 acres sold, only 4 were under cultivation; in 1839, 170,500 acres were sold and 443 were cultivated. The value of the colony's imports in 1839 rose to £346,600. Art., while the value of exports was only 22.5 thousand pounds. Art. The administration, which did not have the funds to develop the territory, build ports, roads, etc., was forced to turn to the government for help. As soon as this became known in London, there was a real panic among the shareholders and creditors of the South Australian Land Company. They were in a hurry to get rid of the shares and presented bills for payment. The company went bankrupt. The colony experienced a complete financial collapse, people fled the colony. Within a few months, its population had halved. Only those who were unable to leave remained. Food prices skyrocketed. The land plots could not be sold. Most of the landowners, including the governor of the Gawler colony, went bankrupt.

Rumors of the plight of the South Australian colonists reached other British colonies on the continent. The most enterprising pastoralists and farmers of New South Wales and Port Phillip began to penetrate into South Australia, hoping to profitably use its fertile lands. By the end of 1841, 50,000 sheep were grazing on the pastures of South Australia. In the same year, deposits of lead ore were discovered, and in 1843 - copper ore. Cattle breeding and mining became the basis for the economic development of the colony. Growing and its population; in 1850, when South Australia received the rights of self-government, it was 63 thousand people.

South Australia administratively included vast expanses of the central and northern parts of the mainland. As already noted, their development was associated with the search for the most convenient trade route to India. In 1817, Lieutenant F. King was sent to carefully explore the northern coast of Australia. In his report to the government, King reported that the northern coast was an ideal place for the construction of seaports. Based on his report, the British government sent Captain G. Bremer to the area, who in 1824 founded the first British settlement there - Port Essington.

But in general, vast expanses of the northern part of the mainland remained undeveloped. Repeated attempts to establish settlements there were unsuccessful. They quickly ceased to exist. Together with them, the hope of using the ports of the northern coast for trade with Asian countries faded.

Only in 1863, when the Northern Territory was administratively subordinated to the colony of South Australia, interest arose again for a short time. A resident was sent there and founded a small settlement, named Palmerston, in honor of the then British Prime Minister. But South Australia could do nothing to develop a gigantic and inaccessible area. In 1911 the Northern Territory came under the direct control of the Commonwealth Government. The city of Palmerston was renamed Darwin.

Like South Australia, Western Australia originally emerged as a colony of free settlers. In 1826, the governor of New South Wales, Darling, instructed Captain D. Sterling to explore the western coast of Australia in order to create a British colony there. Returning to Sydney, the captain reported in his report that the area of ​​the Swan River was the most suitable for organizing a colony. He pointed to a healthy climate, fertile soils, fresh water supply, as well as an advantageous geographical position that allows creating a port there through which one could trade with the countries of the East. D. Sterling emphasized the need to act quickly in view of the real threat of French occupation of the area. Governor Darling supported D. Stirling's proposals and sent his report to London. However, the British government did not consider it possible to shoulder the burden of organizing the colony.

In the middle of 1828, D. Sterling, while in London, again turned to the government and volunteered to lead an expedition to organize a British colony on the west coast of Australia. Since the British government motivated its first refusal by the fact that it could not bear the costs of setting up this remote colony, D. Sterling suggested creating a private syndicate.

This time, the government, frightened by rumors about the possible capture of the western coast of Australia by the French, heeded the insistent voice of the captain. However, it believed that the colony should be organized not by private individuals, but by the state. First of all, it was necessary to carry out the official seizure of the western part of the Australian mainland, since before that Great Britain formally, through the mouth of J. Cook, proclaimed its power only over its eastern part. To this end, in November 1828, Captain Fremantle on the ship "Challenger" went to the western coast of Australia. On May 2, 1829, after landing at the mouth of the Swan River, Fremantle proclaimed British sovereignty over an area ten times the size of Great Britain. Business circles in England showed great interest in the new colony. In November 1828, a group of business people in London, headed by T. Peel, offered the British government to deliver 10 thousand people to the colony, for which they asked to transfer 4 million acres of land to it. The government agreed to only 1 million acres. It was stipulated that each colonist would be entitled to a plot of land of 40 acres, on the condition that he immediately pay 3l. Art. and during the first three years of the use of the land he will expend not less than 3l. Art.

Captain Sterling was appointed head of the new colony. In June 1829, the first batch of 50 colonists arrived at the shores of Western Australia. It should be said that among them there were almost no people who would have intended "by the sweat of their brow" to cultivate the virgin lands of the fifth continent. In distant Australia they were attracted by the thirst for quick and easy enrichment. The Western Australian Colonization Company touted the fertility of the new lands. The colonists, acquiring almost nothing land plots in the Swan River region, hoped that in the very near future they would receive incomes not inferior to those that landowners in the English counties have.

Counting on a cloudless, rich life, the colonists brought pianos, elegant carriages, thoroughbred trotters, expensive hunting dogs, etc. from England. The first two cities of the colony were soon founded: Perth and Fremantle. The harsh reality very soon dispelled the delusions of the English. The land turned out to be infertile. Due to an acute shortage of food, the cattle had to be slaughtered and the meat distributed to the colonists.

Sheep brought from England could not adapt to local pastures and died. In addition, the company very quickly sold the largest and best part of the land received from the government to a very limited circle of colonists. So, in 18 months after the creation of the colony, 70 colonists acquired the right to half a million acres of land in the Perth area. The rest got land farther and farther from the shore. The dense forest thickets and the lack of roads made not only their processing, but also access to them very difficult.

Since the colony did not produce anything and did not conduct trade operations, it had no money. The only form of remuneration was the distribution of land. Even the governor of the Stirling colony received a salary in land. He was given 100,000 acres.

By 1832, the total land sold was one million acres. But they were not processed. The colonists began to leave the inhospitable shores. The population of Western Australia from 1830 to 1832 decreased from 4 thousand people to 1.5 thousand.

Rumors of the colony's plight reached the shores of England, and the number of people wishing to go to Western Australia dropped sharply. In 1832, only 14 colonists arrived in Perth; in subsequent years, the situation did not change significantly, despite the widespread advertising organized in England by the Western Australian Association, which was founded in London in 1835. The organizer of the colony, T. Peel, went bankrupt. His family returned to England, he himself continued to live in a colony in poverty. The priest Wollaston, who visited him in 1842, describes Peel's dwelling as follows: "He lives in a shabby little house made of stone, with a roof of reeds. Everything around him indicates that he is a broken man."

The West Australian Company, founded in London in the late 1930s and early 1940s, attempted to intensify the colonization of Western Australia. 100 miles south of Perth, it was proposed to lay a city - the center of the colony - and settle colonists around it, selling them plots of 100 acres at the price of 1l. Art. per acre The first batch of colonists (414 people) arrived in the designated area in March 1841, in 1842 their number increased to 673. But the people agitated by the company soon, disillusioned with their new homeland, began to scatter. For example, in 1845, 129 more people left the colony than arrived.

In 1848, the first official census was conducted in Western Australia, according to which the population of the colony 20 years after its creation was only 4622 people.

The idea of ​​organizing free settlers clearly failed. Then the authorities of the colony in 1849 turned to the British government with a request to send prisoners, using whom they hoped to finally develop a real development of the colony. This request met with support, and the transport of prisoners to Western Australia began. Within 18 years, 10,000 exiles were brought there. Only in 1868, due to the strong protest of neighboring colonies, indicating that Western Australia had become "the pipeline through which the moral impurities of Great Britain are poured into the Australian colonies", the expulsion of prisoners to Western Australia was stopped.

The political and economic development of Western Australia was slower than other colonies on this continent. In 1849 there were 134,000 sheep and 12,000 cattle in Western Australia. 7.2 thousand acres of land were cultivated, half of which was sown with wheat. Western Australia received self-government rights only in 1890.

If all the colonies discussed above arose with the blessing of the British government, then Victoria appeared contrary to the intentions of the government, but, as is often the case with "illegitimate" children, showed great vitality and soon became one of the richest British colonies in Australia.

As already noted, in 1809 Captain Collins went to the southern coast of Australia in order to organize a British settlement there, but, not finding enough fresh water, he landed his companions on the shores of Van Diemen's Land.

The authorities of New South Wales were still reluctant to make any expansion of the territory of the colony. In 1829, Governor Darling divided the colony into 19 districts, the boundaries of which were strictly forbidden to expand. The entire territory of the colony extended 300 miles long and 150 miles wide.

But when Major Mitchell, in 1836, exploring the Murray River basin, went to the southern coast of Australia, he saw the settlements of British colonists there. They, acting at their own peril and risk, came here from Van Diemen's Land.

The first to arrive in the Port Phillip area in December 1834 was the family of E. Henry, at the end of May 1835 - a small group of colonists (14 people in total) led by D. Betman. They had their own lawyer, who signed an agreement with local residents to "purchase" land. This act could be called comic if it did not have such a mocking character towards the natives. For a few blankets, knives, scythes and a small amount of flour, the group "acquired" the rights to 600,000 acres of fertile land. The "contract" was drawn up in English, and the natives, putting their signs under it, had no idea about its content.

Of course, the British could not bother themselves with this either. The land sale document was created by them in order to prove to the authorities of New South Wales the "legality" of the acquisition and to avoid paying money to the British government.

But neither the governor of New South Wales, nor the British government, having learned after some time about the formation of a settlement in the Port Phillip area, did not recognize the agreement signed by D. Bethman with local residents as valid. They proceeded from the fact that after the discovery of J. Cook, all Australian lands are the property of the British crown, and not the natives.

However, the colonists were not embarrassed by the anger of the authorities. They set up their own administration, a three-man court, and established laws that no one had the right to sell the land for at least five years. Admission to the colony of prisoners was prohibited. The import of alcoholic beverages was not allowed. For the destruction of wild dingo dogs, which interfered with the development of cattle breeding, the administration of the colony paid 5 shillings. for every dog ​​killed.

A few weeks after D. Bethman and his companions landed in Port Phillip, another group of colonists headed by D. Fawkner arrived there from Van Diemen's Land. In June 1836, there were already 177 people living in the Port Phillip area, who owned 26.5 thousand sheep, cows and 60 horses.

But the main stream of colonists did not move from the south, but from the north. After the discovery by Mitchell in 1836 of "Happy Australia", numerous colonists from Sydney rushed there.

The colony at Port Phillip was becoming stronger, and the governor of New South Wales, Burke, had no choice but to officially acknowledge its existence. In September, 1836, the representative of the governor, Captain W. Lonsdale, was sent to Port Phillip with four officials and fourteen soldiers. And in March 1837, Burke visited the new colony and gave its capital Port Phillip a new name - Melbourne, in honor of the then British Prime Minister. Then he founded the settlement, which he named Williamstown, in honor of the British king William IV.

In 1839 the colony was incorporated into New South Wales. The Port Phillip colonists protested and demanded secession on the grounds that New South Wales was a prisoner colony and Port Phillip a free settler colony. England, one of the representatives of the Port Phillip colonists said in London, should be interested in possessing "a free colony based on the principles of peace and civilization, philanthropy, morality and moderation."

The British government at the time denied the colonists' request. The separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales took place only in 1850. At the same time, the colony was named Victoria, in honor of the then reigning British Queen Victoria. At that time, the colony was already inhabited by 77 thousand people. More than 5 million sheep grazed on its pastures.

Despite the fact that it was from the territory of modern Queensland that J. Cook in 1770 proclaimed Australia the property of the British crown, this area for a long time did not have a single English settlement. Only in 1821 was a small exile colony established in Port Macquarie.

In 1823, the governor of New South Wales T. Brisbane decided to create another exile settlement to the north of this area. For this purpose, he sent D. Oxley there by water. Sailing along the northeast coast of the mainland on the Mermaid ship, Oxley reached the Port Curtis area. He did not like the place, he returned to Moreton Bay and unexpectedly met two Englishmen there on the shore - Finnigen and Pamphlet. They set out to sea from Sydney in a small boat without a compass. A storm came up and carried the boat into the ocean. When the British approached the coast, they decided that they were south of Sydney, and headed north along the coast. In fact, they were moving in the opposite direction, since after the storm they approached the coast located north of Sydney. People would have died if not for the help of the natives. Roaming with them, the British studied the area well. They said that there is a river nearby, flowing into the ocean, the banks of which are convenient for organizing a colony. Moving in the indicated direction, the expedition actually discovered the river, which Oxley named Brisbane, in honor of the governor who organized the expedition. Upon his return to Sydney, Oxley recommended the establishment of a new colony on the banks of this river. Brisbane himself visited Morton and approved of Oxley's choice.

In September 1824, the first batch of 30 exiles arrived here. The instruction that the governor gave to the commandant of the colony, Lieutenant Miller, said that "the exiles must first of all clear the territory for the settlement, and when this is done, prepare it for free settlers." The settlement was built on the spot where the capital of Queensland, Brisbane, now stands.

The colony remained for a long time only a place of exile, despite the fact that in 1827 A. Cunningham discovered land in the Darling Downs that was very convenient for cattle breeding. In 1830, there were 1,000 prisoners and 100 soldiers guarding them in the colony. In the 1930s, Brisbane did not make the impression of a city. It was not until 1840 that P. Leslie brought the first herd to the Darling Downs area. By 1851, there were 2 thousand inhabitants in the town. Other lands located to the west and north of this region were also developed.

The act of 1850 provided for the separation from New South Wales not only of Victoria, but of the whole territory north of 30 ° south latitude to create a self-governing colony there. However, this happened only nine years later. By an act of 1859, the northern part of New South Wales was proclaimed a separate colony and received the name Queensland. By this time, the British population of the colony was 28 thousand people.

Some researchers suggest that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the shores of Australia back in the 20s of the 16th century.

As the main evidence, supporters of this theory cite the following points:

• maps of Dieppe published in France in the middle of the 16th century. They depict a large stretch of land between Indonesia and Antarctica, called Java la Grande, with symbols and explanations in French and Portuguese;
• the presence of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 16th century. In particular, the island of Timor is located only 650 km from the Australian coast;
• various finds found along the Australian coastline are attributed to early Portuguese travelers.

In addition, the French navigator Binot Polmier de Gonneville claimed to have landed on some land east of the Cape of Good Hope in 1504, after the ship was blown off course by the wind. For some time he was credited with the discovery of Australia, but later it turned out that the lands he visited were part of the coast of Brazil.

Discovery of Australia by the Dutch

The first undeniable discovery of Australia is documented at the end of February 1606. The expedition of the Dutch East India Company, led by Willem Jansson, landed from the ship "Duifken" ("Dove") on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Jansson and his comrades explored the coast of New Guinea. Sailing from the island of Java to the southern coast of New Guinea and moving along it, after some time the Dutch reached the shores of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Australia, believing that they were still watching the coast of New Guinea.

Apparently, for some reason, the expedition did not notice the Torres Strait, which separates the coasts of New Guinea and Australia. On February 26, the team landed near the place where the city of Waipa is located today and was immediately attacked by the natives.

Subsequently, Jansson and his people sailed along the coast of Australia for about 350 km, from time to time making landfalls, but everywhere they ran into hostile natives, as a result of which several sailors died. The captain decided to return back, without realizing that he had discovered a new continent.

Since Jansson described the coast he explored as deserted and swampy, the new discovery did not arouse any interest. The East India Company equipped its ships in search of new lands rich in spices and jewels, and not for the sake of geographical discoveries as such.

In the same year, Luis Vaes de Torres sailed through the same strait, apparently not noticed by the Jansson expedition and later named Torres. It is possible that Torres and his comrades visited the northern coast of the continent, but there is no written evidence of this.

In 1616, another ship of the Dutch East India Company, under the control of Dirk Hartog, reached the shores of Western Australia, in the Shark Bay area (Shark Bay) at about 25 degrees south latitude. The navigators explored the coast and nearby islands for three days. Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued north along the previously unexplored coastline to 22 degrees S, after which he headed for Batavia.

In 1619, Frederick de Houtman and Jacob d'Erdel explored the Australian coast at 32 degrees S in two ships. sh. moving gradually to the north, where at 28 degrees S. discovered a strip of reefs called Houtman's Rocks.

In subsequent years, Dutch sailors continued to sail along the coast of Australia, calling this land New Holland, without bothering to explore the coast properly, because they did not see any commercial advantage in it. The extensive coastline may have piqued their curiosity, but it did not encourage them to explore the country's resources. Exploring the western and northern coasts, they formed the impression of the newly discovered lands as swampy and barren. During that period, the Dutch never saw the southern and eastern shores, much more attractive in appearance.

On July 4, 1629, the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, was shipwrecked off the Houtman Rocks. After the mutiny that happened soon after, part of the crew built a small fort for their protection - this was the first European structure in Australia.

According to some estimates, between 1606 and 1770 more than 50 European ships visited the shores of Australia. Most of them belonged to the Dutch East India Company, including the ships of Abel Tasman. In 1642, Tasman, trying to go around the so-called New Holland from the south, discovered an island, which he called Van Diemen's Land (later this island was renamed Tasmania). Moving further east, after some time the ships reached New Zealand. However, Tasman never got close to Australia on his first voyage. Only in 1644 did he manage to explore in detail its northwestern coast and prove that all the territories previously discovered during the Dutch expeditions, with the exception of Van Diemen's Land, are parts of a single mainland.

English studies

Almost until the end of the 80s of the 17th century, practically nothing was known in England about the lands discovered by the Dutch. In 1688, a pirate ship carrying the Englishman William Dampier anchored on the northwest coast, near Lake Melville. There was not much to plunder there, and after several weeks of repairs, the ship left the inhospitable shores. However, this voyage had some consequences: returning to England, Dampier published a story about his journey, which interested the English Admiralty.

In 1699, he set off on a second voyage to the shores of Australia, on the Roebuck ship provided to him. As in the previous case, he visited the barren northwest coast and, after 4 months of research, was forced to return without finding anything worthy of attention. Since Dampier was unable to provide any facts that could interest the Admiralty, interest in new lands waned for almost three-quarters of a century.

In 1770, an expedition led by Lieutenant James Cook set off for the South Pacific on the sailing ship Endeavor (The Attempt). The navigators were supposed to make astronomical observations, but Cook had secret orders from the British Admiralty to search for the southern continent of Terra Australis Incognita, which, according to geographers of the time, extended around the pole. Cooke reasoned that since so-called New Holland had a west coast, there must also be an east coast.

The expedition landed on the east coast of Australia at the end of April 1770. The landing site, originally named Stingray Bay, was later renamed Botany Bay due to the strange and unusual plants found there.

Cook named the open lands New Wales and later New South Wales. He had no idea about the scale of his discovery, as well as the fact that this island is a whole continent, 32 times larger than Britain itself. Among other things, Cook was the first European to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The ship that stumbled across it spent the next seven weeks under repair.

The British returned in 1778 to colonize new lands.

British colonies

It was decided to begin the colonization of the lands discovered by James Cook, using convicts as the first colonists. The first fleet, led by Captain Arthur Philip, consisting of 11 ships carrying a total of about 1350 people, arrived in Botany Bay on the 20th of January 1788. However, the area was considered unsuitable for settlement and they moved north to Port Jackson.

Governor Philip issued an order establishing the first British colony in Australia. The soil around Sydney Harbor was poor. The young colony relied both on developing farms along the Parramatta River, 25 kilometers upstream to the west, and on buying food from the natives.

The Second Fleet in 1790 brought badly needed supplies and various supplies; however, among the newly arrived prisoners there were a large number of patients, many of them were close to death and useless for the colony. The second fleet became known as the "Death Fleet" - 278 convicts and crew members died during this voyage, while the first time there were only 48 people who died.

The colony experienced many other difficulties, including a significant male preponderance of about four per woman, which had been a problem in the settlement for many years.

Several other British colonies were also created.

Van Diemen's Land

The first British settlement on the island was established at Risdon in 1803, when Lieutenant John Bowen landed with about 50 settlers, crew, soldiers and convicts. In February 1804, Lieutenant David Collins established a settlement at Hobart. The colony of Van Diemen's Land was established in 1825, and from 1856 officially became known as Tasmania.

Western Australia

In 1827, Major Edmund Lockyer built a small British settlement at King Georges Sound (Albany). Captain James Stirling became its first governor. The colony was created specifically for convicts, and the first prisoners arrived in 1850.

South Australia

The British province of South Australia was founded in 1836 and became a Crown colony in 1842. Although South Australia was not created for convicts, a number of former prisoners subsequently moved there from other colonies. About 38,000 immigrants arrived and settled in the area by 1850.

Victoria

In 1834, the Henty brothers arrived in Portland Bay, and John Batman settled on the site of the future Melbourne. The first immigrant ships arrived in Port Phillip in 1839. In 1851, Victoria (Port Phillip) seceded from New South Wales.

queensland

In 1824, a colony known as Moreton Bay Settlement was established at Radcliffe by Lieutenant John Oxley, later known as Brisbane. About 19 hundred people were sent to the settlement between 1824 and 1839. The first free European settlers moved into the area in 1838. In 1859, Queensland seceded from New South Wales.

northern territory

In 1825, the land occupied by today's Northern Territory was part of New South Wales. In 1863 control of the area was given to South Australia. The capital Darwin was founded in 1869 and was originally known as Palmerston. On January 1, 1911, the Northern Territory seceded from South Australia and became part of the Commonwealth of Australia.

After the colonization of the coast, a period of active exploration began. However, until 1813, none of the expeditions were able to overcome the high mountain chain located along the east coast. After the passage was discovered, in 1815 Governor Macquarie crossed the Blue Mountains and founded the city of Bathurst on the other side. Many researchers rushed deep into the mainland.

John Oxley was the first serious explorer who surveyed the channels of the rivers Lochlan, Macquarie and several others. Charles Sturt in search of the mythical inland sea, discovers the Darling River, explores the Lochlan and Marambigee river system. John McDual Stuart explores the territories north of Adelaide, Friedrich Leichhardt crosses Cleveland and the Northern Territories, discovering many small rivers and land suitable for agriculture along the way, and in 1858-60 Robert Burke crosses the mainland from north to south for the first time. Nathaniel Buchanan finds vast pastures on the Barkley Plateau, which later became the center of Northern Australia's sheep farming.

In addition to those listed, many other researchers continued to study the mainland, discovering new lands and contributing to the further development of Australia.