SETTLEMENT HISTORY

Settlement outside of Sydney began slowly with the successful expansion of the wool industry throughout New South Wales. In 1803, Hobart (in Tasmania) was established to accommodate more convicts and to protect the new colony from occupation by other European powers, namely the French.

With the discovery of gold and other valuable mineral resources in the mid 19th century, floods of free settlers began arriving from Britain, continental Europe, America and Asia. Between 1850 and 1861, the population increased from about 400,000 to 1.2 million.

At the time of Federation (1901), Australia was, by accident rather than design, a multicultural society with immigrants continuing to outnumber those born in Australia. Despite the dominance of the English in positions of power, the majority of the population were Irish, along with a fair representation from most of Europe and parts of Asia.

Even so, among the first acts of the new Australian Government was to pass the "White Australia" policy limiting non-European immigration. Essentially introduced to protect Australian workers from cheap migrant labour, the policy's racist connotations have been hard to live down.

There has been continued migration to Australia, particularly after World War II, and today more than a quarter of Australians were born overseas, while more than half have at least one parent from another country.