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COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board
On 25 March, the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) was established by the Prime Minister as a strategic advisory body for the national response to the pandemic. (On 27 July 2020, the Prime Minister renamed the organisation to the "National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board" (NCC).) The NCC's role includes providing advice on public-private partnerships and coordination to mitigate the social and economic impacts of the pandemic.
On 29 March, Prime Minister Morrison announced in a press conference following a National Cabinet meeting that public gatherings would be limited to two people, while also urging Australians over the age of 70, Australians with chronic illness over the age of 60 and Indigenous Australians over the age of 50 to stay home and self-isolate. Morrison also clarified that there were only four acceptable reasons for Australians to leave their houses: shopping for essentials; for medical or compassionate needs; exercise in compliance with the public gathering restriction of two people; and for work or education purposes. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce
In March 2020 the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce was set up, which is an independent consortium of 34 national peak clinical groups. Hundreds of health professionals from around the country review the latest research on the disease, and maintain evidence-based data and recommendations for clinicians to enable them to provide the best care for people with COVID-19. Initial funding came from the Commonwealth Department of Health, Victorian Department of Health, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Walter Cottman Endowment Fund, and the Lord Mayors' Charitable Foundation. As of September 2022 it is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Vaccine supply
The Australian government entered into agreements with Pfizer/BioNTech, University of Oxford/AstraZeneca, Novavax, the University of Queensland and COVAX for the supply of vaccines. The University of Queensland vaccine was abandoned in December 2020 after trials revealed that, while it was safe, it triggered false positives on HIV tests. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provisionally approved the Pfizer vaccine in January 2021. The Australian government ordered 10 million doses, with the first 80,000 to be delivered in February 2021, but production problems and the imposition of export controls by the European Union (EU) onto deliveries to countries outside Europe made meeting the delivery schedule problematic.
Delivery issues also affected deliveries of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which was provisionally approved by the TGA in February, and received final approval in March. Orders were reduced from 3.8 million to 1.2 million doses of this vaccine, which was manufactured in Belgium, and arrival was pushed back to March 2021. CSL Limited began manufacturing 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne in November 2020. Deliveries were expected to commence in March. The AstraZeneca vaccine could be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures of 2 to 8 °C (36 to 46 °F), whereas the Pfizer vaccine required storage at −70 °C (−94 °F). However, concerns were raised about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The Immunology & Cell Biology called for a pause in its rollout, as the efficacy of the vaccine reported by trials was insufficient to achieve the desired herd immunity effect. CSL management declined an invitation to appear before an Australian Senate inquiry.
Although the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, said that Australia would be "at the front of the queue", and the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, claimed that Australia would be among the first countries to receive COVID-19 vaccines, 61 other countries had already commenced vaccinating their citizens by the end of January 2021, while the Australian vaccination rollout was not scheduled to commence for another month.
On 15 February 2021, 142,000 doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Australia. The first doses were due to be administered on 22 February. The world-wide distribution of the vaccine has been described as "the largest logistics effort in the world since World War" by Dr Roberto Perez-Franco of the Deakin University's Centre for Supply Chain and Logistics. This was followed, on 28 February, by 300,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, which arrived at Sydney airport. It was planned that most Australians would be vaccinated with this vaccine, the majority manufactured in Australia by CSL Limited. On 5 March, Italy and the European Union blocked a shipment of 250,000 doses of the Oxford−AstraZeneca vaccine from Italy to Australia, citing low COVID-19 case numbers in Australia and the limited availability of vaccines in the EU.
Local manufacturing began in November 2020. On 16 February, the first vials of COVID-19 vaccine produced in Australia came off the production line at the CSL Behring plant in Broadmeadows, Melbourne. This is the active raw vaccine material. The vaccine vials are filled and packaged into doses by Seqirus, a CSL subsidiary in Parkville, Melbourne. Production of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia received its final approval from the TGA on 21 March. Some front line health care workers were reported to have preferred the Pfizer vaccine over the AstraZeneca one.
The Australian government had also signed a deal with Novavax for 51 million doses of its vaccine, with supply originally slated for "mid-2021". As of April 2021, it had yet to be approved by the TGA. It is not manufactured in Australia, so like the other imported vaccines, its availability was uncertain. In trials it was reported to be 95.6 per cent effective against COVID-19, and an 86.3 per cent effective against the variant identified in the UK. Australia's first human trials of a candidate COVID-19 vaccine was Novavax's NVX-CoV2373 which began in Melbourne by 26 May 2020.
In a February 2021 pre-budget submission, the Australian Academy of Science renewed its call for the government to develop the capability to produce mRNA vaccine technology in Australia. The ability to mass-produce such vaccines onshore would insulate Australia against supply shocks, and cater for future pandemics and potential biosecurity situations. The mRNA coronavirus vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer showed strong results in clinical trials and are expected to be easier to reconfigure to cater for new virus variants than more conventional vaccines.
The US Moderna company entered an agreement with the Australian Federal government, announced on 13 May 2021, to provide 25 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine 'mRNA-1273', subject to TGA approval. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Vaccinations
The first public COVID-19 vaccination in Australia, with the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, took place on 21 February 2021 in Sydney. An 84-year-old aged care resident was the first Australian to receive the vaccine following TGA approval. Prime Minister Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly also received vaccinations.
The first Australian to receive the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine was a doctor in regional South Australia on 5 March 2021 at Murray Bridge Hospital.
More than 2 million COVID-19 vaccinations had been administered in Australia by 28 April 2021, but this was 3 million short of original plans. By 6 June, over 5 million vaccinations had been administered. Approximately 4.45 million were first doses, nearly 570,000 were second doses.
On 5 October 2021, Australia reached 80% of the eligible population (aged 16 and older) having had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Adverse reactions
As of 18 July 2021, there have been a total of over 10.125 million vaccine doses administered of which 41,406 adverse events following vaccination have been reported. However, not all reported adverse events were attributable to and associated with vaccination. The most common adverse effects following immunisation as reported to the TGA are predictable and have been observed with many other vaccines. They include headache, muscle pain, fever, chills and injection site reactions. The TGA reviews reports of deaths in people who have recently been vaccinated and as of 22 July 2021 found six that were linked to immunisation. These deaths were all related to a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine – five had thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and one had immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) out of 6.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Vaccine hesitancy and messaging
There were calls for a more effective advertising campaign that would go beyond presenting facts that inform, to use of emotion to change people's behaviour to overcome apparent lack of "trust in the government". On 23 May 2021 Health Minister Greg Hunt reiterated that a sufficient supply of Pfizer is expected to begin arriving in October, with AMA president Omar Khorshid adding this promised supply means "everyone who wanted it could have both doses by Christmas" of 2021. Nevertheless, government, AMA and ATAGI advice remains for everyone to vaccinate as soon as possible and not to wait, because the (potentially future) risk of community transmission in Australia remains a possibility, and which until 17 June 2021 over 9 million Australian residents over 50 had to weigh against the 'tiny' risk of death associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine that (according to best data available at the time) was probable to manifest for approximately 9–14 Australians, or approximately 19 Australians according to EMA data.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said on 17 June 2021 that the recommended advice from ATAGI was that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine should be administered only to people aged 60 years and over. The advice also stated that second doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca were still recommended for those under 60 years of age. Everyone under 60 would be offered the Pfizer vaccine. Hunt stated that about 815,000 Australians between ages 50 and 59 had already received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with Pfizer now available to the approximately 2.1 million remaining Australians in that age group.
In a survey conducted in June 2021, about 15 percent of respondents not yet vaccinated identified wanting a different vaccine "to what was available to them" as a factor holding them back from getting vaccinated. Since only 18–39 and 60+ year-olds are eligible for one vaccine (i.e., AstraZeneca) but not the other (i.e., Pfizer-BioNTech), making Pfizer-BioNTech available to everyone would obviate one factor holding back vaccination uptake. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | National Plan to transition Australia's National COVID-19 Response
Transition to endemic stage
On 11 October 2021, New South Wales ended the lockdown and became the first jurisdiction in Australia to begin Phase B of the national plan and endemic management of COVID-19. A week later on 18 October restrictions were again relaxed. Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory began a similar staggered easing of restrictions from mid-October ultimately culminating with all three jurisdictions ending international travel quarantine, density restrictions along with COVID-19 close contact and isolation rules being reduced throughout November.
South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory managed to remain in a state of COVID-19 elimination (albeit the later two suffering minor controlled outbreaks in the week before opening) prior to their transition to 'living with COVID' and thus voluntarily introduced COVID-19 into the community to allow for resumption of domestic and international travel.
In December the arrival of the Omicron variant prompted states to return to low-level restrictions such as mask wearing and hospitality density limits with even COVID-free Western Australia introducing restrictions to fight small scale outbreaks. However, due to the shear number of people being infected with COVID-19, the rules for people exposed to COVID-19 was significantly reduced to alleviate worker shortages. Queensland's Chief Health Officer John Gerrard stated that spreading COVID-19 was "necessary" in order to transition from the "pandemic stage to an endemic stage", noting that measures in place were intended to reduce strain on hospitals and buy time for booster shots.
Western Australia delayed its transition from COVID-zero on 20 January 2022 citing the risk from the Omicron variant. However a significant COVID outbreak in February made the government re-open the border after modelling showed that it would have little impact on the cases of COVID-19 due to the outbreak being uncontrolled. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Lifting measures
On 1 January, former Australian Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth who served in the first year of the pandemic, declared that 2022 would be the year the pandemic ended in Australia as restrictions eased and immunity built up throughout the year.
Restrictions began slowly easing all across Australia throughout 2022 with Victoria and New South Wales returning to pre-omicron restrictions from February 2022. Other jurisdictions followed suit shortly after in easing rules such as mask mandates. South Australia dropped its overtly harsh close contact 14 day isolation requirement in March following the election of Peter Malinauskas. The definition of close contact was changed from 15 minutes with a COVID-19 case to the nationally defined 4 hours On 25 March 2022, the Minister for Health Greg Hunt announced that the Biosecurity Emergency Determination, as well as pre-flight COVID-19 tests for international arrivals would end on 17 April. Close contact 7-day isolation was dropped in most states from mid April with the rule replaced with 7 days of mask wearing and testing throughout the week. In late April Western Australia brought COVID-19 restrictions in line with the rest of the country with close contacts only required to wear a mask for 7 days, while mask mandates were dropped in all settings except public/private transport and healthcare settings. In June Australian health officials agreed to end the mask mandate in airport terminals but not on aircraft.
On 2 July, as COVID-19 cases began increasing due to the colder months, it was revealed that Australian health officials were discussing the return of the indoor mask mandate. This ultimately never came to fruition. In mid-July, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet pushed for COVID-19 isolation requirements to be dropped all together or at least reduced to 5 days. This was rejected due to the ongoing winter wave. On 9 September restrictions again began relaxing. The mask mandate on aircraft was scrapped nationwide and Western Australia ended the mask mandate on passenger transport. At the same time the isolation time for COVID-19 cases was reduced to 5 days. 9 September was also the last day cases were reported daily in Australia as the country transitioned to weekly reporting instead. On 14 September, COVID-19 disaster payment for people who had to isolate due to COVID-19 was extended so long as isolating was mandated by the government. South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland all ended the mask mandate on passenger transport on 21 September. Victoria ended the mandate on 22 September after it had been in place since June 2020.
On 30 September, all Australian leaders declared the emergency response finished and announced the end of the requirement for people to isolate from 14 October if they had COVID-19. This was due in part due to high levels of 'hybrid immunity' and very low case numbers. For all legal intents and purposes, the pandemic was declared over. Victoria ended its pandemic declaration on 13 October and testing was as a result also scaled back, as Rapid Antigen Tests would no longer need to be reported in Victoria, and also New South Wales.
On 1 November Queensland's state of emergency was left to expire and the last restrictions were removed, however a recommendation 'traffic light' system was introduced to advise Queenslanders on when it was recommended to isolate for COVID-19 or when they were advised to wear a mask. Western Australia let its state of emergency expire on 4 November and also ended the last restrictions. The Northern Territory ended the last post-emergency directions on 11 November. South Australia allowed the remaining public health directions to expire on 23 November. New South Wales ended its state public health emergency on 30 November. The last COVID-19 restriction in Australia was ended on 28 December with the Australian Capital Territory repealing its COVID-19 management direction, used just for enforcing test reporting. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Post pandemic
In the winter of 2023, for the first time since before the pandemic, other viral diseases such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus were more prevalent in the community and hospitals. Queensland as a result, dropped its traffic light system which had been on green and not recommending mask wearing anywhere for several months. Cost of living pressures and the fatigue caused by the pandemic were blamed on low influenza vaccination uptake in 2023. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Impacts
Arts
Before the crisis, 600,000 Australians were employed in the arts, an industry which added around A$3.2 billion to export revenues. The rate of employment in the sector grew at a faster rate than the rest of the economy. According to government figures, "cultural and creative activity contributed to A$112 billion (6.4% of GDP) to Australia's economy in 2016–17".
Beginning in the second week of March 2020, Australian institutions began announcing reduced services, and then complete closures. One of the first casualties was the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, with organisers announcing on 13 March 2020 that the 2020 festival had been cancelled entirely. Opera Australia announced it would close on 15 March. The national closure of all cultural institutions was mandated on 24 March, with subsequent restrictions on public gatherings. Consequently, many cultural events were also cancelled, including the Sydney Writers' Festival. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, by the beginning of April, "Arts and Recreation services" was the sector of the national economy with the smallest proportion of its business still in operation—at 47%. A graph in Guardian Australia showing businesses by sector that had ceased trading between June 2019 and 30 March 2020 shows over 50% of arts and recreation services, the hardest hit of any sector (information media and telecommunications is next, at about 34%). Adrian Collette, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts, the government's arts funding and advisory body, described the impact on the cultural and creative sectors as "catastrophic".
The Australian film industry has been severely impacted, with at least 60 shoots being halted and about 20,000 people out of work. On Monday 23 March, all productions funded by Screen Australia were postponed. As of 15 April 2020, after some improvement in COVID-19 statistics in Australia, Screen Australia continues to fund work and process applications, intending to use all of its 2019–20 budget. Film industry organisations such as Screen Producers Australia (SPA) and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) have been lobbying the government for a support package specific to the screen industry, and to expand the JobKeeper requirements so that those in the screen industry are better covered. Many in the film industry are employed by Special-purpose entities—temporary companies that cease trading once production has finished—which cannot easily prove that their turnover has fallen by 30% or more. SPA said that the industry shutdown had cost more than A$500 million, with about A$20 million of lost export revenue.
One hundred and nineteen films and TV shows have been halted, with only a few shows (such as MasterChef Australia and Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell) continuing production through the pandemic. The TV soap Neighbours was the first English-language TV drama series in the world to announce that resumption of production would begin soon after 20 April 2020.
Like other governments around the world, the Australian government has acknowledged the economic, cultural and social value of the arts industry. The Australia Council has redirected about A$5 million to "new programs designed to provide immediate relief to Australian artists, arts workers and arts organisations to support their livelihoods, practice and operations during the COVID-19 pandemic" (the "Resilience Fund"), and is also hosting weekly meetings to address the concerns of specific sections of the industry, such as Indigenous creatives and organisations, live performance and public gatherings, and various peak bodies. Several state governments have also provided relief packages.
In early April, the federal government announced a package of A$27 million in specific arts funding: A$7 million for the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program, A$10 million for Regional Arts Australia's regional arts fund, and A$10 million for Support Act, a charity founded in 1997 that provides financial support and counselling to people in the music industry in Australia. However, the "JobKeeper" scheme specifically excluded "freelancers and casuals on short-term contracts, or who have worked for a series of employers in the last year", thus excluding a large proportion of arts and cultural sector professionals, who rely on short-term contracts.
However, most of the arts sector's more than 193,000 workers were still unable to access the JobKeeper payments, despite being defined as sole traders, and an estimated A$330 million worth of paid performances cancelled. The Australia Institute recommended a A$750 million rescue package for the industry, while Arts Minister Paul Fletcher said that arts workers should utilise existing support measures.
On 4 May 2020, the company operating the Carriageworks multi-arts venue in Sydney declared it would be entering voluntary administration and closing, citing an "irreparable loss of income" due to government bans on events during the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent negative impact on the arts sector. Carriageworks was the first major arts venue in the country to collapse suddenly after the hit to income caused by the strict social distancing rules enforced by state and federal governments, but others feared the same fate, after being forced to shut their doors in late March.
On 13 May 2020, the Art Gallery of South Australia announced that it would reopen on 8 June.
On 24 June 2020, the federal government announced a $250 million rescue package for the arts, comprising grants and loans. The package includes $75m for a grants program for new festivals, concerts, tours and events; $90m in loans to help fund new productions; $50m to help film and television producers unable to access insurance due to the pandemic, to enable them to restart production; and $35 million in direct financial assistance for struggling Commonwealth-funded organisations, including theatre, dance, music and circus. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) welcomed the boost, but critics said that it was not nearly enough, especially with so many workers in the industry still ineligible for JobKeeper payments. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Economic
On 3 March 2020, the Reserve Bank of Australia became the first central bank to cut interest rates in response to the outbreak. Official interest rates were cut by 0.25% to a record low of 0.5%.
On 12 March, the federal government announced a planned A$17.6 billion stimulus package. The package consists of multiple parts: a one-off payment to pensioners, social security recipients, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders, payments of A$2,000–A$25,000 to affected small businesses, an increase to the threshold for the Instant Asset Write-off Program, tax concessions for investments, a small business 50% wage subsidy for 120,000 trainees and apprentices, and A$1 billion in subsidies for heavily affected industries.
On 17 March, the New South Wales government announced a A$2.3 billion stimulus package, including A$700 million for health services. A$450 million was allocated to waive payroll tax for 3 months, and $250 million was allocated so state-owned buildings and public schools could employ more cleaners. Seven hundred and fifty million dollars was allocated for capital works and public asset maintenance.
On 18 March, the Northern Territory government announced an economic stimulus package of A$60 million.
On 19 March, the Reserve Bank again cut interest rates by a further 0.25%, from 0.5% to 0.25%, the lowest in Australian history.
In March 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) began releasing a number of additional statistical products to assess the economic impacts on the outbreak on the Australian economy. Data on retail trade turnover indicated a 0.4% rise in turnover in February 2020. Negative effects on some areas of the retail sector (particularly tourism-dependent businesses) were offset by a rise in food retail turnover, with supermarkets showing a large rise in sales, mainly arising from panic buying.
On 22 March, the Federal government announced a second stimulus package of A$66 billion, increasing the amount of total financial package offered to A$89 billion. This included several new measures like an extra A$550 'Coronavirus Supplement' payment to those on income support, paid from 27 April to 24 September 2020, and relaxed eligibility criteria for individuals on JobSeeker Payment, granting A$100,000 to small and medium-sized businesses and A$715 million to Australian airports and airlines. It also allowed individuals affected by the outbreak to access up to A$10,000 of their superannuation during 2019–2020 and also being able to take an additional same amount for the next year.
On 30 March, the Australian Government announced a six-month, A$130 billion JobKeeper payment. The JobKeeper payment provides businesses with up to A$1,500 a fortnight per full-time or part-time employee, or casual employee that has worked for that business for over a year. To be eligible, a business with an annual revenue of under A$1 billion must have lost 30% turnover since 1 March, or 50% for businesses over A$1 billion. The entire payment made to businesses for an employee must then, by law, be paid to that employee in lieu of normal pay. This response came after the enormous job losses seen just a week prior when an estimated 1 million Australians lost their jobs. The program was backdated to 1 March with the aim of re-employing many people who had lost their jobs in the weeks before. In the first hour of the scheme, over 8,000 businesses registered to receive the payments. The program is one of the largest economic packages ever implemented in modern Australian history. JobKeeper ended on 28 March 2021.
On 11 April, the South Australian state government announced its own A$350 million economic stimulus measures.
In late April, the Federal government announced A$94.6 million of support was available for zoos, wildlife parks and aquariums forced to close by coronavirus restrictions. This was part of previously announced economic stimulus measures.
The 2020 Federal Budget, normally delivered in May, was delayed until 6 October because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 22 May 2020, the Treasury and Australian Taxation Office announced there had been a miscalculation of A$60 billion in the planned cost of the JobKeeper program. Blaming 1,000 businesses for making "significant errors" on the application form, the Australian Government revealed it had overbudgeted the program, and that it was forecast to cost A$70 billion, not A$130 billion. The Treasury also announced that its original forecast of 6.5 million recipients was inaccurate, and closer to 3.5 million. Prime Minister Scott Morrison celebrated the saving, while the Opposition announced a parliamentary inquiry in an attempt to compel Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to explain the overestimation.
In July 2020, Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, in an interview with the US CNBC news channel, vowed that the government's budget deficit was expected to increase to A$85.8 billion Australian dollars in the financial year ended on 30 June and further widen to A$184.5 billion in the new fiscal year.
On 2 September, the Australian economy went into recession for the first time in nearly thirty years. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) fell 7 per cent in the June quarter. In December, it was announced Australia had pulled out of recession after experiencing a 3.3% growth in GDP in the September quarter. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated the effects of the recession had lasting impacts and the recovery was far from over. Australia is set to avoid an economic depression as forecast earlier in 2020, though GDP is likely to have experienced a contraction from 2019 figures.
The 2020 Australian federal budget, delayed from May, is finally delivered on 6 October. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | "Dine and Discover NSW"
On 17 November 2020, the NSW Government announced in the state budget that all NSW residents over 18 years of age would be eligible to receive four A$25 vouchers through Service NSW to help stimulate the economy. Two vouchers are for dining, Monday to Thursday only, excluding public holidays. The other two are to be spent on entertainment, excluding on public holidays. Businesses need to be COVID-safe registered, and sign-up for the scheme. The vouchers cannot be used for gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, retail purchases or accommodation. The program was originally called "Out and About".
Residents will need to have a Service NSW account to receive their vouchers. After trials in Sydney and regional areas, full rollout was scheduled for March. The trials began in Broken Hill, and the Rocks in Sydney on 11 February 2021.
As early as mid-April 2021, the scheme was said by some regional NSW residents to be "city centric'. At this time, the vouchers had been used by less than 10% of the 5 million who can use it. There were calls by NSW opposition political parties for the scheme to be extended beyond its initial 30 June 2021 deadline to use the vouchers. On 9 June 2021, the Dine & Discover scheme was extended by a month to 31 July. The scheme was then extended again to 31 August due to the lockdown in NSW, and then eventually to 30 June 2022. In November 2021, two extra vouchers were granted, one for dining and one for entertainment. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | 2021
On 22 February 2021, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the JobSeeker Payment base rate would be increased by A$50 a fortnight from April 2021. The payment will rise to A$614 a fortnight, with an estimated cost over forward estimates of A$9 billion. It is also intended to increase the threshold amount recipients can earn before their payment starts to be reduced.
On 26 February 2021, the chief executive of the Australian Airports Association, James Goodwin, said that Australian airports had been losing A$320 million every month during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said over the past 12 months, job losses amounted to 25 per cent of the airports' workforce.
On 10 March 2021, the Federal Government announced steps worth A$1.2 billion to encourage Australians to holiday within Australia to assist ailing tourist destinations. Between April and July, up to 800,000 airfares to 13 regions normally favoured by international tourists will be halved for domestic travellers.
On 3 June 2021, the Federal Government announced that people who lose work as a result of lockdowns, of at least 7 days' length, may be eligible for a A$325 or A$500 per week Temporary COVID Disaster Payment. To be eligible: |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Person must be older than 17
Live/ work in a Commonwealth defined hot-spot
Have less than A$10,000 liquid assets
Would have worked except for lockdown, and,
Will lose income due to lockdown
Can't access special pandemic or sick leave, or,
Have used it up
Those on other types of income support from the Commonwealth, like JobSeeker, are ineligible.
To get the full A$500 payment, the lost work must be at least 20 hours. If the lost work is under 20 hours, the payment is $325.
Victoria announced A$30 million of financial support on 7 June 2021 for residents "locked out of work" by COVID lockdowns. The Victorian government also extended it emergency "hardship support payment" to October. This helps those on temporary or provisional visas who are not able get income from the Commonwealth. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Employment
The pandemic had significant negative effect on the Australian labour market. In July 2019, unemployment was 5.1%, by July 2020 it peaked at 7.5%, during the pandemic, by the end of 2020 it had fallen to 6.6%. Figures for February to March 2021, released in April, showed unemployment had reduced to 5.8%, 0.4 points higher than at the start to the pandemic. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Agricultural worker shortage
In September 2020, a report from Ernst & Young stated that pandemic related border restrictions could result in a shortfall of 26,000 pickers over Australia's summer harvest season. Such work is typically reliant on seasonal staff from overseas. As a trial in early September 2020, 160 workers from Vanuatu were allowed into the Northern Territory (NT) to pick mangoes. They arrived on a specially chartered aircraft, and had to undergo the usual 14-day quarantine. It was estimated that the Vanuatuan workers saved A$100 million of fruit from the NT mango harvest being left to rot. The mango industry in the NT was valued at more than A$128 million in 2019, and produces more than half of Australia's mangoes.
On 30 September 2020, PM Scott Morrison announced that: "backpackers, Pacific Islanders and seasonal workers will be able to extend their visas to stay in Australia" and "welfare recipients will be offered incentives to pick fruit."
In late October 2020, some farmers found that they had to plough their produce back into the ground because it could not be harvested, at a loss of A$150,000.
The "Relocation Assistance to Take Up a Job" (RATTUAJ) program, scheduled to run from 1 November 2020 to 31 December 2021, offered A$6,000 for transport, moving expenses, accommodation and work clothing for welfare recipients willing to relocate to a regional area for a minimum of 6 weeks for short term agricultural jobs. Up to early December 2020, the relocation incentives for unemployed Australians appeared to be failing. After operating for a month, Federal Department of Employment figures showed only 148 people had taken up the offer.
Shortage of workers for harvesting can not only mean unpicked produce being left to rot or be ploughed back into fields, and farmers possibly not planting the next year, it creates an economic loss to those farmers, and can also noticeably increase prices for consumers.
To encourage potential workers to return to Australia, on 19 January 2022, the Australian Government offered to repay visa fees, about A$600, to backpackers on working holiday-maker visas, who come to Australia in the following 12 weeks, and to international students who arrive within the following 8 weeks. There are about 23,000 backpackers and 150,000 students who have a visa but are not in Australia. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Health
Influenza
In 2020, due to international travel restrictions, social distancing and lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of influenza in Australia, and deaths from it, were at "record lows". In mid-June 2021 the flu was said to be almost non-existent. In May 2019 there were over 30,000 cases, in May 2021, only 71. Professor Ian Barr of the Peter Doherty Institute remarked that influenza was "either eradicated, or it's at such low levels we're having trouble detecting it." 2019 in Australia was particularly bad with 800 flu deaths, below 40 in 2020, and no reported deaths as of June 2021.
In a March 2022 statement, the ATAGI noted that they expect a resurgence in influenza for the 2022 flu season due to the opening of borders. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Health checks
On 4 February 2021, World Cancer Day, the government organisation Cancer Australia said that in 2020 between January and September, there were nearly 150,000 less diagnostic tests for cancer performed, compared to the same period in 2019.
In August 2021, breast cancer screening appointments were being cancelled by BreastScreen NSW due to the lockdown in Sydney that began in late June.
Some nurses were retasked to pandemic response, leading to some screening clinics and mobile clinics being closed. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Indigenous Australians
Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders have poorer health outcomes and a lower life expectancy than the non-Indigenous Australian population, particularly those living in remote areas, which, along with overcrowded housing, makes them one of the communities most vulnerable to the virus. The remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, whose population has many comorbidities, high rates of tobacco use, overcrowded housing and overall poor hygiene, introduced restricted access to the lands in early March to protect their people, especially elders, from the virus. The Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, said it was a sensible move, and that the federal government would work with them. (A later call to evacuate elders to Adelaide by the APY Art Centre Collective was not put into operation.)
The federal government set up a national Indigenous advisory group in early March 2020, to create an emergency response plan for Aboriginal communities. The 43-page plan was published in March, and in late March, the Prime Minister that advised that Indigenous Australians over the age of 50 (along with everyone over 70 and those with a chronic illness over 60), should stay at home as much as possible. The Department of Health created a web page dedicated to advice for Indigenous people and remote communities, and the National Indigenous Australians Agency has one dedicated to the government's response to COVID-19. On 18 April the NIAA announced a government package of A$123 million of "targeted measures to support Indigenous businesses and communities to increase their responses to COVID-19", for the coming two financial years.
The Northern Territory developed a remote health pandemic plan, with NT Health setting up a number of remote clinics across the Territory. All non-essential travel to 76 remote communities was banned, and a 14-day isolation period imposed for those residents wanting to return home from regional centres, and in May 2020, health officials suggested that these controls should stay in place for the foreseeable future. In mid-March 2020 a group of senior NT clinicians called for 16 measures to be implemented as soon as possible to help protect vulnerable communities. Other states and territories have provided advice on their health agency websites.
In May 2020 a group of Paakantyi families set up a tent town on the banks of the Darling River near Wilcannia in New South Wales, to escape the threat of the disease from overcrowded accommodation in the town.
In late August 2021 a man in his 50s who died at Dubbo Hospital, is believed to be the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 related death. He was not vaccinated. By 7 September 2021, there had been 2 more deaths of indigenous Australians, who were also not vaccinated. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Medication supply
The pandemic created shortages of some medications since it began, initially related to panic buying. The most commonly used antidepressant in Australia, sertraline, is one of many such as the brand Zoloft, that have been affected by a global shortage. Olmesartan and irbesartan, both blood pressure medications were short in Australia as were hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches and carbimazole, a thyroid medication. As of February 2021 the contraceptive pill "Norimin" (norethisterone) was hard for pharmacists to acquire, supply had been intermittent for 6–12 months. Shortages of Norimin and Ethinylestradiol/norethisterone, both Pfizer products, were reported in August 2020 and first predicted to last until December 2020, the shortage was then expected by the TGA "to be resolved in March or April 2021". In the case of sertraline a Serious Shortage Substitution Notice (SSSN) was issued by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). SSSNs were also issued in Australia for Prazosin (blood pressure), Metformin (diabetes), and Estrogen path (HRT), which in theory allows substitutions like issuing twice the number of 25-milligram (0.39 gr) tablets in place of the prescribed 50-milligram (0.77 gr) tablets, without a new prescription, but with the patients' consent. Chris Moy, Vice President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said medicine shortages in Australia were a "pre-existing problem" before COVID-19. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | I think somewhere in the order of 89 percent of all day-to-day prescription medications are supplied from overseas; they often say 'patented in Australia' but they are actually made overseas.
Moy also said "A lot of our medications are made in China and India. Sovereign capability and protecting supply of our medications is something that should be seriously considered."
The TGA gave short-term approval for the import of some medicines that are "not on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) that are approved for import and supply in Australia because: there is a shortage of a medicine registered in Australia; and the medicine is needed in the interest of public health." |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Politics
In 2020, local council elections were impacted by the pandemic. In Victoria candidates could only campaign online. NSW elections due in September were postponed a year.
In 2021, NSW local council elections due on 4 September, already postponed from 2020, were postponed again to 4 December due to a wave of Delta variant infections that caused numerous lockdowns in the state.
On 31 January 2021, Federal politicians flying into Canberra from Western Australia had to quarantine for five days when a sudden lockdown was declared in Perth and two adjoining regions. Federal Parliament was scheduled to resume on 2 February.
On 26 July 2021 it was announced that, from 2 August, Parliament House in Canberra would come under COVID-19 restrictions to "minimise non-essential activity" for the next legislative sitting that day. All public galleries were closed and the general public was unable to enter the building. The number of politicians attending, and their staff, was "substantially reduced" and remote participation technology was used. Physical distancing returned. Use of the Check-in CBR app was extended to all food and beverage venues open under takeaway only restrictions. The restrictions lasted until 3 September. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Protests
Throughout 2020 and 2021, several protests against COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were held in several state capitals including Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. In addition, protests were held in February 2021 against the Federal Government's national vaccine programme. Police responded to these protests by arresting demonstrators and issuing fines. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Sport
The major sporting leagues (A-League Men, AFL, AFL Women's, and the National Rugby League) initially stated that their 2020 seasons would not be suspended but would continue behind closed doors, with some games being played under those conditions. However, all the leagues were later suspended. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Athletics
Initially the 2020 Stawell Gift was postponed until later in the year; however, in May it was cancelled entirely for 2020. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Australian rules football
The 2020 AFL season was initially curtailed to a maximum of 17 games, with clubs expected to take at least a 10% revenue hit from coronavirus related issues. However, on 22 March, just before the end of round 1 of the 2020 season, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan announced that the AFL season would be suspended until at least 31 May, citing the shutting of state borders as the primary cause for this decision. The AFL season restarted on 11 June, with the Grand Final being played on 24 October at the Gabba in Brisbane, Queensland, the first Grand Final to be held outside Victoria. The 2020 AFL Women's season was cancelled midway through the finals series, with no premiership awarded to any team. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Baseball
The 2020–2021 playoffs were shortened and the 2021–2022 season of the Australian Baseball League was cancelled due to travel restrictions and Victoria being in lockdown, respectively. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Basketball
The 2020 NBL Finals began with game two, although it was stated that the competition would be immediately suspended if any participants were to be diagnosed. The best of five series was subsequently cancelled after the third game was played with the title awarded to Perth Wildcats.
All second-tier state basketball leagues were either postponed or cancelled. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Cricket
The remaining two One Day Internationals between Australia and New Zealand in March 2020 were cancelled, and the first match was played without spectators. Cricket Australia also cancelled the Australian women's cricket team's tour of South Africa due to the virus. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Motorsports
The first major sporting event in Australia to be affected was the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, which was cancelled on 13 March 2020 after McLaren withdrew when a team member tested positive for COVID-19. This was also enforced on the support races which included the 2020 Melbourne 400, which was the second round of the 2020 Supercars Championship to be cancelled. The 2021 Australian Grand Prix was postponed from its original March date to November to allow for the easing of travel restrictions. On 6 July 2021, it was cancelled for the second consecutive year due to "restrictions and logistical challenges" related to the pandemic. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Rugby league
Following the implementation of travel restrictions by New Zealand, the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) announced that the New Zealand Warriors would be based in Australia for the foreseeable future. The 2020 season was suspended indefinitely on 23 March. Chairman of the ARLC Peter V'landys requested a government bailout for the National Rugby League, a request that was struck down, and caused a considerable negative reaction.
On 22 April 2020, the NRL announced that they planned for the season to restart on 28 May, with training beginning on 4 May, and has planned for 18 rounds (giving a 20-round season) and a State of Origin series, with the Grand Final rescheduled for 25 October.
The NRL season recommenced on 28 May 2020 with a round 3 game played in Brisbane between the Brisbane Broncos and Parramatta Eels. The match was played behind closed doors without any crowd, although the broadcasters (Channel 9 and Fox Sports) used fake crowd noise during the broadcast. The return match rated highly on TV as it was the first TV match of a team sport in Australia for 8 weeks. The Grand Final was played in front of a limited crowd on 25 October at ANZ Stadium.
The 2020 State of Origin series took place after the NRL season, with Game 3 holding a capacity crowd at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Rugby union
The 2020 Super Rugby season was suspended following the conclusion of play on 15 March 2020, due to the outbreak and the imposition of mandatory quarantine for international travellers to New Zealand. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Soccer
In 2020, the A-League initially announced a continuation of the league with the Wellington Phoenix FC being based in Australia; however, on 24 March 2020, suspended the remaining matches indefinitely. On 17 July, the season resumed in a NSW-based hub, where the season finished with the Grand Final occurring at Bankwest Stadium on 30 August in front of a limited crowd. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Yacht racing
The 2020 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race was cancelled on 19 December due to an outbreak in the Greater Sydney region. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Tourism
Economic modelling in May 2020 by Tourism Research Australia predicted that the domestic tourism industry would drop in value from A$138 billion to $83 billion. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Travel restrictions
On 2 October 2020, Prime Minister Morrison announced that the Australian Government had formalised a deal allowing New Zealanders "one-way quarantine-free travel" into New South Wales and the Northern Territory from 16 October as part of initial steps to establish a "travel bubble" between the two countries. However, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has ruled out extending reciprocal "quarantine-free travel" for Australians in order to contain the spread of COVID-19 into New Zealand.
On 17 October 2020, Stuff reported that 17 New Zealanders who had entered New South Wales traveled to Melbourne despite Victoria not being a party to the travel bubble arrangement with New Zealand. The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the arrival of the group but stated that it did not have the authority to detain them. In response, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews threatened to close his state's borders unless the Australian Federal Government blocked travellers using the Trans-Tasman bubble from traveling to Victoria. The Federal Government has disagreed with the Victorian Government's stance. In addition, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that her government would not prevent New Zealand passengers from travelling to Victoria.
On 11 December 2020, the Premier of Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that her state would open its borders to travelers from New Zealand from 1:00 am the following day (12 December), exempting them from quarantine restrictions.
On 14 December 2020, the New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern announced that the New Zealand Government had approved plans to establish a quarantine free travel bubble with Australia in the first quarter of 2021. Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt welcomed the move, describing it as the "first step" in normalising international travel and reiterated the Australian Government's support for measures to establish the travel bubble.
On 25 January 2021, the Federal government immediately suspended the ability of New Zealanders to travel to Australia that they had since 16 October 2020, without quarantining, for at least 72 hours. This followed the discovery of a NZ resident with the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant. The woman was not known to be infectious, having twice tested negative to COVID-19 before leaving quarantine, then visited many places in northern NZ, but she was then found to have the new strain.
On 19 April 2021, Australians were allowed quarantine-free travel to New Zealand for the first time in more than a year. To fly under the bubble's rules, passengers must have spent 14 days before departure in either Australia or New Zealand; however, they are not required to spend the full 14-day period or more in the other country, i.e. a person has spent at least 14 days in Australia, flies to New Zealand and returns to Australia after 7 days. They must not be awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test, nor have any COVID-19 symptoms, amongst other criteria. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Geo-tracking app
In late August 2021, the state of South Australia launched an app with facial recognition software that Australians subject to mandatory 14-day quarantines could opt to use in lieu of being quarantined at a hotel under police guard. The app randomly prompted users to take a picture of their face and submit geo-location data within 15 minutes of the prompt to prove to the South Australian government that the user was in an approved location. Users who refuse to comply or who fail to respond to a prompt within 15 minutes are checked on by local police and may be subject to fines. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Demand for investigation
On 19 April 2020, Australia questioned China's handling of the pandemic, questioned the transparency of its disclosures, and demanded an international investigation into the origins of the virus and its spread. The Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye, in a rare breach of diplomatic protocol, leaked details of his telephone conversation with Frances Adamson, Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on the embassy website. He warned that the demand for an inquiry could result in a consumer boycott of students and tourists visiting Australia, and could affect sales of major exports. A trade dispute involving improperly labelled beef and barley dumping ensued, which seriously affected Australian exports. On 26 August 2020, China's deputy ambassador to Australia, Wang Xining, expressed that Australia's co-proposal for an independent investigation into the causes of the pandemic "hurts the feelings of the Chinese people" during his address to the National Press Club of Australia. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Event cancellations
Numerous events in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled, rescheduled, postponed, reduced in size, or had their location changed. Some went to an online or streaming format. In 2021, events such as Skyfire, regional agricultural shows, and music festivals (Byron Bay Bluesfest and Groovin' the Moo) were cancelled for the second year. By 16 January 2021, twenty regional town shows scheduled for January or February 2021 had been postponed or cancelled in New South Wales alone. Many subsequent events were cancelled deep into 2021 and even into early 2022, especially as the new Omicron variant posed new risks. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | The World Surf League cancelled all events in March 2020.
All Anzac Day marches in 2020 were cancelled. In 2021, most major state marches went ahead, some states as per pre-pandemic, but most with ticketing and/or restrictions on numbers marching and watching. Overseas services were not held. On 24 April 2021, Perth city and the Peel region entered a sudden 3-day COVID-19 lockdown, and Anzac Day services in the affected areas were cancelled.
The 15 May 2020 School Strike for Climate rally and march was cancelled.
The Australian Border Force suspended all deportations to New Zealand between 16 and 30 March 2020.
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests for 2020 were cancelled on 20 March.
The national regional touring music festival Groovin' the Moo announced on 17 March that the 2020 festival was cancelled whilst confirming dates for 2021. On 4 February 2021, that year's festival was also "postponed".
The 26th Australian Scout Jamboree, scheduled for January 2022 in Elmore, Victoria, was cancelled.
Many music events were cancelled, including tours by Jimmy Barnes, Harry Styles, and Rod Stewart. Other cancelled events include Full Tilt Adelaide, Grapevine Gathering, HomeBrewed Festival, and Rainbow Spirit Festival, with many more events postponed until further notice. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | See also
Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
COVID-19 vaccination in Australia
COVID-19 protests in Australia
COVID-19 clusters in Australia
Chart of COVID-19 cases in Australia (template)
COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory
COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
Biosecurity in Australia
National Cabinet (Australia)
National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board
National Security Committee (Australia)
Coronavirus Australia
Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic#Australia |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | State and territory articles
COVID-19 pandemic in the Australian Capital Territory
COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales
COVID-19 pandemic in the Northern Territory
COVID-19 pandemic in Queensland
COVID-19 pandemic in South Australia
COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania
COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria
COVID-19 pandemic in Western Australia |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Notes
References
Further reading
Press Conference by the Prime Minister of Australia on 27 February 2020 Archived 9 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine Transcript of the Press Conference held on 27 February 2020 by The Hon Scott Morrison MP, the Prime Minister of Australia, from Australian Parliament House alongside Dr Paul Kelly, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, Minister For Health, announcing the activation of the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) The Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (the COVID-19 Plan) guides the Australian health sector response. |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | External links |
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia | Coronavirus (COVID-19) health alert by the Australian Government Department of Health
Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation reports by the World Health Organization (official numbers of confirmed cases by country)
Map of global confirmed coronavirus COVID-19 cases and historical data in near real-time by the Johns Hopkins University
COVID-19 Epidemiologic and genetic data from the Wolfram data repository.
2019-nCoV Data Portal by Virus Pathogen Resource
Coronavirus Australia updates and news Archived 8 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Australia at the Coronavirus Global international portal. Available in 11 languages.
Coronatracker – Coronavirus news aggregator and tracking portal
CoVid-19 Updates – AUS Archived 9 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine – Near real-time coronavirus tracker for different states and territories in Australia
Coronavirus pandemic – Near real-time coronavirus statistics for the world and Australia
COVID Live – Statistics tracking of the number of coronavirus cases, tests and deaths in Australia
Wikiversity:COVID-19/All-cause deaths/Australia |
Obesity in Australia | According to 2007 statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), Australia has the third-highest prevalence of overweight adults in the English-speaking world. Obesity in Australia is an "epidemic" with "increasing frequency." The Medical Journal of Australia found that obesity in Australia more than doubled in the two decades preceding 2003, and the unprecedented rise in obesity has been compared to the same health crisis in America. The rise in obesity has been attributed to poor eating habits in the country closely related to the availability of fast food since the 1970s, sedentary lifestyles and a decrease in the labour workforce. |
Obesity in Australia | Classification of obesity
Weight is measured by using the Body Mass Index scale (BMI). This is determined by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres, squared. If someone is overweight their BMI will be at 25 or more. If someone is obese their BMI will be at 30 or more. |
Obesity in Australia | Prevalence of obesity in the Australian population
As of 2017, 8% of children and 28% of adults in Australia are obese. |
Obesity in Australia | Demographic summary
Queensland
Australian adults
In a study published in 2015 by the US Journal of Economics and Human Biology, obesity is found to have the largest impact on men aged over 75, and women aged between 60 and 74.
In 2005, a study was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that compared the results of a 2004-05 survey with those conducted in the preceding 15 years. The results showed an increase in the number and proportion of adults who are overweight or obese. Over the four surveys, the number of overweight or obese adults increased from 4.6 million in 1989–90 to 5.4 million in 1995, 6.6 million in 2001 and 7.4 million in 2004–05.
In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 67.4% of Australian adults are overweight, ranking 21st in the world, and third out of the major countries in the English-speaking world, behind the United States (ranked 9th) and New Zealand (ranked 17th). A 2005 WHO study found that just over 20% of Australian adults are obese, that number increased to about 29 to 30% being obese in 2017.
In the 2005 National Health Survey, 53.6% of Australians reported being overweight with 18% falling into the "obese" category. Those numbers rose to 65% overweight and 29% obese in 2016. This is nearly double the reported number from 1995, when 30% of adults were overweight and 11% were obese. Such representations would be skewed downward as people tend to overestimate their height and under-report their weight, the two key criteria to determine a BMI reading. In the National Health Survey, obesity reports were fairly common across the board, with no major outliers. Victoria had the lowest incidence of obesity, at 17.0% of the population, with South Australia reporting the highest numbers at 19.6%. By 2014, Canberra recorded an obesity rate of 25% which was placing significant strain on ageing health care infrastructure.
In a study conducted by The Obesity Society, between 2001 and 2025, the adult population prevalence of normal healthy weight will decrease from 40.6% to 22.9%. In conjunction with this, the prevalence of obesity will increase from 20.5% to 33.9%. It is also estimated that by the time 25- to 29-year-olds of 2000 reach the age of 60–64 (2040), over one third will be obese.
A recent study reported that based on figures from the National Health Survey and/or Australian Health Survey the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased from 56.3% in 1995 to $61.2 in 2007–2008 and 62.8% in 2011–2012. This was attributed largely to an increase in the level of obesity from 18.7% to 27.5% over the period, with the proportion of overweight adults remaining similar (35.3–37.6%). The study argues for preventive health measures to be gender-specific and specific to socioeconomic disadvantage within populations.
Age-standardization of the 2011–12 Australian Health Survey was done in a recent study which reported 28.3% of Australian adults to be obese with 63.4% adults being overweight or obese. A subsequent analysis published in 2016 reported that despite obesity and overweight together being the second highest contributor to the burden of disease in Australia the regular screening and recording of measures of obesity and overweight in primary care setting especially within regional Australian catchments was much lower than optimal. |
Obesity in Australia | Indigenous population
Indigenous Australians have Australia's highest level of obesity. A 2001 study showing that 31% of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were obese, nearly double the national average at that time.
The health and well being of Australian Indigenous youth is becoming increasingly concerning. A cross sectional study (Valery, Moloney, Cotterill, Harris, Sinha & Green, 2009) found that 46% of the total population, of participants, were overweight or obese. Of that population, 38% had enlarged waist circumferences, 43% had acanthosis nigricans present and 27% had hypertension. With this high population of overweight and obese Indigenous youth, it puts major implications on the public health system.
A University of Alberta study, conducted in 2006, noted that 60% of Aboriginal Australians over the age of 35 in Western Australia tested positive for diabetes. Health issues such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes have lowered the life expectancy for Aboriginal Australians to 17 years below the national life expectancy, a gap that continues to grow.
Professor Paul Zimmet at Monash University, who conducted the aforementioned study of diabetes rates amongst Asian immigrants, released figures at the Diabetes in Indigenous People Forum in Melbourne, estimating the rate of diabetes from poor diet at 24% of all Torres Strait Islanders and remarked that unless extra steps are taken with these groups, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders will die out within 100 years. |
Obesity in Australia | Immigrant populations
Individuals who migrate to Australia moving from a low income nation, have a greater tendency to undergo an increase in weight. A study done by Delavari et al. (2012) suggested that many immigrant groups showed signs of obesogenic lifestyle behaviours after migrating from low-HDI to high-HDI. It has also been found that Sudanese refugees in Australia have an increased risk of obesity compared to the general population. (Rezaho et al. 2014)
First-generation immigrants to Australia are more obese and have higher rates of obesity-related behaviours than white Australians or Australians of foreign ancestry whose families have been in the country at least two generations. A study conducted by the International Diabetes Institute at Monash University showed that Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Middle Eastern immigrants who moved to Australia were diagnosed with diabetes at a higher level than the average. The increase was explained by the adoption of a Western diet in place of a more healthy "traditional" diet more common in their native countries, as well as adopting a more sedentary lifestyle which is ubiquitous in developed countries. |
Obesity in Australia | Australian children
The percentage of overweight and obese children in Australia, despite rapid increases in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, have remained mostly steady for the past 10 years, with 23 to 24% of Australians under the age of 18 classified as overweight, and 5 to 6% of the same demographic classified as obese.
A study done by Nichols et al. (2011) found there has been a decreasing trend in overweight and obese preschool children, in Victoria, between 1999 and 2007. Among 2-year-old children, there was a decrease in the obesity of these children from 13.5% in 1999 to 12.4% in 2007 and in the 3.5-year-old children a substantial decrease from 18.5% in 1999 to 15.4% in 2007.
Increased media attention on childhood obesity, in 2007 and 2008 especially, caused many researchers to print findings that the rate of obesity for children has reached a plateau or that the claims are simply "exaggerated." The reports caused Dr. Rosanna Capolingua, President of the Australian Medical Association, to issue a statement admonishing people and media outlets for "trivialising" the issue.
A Western Australian study (Bell et al. 2011) showed that overweight and obese primary school children have greater medical complications due to their weight status. Overweight and obese children were more likely to complain and suffer from depression, anxiety, bullying, headaches, enuresis and musculoskeletal pain. The most common site of the musculoskeletal pain was in the knees with overweight children 1.3 times and obese children 3 times more likely to complain about it than the control children. Overweight and obese children also had significantly higher levels of hypertension (control 3.4%, overweight 7.3%, obese 19%), impaired glucose tolerance (control: normal, overweight 1.3%, obese 5.3%) and hyperinsulinism (control 8%, overweight 19.5%, obese 38.9%).
The implementation of public health interventions in child care services has been recommended in Australia as a key strategy in the prevention of children becoming overweight or obese, especially in rural and remote areas of Australia. Quantifying the prevalence of obesity among children attending child care from non-metropolitan areas throughout Australia may be particularly important as the access to obesity prevention resources and professional development opportunities for child care service staff is limited. Financial constraints often experienced by smaller rural and remote child care services may limit their capacity to promote and encourage physical activity and health care to children participating in the child care services provided to them.
The study conducted by Wolfenden et al. found that approximately 17% of all children and 25% of indigenous children attending rural and regional child care services in the study area were overweight or obese. Such prevalence rates remain unacceptably high and confirm the need of prevention interventions targeting obesity in this setting.
For childhood obesity, the influence of broader parental and community contexts needs to be considered. Studies have found that young overweight boys spent significantly less time away from their parents than non-overweight boys, this potentially relates to the socio-economic status of the parents, as children residing from parents with a lower education level are at a higher risk of suffering from being overweight. It is possible that this is because young boys that spent a lot of their time with their parents were more likely to participate in sedentary activities, such as watching television or playing video games, than they were to participate in any kind of physical activity.
Jones et al. (2010) study found that early school years may be the time when child, parent and community characteristics begin to differ between overweight and non-overweight children, and may be an ideal time to target broader parental and community contexts influencing overweight and obese children.
A recent study conducted by The Swiss School of Public Health in 2014, found a clear association between the prevalence of obesity in low socio-economic standing school children within Australia. In 2006, it was found that children of low socio-economic standing were 2.22 times more likely to be obese compared to their high socio-economic standing counterparts. It was also discovered that these children of low socio-economic standing were 2.20 times more likely to be obese in 2012. |
Obesity in Australia | Diabetes and cost of obesity
In May 2008, Diabetes Australia, the national body for diabetes awareness and prevention, told the House of Representatives that the cost of obesity on the country's health system in 2005 was an estimated A$25 billion (US$20 billion), In August 2008, Diabetes Australia's estimation more than doubled to $58 billion (US$46 billion), this time taking into account not just health care but job productivity and other related quality of living costs.
In 2003, the number of Australians with type 2 diabetes rose to nearly a million for the first time. In addition, the number of type 2 diabetes patients who were diagnosed solely on their weight was calculated at 242,000 in 2007, a 137% increase in cases in the previous three years.
In 2008 using the Body Mass Index scale, obese Australians (indirectly and directly) cost the nation $8.3 billion. Out of the $8.3 billion, $2.0 billion was the cost of the health system. |
Obesity in Australia | Government response
In April 2008, the Australian Federal Government added obesity to its list of "national health priorities", officially elevating it to the same standard of attention given to other deadly ailments such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. On 1 June 2009, the first Parliamentary comment on obesity in Australia was published, with the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing recommending 20 acts for the Federal Government to consider, including tax incentives to make healthier fruits and vegetables more affordable for Australians, and pressing the government to work with the food industry to lower fat and sugar levels in existing processed food. These recommendations covered a range of issues affecting obesity in Australia. The government agreed to the majority of the recommendations including to continue supporting the Active After-School communities program which lead more children to have more positive attitude towards physical activity and agreeing to develop consistent urban planning guidelines that focus on creating environments that encourage Australians to be healthy and active.
The former ALP government under Prime Minister Julia Gillard wanted to tackle the obesity problem in Australia by giving tax subsidies which would fund gym memberships to people who wish to lose weight. Her watchdog group, the National Preventative Health Taskforce, also wants to target childhood obesity by banning ads for junk food during the daytime when most children's television programs air.
In August 2008, the government of New South Wales announced that it would pay for morbidly obese patients to receive weight loss surgery, the first state to make such an announcement. Most Australians who wish to have such surgery have to go to a private hospital and pay for the procedure themselves, which costs $10,000 (US$10,000). A survey in Western Australia suggests that the number of patients who have undergone weight loss surgery has increased 20-fold in the past 20 years, with nine out of ten patients opting for the lap band procedure.
According to The Obesity Society Australia, if obesity rates continue to grow in Australia at this current rate over the next few decades, it is conceivable that the health and economic cost due to obesity will also grow to overwhelming portions. |
Obesity in Australia | See also |
Obesity in Australia | Australian paradox
Cardiovascular disease in Australia
Diabetes in Australia
General: |
Obesity in Australia | Health in Australia
Epidemiology of obesity |
Obesity in Australia |
== References == |
The bush | "The bush" is a term mostly used in the English vernacular of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand where it is largely synonymous with hinterland or backwoods respectively, referring to a natural undeveloped area. The fauna and flora contained within this area may be mostly indigenous to the region, although exotic species will often also be present.
The expression has been in use in Australia from the earliest years of British settlement. The Sydney Gazette reported in 1804 that: "One of the ringleaders was apprehended and two others escaped into the bush." (Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 10 June 1804, page 4).
The term is also widely used in Canada to refer to the large, forested portion of the country. The same usage applies in the US state of Alaska. |
The bush | Usage by country
The Australian bush
The concept of "the bush" has become iconic in Australia. In reference to the landscape, "bush" refers to any sparsely-inhabited region, regardless of vegetation. "The bush" in this sense was something that was uniquely Australian and very different from the green European landscapes familiar to many new immigrants. The term "Outback" is also used, but usually in association with the more arid inland areas of Australia. "The bush" also refers to any populated region outside of the major metropolitan areas, including mining and agricultural areas. Consequently, it is not unusual to have a mining town in the desert such as Port Hedland (population 14,000) referred to as "the bush".
Indigenous Australians lived a nomadic life in remote areas of the bush for thousands of years, and during that time developed ways of utilising natural resources for survival, mainly with bush tucker and the spiritual healing of bush medicine. For more than a century after the first British settlement in 1788 onwards, land was granted or sold to settlers, resulting in many generally small but permanent human settlements in vast tracts of bush. Closer settlement in Australia has often resulted in fragmentation of the bush, and bushfires, an ever-present hazard in many areas in summer months, have also increased with increasing suburbanisation of the Australian population.
Bush poets such as Henry Lawson (1867–1922) and Banjo Paterson (1864–1942) revered the bush as a source of national ideals, as did contemporaneous painters in the Heidelberg School such as Tom Roberts (1856–1931), Arthur Streeton (1867–1943) and Frederick McCubbin (1855–1917). Romanticising the bush in this way through folklore was a big step forward for 19th-century Australians in developing a distinct self-identity.
Australians and New Zealanders attach the term "bush" to any number of other entities or activities to describe their rural, country or folk nature through terms such as "bush telegraph", an informal human network through which news is passed on; "bush carpenter", a rough-and-ready builder; "to go bush", to escape from your usual haunts; "bush cricket", "bush music" (Australian folk music); "bush doof"; and bushrangers, 19th-century criminals mainly in the eastern colonies who hid in the bush to escape from authorities. |
The bush | New Zealand
In New Zealand, bush primarily refers to areas of native trees rather than exotic forests. However, the word is also used in the Australian sense of anywhere outside urban areas, encompassing grasslands as well as forests.
Areas with bush (i.e. native forest) are found in both the North Island and the South Island, some of it bordering towns and cities, but the majority of bush is found in large national parks. Examples of predominantly bush clad areas are Whanganui National Park, on Taranaki volcano, on which the bush extends in a uniformly circular shape to the surrounding farmland, and Fiordland in the South Island. Much of Stewart Island/Rakiura is bush-covered. In the North Island, the largest areas of bush cover the main ranges stretching north-northeast from Wellington towards East Cape, notably including the Urewera Ranges, and the catchment of the Whanganui River. Significant stands remain in Northland and the ranges running south from the Coromandel Peninsula towards Ruapehu, and isolated remnants cap various volcanoes in Taranaki, the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty and the Hauraki Gulf.
From the word comes many phrases including: |
The bush | bush-bash – to make one's way through the forest, rather than on a track or trail (cf. American English "bushwhack[ing]", "bushwack[ing]", or "bush-whack[ing]").
bush shirt – a woolen shirt or Swanndri, often worn by forest workers.
bush lawyer – the name of a number of native climbing plants or a layman who expounds on legal matters.
bush walk – short day walks (hikes) in the bush
going bush – to live in the bush for an extended period of time, which may include "living off the land" by means of hunting or fishing.
bushman – Used in the 19th century for New Zealand loggers. The term still stands for someone that lives in the bush as a means of preferable lifestyle. |
The bush | South Africa
In South Africa, the term (Afrikaans: die bos) has specific connotations of rural areas which are not open veldt. Generally, it refers to areas in the north of the country that would be called savanna. "Going to The Bush" (Bos toe Gaan) often refers to going to a game park or game reserve. Areas most commonly referred to as The Bush are the Mpumalanga and Limpopo Lowveld, The Limpopo River Valley, northern KwaZulu-Natal or any other similar area of wilderness. |
The bush | Alaska and Canada
The Bush in Alaska is generally described as any community not "on the road system", making it accessible only by more elaborate transportation. Usage is similar in Canada; it is called la brousse or colloquially le bois in Canadian French. In Canada, "the bush" refers to large expanses of forest and swampland which sprawl undeveloped, as well as any forested area. |
The bush | Related terms
The term "to go bush" has several similar meanings all connected with the supposed wildness of the bush. It can mean to revert to a feral nature (or to "go native"), and it can also mean to deliberately leave normal surroundings and live rough, with connotations of cutting off communication with the outside world – often as a means of evading capture or questioning by the police. The term bushwhacker is used in Australia and New Zealand to mean someone who spends his or her time in the bush.
The verb to bushwhack has two meanings. One is to cut through heavy brush and other vegetation to pass through tangled country: "We had to do quite a bit of bushwhacking today to clear the new trail." The other meaning is to hide in such areas and then attack unsuspecting passers-by: "We were bushwhacked by the bandits as we passed through their territory and they took all of our money and supplies."
The Bushwhackers were also a New Zealand professional wrestling tag team that was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2015.
In New Zealand, "The Bush" is a nickname for the Wairarapa Bush provincial rugby team. The team was formed by an amalgamation of two earlier teams, Wairarapa and Bush. The latter team had represented an area on the boundaries of the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay which was in former times known as Bush due to its dense vegetation cover.
In the United States, minor league baseball, which is typically played in smaller cities, is sometimes derisively called "bush league baseball".
In Australia,"Sydney or the bush" equates with such terms as "Hollywood or bust" to mean staking total success or failure on one high-risk event. This usage appears in several Peanuts cartoons, causing Charlie Brown much confusion. |
The bush | See also |
The bush |
== References == |
History of Australia | The history of Australia is the history of the land and peoples which comprise the Commonwealth of Australia. The modern nation came into existence on 1 January 1901 as a federation of former British colonies. The human history of Australia, however, commences with the arrival of the first ancestors of Aboriginal Australians by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and continues to the present day multicultural democracy.
Aboriginal Australians settled throughout continental Australia and many nearby islands. The artistic, musical and spiritual traditions they established are among the longest surviving in human history. The ancestors of today's ethnically and culturally distinct Torres Strait Islanders arrived from what is now Papua New Guinea around 2,500 years ago, and settled the islands on the northern tip of the Australian landmass.
Dutch navigators explored the western and southern coasts in the 17th century and named the continent New Holland. Macassan trepangers visited Australia's northern coasts from around 1720, and possibly earlier. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook charted the east coast of Australia and claimed it for Great Britain. He returned to London with accounts favouring colonisation at Botany Bay (now in Sydney). The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony. In the century that followed, the British established other colonies on the continent, and European explorers ventured into its interior. This period saw a decline in the Aboriginal population and the disruption of their cultures due to introduced diseases, violent conflict and dispossession of their traditional lands. From 1871, the Torres Strait Islanders welcomed Christian Missionaries, and the islands were later annexed by Queensland, choosing to remain a part of Australia when Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia a century later.
Gold rushes and agricultural industries brought prosperity. Transportation of British convicts to Australia was phased out from 1840 to 1868. Autonomous parliamentary democracies began to be established throughout the six British colonies from the mid-19th century. The colonies voted by referendum to unite in a federation in 1901, and modern Australia came into being. Australia fought as part of British Empire and later Commonwealth in the two world wars and was to become a long-standing ally of the United States through the Cold War to the present. Trade with Asia increased and a post-war immigration program received more than 7 million migrants from every continent. Supported by immigration of people from almost every country in the world since the end of World War II, the population increased to more than 25.5 million by 2021, with 30 per cent of the population born overseas. |
History of Australia | Indigenous prehistory
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians moved into what is now the Australian continent about 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the last glacial period, arriving by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia.
The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land, in the north of the continent, is perhaps the oldest site of human occupation in Australia. From the north, the population spread into a range of very different environments. Devil's Lair in the extreme south-west of the continent was occupied around 47,000 years ago and Tasmania by 39,000 years ago. The oldest human remains found are at Lake Mungo in New South Wales, which have been dated to around 41,000 years ago. The site suggests one of the world's oldest known cremations, indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans. |
History of Australia | The spread of the population also altered the environment. From 46,000 years ago, firestick farming was used in many parts of Australia to clear vegetation, make travel easier, and create open grasslands rich in animal and vegetable food sources. The Aboriginal population faced significant changes in the climate and environment. About 30,000 years ago, sea levels began to fall, temperatures in the south-east of the continent dropped by as much as 9 degrees Celsius, and the interior of Australia became more arid. About 20,000 years ago, New Guinea and Tasmania were connected to the Australian continent, which was more than a quarter larger than today.
About 19,000 years ago temperatures and sea levels began to rise. Tasmania became separated from the mainland some 14,000 years ago, and between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago thousands of islands in the Torres Strait and around the coast of Australia were formed.
The warmer climate was associated with new technologies. Small back-bladed stone tools appeared 15–19 thousand years ago. Wooden javelins and boomerangs have been found dating from 10,000 years ago. Stone points for spears have been found dating from 5–7 thousand years ago. Spear throwers were probably developed more recently than 6,500 years ago.
Aboriginal Tasmanians were isolated from the mainland from about 14,000 years ago. As a result, they only possessed one quarter of the tools and equipment of the adjacent mainland. Coastal Tasmanians switched from fish to abalone and crayfish and more Tasmanians moved to the interior.
Around 4,000 years ago the first phase of occupation of the Torres Strait Islands began. By 2,500 years ago more of the islands were occupied and a distinctive Torres Strait Islander maritime culture emerged. Agriculture also developed on some islands and by 700 years ago villages appeared. |
History of Australia | Aboriginal society consisted of family groups organised into bands and clans averaging about 25 people, each with a defined territory for foraging. Clans were attached to tribes or nations, associated with particular languages and country. At the time of European contact there were about 600 tribes or nations and 250 distinct languages with various dialects. Estimates of the Aboriginal population at this time range from 300,000 to one million. Aboriginal society was egalitarian with no formal government or chiefs. Authority rested with elders and group decisions were generally made through the consensus of elders. The traditional economy was cooperative, with males generally hunting large game while females gathered local staples such as small animals, shellfish, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts. Food was shared within groups and exchanged across groups. Some Aboriginal groups engaged in fire-stick farming, fish farming, and built semi-permanent shelters. The extent to which some groups engaged in agriculture is controversial. Some Anthropologists describe traditional Aboriginal Australia as a "complex hunter-gatherer" society.
Aboriginal groups were semi-nomadic, generally ranging over a specific territory defined by natural features. Members of a group would enter the territory of another group through rights established by marriage and kinship or by invitation for specific purposes such as ceremonies and sharing abundant seasonal foods. As all natural features of the land were created by ancestral beings, a group's particular country provided physical and spiritual nourishment.
Aboriginal Australians developed a unique artistic and spiritual culture. The earliest Aboriginal rock art consists of hand-prints, hand-stencils, and engravings of circles, tracks, lines and cupules, and has been dated to 35,000 years ago. Around 20,000 year ago Aboriginal artists were depicting humans and animals. According to Australian Aboriginal mythology and the animist framework, the Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed The Creation. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. |
History of Australia | Early European exploration
Dutch discovery and exploration
The Dutch East India Company ship, Duyfken, captained by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606. Later that year, Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast.
In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, Western Australia. In 1622–23 the ship Leeuwin made the first recorded rounding of the southwest corner of the continent.
In 1627, the south coast of Australia was discovered by François Thijssen and named after Pieter Nuyts. In 1628, a squadron of Dutch ships explored the northern coast particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight Fiji. On his second voyage of 1644, he also contributed significantly to the mapping of the Australian mainland (which he called New Holland), making observations on the land and people of the north coast below New Guinea.
Following Tasman's voyages, the Dutch were able to make almost complete maps of Australia's northern and western coasts and much of its southern and south-eastern Tasmanian coasts. |
History of Australia | British and French exploration
William Dampier, an English buccaneer and explorer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688 and again in 1699, and published influential descriptions of the Aboriginal people.
In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook in command of HMS Endeavour, travelled to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook also carried secret Admiralty instructions to locate the supposed Southern Continent. Unable to find this continent, Cook decided to survey the east coast of New Holland, the only major part of that continent that had not been charted by Dutch navigators.
On 19 April 1770, the Endeavour reached the east coast of New Holland and ten days later anchored at Botany Bay. Cook charted the coast to its northern extent and formally took possession of the east coast of New Holland on 21/22 August 1770 when on Possession Island off the west coast of Cape York Peninsula.
He noted in his journal that he could "land no more upon this Eastern coast of New Holland, and on the Western side I can make no new discovery the honour of which belongs to the Dutch Navigators and as such they may lay Claim to it as their property [italicised words crossed out in the original] but the Eastern Coast from the Latitude of 38 South down to this place I am confident was never seen or viseted by any European before us and therefore by the same Rule belongs to great Brittan" [italicised words crossed out in the original].
In March 1772 Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, in command of two French ships, reached Van Diemen's land on his way to Tahiti and the South Seas. His party became the first recorded Europeans to encounter the Indigenous Tasmanians and to kill one of them.
In the same year, a French expedition led by Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn, became the first Europeans to formally claim sovereignty over the west coast of Australia, but no attempt was made to follow this with colonisation. |
History of Australia | Colonisation
Plans for colonisation before 1788
Although various proposals for the colonisation of Australia were made prior to 1788, none were attempted. In 1717, Jean-Pierre Purry sent a plan to the Dutch East India Company for the colonisation of an area in modern South Australia. The company rejected the plan with the comment that, "There is no prospect of use or benefit to the Company in it, but rather very certain and heavy costs".
In contrast, Emanuel Bowen, in 1747, promoted the benefits of exploring and colonising the country, writing: |
History of Australia | It is impossible to conceive a Country that promises fairer from its Situation than this of TERRA AUSTRALIS, no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates, but the Southern Continent Discovered. It lies precisely in the richest climates of the World... and therefore whoever perfectly discovers and settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as Rich, as fruitful, and as capable of Improvement, as any that have hitherto been found out, either in the East Indies or the West.John Harris, in his Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744–1748, 1764) recommended exploration of the east coast of New Holland, with a view to a British colonisation. John Callander put forward a proposal in 1766 for Britain to found a colony of banished convicts in the South Sea or in Terra Australis. Sweden's King Gustav III had ambitions to establish a colony for his country at the Swan River in 1786 but the plan was stillborn.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) saw Britain lose most of its North American colonies and consider establishing replacement territories. Britain had transported about 50,000 convicts to the New World from 1718 to 1775 and was now searching for an alternative. The temporary solution of floating prison hulks had reached capacity and was a public health hazard, while the option of building more jails and workhouses was deemed too expensive.
In 1779, Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent scientist who had accompanied James Cook on his 1770 voyage, recommended Botany Bay as a suitable site for a penal settlement. Banks's plan was to send 200 to 300 convicts to Botany Bay where they could be left to their own devices and not be a burden on the British taxpayer. |
History of Australia | Under Banks's guidance, the American Loyalist James Matra, who had also travelled with Cook, produced a new plan for colonising New South Wales in 1783. Matra argued that the country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton and tobacco; New Zealand timber and hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities; it could form a base for Pacific trade; and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists. Following an interview with Secretary of State Lord Sydney in 1784, Matra amended his proposal to include convicts as settlers, considering that this would benefit both "Economy to the Publick, & Humanity to the Individual".
The major alternative to Botany Bay was sending convicts to Africa. From 1775 convicts had been sent to garrison British forts in west Africa, but the experiment had proved unsuccessful. In 1783, the Pitt government considered exiling convicts to a small river island in Gambia where they could form a self-governing community, a "colony of thieves", at no expense to the government.
In 1785, a parliamentary select committee chaired by Lord Beauchamp recommended against the Gambia plan, but failed to endorse the alternative of Botany Bay. In a second report, Beauchamp recommended a penal settlement at Das Voltas Bay in modern Namibia. The plan was dropped, however, when an investigation of the site in 1786 found it to be unsuitable. Two weeks later, in August 1786, the Pitt government announced its intention to send convicts to Botany Bay. The Government incorporated the settlement of Norfolk Island into their plan, with its attractions of timber and flax, proposed by Banks's Royal Society colleagues, Sir John Call and Sir George Young.
There has been a longstanding debate over whether the key consideration in the decision to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay was the pressing need to find a solution to the penal management problem, or whether broader imperial goals — such as trade, securing new supplies of timber and flax for the navy, and the desirability of strategic ports in the region — were paramount. Christopher and Maxwell-Stewart argue that whatever the government's original motives were in establishing the colony, by the 1790s it had at least achieved the imperial objective of providing a harbour where vessels could be careened and resupplied. |
History of Australia | The colony of New South Wales
Establishment of the colony: 1788 to 1792
The territory of New South Wales claimed by Britain included all of Australia eastward of the meridian of 135° East. This included more than half of mainland Australia. The claim also included "all the Islands adjacent in the Pacific" between the latitudes of Cape York and the southern tip of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). In 1817, the British government withdrew the extensive territorial claim over the South Pacific, passing an act specifying that Tahiti, New Zealand and other islands of the South Pacific were not within His Majesty's dominions. However, it is unclear whether the claim ever extended to the current islands of New Zealand.
The colony of New South Wales was established with the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 vessels under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip in January 1788. It consisted of more than a thousand settlers, including 778 convicts (192 women and 586 men). A few days after arrival at Botany Bay the fleet moved to the more suitable Port Jackson where a settlement was established at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. This date later became Australia's national day, Australia Day. The colony was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788 at Sydney. Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe harbour, which Phillip described as being, 'with out exception the finest Harbour in the World [...] Here a Thousand Sail of the Line may ride in the most perfect Security'. |
History of Australia | Governor Phillip was vested with complete authority over the inhabitants of the colony. His intention was to establish harmonious relations with local Aboriginal people and try to reform as well as discipline the convicts of the colony. Early efforts at agriculture were fraught and supplies from overseas were scarce. Between 1788 and 1792 about 3546 male and 766 female convicts were landed at Sydney. Many new arrivals were sick or unfit for work and the condition of healthy convicts also deteriorated due to the hard labour and poor food. The food situation reached crisis point in 1790 and the Second Fleet which finally arrived in June 1790 had lost a quarter of its passengers through sickness, while the condition of the convicts of the Third Fleet appalled Phillip. From 1791, however, the more regular arrival of ships and the beginnings of trade lessened the feeling of isolation and improved supplies.
In 1788, Phillip established a subsidiary settlement on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific where he hoped to obtain timber and flax for the navy. The island, however, had no safe harbour, which led the settlement to be abandoned and the settlers evacuated to Tasmania in 1807. The island was subsequently re-established as a site for secondary transportation in 1825.
Phillip sent exploratory missions in search of better soils, fixed on the Parramatta region as a promising area for expansion, and moved many of the convicts from late 1788 to establish a small township, which became the main centre of the colony's economic life. This left Sydney Cove only as an important port and focus of social life. Poor equipment and unfamiliar soils and climate continued to hamper the expansion of farming from Farm Cove to Parramatta and Toongabbie, but a building program, assisted by convict labour, advanced steadily. Between 1788 and 1792, convicts and their gaolers made up the majority of the population; however, a free population soon began to grow, consisting of emancipated convicts, locally born children, soldiers whose military service had expired and, finally, free settlers from Britain. Governor Phillip departed the colony for England on 11 December 1792, with the new settlement having survived near starvation and immense isolation for four years. |
History of Australia | Consolidation: 1793 to 1821
After the departure of Phillip, the colony's military officers began acquiring land and importing consumer goods obtained from visiting ships. Former convicts also farmed land granted to them and engaged in trade. Farms spread to the more fertile lands surrounding Paramatta, Windsor, Richmond and Camden, and by 1803 the colony was self-sufficient in grain. Boat building developed in order to make travel easier and exploit the marine resources of the coastal settlements. Sealing and whaling became important industries. |
History of Australia | The New South Wales Corps was formed in England in 1789 as a permanent regiment of the British Army to relieve the marines who had accompanied the First Fleet. Officers of the Corps soon became involved in the corrupt and lucrative rum trade in the colony. Governor William Bligh (1806 – 1808) tried to suppress the rum trade and the illegal use of Crown Land, resulting in the Rum Rebellion of 1808. The Corps, working closely with the newly established wool trader John Macarthur, staged the only successful armed takeover of government in Australian history, deposing Bligh and instigating a brief period of military rule prior to the arrival from Britain of Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810.
Macquarie served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role in the social and economic development of New South Wales which saw it transition from a penal colony to a budding civil society. He established a bank, a currency and a hospital. He employed a planner to design the street layout of Sydney and commissioned the construction of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. He sent explorers out from Sydney and, in 1815, a road across the Blue Mountains was completed, opening the way for large scale farming and grazing in the lightly wooded pastures west of the Great Dividing Range.
Central to Macquarie's policy was his treatment of the emancipists, whom he considered should be treated as social equals to free-settlers in the colony. He appointed emancipists to key government positions including Francis Greenway as colonial architect and William Redfern as a magistrate. His policy on emancipists was opposed by many influential free settlers, officers and officials, and London became concerned at the cost of his public works. In 1819, London appointed J. T. Bigge to conduct an inquiry into the colony, and Macquarie resigned shortly before the report of the inquiry was published. |
History of Australia | Expansion: 1821 to 1850
In 1820, British settlement was largely confined to a 100 kilometre radius around Sydney and to the central plain of Van Diemen's land. The settler population was 26,000 on the mainland and 6,000 in Van Diemen's Land. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 the transportation of convicts increased rapidly and the number of free settlers grew steadily. From 1821 to 1840, 55,000 convicts arrived in New South Wales and 60,000 in Van Diemen's Land. However, by 1830, free settlers and the locally born exceeded the convict population of New South Wales.
From the 1820s squatters increasingly established unauthorised cattle and sheep runs beyond the official limits of the settled colony. In 1836, a system of annual licences authorising grazing on Crown Land was introduced in an attempt to control the pastoral industry, but booming wool prices and the high cost of land in the settled areas encouraged further squatting. By 1844 wool accounted for half of the colony's exports and by 1850 most of the eastern third of New South Wales was controlled by fewer than 2,000 pastoralists.
In 1825, the western boundary of New South Wales was extended to longitude 129° East, which is the current boundary of Western Australia. As a result, the territory of New South Wales reached its greatest extent, covering the area of the modern state as well as modern Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
By 1850 the settler population of New South Wales had grown to 180,000, not including the 70–75 thousand living in the area which became the separate colony of Victoria in 1851. |
History of Australia | Establishment of further colonies
After hosting Nicholas Baudin's French naval expedition in Sydney in 1802, Governor Phillip Gidley King decided to establish a settlement in Van Diemen's Land (modern Tasmania) in 1803, partly to forestall a possible French settlement. The British settlement of the island soon centred on Launceston in the north and Hobart in the south. From the 1820s free settlers were encouraged by the offer of land grants in proportion to the capital the settlers would bring. Van Diemen's Land became a separate colony from New South Wales in December 1825 and continued to expand through the 1830s, supported by farming, sheep grazing and whaling. Following the suspension of convict transportation to New South Wales in 1840, Van Diemen's land became the main destination for convicts. Transportation to Van Diemen's Land ended in 1853 and in 1856 the colony officially changed its name to Tasmania.Pastoralists from Van Diemen's land began squatting in the Port Phillip hinterland on the mainland in 1834, attracted by its rich grasslands. In 1835, John Batman and others negotiated the transfer of 100,000 acres of land from the Kulin people. However, the treaty was annulled the same year when the British Colonial Office issued the Proclamation of Governor Bourke. The proclamation meant that from then, all people found occupying land without the authority of the government would be considered illegal trespassers.
In 1836, Port Phillip was officially recognised as a district of New South Wales and opened for settlement. The main settlement of Melbourne was established in 1837 as a planned town on the instructions of Governor Bourke. Squatters and settlers from Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales soon arrived in large numbers. In 1851, the Port Phillip District separated from New South Wales as the colony of Victoria.In 1826, the governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling, sent a military garrison to King George Sound to deter the French from establishing a settlement in Western Australia. In 1827, the head of the expedition, Major Edmund Lockyer, formally annexed the western third of the continent as a British colony. In 1829, the Swan River colony was established at the sites of modern Fremantle and Perth, becoming the first convict-free and privatised colony in Australia. However, by 1850 there were a little more than 5,000 settlers. The colony accepted convicts from that year because of the acute shortage of labour. The Province of South Australia was established in 1836 as a privately financed settlement based on the theory of "systematic colonisation" developed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Convict labour was banned in the hope of making the colony more attractive to "respectable" families and promote an even balance between male and female settlers. The city of Adelaide was to be planned with a generous provision of churches, parks and schools. Land was to be sold at a uniform price and the proceeds used to secure an adequate supply of labour through selective assisted migration. Various religious, personal and commercial freedoms were guaranteed, and the Letters Patent enabling the South Australia Act 1834 included a guarantee of Aboriginal land rights.
The colony, however, was badly hit by the depression of 1841–44. Conflict with Indigenous traditional landowners also reduced the protections they had been promised. In 1842, the settlement became a Crown colony administered by the governor and an appointed Legislative Council. The economy recovered and by 1850 the settler population had grown to 60,000. In 1851, the colony achieved limited self-government with a partially elected Legislative Council.
In 1824, the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the site of present-day Brisbane. In 1842, the penal colony was closed and the area was opened for free settlement. By 1850 the population of Brisbane had reached 8,000 and increasing numbers of pastoralists were grazing cattle and sheep in the Darling Downs west of the town. Frontier violence between settlers and the Indigenous population became severe as pastoralism expanded north of the Tweed River. A series of disputes between northern pastoralists and the government in Sydney led to increasing demands from the northern settlers for separation from New South Wales. In 1857, the British government agreed to the separation and in 1859 the colony of Queensland was proclaimed. |
History of Australia | Convicts and colonial society
Convicts and emancipists
Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161,700 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Western Australia. The literacy rate of convicts was above average and they brought a range of useful skills to the new colony including building, farming, sailing, fishing and hunting. The small number of free settlers meant that early governors also had to rely on convicts and emancipists for professions such as lawyers, architects, surveyors and teachers.
Convicts initially worked on government farms and public works such as land clearing and building. After 1792, the majority were assigned to work for private employers including emancipists. Emancipists were granted small plots of land for farming and a year of government rations. Later they were assigned convict labour to help them work their farms. Some convicts were assigned to military officers to run their businesses. These convicts learnt commercial skills which could help them work for themselves when their sentence ended or they were granted a "ticket of leave" (a form of parole).
Convicts soon established a system of piece work which allowed them to work for wages once their allocated tasks were completed. By 1821 convicts, emancipists and their children owned two-thirds of the land under cultivation, half the cattle and one-third of the sheep. They also worked in trades and small business. Emancipists employed about half of the convicts assigned to private masters.
A series of reforms recommended by J. T. Bigge in 1822 and 1823 worsened conditions for convicts. The food ration was cut and their opportunities to work for wages restricted. More convicts were assigned to rural work gangs, bureaucratic control and surveillance of convicts was made more systematic, isolated penal settlements were established as places of secondary punishment, the rules for tickets of leave were tightened, and land grants were skewed to favour free settlers with large capital. As a result, convicts who arrived after 1820 were far less likely to become property owners, to marry, and to establish families. |
History of Australia | Free settlers
The Bigge reforms also aimed to encourage free settlers by offering them land grants in proportion to their capital. From 1831, the colonies replaced land grants with land sales by auction at a fixed minimum price per acre, the proceeds being used to fund the assisted migration of workers. From 1821 to 1850, Australia attracted 200,000 immigrants from the United Kingdom. However, the system of land allocations led to the concentration of land in the hands of a small number of affluent settlers.
Two-thirds of the migrants to Australia during this period received assistance from the British or colonial governments. Families of convicts were also offered free passage and about 3,500 migrants were selected under the English Poor Laws. Various special-purpose and charitable schemes, such as those of Caroline Chisholm and John Dunmore Lang, also provided migration assistance. |
History of Australia | Women
Women comprised only about 15% of convicts transported. Due to the shortage of women in the colony they were more likely to marry than men and tended to choose older, skilled men with property as husbands. The early colonial courts enforced the property rights of women independently of their husbands, and the ration system also gave women and their children some protection from abandonment. Women were active in business and agriculture from the early years of the colony, among the most successful being the former convict turned entrepreneur Mary Reibey and the agriculturalist Elizabeth Macarthur. One-third of the shareholders of the first colonial bank (founded in 1817) were women.
One of the goals of the assisted migration programs from the 1830s was to promote migration of women and families to provide a more even gender balance in the colonies. Caroline Chisholm established a shelter and labour exchange for migrant women in New South Wales in the 1840s and promoted the settlement of single and married women in rural areas.
Between 1830 and 1850 the female proportion of the Australian settler population increased from 24 per cent to 41 per cent. |
History of Australia | Religion
The Church of England was the only recognised church before 1820 and its clergy worked closely with the governors. Richard Johnson, (chief chaplain 1788–1802) was charged by Governor Arthur Phillip, with improving "public morality" in the colony and was also heavily involved in health and education. Samuel Marsden (various ministries 1795–1838) became known for his missionary work, the severity of his punishments as a magistrate, and the vehemence of his public denunciations of Catholicism and Irish convicts. About a quarter of convicts were Catholics. The lack of official recognition of Catholicism was combined with suspicion of Irish convicts which only increased after the Irish-led Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804. Only two Catholic priests operated temporarily in the colony before Governor Macquarie appointed official Catholic chaplains in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land in 1820.
The Bigge reports recommended that the status of the Anglican Church be enhanced. An Anglican archdeacon was appointed in 1824 and allocated a seat in the first advisory Legislative Council. The Anglican clergy and schools also received state support. This policy was changed under Governor Burke by the Church Acts of 1836 and 1837. The government now provided state support for the clergy and church buildings of the four largest denominations: Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and, later, Methodist.
Many Anglicans saw state support of the Catholic Church as a threat. The prominent Presbyterian minister John Dunmore Lang also promoted sectarian divisions in the 1840s. State support, however, led to a growth in church activities. Charitable associations such as the Catholic Sisters of Charity, founded in 1838, provided hospitals, orphanages and asylums for the old and disabled. Religious organisations were also the main providers of school education in the first half of the nineteenth century, a notable example being Lang's Australian College which opened in 1831. Many religious associations, such as the Sisters of St Joseph, co-founded by Mary MacKillop in 1866, continued their educational activities after the provision of secular state schools grew from the 1850s. |
History of Australia | Exploration of the continent
In 1798–99 George Bass and Matthew Flinders set out from Sydney in a sloop and circumnavigated Tasmania, thus proving it to be an island. In 1801–02 Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator led the first circumnavigation of Australia. Aboard ship was the Aboriginal explorer Bungaree, who became the first person born on the Australian continent to circumnavigate it. |
History of Australia | In 1798, the former convict John Wilson and two companions crossed the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, in an expedition ordered by Governor Hunter. Hunter suppressed news of the feat for fear that it would encourage convicts to abscond from the settlement. In 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth crossed the mountains by a different route and a road was soon built to the Central Tablelands.
In 1824, Hamilton Hume and William Hovell led an expedition to find new grazing land in the south of the colony, and also to find out where New South Wales' western rivers flowed. Over 16 weeks in 1824–25, they journeyed to Port Phillip and back. They discovered the Murray River (which they named the Hume) and many of its tributaries, and good agricultural and grazing lands.
Charles Sturt led an expedition along the Macquarie River in 1828 and discovered the Darling River. Leading a second expedition in 1829, Sturt followed the Murrumbidgee River into the Murray River. His party then followed this river to its junction with the Darling River. Sturt continued down river on to Lake Alexandrina, where the Murray meets the sea in South Australia.
Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell conducted a series of expeditions from the 1830s to follow up these previous expeditions. Mitchell employed three Aboriginal guides and recorded many Aboriginal place names. He also recorded a violent encounter with traditional owners on the Murray in 1836 in which his men pursued them, "shooting as many as they could."
The Polish scientist and explorer Count Paul Edmund Strzelecki conducted surveying work in the Australian Alps in 1839 and, led by two Aboriginal guides, became the first European to ascend Australia's highest peak, which he named Mount Kosciuszko in honour of the Polish patriot Tadeusz Kościuszko. |
History of Australia | The German scientist Ludwig Leichhardt led three expeditions in northern Australia in the 1840s, sometimes with the help of Aboriginal guides. He and his party disappeared in 1848 while attempting to cross the continent from east to west. Edmund Kennedy led an expedition into what is now far-western Queensland in 1847 before being speared by Aborigines in the Cape York Peninsula in 1848.
In 1860, Burke and Wills led the first south–north crossing of the continent from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Lacking bushcraft and unwilling to learn from the local Aboriginal people, Burke and Wills died in 1861, having returned from the Gulf to their rendezvous point at Coopers Creek only to discover the rest of their party had departed the location only a matter of hours previously. They became tragic heroes to the European settlers, their funeral attracting a crowd of more than 50,000 and their story inspiring numerous books, artworks, films and representations in popular culture.
In 1862, John McDouall Stuart succeeded in traversing central Australia from south to north. His expedition mapped out the route which was later followed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line.
The completion of this telegraph line in 1872 was associated with further exploration of the Gibson Desert and the Nullarbor Plain. While exploring central Australia in 1872, Ernest Giles sighted Kata Tjuta from a location near Kings Canyon and called it Mount Olga. The following year Willian Gosse observed Uluru and named it Ayers Rock, in honour of the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers.
In 1879, Alexander Forrest trekked from the north coast of Western Australia to the overland telegraph, discovering land suitable for grazing in the Kimberley region. |
History of Australia | Impact of British settlement on Indigenous population
When the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove with some 1,300 colonists in January 1788 the Aboriginal population of the Sydney region is estimated to have been about 3,000 people. The first governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, arrived with instructions to: "endeavour by every possible means to open an Intercourse with the Natives and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all Our Subjects to live in amity and kindness with them." |
History of Australia | Disease
The relative isolation of the Indigenous population for some 60,000 years meant that they had little resistance to many introduced diseases. An outbreak of smallpox in April 1789 killed about half the Aboriginal population of the Sydney region. The source of the outbreak is controversial; some researchers contend that it originated from contact with Indonesian fisherman in the far north while others argue that it is more likely to have been inadvertently or deliberately spread by settlers.
There were further smallpox outbreaks devastating Aboriginal populations from the late 1820s (affecting south-eastern Australia), in the early 1860s (travelling inland from the Coburg Peninsula in the north to the Great Australian Bight in the south), and in the late 1860s (from the Kimberley to Geraldton). According to Josphine Flood, the estimated Aboriginal mortality rate from smallpox was 60 per cent on first exposure, 50 per cent in the tropics, and 25 per cent in the arid interior.
Other introduced diseases such as measles, influenza, typhoid and tuberculosis also resulted in high death rates in Aboriginal communities. Butlin estimates that the Aboriginal population in the area of modern Victoria was around 50,000 in 1788 before two smallpox outbreaks reduced it to about 12,500 in 1830. Between 1835 and 1853, the Aboriginal population of Victoria fell from 10,000 to around 2,000. It is estimated that about 60 per cent of these deaths were from introduced diseases, 18 per cent from natural causes and 15 per cent from settler violence.
Venereal diseases were also a factor in Indigenous depopulation, reducing Aboriginal fertility rates in south-eastern Australia by an estimated 40 per cent by 1855. By 1890 up to 50 per cent of the Aboriginal population in some regions of Queensland were affected. |
History of Australia | Conflict and dispossession
The British settlement was initially planned to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on agriculture. Karskens argues that conflict broke out between the settlers and the traditional owners of the land because of the settlers' assumptions about the superiority of British civilisation and their entitlement to land which they had "improved" through building and cultivation. |
History of Australia | Conflict also arose from cross-cultural misunderstandings and from reprisals for previous actions such as the kidnapping of Aboriginal men, women and children. Reprisal attacks and collective punishments were perpetrated by colonists and Aboriginal groups alike. Sustained Aboriginal attacks on settlers, the burning of crops and the mass killing of livestock were more obviously acts of resistance to the loss of traditional land and food resources.
There were intense conflicts between settlers and the Darug people from 1794 to 1800 in which 26 settlers and up to 200 Darug were killed. Conflict also erupted in Dharawal country from 1814 to 1816, culminating in the Appin massacre (April 1816) in which at least 14 Aboriginal people were killed.
In the 1820s, the colony spread over the Great Dividing Range, opening the way for large scale farming and grazing in Wiradjuri country. From 1822 to 1824 Windradyne led a group of 50-100 Aboriginal men in raids which resulted in the death of 15-20 colonists. Estimates of Aboriginal deaths in the conflict range from 15 to 100.
In Van Diemen's land, the Black War broke out in 1824, following a rapid expansion of settler numbers and sheep grazing in the island's interior. Martial law was declared in November 1828 and in October 1830 a "Black Line" of around 2,200 troops and settlers swept the island with the intention of driving the Aboriginal population from the settled districts. From 1830 to 1834, George Augustus Robinson and Aboriginal ambassadors including Truganini led a series of "Friendly Missions" to the Aboriginal tribes which effectively ended the war. Around 200 settlers and 600 to 900 Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed in the conflict and the Aboriginal survivors were eventually relocated to Flinders Island. |
History of Australia | The spread of settlers and pastoralists into the region of modern Victoria in the 1830s also sparked conflict with traditional landowners. Broome estimates that 80 settlers and 1,000–1,500 Aboriginal people died in frontier conflict in Victoria from 1835 to 1853.
The growth of the Swan River Colony in the 1830s led to conflict with Aboriginal people, culminating in the Pinjarra massacre in which some 15 to 30 Aboriginal people were killed. According to Neville Green, 30 settlers and 121 Aboriginal people died in violent conflict in Western Australia between 1826 and 1852. |
History of Australia | The spread of sheep and cattle grazing after 1850 brought further conflict with Aboriginal tribes more distant from the closely settled areas. Aboriginal casualty rates in conflicts increased as the colonists made greater use of mounted police, Native Police units, and newly developed revolvers and breech-loaded guns. Conflict was particularly intense in NSW in the 1840s and in Queensland from 1860 to 1880. In central Australia, it is estimated that 650 to 850 Aboriginal people, out of a population of 4,500, were killed by colonists from 1860 to 1895. In the Gulf Country of northern Australia five settlers and 300 Aboriginal people were killed before 1886. The last recorded massacre of Aboriginal people by settlers was at Coniston in the Northern Territory in 1928 where at least 31 Aboriginal people were killed.
The spread of British settlement also led to an increase in inter-tribal Aboriginal conflict as more people were forced off their traditional lands into the territory of other, often hostile, tribes. Butlin estimated that of the 8,000 Aboriginal deaths in Victoria from 1835 to 1855, 200 were from inter-tribal violence.
Broome estimates the total death toll from settler-Aboriginal conflict between 1788 and 1928 as 1,700 settlers and 17–20,000 Aboriginal people. Reynolds has suggested a higher "guesstimate" of 3,000 settlers and up to 30,000 Aboriginals killed. A project team at the University of Newcastle, Australia, has reached a preliminary estimate of 8,270 Aboriginal deaths in frontier massacres from 1788 to 1930. |
History of Australia | Accommodation and protection
In the first two years of settlement the Aboriginal people of Sydney mostly avoided the newcomers. In November 1790, Bennelong led the survivors of several clans into Sydney, 18 months after the smallpox epidemic that had devastated the Aboriginal population. Bungaree, a Kuringgai man, joined Matthew Flinders in his circumnavigation of Australia from 1801 to 1803, playing an important role as emissary to the various Indigenous peoples they encountered.
Governor Macquarie attempted to assimilate Aboriginal people, providing land grants, establishing Aboriginal farms, and founding a Native Institution to provide education to Aboriginal children. However, by the 1820s the Native Institution and Aboriginal farms had failed. Aboriginal people continued to live on vacant waterfront land and on the fringes of the Sydney settlement, adapting traditional practices to the new semi-urban environment. |
History of Australia | Following escalating frontier conflict, Protectors of Aborigines were appointed in South Australia and the Port Phillip District in 1839, and in Western Australia in 1840. The aim was to extend the protection of British law to Aboriginal people, to distribute rations, and to provide education, instruction in Christianity, and occupational training. However, by 1857 the protection offices had been closed due to their cost and failure to meets their goals. In 1825, the NSW governor granted 10,000 acres for an Aboriginal Christian mission at Lake Macquarie. In the 1830s and early 1840s there were also missions in the Wellington Valley, Port Phillip and Moreton Bay. The settlement for Aboriginal Tasmanians on Flinders Island operated effectively as a mission under George Robinson from 1835 to 1838.
In New South Wales, 116 Aboriginal reserves were established between 1860 and 1894. Most reserves allowed Aboriginal people a degree of autonomy and freedom to enter and leave. In contrast, the Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines (created in 1869) had extensive power to regulate the employment, education and place of residence of Aboriginal Victorians, and closely managed the five reserves and missions established since self government in 1858. In 1886, the protection board gained the power to exclude "half caste" Aboriginal people from missions and stations. The Victorian legislation was the forerunner of the racial segregation policies of other Australian governments from the 1890s.
In more densely settled areas, most Aboriginal people who had lost control of their land lived on reserves and missions, or on the fringes of cities and towns. In pastoral districts the British Waste Land Act of 1848 gave traditional landowners limited rights to live, hunt and gather food on Crown land under pastoral leases. Many Aboriginal groups camped on pastoral stations where Aboriginal men were often employed as shepherds and stockmen. These groups were able to retain a connection with their lands and maintain aspects of their traditional culture.
Foreign pearlers moved into the Torres Strait Islands from 1868 bringing exotic diseases which halved the Indigenous population. In 1871, the London Missionary Society began operating in the islands and most Torres Strait Islanders converted to Christianity which they considered compatible with their beliefs. Queensland annexed the islands in 1879. |
History of Australia | From autonomy to federation
Colonial self-government and the gold rushes
Towards representative government
Imperial legislation in 1823 had provided for a Legislative Council nominated by the governor of New South Wales, and a new Supreme Court, providing additional limits to the power of governors. A number of prominent colonial figures, including William Wentworth. campaigned for a greater degree of self-government, although there were divisions about the extent to which a future legislative body should be popularly elected. Other issues included traditional British political rights, land policy, transportation and whether a large population of convicts and former convicts could be trusted with self-government. The Australian Patriotic Association was formed in 1835 by Wentworth and William Bland to promote representative government for New South Wales.Transportation to New South Wales was suspended in 1840. In 1842 Britain granted limited representative government to the colony by reforming the Legislative Council so that two-thirds of its members would be elected by male voters. However, a property qualification meant that only 20 per cent of males were eligible to vote in the first Legislative Council elections in 1843.
The increasing number of free settlers and people born in the colonies led to further agitation for liberal and democratic reforms. In the Port Phillip District there was agitation for representative government and independence from New South Wales. In 1850, Britain granted Van Diemen's Land, South Australia and the newly created colony of Victoria semi-elected Legislative Councils on the New South Wales model. |
History of Australia | The gold rushes of the 1850s
In February 1851, Edward Hargraves discovered gold near Bathurst, New South Wales. Further discoveries were made later that year in Victoria, where the richest gold fields were found. New South Wales and Victoria introduced a gold mining licence with a monthly fee, the revenue being used to offset the cost of providing infrastructure, administration and policing of the goldfields.
The gold rush initially caused inflation and labour shortages as male workers moved to the goldfields. Immigrants als poured in from Britain, Europe, the United States and China. The Australian population increased from 430,000 in 1851 to 1,170,000 in 1861. Victoria became the most populous colony and Melbourne the largest city.
Chinese migration was a particular concern for colonial officials due to the widespread belief that it represented a danger to white Australian living standards and morality. Colonial governments responded by imposing taxes and restrictions on Chinese migrants and residents. Anti-Chinese riots erupted on the Victorian goldfields in 1856 and in New South Wales in 1860. |
History of Australia | The Eureka stockade
Faced with increasing competition, Victorian miners increasingly complaint about the licence fee, corrupt and heavy-handed officials, and the lack of voting rights for itinerant miners. Protests intensified in October 1854 when three miners were arrested following a riot at Ballarat. Protesters formed the Ballarat Reform League to support the arrested men and demanded manhood suffrage, reform of the mining licence and administration, and land reform to promote small farms. Further protests followed and protesters built a stockade on the Eureka Field at Ballarat. On 3 December troops overran the stockade, killing about 20 protesters. Five troops were killed and 12 seriously wounded.
Following a Royal Commission, the monthly licence was replaced with a cheaper annual miner's right which gave holders the right to vote and build a dwelling on the goldfields. The administration of the Victorian goldfields was also reformed. The Eureka rebellion soon became a part of Australian nationalist mythology. |
Subsets and Splits