Australia
A number of European explorers sailed the coast of Australia, then known as New Holland, in the 17th century. However it wasn’t until 1770 that Captain James Cook chartered the east coast and claimed it for Britain. The new outpost was put to use as a penal colony and in the beginning of the year 1788, the first fleet of 11 ships carrying 1,500 people – half of them convicts – arrived in Sydney Harbor. Until this transportation ended, men and women came to Australia as convicts. While free settlers began to flow in from the early 1790s, life for prisoners was harsh. The Aboriginal people displaced by the new settlement suffered even more. The dispossession of land, illness and death from introduced diseases disrupted traditional lifestyles and practices.
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian Continent and nearby islands. Indigenous Australians migrated from Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago and arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago. The Torres Strait Islanders are indigenous to the Torres Strait Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of Queensland near Papua New Guinea. The term "Aboriginal" is traditionally applied only to the indigenous inhabitants of the mainland Australia and Tasmania, along with some of the adjacent islands, the "first peoples".
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian Continent and nearby islands. Indigenous Australians migrated from Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago and arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago. The Torres Strait Islanders are indigenous to the Torres Strait Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of Queensland near Papua New Guinea. The term "Aboriginal" is traditionally applied only to the indigenous inhabitants of the mainland Australia and Tasmania, along with some of the adjacent islands, the "first peoples".