Australia got its name from the Latin Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land"), a hypothetical continent thought to exist in the south, with explorer Matthew Flinders popularizing the shortened "Australia" in the early 1800s, leading to its official adoption over the Dutch "New Holland". The name derives from australis, meaning "southern," and was officially used by the British Admiralty in 1824 after Governor Macquarie endorsed it, replacing the earlier Dutch name for the continent.
"Straya" is a colloquial, affectionate, and humorous slang term for Australia, representing a shortened, phonetic pronunciation of the country's name, often used in a casual context to show national identity and a laid-back attitude. It embodies the Australian tendency to shorten words and can be heard in phrases like "G'day, Straya!".
There were so many different tribes that there wouldn't be one single name. In a lot of the Dreamtime stories that have survived, individual islands have been named, but Australia as a whole tended to be referred to as "the land", rather than having a name.
At the beginning of the 17th century Dutch explorers began to uncover the secrets of the Australian continent. Willem Jansz and his crew of the Duyfken made history in 1606 by being the first recorded Europeans to set foot on Australian soil at the Pennefather River on Cape York Peninsula.
Cook 'found' new land, being what we now call Australia, and claimed it terra nullius or land belonging to no-one. With the doctrine of terra nullius in hand, 11 convict ships from Great Britain sailed into what's now Port Jackson in New South Wales on January 26, 1788.
Before it was officially named Australia, the continent was known by several names, primarily New Holland (by the Dutch for the western side) and New South Wales (by the British for the eastern side), stemming from the mythical southern landmass, Terra Australis Incognita, which meant "unknown southern land". The name Australia, derived from Latin for "southern," was popularized by explorer Matthew Flinders and officially adopted in the 1820s.
Explorer Captain James Cook claimed Australia for Britain when he encountered it on April 19, 1770, during his first Pacific voyage. Australia was at that time home to about 750,000 people of more than 500 Indigenous groups. Eighteen years later, Britain began sending convicts and settlers to Australia.
The Australian genome clusters together with Highland Papua New Guinea (PNG) samples and is thus positioned roughly between South and East Asians. Apart from the neighboring Bougainville Papuans, the closest populations to the Aboriginal Australian are the Munda speakers of India and the Aeta from the Philippines (Fig.
Most of the explorers of this period concluded that the apparent lack of water and fertile soil made the region unsuitable for colonisation.
While Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent and islands for tens of thousands of years, and traded with nearby islanders in Indonesia, the first documented landing on Australia by a European was around March 1606.
Isolated cases of white (in fact, albino) Aboriginal people haunted the public imagination and supported—both scientifically and politically—efforts to biologically absorb and socially assimilate Indigenous people into the majority-European population, most infamously through the mass child removal now known as the ...
The word Koorie or Koori is a word used to describe Aboriginal people of South Eastern Australia (in Victoria and New South Wales). The word comes from the Awabakal word for 'man' or 'people. '
Self-identification: You must personally choose to identify as Aboriginal. Some people with Aboriginal heritage may decide not to identify as such for various reasons. It's a personal choice that must be made by the individual.
"Oy oy oy" in Australia is most famously part of the patriotic chant "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!" used at sporting events to show national pride, but "Oi" also functions as a general Australian informal interjection, like "hey" or "excuse me," to get someone's attention. The chant itself comes from the British "Oggy Oggy Oggy" cheer for Cornish pasties and became popular in Australia after the 2000 Olympics.
Pommy or pom
The terms pommy, pommie, and pom used in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand usually denote a British person.
The most Australian thing to say often involves casual slang like "G'day, mate!" or "No worries, she'll be right," reflecting a laid-back, friendly culture that shortens words (arvo for afternoon, brekkie for breakfast) and uses unique phrases like "Fair dinkum" (really/truly) or "Bloody oath!" (yes, absolutely) for emphasis. It's about being informal, positive, and using unique terms for everyday things like a "barbie" (BBQ) or "sunnies" (sunglasses).
While the United States (US) is Australia's key strategic ally and often seen as a very close partner by leaders, public opinion polls consistently show New Zealand as Australia's "best friend" in the world, followed by the US and then the United Kingdom, reflecting deep cultural and historical ties with both neighbors.
The countries with the most permanent migrants to Australia (excluding those with a humanitarian profile) for 2023–24 are:
In 1606, Dutch explorers made the first recorded European sightings of, and first recorded landfalls on, the Australian mainland. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon.
With respect to ABO groups, group O is the most common blood group in Aboriginal communities in Northern Australia, such as Cape York, the Northern region and Kimberley. Group A is the second most common blood group in the Aboriginal community, mainly in Central Australia, whereas groups B and AB are uncommon [6].
The San people of southern Africa, who have lived as hunter-gatherers for thousands of years, are likely to be the oldest population of humans on Earth, according to the biggest and most detailed analysis of African DNA.
The standard three-part test for Aboriginality in Australia requires a person to meet three criteria: descent (biological ancestry), self-identification (identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander), and community acceptance (being recognized as such by their Indigenous community). This definition, adopted by the Commonwealth government, is used for many government programs and services, although the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) uses a simpler two-part test (descent and self-identification) for general data collection.
The oldest town in Australia, in terms of European settlement, is generally considered to be George Town, Tasmania, founded in 1803, though older settlements like Sydney (1788) and Parramatta (1788) are older cities, with Bathurst (1815) being the oldest inland settlement, and oldest Aboriginal sites like Madjedbebe (around 65,000 years old) predate all European arrivals by tens of thousands of years.
The 1975 Racial Discrimination Act made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal (with the exception of census forms).
Ten Pound Poms were required to stay two years or pay back their residual fare which would have been around £120 – a big sum in those days. A lot of people did go home but mine soldiered on.