Terra Australis

THE FIRST AUSTRALIANS

• We will be looking at the First Australians next week.
• They used and understood the land very differently to how the Settlers would look at it.

USE OF THE LAND

• Clearing
• Farming
• Building
• Mining
• Grazing animals

CLEARING

• To use land, it has to be cleared.
• Often done by convict gangs.
• Much harder in Australia than Britain.
• Settlers could be granted land if they cleared and used it (squatters rights).

BUILDING

• Houses, towns, cities and shops all needed to be built.
• Building somewhere to live was one of the first and most important things people would do when they settled in an area.

SYDNEY TOWN

• What at first had been a large scale prison and little else, Sydney was redesigned and rebuilt under Governor Macquarie.
• It was rebuilt and the roads and buildings were improved.

FARMING

• Obviously people needed food, the most popular crops were wheat, barley and soon they started to raise sheep and cattle as well.
• Wool could be exported back to England, and was the first major income for the colony.

Untitled Slide

SHEEP

• Hugely important for Australia!
• “Australia grew fat off the sheep’s back”
• Wool was very valuable, lots of ‘squatters’ claimed land to raise sheep.

EXPLORATION

• Why explore?