Australian Stories matching your query...

In 1788, the eleven ships of the First Fleet landed their 'cargo' of around 780 British convicts at Botany Bay in New South Wales. From 1788 to 1823, the Colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprised mainly of convicts, marines and th...

In 1788 the First Fleet landed at Camp Cove in Port Jackson with the 'cargo' of convicts which helped establish the penal colony of New South Wales. One in five of the convicts to arrive in the penal colony (1788-1823) was female and they made up the lar...

The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutchman, Willem Janszoon. In 1770, Englishman Lieutenant James Cook charted the Australian east coast in his ship HM Bark Endeavour. Cook ...

In the early days of the Australian colonies, convict ballads and songs became the foundation of Australia's later day folk music and its first original compositions. Bush songs, ballads and music influenced and defined the folk music of the 1950s. Indi...

Section of a glossary of Australian terms, 1936, Allan & Co. Image courtesy of National Library of Australia. Linguists and other cultural theorists value the study of Australian colloquialisms as a way of observing how the Australian character has develo...

Australian novels are an impressive collection of written works, and represent a dynamic body of excellent writers, some with significant international awards to their credit. The Australian poet Alec Hope said that, 'The Bunyip of Australian literature ...

Women became an influential and hardworking part of colonial Australia. In addition to the female colonists there were female Indigenous Australians - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women whose lives were changed dramatically when the English colon...

The gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the goldfields - the 'diggers' - are etched into our national folklore. There is no doubt that the gold rushes had a huge effect on the Australian economy and our development as a...

The songs and music that has come from people's experiences of living and surviving in the Australian bush has become known in Australia as 'bush music'. The convict songs of the early days of the Australian colonies became the foundation of Australia's ...

World Heritage-listed Fraser Island. However, Australia is actually made up of more than 8,000 islands, including the island state of Tasmania. Norfolk Island is located far off the east coast of Australia. ...

Internationally recognised Australian icons include buildings like the Sydney Opera House (architect Jørn Utzon) and the new Parliament House in Canberra (architect Romaldo Giurgola). Distinctive Australian architecture is also recognisable in the rural ...

Australian folklore, its traditions, customs and beliefs are based on both Indigenous and also non-Indigenous people's knowledge and experience of history in Australia. Some of Australia's folklore remembers the relationship between Europeans and Aborigi...

Some trading ships, were going to the East Indies for spices and lost their way in high winds and seas - literally 'bumping' into Australia's west coast. The strong trade winds that helped ships make the journey from Africa to Indonesia were known as the...

Australian language, letters and literature in Australia has been influenced by Aboriginal storytelling, convict tales and the desire by colonists to relate their experiences in a new country. Similarly, the bush ballads of Henry Lawson and Andrew 'Banjo...

Australia is also recognised as producing the world's highest quality woollen fibre – Australian merino wool. John and Elizabeth Macarthur were married in Devonshire in England in 1788. In 1796, John Macarthur bought his first merino sheep from a ...

Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. The myth of the digger and the larrikin hero is an important part of the Australian experience of pastoralism, the goldfields, bushranging, shearing and droving. The slang term 'digger' re-surfaced during th...

Image courtesy of Ned Kelly: Australian Ironoutlaw. More books, songs and websites have been written about Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang than any other group of Australian historical figures. An extensive history of Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang can be seen...

The Sydney Gazette, first published by ex-convict George Howe in 1803. George Howe was also permitted to print Australia's first newspaper from a humble shed located at the rear of Government House. The Sydney Gazette was the only newspaper circulated i...

This is reflected in the development of an alternative model for public spaces and urban living based on social architecture and the 'green' apartment. Another example of architecture designed public spaces experienced on the move is Parramatta rail stati...

Australia is a unique and diverse country in every way - in culture, population, climate, geography, and history. For articles on specific topics about Australian history and culture visit our Australian Stories Index. Australia's population is concentrat...