1.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
2.
Stolen Generations
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Documentary evidence, such as newspaper articles and reports to parliamentary committees, suggest a range of rationales. A minority of historians dispute that substantial numbers of mixed-blood Aboriginal children were taken from their families. They contend that some children were removed mainly to protect them from neglect, given their catastrophic population decline after white contact, whites assumed that the full-blood tribal Aboriginal population would be unable to sustain itself, and was doomed to extinction. The idea expressed by A. O. Euro-Australians believed that their civilisation was superior to that of Aborigines, the Northern Territory Chief Protector of Aborigines, Dr. Cecil Cook, argued that everything necessary to convert the half-caste into a white citizen. The Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 included the earliest legislation to authorise child removal from Aboriginal parents, the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines had been advocating such powers since 1860. Passage of the Act gave the colony of Victoria a wide suite of powers over Aboriginal and half-caste persons, including the removal of children. As a result of legislation, states arranged widespread removal of mixed-race children from their Aboriginal mothers. In addition, appointed Aboriginal protectors in each state exercised wide-ranging guardianship powers over Aborigines up to the age of 16 or 21, often determining where they could live or work. Policemen or other agents of the state were given the power to locate and transfer babies and children of mixed descent from their mothers, families, the exact number of children removed is unknown. Estimates of numbers have been widely disputed, the Bringing Them Home report says that at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents. This figure was estimated by multiplying the Aboriginal population in 1994, the report stated that between one in three and one in ten children were separated from their families, not one in three persons in the total population. Given differing populations over a period of time, different policies at different times in different states. Australian historian Robert Manne suggests approximately 20,000 to 25,000 were removed between 1910 and 1970, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics report of 1994, keith Windschuttle and other historians have argued for a much lower figure. In certain regions and in periods the figure was undoubtedly much greater than one in ten. In that time not one family has escaped the effects of forcible removal, most families have been affected, in one or more generations, by the forcible removal of one or more children. The report closely examined the distinctions between forcible removal, removal under threat or duress, official deception, uninformed voluntary release, Aboriginal Protection Officers often made the judgement to remove certain children. In some cases, families were required to sign documents to relinquish care to the state. In Western Australia, the Aborigines Act 1905 removed the legal guardianship of Aboriginal parents and it made all their children legal wards of the state, so the government did not require parental permission to relocate the mixed-race children to institutions
3.
Aboriginal Australians
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Aboriginal Australians are legally defined as people who are members of the Aboriginal race of Australia. Until the 1980s, the legal and administrative criterion for inclusion in this category was race. In the era of colonial and post-colonial government, access to human rights depended upon your race. If you were a full blooded Aboriginal native, the Constitution of Australia, in its original form as of 1901, referred to Aboriginals twice, but without definition. Section 51 gave the Commonwealth parliament power to legislate with respect to the people of any throughout the Commonwealth. The purpose of this provision was to give the Commonwealth power to regulate non-white immigrant workers, the only other reference, Section 127, provided simply that aboriginal natives shall not be counted in reckoning the size of the population of the Commonwealth or any part of it. The purpose of section 127 was to prevent the inclusion of Aboriginal people in section 24 determinations of the distribution of House of Representatives seats amongst the states and territories, after both of these references were removed by the 1967 referendum, the Australian Constitution had no references to Aboriginals. Since that time, there have been a number of proposals to amend the constitution to specifically mention Indigenous Australians, the change to Section 51 gave the Commonwealth parliament the power to make laws specifically with respect to Aboriginal peoples as a race. The case concerned an application of legislation that would preserve cultural heritage of Aboriginal Tasmanians and it was held that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, together or separately, and any part of either, could be regarded as a race for this purpose. As to the criteria for identifying a person as a member of such a race, Deane said, It is unnecessary, for the purposes of the present case, to consider the meaning to be given to the phrase people of any race in s.51. Plainly, the words have a wide and non-technical meaning, the phrase is, in my view, apposite to refer to all Australian Aboriginals collectively. Any doubt, which might otherwise exist in regard, is removed by reference to the wording of par. The phrase is also apposite to refer to any identifiable racial sub-group among Australian Aboriginals, while Deanes three-part definition reaches beyond the biological criterion to individuals self-identification, it has been criticised as continuing to accept the biological criterion as primary. It has been difficult to apply, both in each of its parts and as to the relations among the parts, biological descent has been a fall-back criterion. If it is to be used to refer to us as a group of people. This has just really crept up on us and we are very happy with our involvement with indigenous people around the world, on the international forum because theyre our brothers and sisters. But we do object to it being used here in Australia and her lecture offered a new perspective on the terms urban, traditional and of Indigenous descent as used to define and categorise Aboriginal Australians. She said, Not only are these categories inappropriate, they serve to divide us, governments insistence on categorising us with modern words like urban, traditional and of Aboriginal descent are really only replacing old terms half-caste and full-blood – based on our colouring
4.
Parliament of Australia
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It consists of three elements, the Queen of Australia, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General, through both Houses, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster System. The upper house, the Senate, consists of 76 members, twelve for each state, Senators are elected using the single transferable vote proportional representation system and as a result, the chamber features a multitude of parties vying for power. The governing party or coalition rarely has a majority in the Senate and usually needs to negotiate with other parties and this tends to lead to the chamber being dominated by two major parties, the Liberal/National Coalition and the Labor Party. The government of the day must achieve the confidence of this House in order to gain and remain in power, although elections can be called early, each 3 years the full House of Representatives and half of the Senate is dissolved and goes up for reelection. The two Houses meet in separate chambers of Parliament House on Capital Hill in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, the Commonwealth of Australia came into being on 1 January 1901 with the federation of the six Australian colonies. The inaugural election took place on 29 and 30 March and the first Australian Parliament was opened on 9 May 1901 in Melbourne by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V. The only building in Melbourne that was enough to accommodate the 14,000 guests was the western annexe of the Royal Exhibition Building. After the official opening, from 1901 to 1927, the Parliament met in Parliament House, Melbourne and it had always been intended that the national Parliament would sit in a new national capital. This was a compromise at Federation due to the rivalry between the two largest Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which wished to become the new capital. The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the capital city in 1908. A competition was announced on 30 June 1914 to design Parliament House, however, due to the start of World War I the next month, the competition was cancelled. It was re-announced in August 1916, but again postponed indefinitely on 24 November 1916, in the meantime, John Smith Murdoch, the Commonwealths Chief Architect, worked on the design as part of his official duties. He had little enthusiasm for the project, as he felt it was a waste of money. Nevertheless, he designed the building by default, the construction of Old Parliament House, as it is called today, was commenced on 28 August 1923 and completed in early 1927. It was built by the Commonwealth Department of Works, using tradesmen, the final cost was about £600,000, which was more than three times the original estimate. It was designed to house the parliament for a maximum of 50 years until a permanent facility could be built, the building was opened on 9 May 1927 by the Duke and Duchess of York. The opening ceremonies were both splendid and incongruous, given the sparsely built nature of Canberra of the time and its small population, the building was extensively decorated with British Empire and Australian flags and bunting
5.
John Howard
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John Winston Howard, OM, AC was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. Only Sir Robert Menzies has served in the position longer, born in Sydney, Howard was a solicitor at Clayton Utz before entering politics, having studied law at the University of Sydney. A member of the Liberal Party and former president of the Young Liberals, he first stood for office at the 1968 New South Wales state election, but lost narrowly. At the 1974 federal election, Howard was elected to the Division of Bennelong and he was promoted to cabinet in 1977, and later in the year replaced Phillip Lynch as Treasurer of Australia, remaining in that position until the defeat of Malcolm Frasers government in 1983. In 1985, Howard was elected leader of the Liberal Party for the first time and he led the Liberal–National coalition to the 1987 federal election, but lost to Bob Hawkes Labor government, and was removed from the leadership in 1989. Remaining a key figure in the party, Howard was re-elected leader in 1995, after defeating Paul Keatings Labor government in 1996, the Howard Government was re-elected at the 1998,2001 and 2004 elections. Howards actions as prime minister included new gun laws, the introduction of a nationwide value-added tax, immigration reform, Australia also contributed troops to the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War under his government, and led the International Force for East Timor. The Howard government was defeated at the 2007 federal election, with the Labor Partys Kevin Rudd succeeding him as prime minister, Howard also lost his own seat at the election, becoming only the second prime minister to do so. John Howard is the son of Mona and Lyall Howard. His parents were married in 1925 and his eldest brother Stanley was born in 1926, followed by Walter in 1929, and Robert in 1936. Lyall Howard was an admirer of Winston Churchill, and sympathetic to the New Guard during its early years, Howards ancestors were English, Scottish and Irish. Howard was born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood and his mother had been an office worker until her marriage. His father and his grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. They also ran two Dulwich Hill petrol stations where Howard worked as a boy, Lyall Howard died in 1955 when John was sixteen, leaving his mother to take care of John. Howard suffered an impairment in his youth, leaving him with a slight speech impediment. It also influenced him in ways, limiting his early academic performance, encouraging a reliance on an excellent memory. Howard attended the state schools Earlwood Primary School and Canterbury Boys High School, Howard won a citizenship prize in his final year at Earlwood, and subsequently represented his secondary school at debating as well as cricket and rugby. In his final year at school he took part in a show hosted by Jack Davey, Give It a Go broadcast on the commercial radio station, 2GB
6.
Kim Beazley
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Kim Christian Beazley, AC, is a former Australian diplomat and politician who was the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia from 1995 to 1996. He subsequently served as the Leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001, Beazley was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1980 to 2007. He was a minister in the governments of Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and he then became the Leader of the Opposition and led the Labor Party through the federal elections in 1998 and 2001, both of which Labor lost. He returned to the leadership in 2005, but then retired from Parliament at the 2007 election having lost the leadership of the Labor Party to Kevin Rudd after a 2006 challenge. Beazley was Ambassador of Australia to the United States from 2010 to 2016 and he is currently the National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Beazley was born in Perth, Western Australia and his father, Kim Beazley Snr, was the Labor MP for Fremantle from 1945 to 1977 and education minister in the Whitlam Government. His mother, Betty Judge, was an Australian athletics champion, Beazleys uncle, the Reverend Syd Beazley, was one of the more than 1,000 prisoners of war who died in the sinking of the SS Montevideo Maru in July 1942. Beazley contracted polio as a child, at the age of six and he was educated at Hollywood Senior High School and the University of Western Australia, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and subsequently a Master of Arts. Then, on a Rhodes Scholarship, he attended Balliol College, Oxford, at Oxford, he befriended Tony Blair, who would become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Geoff Gallop, later to be Premier of Western Australia. After he returned to Australia, Beazley tutored and lectured in politics at Perths Murdoch University and he was recruited to Labors right-wing faction by Graham Richardson and John Ducker, before being elected MP for the seat of Swan at the 1980 election. Beazley supports the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League, Beazley became a protege of Bob Hawke, Labor leader from 1983, and in that year he was appointed Minister for Aviation in Hawkes first ministry. He was Minister for Defence, with a seat in Cabinet, in this role he was responsible for establishing the Royal Australian Navys submarine program, which was beset with some technical problems and cost over-runs. Beazley has had a lifelong interest in matters, his consequent enthusiasm for this portfolio. Beazley was then Minister for Transport and Communications, Finance, Employment, Education and Training and he supported Hawke in his leadership battles with Paul Keating in 1991, but retained his position when Keating deposed Hawke and became Prime Minister in December 1991. Beazley was Deputy Prime Minister 1995–96, Beazleys hold on Swan grew increasingly tenuous over the years. He saw his majority more than halved in 1990, and was defeated in 1993. With Labor sinking in the polls during the run-up to the 1996 election, Beazley shifted to Brand, in the 1996 election, Labor was heavily defeated by the Coalition under John Howard. Keating resigned, and Beazley was elected unopposed as Labor leader and he had the difficult task of rebuilding a party that had just suffered the second-worst defeat of a sitting government since Federation
7.
Kevin Rudd
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Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian former politician who was twice Prime Minister of Australia, from 2007 to 2010 and again in 2013. Having previously served as a diplomat, and then as an official for the Queensland Government and he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. In December 2006, he successfully challenged Kim Beazley to become the Leader of the Labor Party, Labor won the 2007 election by a landslide, with a 23-seat swing in its favour, and Rudd was sworn in as the 26th Prime Minister of Australia on 3 December. The Rudd Governments first acts included signing the Kyoto Protocol and delivering an apology to Indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generations, the previous governments industrial relations legislation, WorkChoices, was largely dismantled, Australias remaining Iraq War combat personnel were withdrawn, and the Australia 2020 Summit was held. In response to the financial crisis, the government provided economic stimulus packages. With the next election drawing near, there was growing dissatisfaction with Rudds leadership within the Labor Party, eventually, Rudds deputy, Julia Gillard, announced on 23 June 2010 that she would challenge him for the leadership the following day. Knowing he would be defeated if he contested the leadership, on the morning of the ballot Rudd resigned as prime minister, after his resignation, he successfully re-contested his seat at the 2010 election, after which Labor formed a minority government. Rudd contested the leadership, but lost, following persistent tensions, Gillard announced another caucus ballot on the leadership on 26 June 2013, from which Rudd emerged victorious. He was sworn in as minister for a second time the following day, and formed his second Cabinet. He also became the first serving Australian prime minister to publicly support same-sex marriage, despite an initial rise in opinion polls following his return, Labor was defeated in the 2013 election. Rudd resigned as minister for a second time on 18 September. On 22 November, Rudd formally tendered his resignation to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, in September 2014, he became a Distinguished Fellow at the Paulson Institute, a think tank at the University of Chicago. He is also the inaugural President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, and chairs the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, in 2016, Rudd asked the Government of Australia to nominate him for Secretary-General of the United Nations. However, there remains dispute over what if any earlier assurances Turnbull may have given to Rudd, Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland, to Albert and Margaret Rudd, the youngest son of four children, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Eumundi. At an early age, he contracted fever and spent a considerable time at home convalescing. It damaged his heart, in particular the valves, for which he has thus far had two aortic valve replacement surgeries, but this was discovered only some 12 years later. Farm life, which required the use of horses and guns, is where he developed his love of horse riding and shooting clay targets. When Rudd was 11, his father, a farmer and Country Party member
8.
Prime Minister of Australia
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The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the head of government of Australia. The individual who holds the office is the most senior Minister of the Crown, the leader of the Cabinet, the office is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia and exists only through longstanding political convention and tradition. Despite this, in practice it is the most powerful position in Australia. The individual who holds the office is commissioned by the Governor-General of Australia, almost always and according to convention, the Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party or largest party in a coalition of parties in the House of Representatives. However, there is no requirement that the prime minister sit in the House of Representatives. The only case where a member of the Senate was appointed minister was John Gorton. Malcolm Turnbull has held the office of Prime Minister since 15 September 2015, the Prime Minister and Treasurer are traditionally members of the House, but the Constitution does not have such a requirement. Before being sworn in as a Minister of the Crown, a person must first be sworn in as a member of the Federal Executive Council if they are not already a member. Membership of the Federal Executive Council entitles the member to the style of The Honourable for life, the senior members of the Executive Council constitute the Cabinet of Australia. The Prime Minister is, like ministers, normally sworn in by the Governor-General. When defeated in an election, or on resigning, the Prime Minister is said to hand in the commission, in the event of a Prime Minister dying in office, or becoming incapacitated, the Governor-General can terminate the commission. Despite the importance of the office of minister, the Constitution does not mention the office by name. The conventions of the Westminster system were thought to be entrenched in Australia by the authors of the Constitution that it was deemed unnecessary to detail them. The formal title of the portfolio has always been simply Prime Minister, except for the period of the Fourth Deakin Ministry, Page was the leader of the smaller party in the governing coalition, the Country Party. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected a new leader, Robert Menzies, in August 1941 Menzies resigned as prime minister. In July 1945 John Curtin died suddenly and his deputy, Frank Forde, was sworn in the next day as prime minister, although the Labor Party had not had an opportunity to meet and elect a new leader. Forde served for eight days until Ben Chifley was elected leader, Chifley was then sworn in, replacing Forde, who became Australias shortest-serving prime minister. Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December 1967 and was declared presumed dead on 19 December, the governor-general, Lord Casey, commissioned the Leader of the Country Party, John McEwen, to form a government until the Liberal Party elected a new leader
9.
Indigenous Australians
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Indigenous Australians are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia, descended from groups that existed in Australia and surrounding islands prior to European colonisation. In present-day Australia these groups are divided into local communities. At the time of initial European settlement, over 250 languages were spoken, it is estimated that 120 to 145 of these remain in use. Aboriginal people today mostly speak English, with Aboriginal phrases and words being added to create Australian Aboriginal English, a population collapse following European settlement, and a smallpox epidemic spreading three years after the arrival of Europeans may have caused a massive and early depopulation. Since 1995, the Australian Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag have been among the flags of Australia. The word aboriginal has been in the English language since at least the 16th century, to mean, first or earliest known and it comes from the Latin word aborigines, derived from ab and origo. The word was used in Australia to describe its indigenous peoples as early as 1789 and it soon became capitalised and employed as the common name to refer to all Indigenous Australians. Strictly speaking, Aborigine is the noun and Aboriginal the adjectival form, however, use of either Aborigine or Aboriginal to refer to individuals has acquired negative connotations in some sectors of the community, and it is generally regarded as insensitive and even offensive. The more acceptable and correct expression is Aboriginal Australians or Aboriginal people, the term Indigenous Australians, which also includes Torres Strait Islander peoples, has found increasing acceptance, particularly since the 1980s. The broad term Aboriginal Australians includes many groups that often identify under names from local Indigenous languages. Anindilyakwa on Groote Eylandt off Arnhem Land, Palawah in Tasmania and these larger groups may be further subdivided, for example, Anangu recognises localised subdivisions such as Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, Luritja and Antikirinya. It is estimated that prior to the arrival of British settlers, the Torres Strait Islanders possess a heritage and cultural history distinct from Aboriginal traditions. The eastern Torres Strait Islanders in particular are related to the Papuan peoples of New Guinea, accordingly, they are not generally included under the designation Aboriginal Australians. This has been another factor in the promotion of the inclusive term Indigenous Australians. Six percent of Indigenous Australians identify themselves fully as Torres Strait Islanders, a further 4% of Indigenous Australians identify themselves as having both Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal heritage. The Torres Strait Islands comprise over 100 islands which were annexed by Queensland in 1879, eddie Mabo was from Mer or Murray Island in the Torres Strait, which the famous Mabo decision of 1992 involved. The term blacks has been used to refer to Indigenous Australians since European settlement, while originally related to skin colour, the term is used today to indicate Aboriginal heritage or culture in general and refers to people of any skin pigmentation. In the 1970s, many Aboriginal activists, such as Gary Foley, proudly embraced the term black, the book included interviews with several members of the Aboriginal community including Robert Jabanungga reflecting on contemporary Aboriginal culture
10.
Aboriginal Tasmanians
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The Aboriginal Tasmanians are the indigenous people of the Australian state of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. In the 20th century the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were thought of as being an extinct cultural. Before British colonisation in 1803, there were an estimated 3, the Palawa population was severely depleted in the 19th century. A number of point to introduced disease as the major cause of the depletion of the 19th century mainland Aboriginal population. Geoffrey Blainey wrote that by 1830 in Tasmania, Disease had killed most of them but warfare, other historians regard the Black War as one of the earliest recorded modern genocides. Benjamin Madley wrote, Despite over 170 years of debate over who or what was responsible for this near-extinction, no consensus exists on its origins, process, however, UN definition, sufficient evidence exists to designate the Tasmanian catastrophe genocide. The survivors were moved to Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island, in 1847, the last 47 living inhabitants of Wybalenna were transferred to Oyster Cove, south of Hobart. Two individuals, Truganini and Fanny Cochrane Smith, are considered to have been the last people solely of Tasmanian descent. People crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years, ago via a bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia, during the last glacial period. Archaeologists excavating a 600 metre long section of river bank found a number of stone tools. Preliminary dating indicates that the site was occupied from 40,000 BP to 28,000 BP making the site 6,000 years older than the Warreen cave. Tasmania was colonised by successive waves of people from southern Australia during glacial maxima. People migrating from southern Australia into peninsular Tasmania would have crossed stretches of seawater and desert, the archeological, geographic and linguistic record suggests a pattern of successive occupation of Tasmania, and coalescence of three ethnic or language groups into one broad group. Colonial settlers found two main groups in Tasmania upon their arrival, which correlates with the broader nation or clan divisions. Pleistocene Palawa language group - first ethnic and language group in Tasmania - absorbed or displaced by successive invasions except for remnant group on Tasman peninsula, archeological evidence suggests remnant populations on the King and Furneaux highlands being stranded by rising waters - later to die out. After separation from mainland Australia, the Tasmanian people were not able to share any of the new technological advances being made by mainland groups and this made the Aboriginal Tasmanians a people that could flourish with some of the simplest technologies on record. The Tasmanian Aboriginal people extensively used fire for cooking, warmth and clearing vegetation to encourage and their capacity to create fire via the friction method had been questioned by authors in the 20th Century, though a document from 1887 clearly describes fire-lighting techniques used among Tasmanians. The historical evidence indicates their fire making ability, even though they preferred to bear coals when travelling between campsites - a consequence of Tasmanias wet maritime climate
Australia