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The Bradshaw artists

From around 70,000 BC to 20,000 BC a group of humans painted what is known as the Bradshaws. These people were culturally distinct from all the 18th century Aborigines.

Whereas 18th century Aboriginal paintings used geography and animals as their subject matter, the Bradshaw artists focussed on themselves.

The broad-shouldered depictions of the Bradshaw humans seem reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The slanted prolific features of the human face are reminiscent of Mayan pictures.

Unlike traditional Aboriginal art which acted as a kind of encyclopaedia, it is not known what purpose the Bradshaw paintings served.

The leading authority on the art, Graham Walsh, has argued that like hieroglyphics, the paintings might be a form of iconography.

It is not known where the Bradshaw artists came from or what happened to them. It is possible that some of them migrated to the Americas and/or northern Africa. Perhaps they died out.

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Dreamtime to 1788 - Aboriginal occupation of Australia 

The Aborigines used to talk of a Dreamtime when a Rainbow Serpent created the Australian world. The serpent emerged from beneath the earth and as she moved, winding from side to side, she forced her way through soil and rocks, making the great rivers flow from her path. From her body sprang the tribes, the animals and the birds of Australia.

Although the Dreamtime says they were born from the land, like it does for most religions, science has a different story. According to the fossil record, 70,000 years ago the first humans moved south from New Guinea. These humans were known as Robust due to their heavy-boned physic. 20,000 years later, they were followed by the more slender-boned Gracile, the ancestors of the modern day Aborigines.

Complicating the scientific record is the discovery of Mungo Man, a primate who was ritually buried 62,000 years ago, but whose DNA can't be categorised into any line of human evolution.

It is not clear why the Gracile became dominant over the Robust and why Mungo man disappeared altogether. Perhaps there was war, perhaps there was disease or perhaps the Gracile bred the others out of existence.

By the time Europeans arrived, there were upwards of 700 distinct Aboriginal tribes, each with their own unique traditions, language and customs.

Although these distinct tribes had commonalities, their cultures were as different from one another as England's culture is different from France's.

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1629 - The wreck of the Bativia

On the 4th June 1629 the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia, with 316 people on board, was wrecked in the Wallabi Group of the Abrolhos Islands just 60 km the coast of Geraldton, Western Australia.

Most of the people on board made it safety to the islands and then dispersed to find food and water. A religious fanatic named Jeronimus Cornelius, then led a mutiny that systematically murdered, raped and tortured other survivors.

Before help arrived, 125 people had been murdered and their bodies dumped in mass graves.

After being rescued, Cornelius had his hands cut off and was then executed. Two of the mutineers, Wouter Loos, a soldier, and Jan Pelgrom de Bye, a cabin boy, were left marooned on the Australian mainland near the mouth of the Murchison River, thereby becoming Australia's first European settlers.

Later European exploration recorded Aborigines with blue eyes, suggesting at least one of the men survived.

Although no civilisation grew from the Bativia survivors, they did nevertheless have a influence upon Australian culture. The mass graves were later excavated and became a morbid tourist attraction. The story is frequently taught in schools and has even been made into an Opera.

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1788-1868 - Transportation of Convicts

In the 18th Century, the threat of an French style revolution loomed large in Britain. To prevent martyrdom of dissidents, England exiled to its political rebels to America, then Australia. 

 Along with the exiles, England also exported the 'undesirables' to be the cheap labour force of the new colonies. The undesirables included homeless children, prostitutes, poachers, pick pockets, alcoholics, vagrants and ethnic people.

There were no known murderers or sex offenders transported as such criminals were executed in England. 

The first fleet Convicts comprised people from Madagascar, the West Indies, Holland, France, Germany, Portugal, Sweden , Norway, Bengal along with the Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English.   

In Australia, troublesome Convicts and defiant Aborigines were transported to Norfolk Island or Tasmania. These settlements were so brutal that Convicts could be flogged for simply having their hands in their pockets.

Although the majority of Convicts accepted their guilt, they considered the Exclusives to be the greater criminals for doing nothing as people starved and for feeling gratification when inflicting human misery.

 In all, the Convict system lasted for 80 years - more than a third of Australia's modern lifetime.

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1804 Vinegar Hill- The Irish insurrection at Castle hill

 In March 1804 about 330 of the Irish Convicts organised a full scale insurrection. Although the catch cry was "liberty or death", most of the convicts got neither.

The ring leaders foolishly tried to negotiate a deal and were caught. The stunned mob was then fired upon and after 15 minutes of confusion, fled to the bush.

 The principle ring leader was hanged almost immediately, eight others shortly followed, four received 500 lashes, thirty were sent to goal gangs and another thirty were sent to Newcastle. The Convicts who ran away surrendered in twos and threes over the next few days.

Although a failure, the convicts learnt some valuable lessons. At the Eureka Stockade 50 years later, "Vinegar Hill" became the password.

Perhaps the password was chosen to ensure previous failings could be remedied. Whereas the Vinegar Hill Convicts had no flag to unite the group, the Eureka Diggers created their own to show their solidarity for each other. Whereas the cause for the Convicts was escape from Australia, the cause for the Diggers was a republic for Australia.

 1808 The rum rebellion

After Governor William Bligh arrived in the colony, he attempted to gain control over the Rum Corp's monopoly on the sale of liqour and manipulation of commodity prices.

He once famously said to the leader of the Corps, John Macarthur:

"What have I to do with your sheep, sir? Are you to have such flocks of sheep as no man ever heard of before? No, sir!"

A man of convictions, Bligh soon had Macarthur arrested. This concerned the colony's more prosperous settlers, including the corps officers. They responded by invading Government House on January 26, 1808 where they arrested Bligh and assumed control of the colony.

For almost two years, the Corps had complete control of the colony and assigned Convict labour, granted land or delivered punishment however they saw fit.

England regained control with the arrival of Lachlan Macquarie in December 1809.  

 
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1854 - The Eureka stockade

 Trooper corruption combined with the Convict's anti-authority sentiments reached boiling in 1854 when miners on the Victorian Goldfields burnt their licences, rose the Eureka flag; and subsequently dug in for a battle with the troopers.

An Italian, Raffaello Carboni, called on the crowd, "irrespective of nationality, religion and colour", to salute the Southern Cross as the "refuge of all the oppressed from all the countries on earth".

A few days later the English attacked the stockade. In a battle lasting only 15 minutes, 30 Diggers were killed and 100 others were taken prisoner - all for the loss of only four English red coats.

But in loss, the Diggers achieved a victory. All over the land, Australians continued to wave the the Eureka Flag as if the Diggers had won the day.

This continued defiance after such a comprehensive defeat struck fear into the hearts of the English and they soon caved in to the Digger's demands. The licence fees were reduced, trooper corruption came under greater scrutiny, and the Diggers taken prisoner were not prosecuted.

 Testament to the value of the uprising as a symbol of Australia's cultural identity, Australian servicemen adopted the name 'Diggers' (miners) to identify fellow Australians at war. Like mate, digger also became another term for a friend.

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1865 The retaliation of Ben Hall  

In New South Wales, Emancipists (freed Convicts) and their offspring were considered inferior human beings. They were denied equality of rights and were powerless against the troopers who would "taunt the native born with 'torrents of abuse', saying they were 'wretched' and the lowest class' because their parents had been convicts." 

Often the insults were nothing more than words but words often evolved into physical harassment. In was such a fate that befell Ben Hall. 

Both of Ben's parents had been Convicts and his mother had been raped by troopers. Despite this oppression, he led a law abiding life until he was arrested as a suspected accomplice of the bushranger Frank Gardiner.

Whilst awaiting trial, his wife ran off with an ex-policeman, his house was burnt down by an arsonist and his cattle were stolen. In retaliation, Ben took to a life as a bushranger where he specialised in capturing and humiliating the troopers. As the majority of the population could relate to his cause, he was soon elevated to hero status and immortalised in bush music.

 
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1880 - Ned Kelly's last stand

Ned Kelly, a bushranger, became another champion of the underdogs who had suffered at the hands of corrupt troopers, Government officials and wealthy land owners.

 After his capture, he was sentenced to hang. Sixty thousand Victorians signed a petition demanding his life be spared but their wishes were ignored. His last words were 'such is life'.

After Ned's execution, many Kelly sympathisers threatened to bear arms in mass resistance. To appease the masses, the actions of the troopers came under greater scrutiny and in a subsequent investigation, nearly every officer involved in the Kelly case was dismissed or reduced in rank.

Although Ned remains a controversial figure in Australian history, "the only other figures of Kelly's stature are the cricketer Don Bradman, and the racehorse, Phar Lap. Kelly is a quintessentially Australian hero. He appeals to Australians' innate rebelliousness and distrust of authority." 

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1899 - The Boer war

 At the turn of the century, a strong anti-imperialist movement was gaining momentum in Australia. In a show of support for the empire, the six Australian colonies sent troops to suppress the Afrikaner independence movement in South Africa.

  Ironically, the Boer war is best remembered due to the scapegoating of the Australian soldiers Lieutenant Morant and P.J Handcock by British superiors.

The two soldiers were executed for killing Boer prisoners even though they claimed they had been ordered not to take prisoners.  

 Australians officialdom was not impressed and it is perhaps the first time in Australian history that Australian officialdom questioned British authority.

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2nd century

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