Dr. Martin Crotty, a professor at the University of Queensland, gave a brief lecture on Australian history to my class Wednesday, May 28th. Specifically, he highlighted discovery, settlement, & Australia since 1901 (when it became a federation).
Dr. Martin Crotty
Déjà Discovery
Before Australia became a hotspot for Western Europe, Britain mainly, people had premature ideas of what the great unknown southern land might be like.
Especially after Captain James Cook & Joseph Banks made the first recorded European contact with Australia in 1770, Europeans were humorously confused by the land Down Under. Crotty said they thought it to be a topsy-turvy place because they couldn’t get a grasp on the wildlife – Crotty explained that Europeans didn’t know where to fit creatures like the kangaroo, very foreign & strange, into their hierarchy of life.
Like wut? (I think this is a wallaby actually)
During Crotty’s lecture I didn’t think twice about it, but after and currently I had/am having trouble defining exactly what a hierarchy of life is. The easiest way I can explain what I think he meant is: Europeans were extremely puzzled by Australian wildlife – Never in their lives did they probably expect to encounter bounding marsupials, kangas.
Penal Settlement
Before the lecture I knew Australia was settled to house prisoners, Crotty explained why:
1. Work to be done
First and most obvious: Britain had a lot on its plate now that it had claimed Australia – Setting up camp, growing a population, harvesting resources, etc. What way to take care of said work than to use prisoners?
Off to Australia mate!
2. Overcrowding
Another factor influencing Britain’s use of prisoners to settle Australia was overcrowding of British prisons.
Hopeless British prisoners, I think…
3. Couldn’t use America
An easier solution in getting rid of overcrowding prisoners would’ve been to send them across the Atlantic to America – a much shorter voyage from Britain. Unfortunately for Britain, it had just lost its privilege of colonizing America (Revolutionary War). The first British colony in Australia was created in 1788 (in current-day Sydney).
George Washington Crossing the Delaware River (USA! USA!)
Uninvited Americans
Crotty brought up the unanticipated tension caused by the presence of American soldiers in Australia during WWII.
This resentment came to be due to liaising between American soldiers & Australian women. The Japanese even played on this tension by dropping instigative propaganda on Australians during the war.
Japanese anti-American leaflet
Crikey! 