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The First people in Australia were Aborigines. They arrived there
about 12,000 years before from southern Asia. They had very
rich forms of art, painting, song, poetry and mythology. The
lives of aborigines stayed almost the same for thousands of
years until the Europeans came to live in Australia in 1778.
In 1770 J. Cook landed in eastern Australia and declared that it
belonged to Britain. In 1778, the British government began
sending the first prisoners to Australia. Overtime many people
arrived from Britain and Europe. Life was difficult. There was
very little water and the climate was very hard.
The Europeans suffered a lot in Australia but the Aborigines
suffered a lot more. Europeans stole their land and killed
thousand of Aborigines. They also brought new diseases with
them. In parts of Australia, not one Aborigine survived. Today
aborigines continue to live in Australia but there culture in
under threat. In 1770, there were about 300,000 Aborigines.
Now, there are 120,000. It is becoming harder and harder for
them to continue their traditional way to live.
Today Australia is a modern, industrial country, independent from
Britain since 1931. The Commonwealth of Australia consists of 6
states and two provinces. It is the world’s biggest producer of
wool, bauxite and important producer of wheat, meat, sugar
and fruit.