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I am writing this blog update as a Pom (Product of Mother England) who has up to now had very little knowledge of what makes Australians tick and really want to delve into the history, If you were born and educated in Australia or have lived here for a long time you will probably find inaccuracies, please forgive me. I have used the Internet and particularly Wikipedia as my main source of information, but for the rest of us Poms reading this I hope you will find it interesting.In my blog on 1 January I said how impressed Carol and I were with the friendliness of Australians, since then we have had 10 days in Perth and I have had time to spend researching the history of this wonderful continent. I have found that the friendship stems from the 'Diggers'. I spent some tine at the Perth Mint where some of Australia's history started to become clear to me.
The gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the goldfields - the 'diggers' - are etched into national folklore.
There is no doubt that the gold rushes had a huge effect on the Australian economy and its development as a nation. It is also true to say that those heady times had a profound impact on the national psyche.
The camaraderie and 'mateship' that developed between diggers on the goldfields is still integral to how Australians - and others - perceive themselves as Australians. The diggers' defiance and open disdain of authority during this time is still a dominant theme in any discussion of Australia's history and national identity.
Coolgardie, about 550Kms from Perth owes its existence to the discovery of gold in September 1892 and really put Western Australia on the map. Diggers Arthur Bayley and William Ford. reported the discovery. The tale told at the mint is that Bayley and Ford had been digging for some time and were running out of food and water and were on the point of giving up. One night it poured with rain, they were soaked and all their possessions, thoroughly disheartened they decided to call it a day and return to Perth at daybreak. When they woke the rain had stopped and as they looked around they saw the rain had washed away the sand exposing gold nuggets strewn all around them. In one day they collected 554 ounces of gold worth the stupendous sum of £2,200, that's £715,000 at today's gold price.
It was dangerous to prospect alone in the vast arid areas of the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie region and so large prospecting parties were formed. Frequently such parties were made up of men who had travelled to Western Australia together, from the other Australian colonies or from overseas.Camels were invaluable on the arid goldfields as they could travel for long periods without water, carry up to 600 kilograms and live off the land, being quite partial to saltbush. The spongy pads on their feet enabled them to walk easily on sand, they generally carried a single rider and a load of provisions, tools and the party's vital water supplies. By 1894 there were already several thousand camels in Western Australia.
Perth is considered to be amongst the world's most isolated city, being closer to Jakarta in Indonesia, than to the Australian national capital in Canberra
We had a bit of an unfortunate time of it in Perth, the house we had booked was a disaster as the air conditioning had broken down and was not likely to be fixed for some time and the temperature was 40+ day and night, so we change location to find that our next apartment had no gas for cooking and no hot water and the beds fell apart when sat on or in the middle of the night! Most of the problems were fixed withing 24 hours but the air conditioning was hopeless, we could never set it at a comfortable temperature, either too hot or much too cold for the remainder of our stay.Rachel and Tony who have been with us since the 4 January then moved again into another apartment as they were in an upstairs room of our apartment that the air conditioning did not work very well in and Carol and I had to endure temperatures of about 14 degrees in order not to cook Rachel and Tony upstairs.
Carol, Rachel and Tony who like to be out and about all the time exploring were not that impressed with Perth, organised trips are very expensive, but they loved their day on Rottnest Island and managed to se some Quokkas.
The Australian continent has many unique species having been isolated for millions of years, the Quokkas are unique to the small island of Rotness lying some 40k off shore from Perth. To me Perth was just about OK, it is like a Spanish resort, reminds me of Palma Nova on Majorca, there is not a lot to do or see. Carol and I went for a cruise up the Swan River I fell asleep for most of the journey and Carol reckoned it was the most boring boat journey she had been on!In Sydney we buy a weekly ticket for the ferries, buses and trains that takes us pretty well all over where we want to visit and the cost is A$46, about £23. This is pretty cheap, in Perth the 2 hour trip up the river cost the same as a weekly Sydney ticket, a trip to Rottness Island A$177 each, swimming with dolphins A$220 each and had we done it a day's trip to Margaret River A$220 each, so not a cheap place to visit.
At the weekends Perth is full of miners getting their R and R - brothels in Australia are legal and are identified by shop fronts that just displays a number, phone or street number, there was one almost opposite our apartment. Carol and I always travel with ear plugs and on Saturday night we certainly needed them, wild raucous parties going on in all the apartments in our block with beds scraping shouting, crashing and banging all night.
We were due to stay here for 2 months but have now returned to our apartment in Sydney, Rachel and Tony have returned home to the UK.
New South Wales is no longer areas open to immigrants from the UK. Perth is openly welcoming new residents and it really shows in the development for about 100 miles
along a narrow strip of coast stretching not more than a mile inland where there are thousands of new homes under construction and very many recently completed. I can see the attraction for someone who lived in an inner city in the UK and has managed to sell their home bringing £250,000 with them (approx. A$500,000) which will buy them a new 4 bedroom detached home with a swimming pool and a short walk to the beach, shops and schools.The weather during our stay was just about perfect with temperatures in the 30's most of the time, Perth was having the longest dry period for 35 years the heat is a dry heat with a breeze most of the time.
Shortly after Carol and I arrived in Australia a remote Australian town of Docker River with a population of 350, lying 370 miles west of Alice Springs was invaded by six thousand camels seeking water as central Australia sweltered in 40c , they were all slaughtered, but I wanted to know more about what they were doing in Australia.
Wikipedia shows that feral animals cause most public concern and economic and ecological damage include: Cane toads introduced into Australia to control beetles that were destroying sugarcane crops in 1935 there are now estimated to be over 200 million; Red Fox introduced to Australia in 1871 for recreational hunting, there are now estimated to be 7.2 million; European Rabbit introduced to Australia in 1788 for recreational hunting now estimated to me 200 million; Dromedary Camel introduced to Australia in 1840 as beasts of burden for road building , now estimated to be 1.1 million; Feral goats introduced to Australia as domestic livestock exact numbers not known; Feral cats - the most widely spread and invasive of all introduced species. It is possibly responsible for the extinction of some species of small mammals, and is certainly a threat. On the basis that these figures have a compounding factor it strike me that in another couple of hundred years the human race will be fighting for space in Australia.
We spent Australia Day on January 26 in Perth and had a great meal at the Halo Restaurant on Battery Jetty overlooking the river and the 'Skyworks', fireworks to you and me. We were all gobsmacked at the high quality of the 7 course meal and I rate it as one of the best meals I have had, if you are ever in Perth then put this restaurant on you list of must do.This date was nominated as Australia Day to celebrate the anniversary of white settlement. It commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788, the ceremonious unfurling of the British flag at the head of Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip. First Fleet is the name given to the 11 ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people to establish the first European colony in New South Wales. It was a convict settlement, marking the beginnings of transportation to Australia.
By the beginning of the 21st century, however, it is also recognised as a day of mourning for the invasion and dispossession of Australia's Aboriginal people. To many people, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, the day will never be seen as a national day of celebration. The landing at Sydney Cove marks the beginning of bitter wars, unnecessary and brutal deaths, and the continuing struggle for survival by Aboriginal people in Sydney and around Australia.
The history of Indigenous Australians is thought to have spanned 40,000 years, although some estimates have put the figure at up to 70,000 years before European settlement. At the time of first European contact, it is estimated that between 315,000 and 750,000 people lived in Australia, with upper estimates being as high as 1.25 million. For most of this time, the Indigenous Australians lived as nomads and as hunter-gatherers with a strong dependence on the land and their agriculture for survival. They arrived via Papua New Guinea or what is now Indonesia. Like all civilizations, they destroyed as much of the natural environment as their technology would allow. After they had done this a steady state (sometimes called ecological harmony) resulted.
Clearly, the Aboriginal people of Australia were not "people of an unchanging stone age" as they have been so often portrayed by European colonists, but inventive and creative individuals living within cultures that over the millennia had become finely attuned to the rhythms and changes of the "droughts and flooding rains" that characterise the Australian environment. Although there were over 250-300 spoken languages with 600 dialects at the start of European settlement, fewer than 200 of these remain in use – and all but 20 are considered to be endangered. Aborigines today mostly speak English, with Aboriginal phrases and words being added to create Australian Aboriginal English.
Unlike our written European history, with monarch's reigns, battle dates etc., the Australian Aboriginal 'history' is one of mythology handed down through the generations by word of mouth. It involves secret rituals and rites, and some classified as 'Men's Business' and some as 'Women's Business'.Colorful, symbolic and enthusiastic dancing and corroborees are used to pass on the stories of the creation.In Australian Aboriginal mythology, The Dreaming or Altjeringa (also called the Dreamtime) is a sacred 'once upon a time' time out of time in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation. The Dreamtime contains many parts: It is the story of things that have happened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and how the Creator intended for humans to function within the cosmos.
The expression 'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of all things', while 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an individuals or group's set of beliefs or spirituality. For instance, an Indigenous Australian might say that they have Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their 'country'. However, many Indigenous Australians also refer to the creation time as 'The Dreaming'.Lt James Cook declared Australia to be in 1770 during his voyage around the coast of Australia.that the land was terra nullius ('no one's land'),
It would not be an exaggeration to claim that the Island continent was owned by over 400 different nations at the time of this claim by Cook. When the first fleet arrived in Sydney Cove it is said that Captain Philip was astounded with the theory of Cook's terra nullius, saying "Sailing up into Sydney cove we could see natives lining the shore shaking spears and yelling."For thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans, the vast area of land stretching between what is now known as Newcastle through to the southern-most part of present day Sydney was home to the Guringai people. Living primarily along the foreshores of the harbour, they fished and hunted in the waters and hinterlands of the area, and harvested food from the surrounding bush. Self-sufficient and harmonious, the Guringai had no need to travel far from their lands, since the resources about them were so abundant, and trade with other tribal groups was well established. Moving throughout their country in accordance with the seasons, the Guringai spent only 4-5 hours per day working to ensure their survival. With such a large amount of leisure time available, they developed a rich and complex ritual life - language, customs, spirituality and the law - the heart of which was connection to the land.
With the arrival of European people, the proximity of the Guringai land to neighbouring Eora land of Sydney had the effects of this foreign settlement ripple through their communities very quickly. The smallpox epidemic of 1789 had devastating effects on their population, yet it was the timber getters and graziers who settled in the Guringai land that had the most damaging long-term effects. With the settlers clearing the land and setting up boundaries to signify their ownership of land, the Guringai people were prevented from using the land in the way they always had and with their hunting grounds destroyed significant numbers of Guringai tribes retreated west. On the whole, the settlers had little patience for the Aboriginal people, particularly with GovernorCaptain Philip Gidley King, ruling that any settler could shoot to kill any Aboriginal person caught trespassing on their land or stealing their livestock. A generally peaceful people, the Gundagai tribes were not known to retaliate violently in return.The British arrival brought armed conflict and a lack of understanding, which heralded the demise of the Guringai clans, along with the other peoples of the Sydney basin - the Dharawal to the south and the Dharug to the west. Food shortages soon became a problem. The large white population depleted the fish by netting huge catches, reduced the kangaroo population with unsustainable hunting, cleared the land, and polluted the water. As a result, the Aboriginal people throughout the Sydney Basin were soon close to starvation.
Disease struck a fatal and extensive blow to the Aboriginal people, who until that point had been isolated for thousands of years from the diseases that had raged through Europe and Asia. They had no resistance to the deadly viruses carried by the sailors and convicts such as smallpox, syphilis and influenza. In less than a year, over half the indigenous population living in the Sydney Basin had died from smallpox. The region, once alive with a vibrant mix of Aboriginal clans, now fell silent. Much of what we do know about the Guringai must be gleaned from their archaeological remains. Middens, shelters, engravings and art remnants of indigenous life are prolific throughout the region, but no one remains to reveal their particular meanings or ancient significance. No one remains to bring the archaeology truly alive. Dispossessed of the land that had nourished them for so long, the Aboriginal people became dependent on white food and clothing. Alcohol, used as a means of trade by the British, served to further shatter traditional social and family structures.To most settlers, the Aboriginal people were considered akin to kangaroos, dingoes and emus, strange fauna to be eradicated to make way for the development of farming and grazing. And though a guerrilla war had been mounted against the British during the early years of the colony, their eradication, for the most part, had been easy.
Because mainstream histories of Australia often render Indigenous people as invisible or describe Aboriginal people in negative terms, they often fail to recognise that Aboriginal people have been involved in the working life of Sydney for a very long time. Very few histories describe Aboriginal people as workers, producers, industrialists or taxpayers. However, soon after Invasion, Aboriginal people in Sydney were involved in work. They were sometimes paid but often were not; they were sometimes indentured, but they were always present.
Aboriginal people worked in the grounds of the first Government House. Many of the "explorers" who surveyed the bush around Sydney and later crossed the Great Dividing Range were led by Aboriginal trackers who were familiar with the "undiscovered" country and who acted as diplomats to other Aboriginal groups. They were, in a sense, the first tour guides. Aboriginal people also worked in the burgeoning industries around Sydney, as labourers on building sites, as wharfies and sailors, and were involved in the sealing and whaling industries.Since the European invasion until very recently, government policy relating to Aboriginal people has been designed and implemented by non-Aboriginal people. The common justification for most policies for Aborigines was that they were "for their own good". There have been policies of protection, assimilation, self-determination and reconciliation. It is now clear that none of these policies have actually made the condition of Australia?s Indigenous people any better than it was prior to the invasion.
When the six Australian colonies became a Federation in 1901, white Australia believed that the Aborigines were a dying race and the Constitution made only two references to them.
When Aboriginal people began to organise politically from the 1930s, there were often sympathetic white people to help in the struggle, many of them unionists. During the period from 1950 to 1967, unions and Aboriginal organisations worked closely to build momentum to the 1967 Referendum on Citizenship Rights and Commonwealth control of Aboriginal affairs. While espousing the benefits of assimilation to Aboriginal people, the policy still denied their basic rights, even in the 1960s. It stopped them from raising their own children, stopped freedom of movement, having access to education, receiving award wages, marrying without permission, eating in restaurants, entering a pub, swimming in a public pool or having the right to vote.
Traditional Aboriginal culture in the city has been almost completely destroyed since European occupation, but it has been replaced with new, diverse and protected forms of Aboriginal art, creating a distinct urban Aboriginal culture. And while the methods of creating such art have changed over time, the enthusiasm to create, maintain and protect new artwork has grown.
This is a very modern painting displayed in the Perth Art Museum which gives a very up to date slant on Aboriginal Art.
As of 1 February 2010 there are 24 million Australians 90% of European origin, 10% Asian and 2.5% Australian Aboriginal people.
One of the darkest chapters of Australian history was the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken forcibly or under duress from their families by police or welfare officers. Most were under 5 years old. There was rarely any judicial process. To be Aboriginal was enough. Children as young as babies were stolen from their families to be placed in girls and boys homes, foster families or missions. At the age of 18 they were 'released' into white society, often scarred for life by their experiences.
Today these Aboriginal people are collectively known as the 'Stolen Generations' because several generations were affected. Many Aboriginal people are still searching for their fathers, mothers and siblings.
Why were aboriginal children stolen? This is the most burning question for members of the Stolen Generations. In removing their children white people stole Aboriginal people's future. Language, tradition, knowledge, dances and spirituality which could only live if passed on to their children. In breaking this circle of life white people hoped to end Aboriginal culture within a short time and get rid of 'the Aboriginal problem'.
Children continue to be taken from their families today. On the day of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations on February 13th, 2008 the Aboriginal newspaper Koori Mail reported that the NSW government created "2,500 new foster care places". The article continued that 12,700 children reportedly are "unable to live with their [black or white] parents due to abuse, neglect or bereavement."A Special Commission of Inquiry into the Department of Community Services (DoCS), which has the authority to remove children from their families if they were 'at risk of significant harm', found that in March 2008 there were 4,458 Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, a number which is equal to four times the number of Aboriginal children who were in foster homes, institutions or missions in 1969, during the Stolen Generations. From 2001-02 to 2007-08 the number of reports submitted to DoCS increased by 300% to 55,303.
This information has been condensed from very many web pages and I hope you have found it interesting, I have certainly learnt a lot putting it all together.
Now then, how about a test, would you qualify for residency in Australia?
Australian Citizenship Test
The Australian citizenship test has been designed to assist people who want to become
Australian citizens gain an understanding of Australia’s values, traditions, history and national symbols.
The test is an important part of ensuring that migrants have the capacity to fully participate in the Australian community as citizens and maximise the opportunities available to them in Australia. It will promote social cohesion and successful integration into the community.
Test Rules
There are some basic rules which you must follow during the test: - Test is timed - You will be allowed 45 minutes to complete the test (or 90 minutes in the case of an assisted test). No additional time will be made available. - This is a closed book test - You must not bring any test resource material into the testing centre (this includes note paper, the Becoming an Australian Citizen resource book, study notes, etc). - Personal belongings may be taken into the test site however these must be stored under the desk for the duration of the test. Mobile phones and all other electronic communication /gaming equipment should be switched off while you are within the test centre. If you do not follow these rules, you may be asked to leave the test centre and may have to sit
the test again.
Test Questions
You may begin writing only once you are advised to do so by the test supervisor.
(1) Do you understand the meaning, but are unable to explain the origin, of the term
“died in the arse”? Explain the meaning:
(2) What is a “bloody little beauty”?
(3) Are these terms related: chuck a sickie; chuck a spaz; chuck a U-ey? Yes / No
(4) Explain the following passage:
In the arvo last Chrissy the relos rocked up for a Barbie, some bevvies and a few
snags. After a bit of a Bex and a lie down we opened the pressies, scoffed all the
chockies, bickies and lollies. Then we drained a few tinnies and Mum did her block
after Dad and Steve had a Barney and a bit of biffo.
(5) Macca, Chooka and Wanger are driving to Surfers in their Torana. If they are
travelling at 100 km/h while listening to Barnsey, Farnsey and Acca Dacca, how
many slabs will each person on average consume between flashing a brown eye
and taking a slash?
(6) Complete the following sentences:
(a) If the van's rockin' don't bother ________________________________
(b) You're going home in the back of a _____________________________
(c) Fair crack of the ________________________________________
(7) I've had a gutful and I can't be farked. Discuss
(8) Have you ever been on the giving or receiving end of a wedgie? Yes / No
(9) Do you have a friend or relative who has a car in their front yard "up on blocks"?
Is his name Bruce and does he have a wife called Sheila?Yes / No
(10) Do you or your family regularly eat a dish involving mincemeat, cabbage, curry
powder and a packet of chicken noodle soup called either chow mein, chop suey
or Kai see Ming? Yes / No
(11) What are the ingredients in a rissole?
(12) Describe the correct procedure for eating a Tim Tam.
(13) Do you have an Aunty Irene who smokes 30 cigarettes a day and sounds like a
bloke? Yes / No
(14) In any two-hour period have you ever eaten three-bean salad, a chop and two
serves of pav washed down with someone else's beer that has been flogged from a
bath full of ice? Yes / No
(15) When you go to a bring-your-own-meat Barbie can you eat other people's meat or
are you only allowed to eat your own?
(16) What purple root vegetable beginning with the letter "b" is required by law to be
included in a hamburger with the lot?
(17) Do you own or have you ever owned a lawn mower, a pair of thongs, an Esky or
Ugg boots? Yes / No
(18) Is it possible to prang a car while doing circle work? Yes / No
(19) Who would you like to crack on to?
(20) Who is the most Australian (pick one answer):
(a) Kevin "Bloody" Wilson
(b) John "True Blue" Williamson
(c) Kylie Minogue
(d) Warnie
(21) Is there someone you are only mates with because they own a trailer or have a
pool? Yes / No
(22) What do the phrases “sinkin piss at a mates joint” and “gettin paraletic” mean?
Please submit this paper back to the test supervisor when you have had a fair crack.
