Topic: Australia 26.02.

2011
Kevin Lee, Tobias Dietz

Commonwealth of Australia
• The Settlers were not curious
about using nature for profits
Settlement → settlers took advantage
(worksheet: “Voyages to a new
destiny”)
Half-caste children / The
• First settlers coming to Australia were Stolen Generations
convicts and ordinary people from • Term describes children with only one
Britain (1788) Australian parent part
• Were removed from their families
• USA became independent => GB had
under the state’s order (1869-1969)
to find another way to place convicts
• “The Aboriginal will be bred out”
under detention

• Numbers of immigrants kept • Between 30.000 to 60.000 children

increasing with the British were taken away from their families
government offering land as a bait to
potential settlers

• 1831 – Prices for land were fixed; the

money was used to subsidize
immigration Immigration
(worksheets: “Australia needs you”,
“Immigration: the Background”, “ A Cry
• Mid 1840’s – temporary economic
for Freedom and a Better Life” and
depression followed by a migrant flow British vs. Australian immigration
greater than ever politics)

• 1851 – Goldrush • Refugee detention centers

tend to “prison-like conditions”
• 1850-1860- Population increased from • Illegal Immigrants have a very
400.000 to 1.145.000 (most were difficult status
goldseekers, not only from Britain) • Refugees from
Commonwealth are entitled to
The Settlement–two points of support services
view • 1946 ‘10£ pom’ caused a
(worksheets: “The beginning of the huge immigration wave from Britain
end”;”Oh don’t you wish you were to Australia→ Many unqualified
me”;”First encounters-Value Clashes”) workers immigrated

• Today Australia needs high

• Aborigines thought settlers were to be
ghosts from ancestors
• Aborigines felt inferior but welcomed
the “ghosts” friendly
• Settlers “civilized” the surroundings,
displacing the natives, making them
trespassers in their
AustraliaEthnocentric belief let the
settlers think, that their own ethnic
group is centrally important;
everything else is put under
• Aboriginals believed to be owned by
nature in which they are a part of;
taking from it meant risking a balance
skilled workers to “restock an
overstretched labour force”
• Skilled works attracted by the
“laid-back Aussie way of life” →
better life quality
• Migration system is based on
points
• You earn points for certain
qualities and abilities
• Family relationships,
humanitarian programs and special
eligibilities can also lead to legal
immigration
• Since 1945, around 6.9 Mio.
People have settled to Australia →
important contribution to society
 Topic: Australia 26.02.2011
Kevin Lee, Tobias Dietz

Aborigines nowadays
(Ellen’s Presentation, worksheets:
“Australia’s first Aboriginal MP shrugs
off racist taunts”)

• Aborigines are often “tourist

attractions” and usually in the lower
society class

• Outcasts in society ( e.g. not

allowed/accepted in certain facilities)

• 2001, the population of

aborigines was around, 1.9% of the
Australian population
• Racial Discrimination Act
prohibits discriminating actions
( released 1975)
• The Northern Territory
National Emergency Responseis a law
released in 2007, it is known as
“intervention”
• “Intervention” prohibits
alcohol and pornography in
Aboriginal society
• Still the incidence of rime and
alcoholism is higher in indigenous
communities

Process of coming to terms

with the past
(worksheets: “Rudd apologizes to
Australia’s Aborigines”)

• Former Prime Minister Kevin

Rudd apologizes to Australia’s
Aborigines in 2007
• BUT no compensation for
example in the form of a financial
fund