Australian History for Dummies

Created especially for the Australian customer! Exciting and informative history of the land down under Australian History For Dummies is your tour guide through the important events of Australia's past, introducing you to the people and events that have shaped modern Australia. Be there as British colonists explore Australia's harsh terrain with varying degrees of success. In this informative guide you'll Find out about Australia's infamous bushrangers Learn how the discovery of gold caused a tidal wave of immigration from all over the world Understand how Australia took two steps forward to become a nation in its own right in 1901, and two steps back when the government was dismissed by the Crown in 1975 Discover the fascinating details that made Australia the country it is today!

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Conventions Used in This Book 2 How This Book is Organised 3 Part I: Let’s Get This Country Started 3 Part II: 1820s to 1900: Wool, Gold, Bust and then Federation 3 Part III: The 20th Century: New Nation, New Trajectory 4 Part IV: 1930 to 1949: Going So Wrong, So Soon? 4 Part V: 1960 to 2010: Prosperity and Social Turmoil 4 Part VI: The Part of Tens 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: Let’s Get This Country Started 7 Chapter 1: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie 9 When Oldest Meets Newest 10 Getting ahead in the convict world 10 Leaping into the big time with wool 11 Gold, Gold, Gold for Australia 12 Welcoming in male suffrage 13 Striving for the ‘workingman’s paradise’ 14 Solving the Problems of the World (By Keeping Out the World) 16 Now for War, Division, Depression and More War 17 Joining the Empire in the war 17 Dreaming of ‘Australia Unlimited’ 18 Getting hit by the Great Depression 18  And another war 19 The Postwar Boom Broom 19 Breaking Down the Fortress Australia Mentality 20 Opening up the economy 21 Opening up the borders (mostly) 21 Entering the New Millennium 22 Chapter 2: First Australians: Making a Home, Receiving Visitors 23 Indigenous Australians 23 Settling in early 24 Life in Aboriginal Australia 26 History without books 27 Trading with the neighbours 27 Visitors From Overseas 28 Maccassan fishermen 28 Portuguese and Spanish navigators 29 Lost Dutch traders and wandering explorers 30 Chapter 3: Second Arrivals and First Colonials 33 ‘Discovering’ the Great Southern Land 34 Finding the right men for the job 34 Setting (British) eyes on New South Wales 36 The Brits are Coming! 37 Quick! New settlement required 37 Pushing for a settlement in NSW 39 Picking a winner: NSW it is! 40 Settling Botany Bay 41 Getting there with the First Fleet 42 The human material: Who were these people? 42 Holding Out at Sydney 44 Using convicts as guards 44 Issuing ultimatums (and being ignored) 45 Soldiering on regardless 45 New Colony Blues 46 Second Fleet horrors 46 Courting disaster with the interlopers 47 Then the rest of the world goes bung 48 Chapter 4: Colony Going Places (With Some Teething Troubles) 49 Rising to the Task: The NSW Corps Steps Up 50 Setting up trading monopolies 52 The ascendancy of the ‘Rum Corps’ 52 Upsetting the reverends 53 Ruling with Goodhearted Incompetence: Governor Hunter 55 Ending the trading monopoly game 56 A government store with empty shelves 56 Handing out land higgledy-piggledy 58 Hunter’s wheels fall off 58 King Came, King Saw, King Conquered — Kind Of 59 Diversifying trade and production 59 Ending the rum trade (well points for trying) 60 Pardoning convicts 61 Fixing Up the Mess 62 Choosing Bligh for the job 62 Bligh gets down to business 63 Bligh’s end 65 Chapter 5: A Nation of Second Chances 69 Macquarie’s Brave New World 70 Converting Macquarie 71 Living under the Macquarie regime 72 Macquarie’s Main Points of Attack 73 Pushing expansion 74 Conciliating (and pursuing) Indigenous Australians 76 Re-ordering a town, re-ordering convict behaviour 77 Becoming a Governor Ahead of His Time 79 Stirring up trouble with the free folk 79 Creating outrage back home 80 Big World Changes for Little NSW 81 Coping with the deluge following Waterloo 81 Britain starts paying attention again (unfortunately!) 82 Bringing back terror 82 Big Country? Big Ambitions? Bigge the Inspector? Big Problem! 83 Recognising Macquarie’s Legacy 84 Part II: 1820s to 1900: Wool, Gold, Bust and then Federation 87 Chapter 6: Getting Tough, Making Money and Taking Country 89 Revamping the Convict System 90 Putting the terror back into the system and the system back into the terror 90 Bringing in the settlers 91 Bringing in the enforcers 92 Getting Tough Love from Darling 93 Running into staffing issues 93 Going head-to-head with the press 94 Coming up against calls for representation 94 Putting it all down to a personality clash 96 Enduring Tough Times from Arthur 97 Concentrating on punishment and reform 97 Recording punishments in the system 98 Fighting bushrangers and Tasmanian Aborigines 99 Hitting the Big Time with Wool and Grabbing Land 102 Opening up Australia’s fertile land 104 Adding sheep, making money 105 Fighting the land grab 106 Chapter 7: Economic Collapse and the Beginnings of Nationalism 111 Bubble Times: From Speculative Mania to a Big Collapse 112 Working the market into a frenzy 112 Investing in land with easy credit 113 Ducking for cover as the economy collapses 114 Picking up the pieces after the implosion 115 Moving On from Convictism 117 British calls to end convict ‘slavery’ 117 Ending transportation to NSW 118 Feeling the effects of ending transportation 119 Van Diemen’s Land hits saturation point 119 Feeling the First Stirrings of Nationalism 120 Britain tries turning the convict tap back on 121 Britain offers exiles instead 122 Protecting Indigenous Australians — British Colonial Style 124 Attempting to protect the Aborigines 125 New possibility on Merri Creek 126 Same old tragedy on Myall Creek 127 Chapter 8: The Discovery of Gold and an Immigration Avalanche 129 You want gold? We got gold! 130 Discovering gold (and going a little crazy) 130 Introducing order and hoping for calm 132 Adding a gambling mentality to the mix 132 Working Towards the Workingman’s Paradise 133 That Eureka Moment 136 Rumblings of discontent 136 Tensions boil over 137 The Arrival of Self-Government 138 Votes for a few men 139 Votes for many men 139 Suffrage goes rogue 142 Unlocking the Arable Lands 144 Moving the squatters 145 Making new laws for new farmers 146 Dealing with squatter problems 147 Facing up to non-squatter problems 148 Chapter 9: Explorers, Selectors, Bushrangers and Trains 149 Explorer Superstars 150 Seeking thrills in the great unknown 150  Then making the unknown known 151 Sturt and Leichhardt Go Looking 152 Sturt — have boat, will walk 153 Leichhardt also walks right off the map 154 The Great Race — Stuart versus Burke and Wills 155 Seeing the back of Burke, losing Wills 155 Super Stuart — just a pity he’s drunk 157 Selectors and Bushrangers 159 Moving on from the selectors’ dust heap 160 Bushranging nation 161 Ned Kelly: Oppressed Selector’s Son or Larrikin Wild Child? 165 Kelly’s key events 166 The man in the iron mask 168 Growing Towards Nationhood Maybe 168 A telegraph to the world 169 It’s raining trains 170 Chapter 10: Work, Play and Politics During the Long Boom 173 The ‘Workingman’s Paradise’ Continues 174 Growth brings jobs 174 Workingwomen’s paradise too 175 Workers’ Playtime 176 Beating the English at cricket 177 New codes of football 177 The Big Myth of the Bush: Not So Rural Australia 179 Rearranging the Political Furniture 181 Charting new colonial directions 181 Intervening in the economy 186 Chapter 11: The Economy’s Collapsed — Anyone for Nationhood? 191 From Boom to Bust 192 The bubble before the pop 192 And now for a big collapse 193 Three strikes and we’re out — industrial turmoil 197 Birthing the Australian Labor Party 199 From little things 200 Two Australian halves of a Labor story 200 Labor politicos and Labor unionists — the struggle begins! 201 New Nation? Maybe Maybe Not 203 Why Federation happened 203 How Federation happened 206 Three men who made Federation happen 209 Part III: The 20 th Century: New Nation, New Trajectories 213 Chapter 12: Nation Just Born Yesterday 215 Advancing Australia: A Social Laboratory 216 Defining the Commonwealth 217 What the judges said 218 What the politicians did 218 What everyday people thought 219 Passing Innovative Legislation 220 Franchising Australian women 221 Establishing bold new protection 223 Deciding on a fair and reasonable wage 225 Voting in Labor 226 That Whole White Australia Thing 227 Passing the Immigration Restriction Act 227 Dealing with the ‘piebald north’ 228 Deporting the ‘Kanakas’ 229 Pushing ‘purity’ 230 Chapter 13: World War I: International and Local Ruptures 231 Gearing Up for Global War 232 Building up Australian forces 232 Choosing the best party to lead the wartime government 233 Why get involved? 233 Australia at War 234 Proving ourselves to the world, part I: Gallipoli 235 Proving ourselves to the world, part II: The Western Front 236 General John Monash engineers some victory 238 Home Front Hassles 241 Getting on the war footing 241 Irish troubles 243 Conscription controversy 245 When Billy goes rogue — aftermath of the Labor split 248 Moving the Pieces around the Global Table: Australia at Versailles 249 Chapter 14: Australia Unlimited 251 Expanding Australia 252 Postwar Australia — from sour to unlimited 252 Postwar blues? Take the ‘Men, Money and Markets’ cure 253 Australia Not-So-Unlimited 259 Borrowing unlimited for little Australia 259 Land disasters 261 Schizoid Nation 262 Sport, the beach and picture shows 262 Cars, radios and Californian bungalows 263 Returned soldiers — elite, but angry 264 The race bogey 267 The Workers of Australia 268 Labor turns hard left 268 Labor in state governments 269 An attack of the Wobblies 270 Bruce arbitrates his own destruction 271 Part IV: 1930 to 1949: Going So Wrong, So Soon? 275 Chapter 15: A Not So Great Depression 277 Crash and Depression 278 Borrowing like there’s no tomorrow 278 Here comes tomorrow 278 The man from the Bank (of England) 279 The Melbourne Agreement 280 A(nother) Labor Split 281 Two different solutions for the Great Depression problems 281 A party shoots itself in both feet 283 Lang sacked and Labor in tatters 285 Threats to Democracy from Best Friends and Enemies 286 Seeing the virtues of communism 286 Forming secret armies 288 Mistakes and Resilience Through the Crisis 290 The politicians fail 290 The people endure 292 Chapter 16: World War II Battles 295 Building Up to War 296 Defences through the Great Depression 296 Singapore Strategy 297 Belatedly prodded into action 299 Dealing with Early War Problems 300 Problems with tactics and technology 300 Problems with officer training and promotions 301 Problems with weapons 301 Overseas Again 302 War in northern Africa 302 War in the Mediterranean 303 This Time It’s Personal: War in the Pacific 304 Britain can’t do everything: The fall of Singapore 305 Attacks on Australia 306 Um, America — can we be friends? 307 Turning the tide in the Coral Sea and on the Kokoda Trail 310 Jungle victories 312 Petering into significance 313 Tackling Issues on the Home Front 314 Industrialisation and business expansion 314 Rationing and control 315 Women in war times 316 Taxing everyone and building a welfare system 317 Chapter 17: Making Australia New Again 319 Restarting the Social Laboratory Under Chifley 320 Chifley’s Postwar Reconstruction 321 Focusing on public works and welfare 321 Developing the public service 322 Increasing legislative interventions 324 Coming up against High Court troubles 324 Calwell and the Postwar Migration Revolution 325 Looking beyond Britain to meet migration needs 326 Breaking the mould of mainstream Australia 326 Shifting Balances with Foreign Policy 329 Giving a voice to all nations in the UN 329 Choosing between America and Britain 330 Treading On an Ants’ Nest — of Angry Banks 331 Taking a tentative step 332 Going full-steam down the nationalisation road 332 Part V: 1950 to 2010: Prosperity and Social Turmoil 335 Chapter 18: Ambushed — by Prosperity! 337 Economics of the Postwar Dreamtime 338 Developing industry and manufacturing 338 Accepting ‘new’ Australian workers 339 Suburbia! The Final Frontier 341 White goods make good friends 341 New neighbourhoods and isolation 342 The Rise and Rise of Bob Menzies 343 Appealing to ‘the forgotten people’ 344 Appealing to women 344 Tackling the Communist Threat 346 Menzies tries to ban the Communist Party 346 A man called Petrov and another Labor split 348 Chapter 19: Taking Things Apart in the 1960s and 1970s 351 Moving On from Empire 352 Still loving Britain 352 Losing Britain all the same 353 Looking to Japan and America 354 Defending Australia with America 355 Attack of the Baby Boomers! 356 Ending White Australia 357 Gaining rights for Indigenous Australians 360 Fighting for women’s rights 361 Crashing — or Crashing Through — With Gough 363 It’s (finally Labor’s) Time! 363 The Whitlam typhoon 364 When the wheels fall off 365 Chapter 20: When Old Australia Dies is New Australia Ready? 367 The Coming of Malcolm Fraser 368 Launching the good ship Multi-Culti 369 Fraser foiled! By shifting economic sands 370 Deregulation Nation 372 Welcoming in ‘Hawke’s World’ 372 Feeling the effects of short-term excess 375 Deregulating the labour market 377 Fighting the Culture Wars 378 Keating fires the starting gun 379 Bumps on the multi-culti road 380 Howard versus the ‘brain class’ 382 Pauline Hanson enters the debate (and turns Howard’s head) 383 Battling Over Native Title 384 Acting on the Mabo judgement 385 Panicking after the Wik judgement 385 Chapter 21: Into the New Millennium 389 Still Dealing with the Outside World 390 Protecting the borders 390 Flashpoint Tampa 392 Dealing with the Bali bombings 393 Facing Up to Challenges at Home 394 Apologising to the Stolen Generations 394 Creating more wealth for more people 395 New political directions 398 Part VI: The Part of Tens 401 Chapter 22: Ten Things Australia Gave the World 403 The Boomerang 403 The Ticket of Leave System 404 The Secret Ballot 404 The Eight-Hour Day 404 Feature Films 405 The Flying Doctor Service 405 The Artificial Pacemaker 405 The Practical Application of Penicillin 405 Airline Safety Devices 406 Permaculture 406 Chapter 23: Ten Game-Changing Moments 407 Cook Claims the East Coast of Australia 407 Henry Kable Claims a Suitcase — and Rights for Convicts 408 Gold Discovered 408 Women Get the Vote in South Australia and Federally 409 Building a Fortress out of Australia — the White Australia Policy 409 Australia splits over Conscription 410 Australia on the Western Front 411 The Post–World War II Migration Program 411 Lake Mungo Woman 412 Mabo 412 Index 413

About the Author :
Alex McDermott has been researching, writing about and teaching Australian history for the past decade, including time spent teaching at La Trobe University in Victoria, writing essays, articles and a book, and acting as researcher and consultant for various popular historical??documentaries.