D & E: Dance, Darwin, Demographics, Discoveries, European Exploration and Excavation

History so far:
- Britain loses American colonies
- Industrial Revolution re-shapes British society
- 1770 Captain Cook lands in Botany Bay
- 1788 First Fleet brings british convicts to Australia
- early 19 century marks the arrival of free settlers ("bounty migrants" and "maiden boats")

It seems like Australia was destined to be an English-speaking country, right?

Well, not quite. It may well have been colonised by completely different nations. This week we'll learn by whom and why. We'll be also talking about a much earlier history in an attempt to explain its flora and fauna.

But before we delve into these topics heare are some materials for you that can be useful if you want to do well in another of our "pub quizzes" ;)

1. Dancing



Just watch the video above ;)

2. Darwin


















Click on the picture to watch a clip showing Darwin from the point of view of an insider.

And then read the inevitable bit of historical trivia. [But please do not memorise the names of ships or numbers of casulties, I'm not going to quiz you on that! ;-) ]


3. Demographics (ethnic groups)

The topics below we'll cover in class together but please do the reading/watching:

4. Exploration

















A. Let's start with European discovery and colonisation. We have already talked about James Cook and the First Fleet, but this time please concentrate on non English explorers. Click the map to get some information (focus on nationalities only). Go here to see the chronology of landings, and here to see a cute animation.


B. Our second topic is a little tricky - excavation. But we will not be talking about gold - not just yet! ;-)

In fact what we are going to discuss is Australia's fossil past. Click to read some fascinating facts.














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