In his book, A Short History to Australia, Manning Clark suggests that there have been four migrations of people to Australia, the first beginning before the current era, and the last occurring in the 18th century. The first three cycles are all concerned with the Aborigines, and the fourth and last cycle is, of course, the recorded history of the British colonization of the “land down under.” According to Clark, however, Australia has not always been known as such.
At the time of the first aborigine migration, Manning states, Australia was connected to the continent of Asia as was New Guinea and Tasmania. This allowed the first aborigines, the Negritos, to move south from their hunting grounds in south-east Asia when “people with a superior culture” forced them away from their homes (13). Massive inland rivers that drained into a vast body of water characterized the would-be land of Australia. This large body of water provided vegetation to support life in this region, especially for the people and the large animals that they hunted. As ice dried up around the continent, the source of the sea’s water dried up, and the land became a desert; as a result, Tasmania and New Guinea separated from the mainland. The first aborigines, then, became the peoples of Tasmania; the other aboriginal group, the Murrayians, who are a people related to the Ainu in Japan, continued to look for food elsewhere. They mainly moved to the coasts at this time. Finally, a group of people known as the Carpentarians, whom, Manning records, are related to a group of people known as the Vedda in Ceylon, continued to live in the northern regions of the land that has come to be known as Australia.
Long after this period of time had passed, ancient civilizations like Rome had record of “an unknown land to the south” but this was not based on any actual account or exploration. Before moving on to the British colonization of Australia, one might appreciate to know that the name Australia stems from the Latin word for Southern—Australis.
Manning also records that, in 1768, the British Admiralty instructed Captain James Cook “to observe the transit of Venus at Tahiti and then search for the unknown southland” (18). Two years later, Cook landed in Botany Bay, close to Sydney, in April, and claimed the land for George III and named the island New South Wales. Upon returning to England to tell of his exploration, people mocked him for his enthusiasm concerning the aboriginal man, considering them to be savages instead of equal human beings.
Hoping to have found the actual island with intelligent inhabitants, this caused doubt in Cook’s mind that he ever actually found the Southern Island, so he was sent on another voyage with two ships this time, the Discovery and the Resolute. During the journey, Cook and his crew were tossed about on icy waters in the South Seas, and returned to England in 1776 (the same year that the British colonies in the New World signed The Declaration of Independence) to report that the stories of islands filled with gold were false. The island that Cook found, then, it was concluded, was just a barren island “that excited the imagination but not the greed of those searching for wealth” (20).
Three years after Cook’s return, a voyager who went with Cook on the first trip to find “the land down under” on the Endeavor, Sir Joseph Banks, appeared before the British House of Commons to discuss the matter of the south island. Banks recommended to the seat of government that the colony be set up as a land for thieves to be shipped to in order to solve the problem of what to do with those exiled citizens. Interestingly enough, the American Revolution kept the New World from having these citizens sent to them instead.
Clark, C.M.H. Short History of Australia. New York: New American Library, 1963.
