The first people of Australia

The First people in Australia were Aborigines. They arrived there about 12,000 years before from southern Asia. They had very rich forms of art, painting, song, poetry and mythology. The lives of aborigines stayed almost the same for thousands of years until the Europeans came to live in Australia in 1778.

In 1770 J. Cook landed in eastern Australia and declared that it belonged to Britain. In 1778, the British government began sending the first prisoners to Australia. Overtime many people arrived from Britain and Europe. Life was difficult. There was very little water and the climate was very hard.

The Europeans suffered a lot in Australia but the Aborigines suffered a lot more. Europeans stole their land and killed thousand of Aborigines. They also brought new diseases with them. In parts of Australia, not one Aborigine survived. Today aborigines continue to live in Australia but there culture in under threat. In 1770, there were about 300,000 Aborigines. Now, there are 120,000. It is becoming harder and harder for them to continue their traditional way to live.

Today Australia is a modern, industrial country, independent from Britain since 1931. The Commonwealth of Australia consists of 6 states and two provinces. It is the world’s biggest producer of wool, bauxite and important producer of wheat, meat, sugar and fruit.