Who discovered Australia: the history of the discovery of the continent. Who discovered Australia? History of discovery and exploration of Australia Australia history of discovery and exploration in brief

Discovery history. Man appeared in Australia 40 thousand years ago. They were newcomers from South and Southeast Asia, the forerunners of modern aborigines. Having populated the eastern part of Australia, people also penetrated into Tasmania. The fact that the Tasmanians are descendants of ancient Australians is confirmed by recent archaeological finds on Hunter Island in Bass Strait.

Assumptions about the existence of the mysterious Terra incognita Australis - "Unknown southern land" south of the equator were expressed by ancient geographers. A vast area of ​​land in the southern hemisphere was depicted on maps in the 15th century, although its outlines in no way resembled Australia. Some information concerning the northern coasts of Australia was available from the Portuguese as far back as the 16th century; they came from the inhabitants of the Malay Islands, who visited the coastal waters of the mainland to catch trepangs. However, until the 17th century, none of the Europeans managed to see Australia with their own eyes.

The discovery of Australia has long been associated with the name of the English navigator James Cook. In fact, the first Europeans to visit the coast of this continent and meet here with scattered tribes of aborigines were the Dutch: Willem Janszoon in 1605 and Abel Tasman in 1642. Janszon crossed the Torres Strait and sailed along the coast of the Cape York Peninsula, while Tasman discovered the southwestern part of Tasmania, which he considered part of the mainland. And the Spaniard Torres in 1606 sailed through the strait that separates the island of New Guinea from the mainland.

However, the Spaniards and the Dutch kept their discoveries secret. James Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia only one hundred and fifty years later, in 1770, and immediately declared it an English possession. A royal “penal colony” was created here for criminals, and later for exiled members of the Chartist movement in England. Representatives of the British authorities, who arrived in 1788 with the "first fleet" to the shores of Australia, founded the city of Sydney, which was subsequently proclaimed the administrative center of the British colony of New South Wales, created in 1824. With the arrival of the "second fleet" the first free settlers appear. Development begins, or rather, the capture of the mainland, accompanied by the most severe extermination of the indigenous population. Aborigines were hunted, and bonuses were given for the dead. Often, the colonists staged real raids on the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, killing them without distinction of sex and age, scattering poisoned food, after which people died in terrible agony. Not surprisingly, a hundred years later, most of the indigenous population was exterminated. The remaining natives were driven from the land of their ancestors and pushed into the interior desert regions. In 1827, England announces the establishment of its sovereignty over the entire continent.

The end of the 18th and the entire 19th century for Australia is the time of geographical discoveries. In 1797, the exploration of the shores of the continent began by the talented English hydrographer M. Flinders, whose work Australian geographers rate as highly as Cook's discoveries. He confirmed the existence of the Bass Strait, explored the shores of Tasmania and South Australia, the entire eastern and northern coasts of the mainland, mapped the Great Barrier Reef. Flinders, on the other hand, proposed giving the continent the name "Australia", replacing it with the previously accepted designation on the maps "New Holland", which was finally supplanted since 1824.

By the 19th century, the contours of the mainland were mostly mapped, but the interior remained a “blank spot”. The first attempt to penetrate deep into Australia was made in 1813 by an expedition of English colonists who discovered a passage through the Blue Mountains and discovered magnificent pasture lands west of the Great Dividing Range. A “land fever” began: a stream of free settlers poured into Australia, capturing huge plots of land, where they organized thousands of sheep farms. This land grab was called “squatting”.

The parties of prospectors moved further and further west, south and north, crossed the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers. In 1840, P. Strzelecki discovered the highest peak of the mainland in the Australian Alps, which he named Mount Kosciuszko in honor of the national hero of Poland.

More than a dozen large expeditions were equipped to explore the Australian Interior, attempts were made to cross the continent. Significant discoveries in the depths of the mainland belong to C. Sturt, who first discovered the Darling River and the Simpson Desert. Significant discoveries in the southeast were made by D. Mitchell, in the west by D. Gray; V. Leichgard traveled from the Darling Range to the northern coast, but three years later, while trying to cross the continent from east to west, his expedition went missing in the endless deserts of Central Australia.

For the first time, R. Burke managed to cross the continent from south to north, who led a well-equipped expedition in 1860-1861. Burke went from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but on the way back he died along with his companion W. Wils. D. Stuart managed to cross the continent twice, passing through the most sultry places of the central deserts.

By the end of the 19th century, exploration of inland Australia was completed.

At the very beginning of the 19th century, a hard labor colony was founded in Tasmania, free settlers appeared on the island later, only in the 20s of the 19th century, and at the same time extermination campaigns began against the Tasmanian aborigines. In just a decade, most of the Tasmanians were exterminated. In 1876, the last Tasmanian woman died.

The period of discovery in Tasmania lasted until 1843. By this time, not only the coasts, but also the central regions had been surveyed, work began on a continuous large-scale survey of the territory, and in the 70s large deposits of tin, gold and rare metals were discovered on the island.

The first settlers who arrived in Australia did not find anything similar to the landscapes of England. They did not perceive either the beauty of malga (acacia bushes) or the magnificence of eucalyptus forests. The colonists did everything to make the landscapes in which they got as close as possible to the parks and pastures of England.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the development of Australian territories was slow. The exiles who arrived with the first ships brought with them seeds and seedlings of plants, which they began to grow on the poor sandy soils around the first settlement on the site of modern Sydney. Agriculture was slash-and-burn, organic fertilizers were not used, as there were no livestock. During the year, two crops were harvested - wheat and corn, when the crops fell, the site was abandoned.

Gradually, farmers began to move from the areas of initial development on the southeast coast, following the pastoralists, inland, north, to the tropical coast, changing old and breeding new crops. From 1850 to 1914, Australian farmers developed the best land on the continent. The most fertile soils were almost completely occupied by wheat, and sugar cane was grown further north, on the alluvial plains near the Tropic of Capricorn.

At the same time, cattle breeding began to move into the interior of Australia, at first to the relatively watered areas of the light forests of the southeast, and then to the arid regions of Central Australia.

An important milestone in the development of the country was the middle of the last century, when gold was found in several places at once - first in the states of Victoria and New Wales, and then in Western Australia. At this time, a stream of immigrants, mainly English and Irish, rushes to Australian soil.

The "Gold Rush", as well as the spread of extensive sheep breeding over large areas of land, led to the rapid development of the economy, population growth and the administrative formation of the colonies. In the 70s, there were already six separate colonies in Australia: New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, which fought for self-government. In the period from 1873 to 1883, negotiations were held between the colonies on the creation of a federation, which ended by 1889 with the development of a draft constitution.

Abel Tasman- Dutch navigator, explorer and merchant. He received worldwide recognition for the sea campaigns he led in 1642-1644. He was the first known European explorer to reach the shores of New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. The data collected during his expeditions helped to prove the fact that Australia is a separate continent.

Abel Janszoon Tasman was born in 1603 in the village of Lütjegast near Groningen (now the municipality of Grotegast in the province of Groningen) in the Netherlands. The exact date of his birth is unknown. The first documentary mention of him refers to 1631, when he, already widowed by that time, remarried. As follows from the surviving church record, his wife was illiterate and came from a poor family, which indirectly confirmed the validity of the assumptions of the researchers of his biography about his low social status at that time.

Presumably at the same time, Abel Tasman entered the service of the Dutch East India Company as a simple sailor, but already in the records of 1634 he appears as the skipper (captain) of one of the company's ships. The main occupation of the company's sailors at that time was the service of transportation of spices and spices, which were an expensive and valuable commodity for the European market.

In 1638, Tasman, commanding a ship, sailed to India.

In 1639, Tasman led one of two ships (together with M. Quast) equipped by the East India Company to explore the navigation areas in the region of Japan and trade opportunities with the local population. In general, this expedition was not successful and after 6 months spent at sea, the Tasman ship, having lost almost 40 out of 90 crew members, returned to the Dutch fort Zeelandia on the island of Formosa (Taiwan). During this voyage, Bonin Island was discovered by him.

In 1640, Tasman again led one of the 11 Dutch ships headed for the shores of Japan. This time he spent about three months in the Japanese port of Hirado.

In 1642, Tasman was appointed commander of a detachment of two ships of the East India Company sent to explore the southern and eastern waters of the Pacific Ocean. According to the hypotheses of geographers and navigators of that era, it was these waters that should have washed the shores of the mythical Unknown Southern Land, about the possible wealth of which several generations told. During this voyage, on November 24, 1642, Tasman discovered a large island (Tasmania) off the coast of Australia and named it Van Diemen's land in honor of the governor of the Netherlands East Indies. After following several tens of miles along the coast of the island, Tasman turned east and on December 13 he saw the outlines of another unfamiliar land. It was the South Island of New Zealand. During the stop at this island, Europeans first met with the Maori, the original inhabitants of New Zealand. The meeting ended tragically: the Maori attacked the landing Dutch, killed several sailors and disappeared. Frustrated by this incident, Tasman named this place Killer Bay (now Golden Bay).

Continuing along the west coast of the North Tasman Island, he reached its tip and turned to the northeast. On January 21, 1643, the expedition reached the Tonga archipelago, discovering here several previously unknown islands. Having replenished supplies of water and food on Tonga, on February 6, Tasman's ships approached the islands of the Fiji archipelago. Further, leaving the Fiji Islands to the south, Tasman passed along the northern coast of New Guinea and on June 15, after an almost ten-month journey, arrived in Batavia.

In 1643, Tasman led a detachment of three East India Company ships along the western coast of New Guinea and the northern coast of Australia. As a result, a significant part of the coast of northern Australia was mapped for the first time.

From the point of view of the leadership of the East India Company, the navigation of detachments of ships under the command of Tasman in 1642-1644 ended in complete failure - new trade areas were never discovered and no new sea passages were found for navigation. Until almost 100 years later, the British navigator James Cook traveled, Europeans never began to explore New Zealand, and visits to Australia were isolated and most often caused by shipwrecks. After the expedition returned to Batavia, Tasman was promoted to the rank of commander and raised his salary, and he himself was appointed a member of the Legal Council of Batavia. In 1647 he was sent as a representative to the king of Siam, and in 1648 he led a detachment of 8 ships that opposed the ships of the Spanish fleet.

Around 1651, Abel Tasman retired and moved on to trade in Batavia.

Relief. Australia is the flattest continent. Most of it is a plain, the edges of which are raised, especially in the east. Mountains occupy only 5% of the mainland. The average height of the mainland is 340-350 m above sea level. In the structure of its surface, three areas are clearly expressed: the Zahidno-Australian Plateau with a height of 400-500 m, the Central Lowland, where the lowest point of the mainland (-12 m below sea level) is located in the Lake Eyre region, and the medium-altitude Great Dividing Range in the east with the highest point of the mainland (Mount Kosciuszko, 2228 m).

The geological structure of Australia in comparison with other continents is the simplest. The mainland consists of ancient Precambrian and young

Epihercynian platforms, occupying the western and central territory, and a much smaller folded belt of the Liznoproterozoic and Paleozoic age in the east.

The Australian platform is one of the largest on Earth. A distinctive feature of its structure is the alternation of protrusions of the ancient foundation and depressions. The outcrops of metamorphosed and volcanic rocks of the folded basement form three shields - Zakhidno-Australian, Pivnichno-Australian and Shvdenno-Australian. Within the framework of the first of them, the oldest rocks were found, which were formed more than 3 billion years ago.

"The eastern part of the mainland from the Cape York Peninsula in the north to the island of Tasmania in the south" has the Shidno-Australian folded region.

Geological structures determined the differences in the forms of the surface of the western and eastern parts of the mainland.

The Central Lowland is located in the zone of the meridional trough of the Australian Platform. Here, the relief is dominated by lowlands, confined to the areas of the greatest subsidence of the platform foundation - the basin of Lake Eyre, the Murray basin and the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Mountain types of relief in Australia are almost not common. In the southeast, to the Zahidno-Australian Plateau, low (700 - 900 m) blocky mountains Flinders and Mount Lofty adjoin. Flat-topped uplifts are broken by a graben, which go under water and form Spencer and St. Vincent bays. There are mountains in the center of Australia - McDonnelly and Musgrave,

The mountain belt of Eastern Australia is formed by the Great Dividing Range and the mountains of Tasmania. These low folded-blocky mountain structures were formed as a result of Neogene tectonic movements. The eastern slopes of the mountains are steep, the western slopes are gentle. A feature of the Great Dividing Range is the displacement of the main watershed from the higher eastern

ranges to flat-topped low-mountain plateaus in the west.

Australia is rich in minerals. The crystalline rocks of the platform foundation contain iron, copper, lead-zinc, uranium ores, and gold. Minerals of sedimentary origin include deposits of phosphorites, rock salt, hard and brown coal, oil, natural gas. Many deposits lie at shallow depths, so they are mined by open-cast mining. In terms of reserves of iron ore, non-ferrous metal ores (bauxite, lead, zinc, nickel) and uranium, Australia occupies one of the first places in the world.

Climate. Australia is the driest continent on Earth, three-quarters of its surface has insufficient moisture. Climatic conditions on the continent are determined by its position near the equator, on both sides of the tropic. It was the hot tropical sun that caused the formation of extended deserts on the continent.

Compared to South Africa and South America, South of the Equator, Australia is more "stretched" from west to east. With a weak dissection of the coastline, this causes constantly high temperatures in the interior and gives the right to consider it the hottest part of the land of the southern hemisphere.

The main territory of Australia is located in three climatic zones - from the subequatorial in the north, in the main part of the tropical, in the subtropical in the south, and the island of Tasmania is classified by climatologists as a temperate zone.

From December to February (in the summer of the southern hemisphere), the mainland warms up strongly, especially its central parts; This is the hot season of the year. In the area of ​​Alice Springs (the center of Australia) and in the adjacent deserts, the average air temperatures during the day are about 35-36 degrees, and on some days even above +40. In winter, daytime temperatures here are almost two times lower - about +20 degrees, in the Great Victoria Desert - up to +10 degrees, in some years night frosts are not ruled out.

In inland areas, the influx of moist air from the north leads to occasional rains in summer, which, on the whole, are of little effect. South of 19-20o S sh. rainfall is no more than 300 mm, and semi-deserts and deserts dominate.

On the West Coast - in Perth the climate is somewhat milder due to the influence of the ocean - in the summer it is usually 30-degree heat, in winter the air cools down to +18 ... + 20 degrees during the day and + 6 ... + 8 at night.

In the most inhabited region of Australia - the southeast coast, the Mediterranean type of climate reigns - with hot, dry summers and rainy mild winters. So, in Melbourne in summer, on typical January days, the thermometer usually stays around +25..+27 degrees, and in winter it drops to +10…+12, at night to +5.

In the coolest part of the country - on the island of Tasmania - a typical British climate prevails - in summer the daytime temperature is +20 ... +22, in winter it is ten degrees cooler. In winter, night frosts occur, but there is no stable snow cover here - in the entire region, snow steadily falls only on the tops of the mountains.

Australia is one of the most exotic English-speaking countries in the world. With a high standard of living and an attractive immigration policy, many see it as a place to live or work. If you are learning English to move to Australia, or for work, study or pleasure, it will be helpful to get a general idea of ​​the history of this country.

prehistoric australia

About 50 thousand years ago, the first people arrived on the southern mainland of Australia - the earliest sea travelers in the world. Geologists believe that at that time the island of New Guinea in the north and Tasmania in the south were part of the continent.

After several thousand years, the mainland began to be actively settled. The earliest archaeological find of human remains in Australia is the so-called Mungo Man, who lived about 40,000 years ago. According to it, scientists have determined that the first inhabitants of Australia were massive and tall people.

In the prehistoric period, Australia was settled by people in several waves. About 5 thousand years ago, with the next stream of migrants, the dingo dog appeared on the mainland - the only non-marsupial Australian predator. Only by the 2nd millennium BC did the Australian Aborigines acquire their modern look, evolving and mixing with the newcomers.

The aborigines formed diverse tribes with their own languages, culture, religion and tradition. By the time the Europeans discovered Australia, there were about 500 tribes on the mainland who spoke about 250 different languages. None of them had a written language, so their history is not well known. They used symbolic drawings, retelling ancient legends in them. These myths and archaeological finds are the only data that historians studying Australia can use.

Since people began to settle Australia quite a long time ago (for comparison, people came to the territory of America only 13 thousand years ago, as much as 27 thousand years later) and before the arrival of Europeans were not influenced by the rest of the world, the Australian aboriginal civilization is considered one of the oldest continuous cultures. in the world.

European studies of the mainland

Australia is officially considered to have been discovered by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszon in 1606. He sailed to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north of the mainland and landed on the Cape York Peninsula - the northernmost point of Australia, which is located only 160 kilometers from New Guinea. A year before him, the Spaniard Luis Vaes Torres swam in these waters, who passed very close to the Australian coast and even supposedly saw the land on the horizon, but mistook it for another archipelago.

There are several other alternative theories for the discovery of Australia. According to one of them, Portuguese navigators discovered the mainland before Willem Janszon. A flotilla led by de Siqueira explored the route to the Moluccas and sent several expeditions around the archipelago. One of these expeditions under the command of Mendonsa in 1522 allegedly visited the northwestern shores of Australia.

The theory of the early discovery of Australia looks plausible, since 16th century cannons were found just on the west coast in the 20th century. On the territory of the mainland, unusual finds have been discovered more than once, which can only be explained by the early voyages of Europeans to the Australian shores. However, these theories are considered controversial. In addition, the discovery of Australia remained unknown to Europe until the voyages of the Dutch.

Janszon declared the found territories the possession of the Netherlands, although the Dutch did not begin their development. In the next few decades, the Dutch continued to explore Australia. In 1616 Derk Hartog visited the west coast, three years later Frederick de Houtman explored several hundred kilometers of the coast. In 1644, Abel Tasman launched his famous sea voyages, during which he discovered New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji and Tonga, and also proved that Australia was a separate continent.

The Dutch explored only the west coast of Australia, the rest of the coastline and inland remained unexplored until the voyages of James Cook a century later, in 1769. It was believed that New Holland (the first name of Australia) discovered by the Dutch does not belong to the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita, the existence of which has been suspected since ancient times. New Holland was an inhospitable place with a difficult climate and hostile natives, so there was no interest in it for a long time.

In the middle of the 18th century, the British came up with the idea of ​​exiling convicts to the islands of the Southern Ocean or to a supposedly existing mainland called the Unknown Southern Land. In 1769, English lieutenant James Cook set off on the ship Endeavor to Tahiti on a secret mission to find the southern mainland and explore the coast of New Holland.

Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia and landed in Botany Bay. After examining the coastal lands, he concluded that they were favorable enough for the establishment of a colony. Then Cook went along the coast in a northwesterly direction and found the strait between Australia and New Guinea (thus proving that this island is not part of the mainland). The navigator did not fulfill the task of finding the southern mainland.

During the second round-the-world expedition, Cook explored the southern latitudes and came to the conclusion that there are no large lands in them except Australia. Dreams of Terra Australis were shattered, but a free name remained. In 1814, the English navigator Matthew Flinders suggested that New Holland should be called Australia. By that time, colonies from several states already existed on the mainland, which did not immediately accept the proposal, but eventually began to use this name. In 1824 it became official.

British colonization of Australia

Cook recommended Botany Bay for settlement. Here in 1787 the first fleet with settlers went. They were convicts - but for the most part not malicious criminals, robbers and murderers, but former merchants and farmers convicted of short terms for minor crimes. Many of them were soon granted pardons and allocated plots for farms. The rest of the settlers were infantrymen with their families, officers and other employees.

The ships found a convenient place for colonization near Botany Bay - Port Jackson Bay, where they founded a settlement in Sydney Cove. The date the colony was founded, January 26, 1788, later became a national holiday, Australia Day. A month later, the governor of the settlement officially announced the creation of a colony, which was called New South Wales. The settlement began to be named after the British Minister of the Interior, Viscount Sydney. This is how the city of Sydney appeared - now the largest and most developed in Australia.

The governor of the colony tried to improve relations with the natives, helped the convicts to improve, and established trade and agriculture. The first years were difficult for the settlers: there was not enough food, the convicts had few professional skills, and new convicts arriving in the colony turned out to be sick and disabled after a long and difficult voyage. But the governor managed to develop the colony, and from 1791 its affairs began to go uphill.

The living conditions of the convicts were harsh. They had to do a lot of work to create a colony: build houses and roads, help farmers. They starved and were severely punished. But the pardoned prisoners remained in Australia, received their allotments and could themselves hire convicts. One such ex-convict grew the first successful crop of wheat in 1789. Soon the colony began to provide itself with food.

In 1793, the first free settlers arrived in Sydney (except for the military guarding the convicts). They were given land free of charge, provided agricultural equipment for the first time, and were given the right to free movement and use the labor of prisoners.

Mainland exploration

After the founding of the colony, exploration of Australia continued. Europeans used the services of local guides, so most of the trips were successful. In 1813 an expedition by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth passed through the ranges of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and found extensive pastures. In 1824, the Hume and Hovell expedition made many important discoveries, discovered the Murray River and its tributaries, and discovered many new pastures.

In 1828, Charles Sturt discovered the Darling River and reached the point where the Murray River flows into the Great Australian Bight. Then followed a whole series of expeditions, filling in the gaps of previous research. European and Australian explorers retained many of the original place names instead of giving their own. In 1839, the Polish traveler Strzelecki climbed the highest peak in Australia - Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps.

In 1829 Great Britain claimed the entire western part of Australia. The colony of New South Wales was divided into several, the colonies of Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory, Swan River appeared. Settlers gradually spread across the continent. At this time, the major cities of Melbourne and Brisbane were founded.

Under the onslaught of European colonists, the natives retreated from the coasts inland. Their numbers greatly decreased due to the diseases brought by the settlers. In the middle of the 19th century, the entire indigenous population was moved to reservations, many were sent there by force.

By 1840 the tradition of sending convicts to Australia was being forgotten, and after 1868 it was no longer practiced.

Golden fever

In the 1850s, the gold rush began in Australia. The British authorities established licenses for gold mining, which was extremely disliked by gold miners. In 1854, prospectors from Ballarat raised an uprising, now known as the Eureka. The rebels created the Ballarat Reform League and made a number of demands to the government: to introduce universal suffrage, to abolish gold mining licenses, to abolish property restrictions for parliamentary candidates.

The resistance of the gold diggers was crushed, they were arrested and put on trial. But the court did not find the rebels guilty. Many of the miners' demands were met: licenses were canceled and the right to apply to parliament was given. The Eureka Rebellion stimulated the development of liberalism in Australia. This event became one of the key in the history of the country.

In 1855, New South Wales became self-governing while remaining part of the British Empire. Other Australian colonies soon followed. Their governments dealt with internal affairs, while Britain continued to manage foreign policy, defense and trade.

The "Gold Rush" caused an economic boom in Australia. The next few decades were prosperous for Australians. In the 1890s, the economic situation began to deteriorate, at the same time the labor movement began to increase, new political parties began to appear, and the Australian colonies began to think about uniting.

Australian Union

For ten years, the colonies discussed the issue of unification and prepared to create a single country. In 1901, they created the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal state that was a dominion of the British Empire. In the early years, the capital of the Union was the city of Melbourne, but already in 1911, the future capital of Australia, the city of Canberra, began to be built on a specially allocated Federal Capital Territory. In 1927, the construction of the city was completed and the Union government settled in it.

A little later, the Federation included several territories that had previously been subordinate to Great Britain: the Norfolk Islands, Cartier and Ashmore. It was assumed that Australia would include New Zealand, but she chose to seek independence from Great Britain on her own.

The Australian economy was heavily dependent on exports. The country had to import large quantities of grain and wool. The Great Depression, which began in the United States in 1929, and the global economic crisis that followed, severely affected Australia. The unemployment rate rose to a record 29%.

In 1931, the British Parliament adopted the Statute of Westminster, which established the position of the dominions. According to it, the British dominions received full official independence, but retained the right of the British monarch to hold the post of head of state. Australia ratified this statute only in 1942, becoming effectively independent from Great Britain.

History of Australia after Independence

The Second World War spurred the Australian economy. The Australians received a promise of protection from the United States in the event of a Japanese attack, so they took part in hostilities without risk to themselves. After the war, many residents of dilapidated Europe decided to move to Australia. The Australian government encouraged immigration, wanting to increase the country's population and attract talented professionals.

By 1975, two million immigrants had arrived in Australia. Most of them are former residents of Great Britain and Ireland. Thus, most of the Australian population are native speakers of English, which has evolved into an Australian dialect. The state does not have an official language.

In the 70s, the Australian government carried out a number of important reforms, the significance of which is still preserved: free higher education, the abolition of compulsory military service, the recognition of the right of aborigines to land, and others. From a former colony of convicts, Australia has become a highly developed country with one of the highest levels of immigration.

Columbus discovered America and Captain Cook discovered Australia. Both of these statements have long been disputed many times, but they continue to live in the minds of the masses. Long before Captain Cook set foot on the coast of Australia on April 20, 1770, navigators from the Old World had already landed here more than once.

According to a number of historians, the Portuguese were the discoverers of Australia. They claim that an expedition under the command of Cristovan de Mendonça visited the northwest coast of Australia in 1522. It is unknown if this happened intentionally or by accident. The details of this voyage are also unknown. The only material evidence that has come down to us are small bronze cannons with the image of the Portuguese crown minted on them. They were found in 1916 on the coast of Roebuck Bay (Western Australia) and date back to the beginning of the 16th century.

2 Expedition of Willem Janszon

The first European to visit Australia is the Dutchman Willem Janszon. On November 28, 1605, Captain Janszon set off from Bantam on the ship "Dufken" to unknown lands. Bypassing the islands of Kai and Aru from the north, he reached the southern coast of New Guinea, completely unfamiliar to the Dutch. Janszon named it "Marshy Land" and traced the coastline for 400 kilometers. Then rounding the island of Kolepom, Janszon turned to the southeast, crossed the central part of the Arafura Sea and suddenly saw the coast. It was Australia. In the western part of the Cape York Peninsula, near the mouth of a small river, in May 1606 the Dutch made the first documented landing of Europeans on the Australian continent.

Janszon sailed his ship along the flat desert coast. Although the unknown land, as the Dutch were convinced, stretched further south, on June 6, 1606, at Cape Kerver (“Turn”), the Dufken turned 180º and moved back. During the landings at Albatross Bay, the Dutch first came into contact with the Australian Aborigines. Fighting immediately ensued, with several dead on both sides. Continuing north, the sailors traced and charted the coast of the Cape York Peninsula almost to its northern tip. The total length of the explored coast of Australia, which Janszon dubbed New Holland, was about 350 kilometers.

3 Expedition of Jan Carstens

The wreck of the English ship Triel, which occurred on May 25, 1622, on the reefs near the islands of Monte Bello and Barrow, showed that the complete lack of knowledge of the waters washing the coast of North-Western and Northern Australia threatens with great dangers. The leadership of the Dutch East India Company decided to explore the ocean south of Java and trace the southern coast of New Guinea. To accomplish this task, Jan Carstens' expedition set off from Batavia in January 1623 on two ships, the Pera and the Arnhem. For more than a week, Dutch sailors sailed along the southern coast of New Guinea. On the morning of February 16, Carstens saw a high mountain range in the distance - this was the western part of the Maoke Mountains. Five days later, a group of Dutch landed ashore to resupply. The local population was very hostile. As a result of the skirmish, 10 sailors were killed, including the captain of the Arnhem.

On March 20, the expedition reached the southwestern tip of New Guinea. The weather worsened, a storm began. On March 28, Carstens sent a navigator on a boat with 12 sailors to explore the coast that could be seen in the distance. He reported that the sea was getting shallower to the east, and desert land was visible in the distance. Meanwhile, it became dangerous to walk along the coast: shallows and reefs began to come across more and more often. The Dutch turned to the open sea.

On April 12, the earth again appeared on the horizon. It was Australia. For two weeks, Carstens' ships sailed south along the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, landing several times on land - in estuaries and in bays. The aborigines they met were quite peaceful. The flat and low-lying coast of Northwestern Australia was described by Carstens in his report as "the most barren on Earth." The Dutch could not even find enough fresh water here. In addition, the flagship of the Pera expedition was damaged. Carstens instructed Colster, the captain of the Arnhem, to complete the exploration of the coast, while he himself turned north and safely reached the Moluccas. Colster, moving south, managed to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Taking advantage of the favorable southeast monsoon, he turned from here to the northwest and, following this course, discovered a large peninsula, later named the Arnhemland Peninsula after his ship.

4 Expeditions of Abel Tasman

By the beginning of the 1640s. the Dutch knew and mapped the following parts of Australia: in the north - the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, the ledge of Arnhemland, the entire western coast of the mainland and the western part of its southern coast. However, it was still not clear what this mysterious land is: a separate continent or a giant ledge of the still undiscovered Great Southern Continent? And the pragmatic directors of the East India Company were worried about another question: what are the potential benefits of these newfound lands? What are their commercial prospects? The expedition of the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, who left Batavia in 1642 on two small ships, the Hemskerk and Zehan, was supposed to answer these questions. Tasman did not meet any mainland, and only on November 24 from the board of the Zehan did they see a high coast, called Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Tasman never figured out whether it was an island or the southern tip of Australia, and Van Diemen's Land was considered a peninsula for more than a century and a half, until Bass Strait was passed. Going further to the southeast of the runoff, Tasman discovered New Zealand, and at this the expedition was almost completed, leaving a lot of unresolved problems.

In 1645, the governor of Batavia, Van Diemen, sent Tasman on a new expedition to the shores of Australia. Three Tasman ships surveyed the southern coast of New Guinea for 750 kilometers and completed the discovery of the Gulf of Carpentaria, bypassing its eastern and, for the first time, southern and western shores. Experienced sailors, the Dutch never noticed the entrance to the Torres Strait. In total, the expedition explored and mapped about 5.5 thousand kilometers of coast and found that all the lands previously discovered by the Dutch are parts of a single mainland - New Holland. However, Tasman did not find anything worthy of attention from the point of view of commerce on this mainland, and after 1644 the Dutch completely cooled off towards the Green Continent.

5 James Cook Expedition

In 1768, James Cook set out on his first circumnavigation of the world. In April 1770, Cook approached the east coast of Australia. On the shore of the bay, in the waters of which the Endeavor stopped, the expedition managed to find many previously unknown plant species, so Cook called this bay Botanical. From Botany Bay, Cook headed northwest along the east coast of Australia.

A few kilometers north of Botany Bay, James Cook discovered a wide natural passage into a huge natural harbor - Port Jackson. In his report, the researcher described it as an ideal place for the safe parking of many ships. Many years later, the first Australian city, Sydney, was founded here. It took Cook the next four months to climb up to the Gulf of Carpentaria, to the area that bears the name of New Holland. The navigator made a detailed map of the coastline of the future Australia.

Not entirely happily passing the great barrier reef, the Endeavor finally made it to the northern tip of Australia. On August 22, 1770, James Cook, on behalf of King George III, solemnly proclaimed the land he had explored as the possession of Great Britain and named it New South Wales.

Lesson

Geographical position, history of discovery, relief and minerals of Australia

Goals and objectives of the lesson:to acquaint with the physical and geographical position of Australia; introduce the history of the discovery and exploration of the mainland; form an idea of ​​the relief and minerals. Continue to develop the ability to work with cards.

Equipment: to art of the hemispheres and a physical map of Australia, a plan for describing the FGP of the mainland and its relief, the table "Information about Australia", the table "Discovery of Australia", portraits of researchers

During the classes

I. Organizational moment

II. Acquaintance with the physical and geographical position of the mainland

She is below us.
They obviously walk upside down
There's an inside-out year.
There the gardens bloom in October,
There is summer in January, not July,
There are rivers flowing without water
(They disappear somewhere in the desert).
There are traces of wingless birds in the thickets,
There cats get snakes for food,
Animals are born from eggs
And the dogs don't know how to bark.
The trees themselves climb out of the bark,
There the rabbits are worse than the flood,
Saves the south from the northern heat,
The capital has no population.
Australia is the opposite.
Its source is on the London quay:
Cleared the way for predators
Exiles and hard labor people.
Australia is the opposite.

(Galina Usova)

“... I swear to you that this region is the most curious on the entire globe! Its origin, nature, plants, animals, climate... - all this surprised, surprises and will surprise all scientists of the world. Imagine, my friends, a continent, which, being formed, rose from the sea waves not with its central part, but with its edges, like some kind of giant hoof; the mainland, where, perhaps, in the middle there is a half-evaporated inland sea; where the rivers dry up more and more every day; where there is no moisture either in the air or in the soil; where trees annually lose not their leaves, but their bark; where the leaves are facing the sun not with their surface, but with an edge and do not give a shadow; where the forest is often unable to burn; where the stone slabs melt in the rain; where the forests are stunted, and the grasses are gigantic; where animals are unusual; where quadrupeds have beaks; where the kangaroo jumper has paws of different lengths; where the rams have pig heads,where foxes flutter from tree to tree; where are the black swans; where rats build their nests; where the birds amaze with the variety of their singing and their abilities: one imitates the chiming of the clock, the other - with the clicking of the whip of the mail coach, the third - with the grinder, the fourth beats the seconds like the pendulum of the clock; there is one who laughs in the morning when the sun rises, and one who cries in the evening when it sets. The most bizarre, most illogical country ever! The earth is paradoxical, refuting the laws of nature! The botanist Grimar had every reason to say about her like this: “Here it is, this Australia, some kind of parody of world laws, or, rather, a challenge thrown in the face of the rest of the world!” ... "(Jules Verne. "Children Captain Grant)

The teacher starts the lesson by telling interesting facts:

The word "australis" in translation into Russian means "southern".

Australia is the smallest continent on Earth. Its area is 6 times smaller than the largest continent of Eurasia.

There are no active volcanoes here.

Australia is the continent of relics. There are many plants and animals that are not found anywhere else.

Australia later than others was settled and mastered by Europeans. For a long time, the continent was cut off from the historical processes that took place in other parts of the world. For many thousands of years, powerful centers of civilization were born in Africa, Asia, Europe, America, and the Stone Age still reigned in Australia. It is the most sparsely populated continent.

The entire mainland is occupied by one state - the Commonwealth of Australia.

Students independently make a description of the physical and geographical position of the mainland according to this plan.

Plan for describing the physical and geographical position of the mainland

1. The name of the mainland and its size. Determine the maximum length of the mainland in kilometers from north to south and from west to east.

From north to south: 39 -10 \u003d 29; 29 x 111 km (1 meridian arc - 111 km) = 3219 km

From west to east: 153-113 = 40; 40 x 107 km (1 along the parallel - 107 km) = 4280 km

2. The position of the mainland relative to the equator and the prime meridian.In relation to the equator - the mainland is entirely located in the southern hemisphere, in relation to the zero meridian - entirely in the eastern hemisphere.

3. Extreme points and their geographical coordinates.The extreme points of the mainland: in the north - Cape York, in the south - Cape South East Point, the extreme western point - Cape Steep Point, eastern - Cape Byron.

4. Neighborhood with other continents.In the north it is separated from Eurasia by the islands of Southeast Asia, by the Indian Ocean in the west - from Africa, in the south by the Southern Ocean from Antarctica, in the east by the Pacific Ocean - from South America.

5. How and where the mainland is washed.The coastline of Australia as a whole is slightly indented. It has the most complex outlines on the northern coast. If we make a trip along the seas around Australia on the map, then, moving along the northern shores, from the Indian Ocean we will get into the Arafura Sea, and then into the Gulf of Carpentaria, deeply cut into the land. Further, the travel route runs along the Cape York Peninsula, with its outlines resembling a triangle, past the northernmost point of the mainland of Cape York to the Torres Strait, which separates Australia from the island of New Guinea. Your course now lies southeast into the waters of the Coral Sea, which belongs to the Pacific Ocean. Accumulations of corals formed the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern shores of the mainland - a creation of nature that is unique in its beauty. It stretches along the coast for 2000 km from the Torres Strait to the Southern Tropic.

Leaving behind the Great Barrier Reef and the shallow Coral Sea, you move south along the waters of the warm East Australian Current. Behind was the extreme eastern point of the mainland - Cape Byron. The route continues in the waters of the Tasman Sea. The shores drop steeply to the water, and the depths increase faster than in the Coral Sea. Turning west, you will find yourself in the Bass Strait, which separates the only major island of Tasmania from Australia. Passing South East Point, the extreme southern point of the mainland, you enter the waters of the Great Australian Bight. The water in the bay is colder than near the eastern shores, as the branches of the cold current of the West Winds enter there. In the central part of the bay is the deepest place off the coast of Australia. Its depth is 5853 m. Coming out of the waters of the largest, but not deeply protruding into the mainland bay, you found yourself in the open Indian Ocean. Here is the extreme western point of the mainland - Cape Steep Point.

6. Conclusion about the geographical position of the mainland.Conclusion: FGP of the mainland affects many natural factors. This is one of the hottest continents, the driest. It receives 5 times less precipitation than Africa, 8 times less than South America. About half of the area is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts.

Filling in the previously drawn table "Information about the continents".

PHYSICAL MINUTE

III. History of the discovery of Australia

As the story progresses, the "Discovery of Australia" table is filled in. Even ancient geographers suggested the existence of an unknown southern land south of the equator. In the XVI century. cartographers depicted on maps and globes in the southern hemisphere a huge "Terra australis incognita" - "Unknown Southern Land". The Tierra del Fuego discovered by Magellan was considered one of the ledges of this unknown land,

In 1606 a Spaniard Luis Torres discovered the northernmost tip of the Australian Cape York Peninsula, and called the strait separating New Guinea from Cape York, named Torres. When Torres informed the Spanish authorities of his discovery, it was decided to keep the discovery secret, and for over 150 years no one knew about it. Almost at the same time as Torres, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszon also saw the northern coast of Australia, entering the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1642 Abel Tasman discovered the western coast of an unknown large island, which was named Tasmania. Subsequently, A. Tasman went around Australia from the south and east and found that it was an independent mainland.

In 1770, on the ship "Endeavor" ("Attempt"), an English navigator James Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia and declared it an English possession. Soon a "penal colony" for criminals was organized here. Subsequently, free settlers appeared on the mainland. The capture of the mainland began, accompanied by the extermination of the indigenous population. A hundred years later, most of the natives were exterminated. The remaining indigenous people were driven to the interior desert territories of the mainland.

In the 19th century more than a dozen expeditions were equipped to explore the interior desert regions of the mainland. For the first time in 1860, an Englishman managed to cross Australia from south to north Robert Burke . The expedition went from the city of Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The development of Australia was facilitated by the discovery of large gold deposits in the 19th century, as well as the availability of convenient pastures for cattle breeding on the mainland. Air John Edward, sheep breeder, in 1839-1840. in search of pastures he explored the coast of the Great Australian Bight.Look at the map - what did he discover?(Lakes Eyre and Torrens).Strzelecki Pavel Edmund, a Polish immigrant, a geographer and geologist by training. Discovered large deposits of gold and discovered the highest point in Australia.Look at the map, what is the name of this mountain?(city of Kosciuszko, 2228 m.).

By the end of the XIX century. basically the study of the mainland was completed. During the same period, England declared Australia its colony. Currently, the Commonwealth of Australia is an independent state.

"Opening Australia"

Researchers	A country	date	What's open
Luis Torres	Spain	1606	northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula, Torres Strait
Willem Janszon	Holland	1606	Gulf of Carpentaria, first documented landing
Abel Tasman	Holland	1642	the island of Tasmania, proved that Australia is an independent mainland
James Cook	England	1770	declared Australia an English possession
Robert Burke	England	1860	crossed Australia from south to north
Air John Edward	England	1839-1840	Sheep breeder, in search of pastures, explored the coast of the Great Australian Gulf, discovered Lake Eyre and Torrens.
Strzelecki Pavel Edmund	Poland	1840	discovered large deposits of gold and discovered the highest point in Australia - the city of Kosciuszko, 2228 m.

IV. Relief and minerals

Working with a tectonic map(atlas, pp. 8-11)

Do you remember what ancient continent Australia broke away from?(Gondwana). According to the tectonic map, determine what lies at the base of the mainland?(most of it is an ancient platform that is part of the Indo-Australian lithospheric plate). This is due to the predominance of the flat relief. In the Paleozoic, when mountain-building processes were actively going on on the Gondwana mainland, an area of ​​ancient folding formed along one of the faults. Later, in the Cenozoic era, the medium-altitude mountains of the Great Dividing Range formed here. Over the course of a long history of development, the Australian mainland experienced ups and downs. As a result of movements and the formation of faults, part of the land sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the islands of New Guinea and Tasmania separated.

Australia is the flattest continent. Most of it is a plain, the edges of which are elevated, especially significantly in the east. Mountains occupy only 5% of the mainland.

There are three main landforms on the territory of Australia: the Great Dividing Range, the Central Lowland with prevailing heights up to 100 m, and the Western Australian Plateau with average heights of 400-500 m.

Australia is the only continent on which earthquakes and volcanism are not observed, since the boundaries of the lithospheric plates are located far from the mainland.

The subsoil of Australia is rich in minerals. Ore minerals, such as ores of non-ferrous and ferrous metals, owe their origin to the metamorphic and igneous rocks of the platform basement. Their deposits are found in the western and northern parts of Australia. Deposits of hard and brown coal, oil and gas in southeastern Australia are associated with sedimentary rocks.

V. Summary of the lesson

Who first discovered Australia?

What reasons led to the rapid development of the mainland?

On the map of the mainland, find the geographical names associated with the names of explorers and travelers.

What continent was Australia formerly part of?

What lies at the base of the continent?

How many lithospheric plates are at the base of the continent, what are they called?

Where does the collision of lithospheric plates take place?

What landforms are found on the mainland?

How are they distributed across the continent?

Determine the patterns of distribution of minerals on the territory of the continent

Are there mountain glaciers in Australia? (In the Australian Alps - the highest part of the Great Dividing Range - snow remains in shaded gorges)

VI. Homework: Section 35

50 thousand years before its discovery by European navigators. In waterless deserts, in tropical jungles and on the coastal plains of this continent, people have lived for centuries with their rich traditions of culture, religion and original lifestyle. By the time the discovery of Australia by James Cook took place, the indigenous population of the continent numbered over 300 thousand people who spoke 500 languages. And now Australia, the discovery of the mainland of which took place twice before the world understood all its significance for the world economy and culture, continues to open the mysteries of its thousand-year history.

Discovery history

The discovery of Australia is the result of centuries of searching by the Portuguese, Dutch and British of the Southern Country (terra australis incognita). In 2006, archaeologists discovered ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in Australia, which gave rise to the hypothesis among some scientists that the Egyptians were the first to discover this continent 5,000 years ago.

If we take the latest history, then scientists agree that the year of discovery of Australia is 1606. It was in this year that the Dutchman V. Janszon studied the northeastern part of Australia - the Cape York Peninsula.

But the history of the discovery of Australia is a multitude of mysteries that scientists have yet to unravel. So, the cannons found by archaeologists give reason to some researchers to believe that back in the 16th century. the Portuguese visited Australia, but there is no evidence of this in documentary sources yet.

Exploring New Holland

The entire 17th century is the history of the discovery and exploration of Australia by sea travelers from the Netherlands, who first called it New Holland.

After the mentioned Janszon, in 1616 D. Hartog described part of the western coast of the continent, in 1623 J. Carstensz mapped the western coast of the York Peninsula, and in 1627 the southern coast of the still unknown mainland was explored by F. Theisen and P. Neyts.

The chief ruler of the Netherlands Indies, Anton Van Diemen, in 1642 sent the famous navigator A. Tasman on an expedition, who discovered the land named after Van Diemen (modern Tasman Island). On January 29, 1644, a new expedition set sail, led by Tasman. The expedition proved that New Holland is a separate continent.

For Holland, the discovery of Australia did not seem worthy of much attention, since it already had convenient naval bases in southern Africa and Java, and expensive oriental spices, valued on European markets, did not grow on the island itself. Nothing also indicated the presence of mineral deposits here; no other animal species were discovered that could arouse interest among the then Europeans.

Exploration of the Australian mainland by the British

More than half a century passed before the work of exploring the mainland after the Dutch was continued by English explorers and travelers. Thus, the expedition of V. Dampier managed to study the northwestern part of Australia in more detail and discover previously unknown islands in this area.

And in 1770, the "next" discovery of Australia took place - this time by James Cook.

After Cook, the discovery and exploration of Australia by the British continued: in 1798 D. Bass discovered the strait between the mainland and the island of Tasmania, in 1797-1803 M. Flinders passed the continent and made a map with more accurate outlines of its southern coast. It was Flinders who proposed in 1814 to change the name "New Holland" to "Australia", and by the 1840s F. King and D. Wicken had completed the study and mapping of the coastline of Australia.

The 19th century brought new geographical discoveries to Australia by travelers and explorers from different countries, but already within the continent. As a result, the Great Dividing Range appeared on the map of Australia with the highest point of the continent - Mount Kosciuszko; deserts, endless plains, as well as Darling and Murray - the most full-flowing.

A complete map of the British colony, which was Australia, was compiled by British scientists already at the beginning of the 20th century.

James Cook and his contribution to the study of Australia

James Cook was born in 1728 to a North Yorkshire farmer. But not justifying the hopes of his father, he became a cabin boy on the coal miner "Frilav" in 1745. James was fascinated by maritime affairs, and he began to study astronomy, algebra, geometry and navigation on his own, and his natural abilities contributed to career growth: already in 1755 he received an offer to take the place of captain on the ship Friendship. But James decided to enlist in the Royal Navy, where he again began his service as an ordinary sailor. Cook quickly rose to the rank of assistant captain, and already in 1757 he passed the exams for the right to manage the ship on his own.

James Cook

In 1768, Cook went on an expedition that was supposed to observe the passage of Venus through the solar disk, as well as discover new lands for the British crown. It is believed that in 1770, during this round-the-world trip on the ship Endeavor, James Cook discovered Australia. Then he was forced to make a stop on a hitherto unknown mainland due to the resulting hole. Having repaired the ship, Cook sent it along the Great Barrier Reef, opening the hitherto unknown strait between Australia and New Guinea.

But the discovery of Australia did not stop Cook in search of hitherto unexplored lands. Returning to England in 1771, a few years later he again sets sail in search of the southern mainland - the mythical Terra Australis (Antarctica). The conditions of this trip did not allow Cook to reach Antarctica, and upon his return to England, he convinced everyone that the southern mainland simply did not exist.