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Dutch, Spanish, French and British ships first sailed into Australian waters in the 16th and 17th centuries. The British continued to survey Australian territories into the 18th century. From 1768 to 1771 the British explorer James Cook surveyed many regions of Australia and when he landed on an island off the South-eastern coast, he claimed for Britain all of the mainland territory of New South Wales - then designated as the entire western half of the continent. The legal doctrine on which Britain claimed Australian territories, terra nullius ( land belonging to no one ) denied that Aborigines had any rights of ownership of land, because they didnOt build permanent houses or practice agriculture. The first British settlement which served as a penal colony and consisted primarily of convicts and soldiers was founded in 1788 in the newly claimed territory. Unlike earlier visitors the British settlers immediately disrupted Aboriginal life, taking over good sources of water, productive land and fisheries. Aborigines responded in a variety of ways to the presence of Europeans. Some welcomed the newcomers ( in some cases because they thought whites were the spirits of the dead). Others reacted with hostility. sometimes the British responded by killing Aborigines living near their settlement. Guns gave the British a significant advantage in fights. Illnesses such as smallpox, venereal diseases, measles and influenza also devastated Aboriginal groups who lacked immunity to these diseases. The British also introduced several new animals to Australia including wild rabbits, cats and foxes, as well as domesticated sheep and cattle. Some of these animals muddied waterholes, making them unusable for the Aborigines. All these things quickly killed a large portion of the indigenous Australian population.
Conflicts and relation on the Frontier: The British colonists intended to remain in Australia, so they began to alter the landscape by clearing trees and building fences. Over several decades, the British established colonies across the continent. Aborigines wanted to resist the taking over of their territories by the British colonists. As a result many Aborigines died in fights. As settlements expanded the colonists destroyed natural resources to the point that Aboriginal groups could not practice their traditional hunting and gathering ways. Fighting broke out between the Aborigines and the British settlers along most parts of the expanding boundary of the white settlers. In some areas white farmers took the initiative and formed the so called \"native police\". These groups often responded to the killing of sheep and cattle by murdering Aboriginal women and children. In a few places, however, Aboriginal people came into settlements seeking work in order to earn rations and living quarters. Whites also sought out aborigines and brought them to settlements to work. However the majority of settlements kept Aborigines from engaging in any traditional practises and from keeping close bonds to their kin. Whites forbade Aboriginal ceremonial gatherings on settlements and did not allow individual Aborigines to move among settlements to be with their kin.
Control and Exploitation of Aborigines: As European colonies expanded in Australia they began to exert more forced control over the Aborigines and exploit them for various kinds of slave labour. The colonies established missions to which they sent as many Aborigines as they could support. A primary goal of the missions was to convert Aborigines to Christianity. Some accepted it, but most of them tried to flee back to wilderness if they could find a way to escape. Missions varied considerably in their approach to converting and controlling Aborigines. Some missions had an active policy of destroying aboriginal culture, they outlawed Aboriginal languages and ceremonies and prevented Aborigines from maintaining kinship ties. Missionaries also often dressed Aborigines in European clothing and made them work for no pay as servants or on farms. But there were also some missions who tolerated traditional values and adapted religious teachings and practices to suit local conditions. In a few regions Aborigines managed to maintain a hunter-gatherer existence . New economic opportunities for white settlers motivated more conflicts with Aborigines. In the 1850Os a gold rush began in Australia and the Whites destroyed aboriginal sacred sites. In southern Australia whites working as seal hunters stole aboriginal women and killed men and children. In the North pearl divers abducted young aboriginal boys and forced them into dangerous labour, making them dive for long periods in deep and treacherous waters. White men also coerced or forced many Aboriginal women into providing sexual services. Between 1850 and 1900 all of the Australian colonies established parliamentary governments and constitutions with firm policies aimed at controlling their Aboriginal populations; new laws restricted the movement of aboriginal people to official government-controlled reservations by the late 1800Os; these reservations were small territories in which the groups could usually practise a little of their traditional way of life. Bur officials controlled the reservations. The colonial governments also instituted policies of Aboriginal child removal. Child-removal policies grew out of the desire of the governments to assimilate mixed-race individuals into white society and prevent Aboriginal families from staying together. Their aim was to destroy Aboriginal culture and eventually the entire race. Many Aboriginal children were taken away from their parents and housed in faraway dormitories. Officials also removed light-skinned children from their parents and put them up for adoption by white families. Many of these children came from relations between white slavemasters and their slaves. In 1901 the Australian colonies became states and territories of a federated nation called the Commonwealth of Australia. Both, the state and the commonwealth governments, enacted legislation that restricted the rights of the Aborigines. The states created laws called the Aborigines Protection Acts, which based the treatment of Aborigines on how much white ancestry they had. Only so called full blooded and half-caste Aborigines could remain on reservations. Others moved off the reservations and many became homeless, but laws also denied them rights to welfare support. Conditions on Aboriginal reservations deteriorated and more and more people lived in destitution in urban areas. These poor, uprooted Aborigines often became alcoholics and new laws were established to return them to reservations.
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