Early Australia

Road Scholars are people (Rusty and Wendy in this case) privileged to be on guided trips to new horizons  -- formerly run by Elderhostel. Groups have a trip leader and local guides and lecturers. It's great! Sunday morning we had a history lesson, a textured look at Australia's early discovery and settlement. Just some of the things we heard:

• Aboriginal peoples came to this continent about 50,000 years ago (humans inhabited Europe about 40,000 years ago, and North America about 20,000).
• Some flora and fauna derived from Asia (elephants and tigers) and some from the east (marsupials and lizards). Dingos (a dog) are not indigenous. but came to the continent from somewhere else 40,000 years ago.
• There are about 300 Aboriginal language groups; people were not nomadic (they did establish home territories).
• A number of explorers (beginning with Vasco de Gama in 1497) came upon the continent but didn't consider it worth exploring further; maritime empires were centered elswhere, such as in Asia.
• In the early 1600s Dutch traders said there was "no good to be found" here and turned to other places for valued spices (what would haggis, made of tripe and oatmeal, be without nutmeg and mace?).
• James Cook came around in 1769-70, on the ship Endeavor, expressing a favorable attitude toward Aborigines and exploring Botany Bay with scientific aims. He claimed New South Wales for the British crown.
• In 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet from Britain, Australia ("the southern land") became a new "settler society." The first residents were convicts (550 men and 150 women) arriving on 11 ships and settling at "The Rocks" on Sydney Harbour.
• Convicts were sent here less for punishment than to establish a new British foothold in the empire. 
• Convicts constructed lots of cool stuff in Sydney, such as the first hospital. Most of the convicts gained eventual freedom and were valued members of Australia's growing citizenry.
• In 1804 a guy named Flinders circumnavigated the continent and drew a fabulous map (above).

Just the tip of the iceberg of information!