Aborigine History
Aboriginal settlers arrived in Australia from Southeast Asia (now known as Papua New Guinea or Indonesia) between 40,000 and 80,000 years ago.
The word "aboriginal" means "the first" or "earliest known". The word was first used in Italy and Greece to describe people who lived there, natives or old inhabitants.
Australia may well be the home of the world's first people. Stone tools discovered in a quarry near Penrith, New South Wales, in 1971 show that aborigines lived in Australia at least 12,000 years before they appeared in Europe.
To put this aboriginal history in some time perspective, since the first fleet arrived in Australia in 1788 there have only been 8 generations of settlers. There have been in excess of 18,500 generations of aboriginals!!!
It is not known from where the aboriginals began their journey, but it is certain that people with some kind of water craft crossed the 100 - 160 kilometers stretch of water between the islands and Australia. This sea voyage is the earliest evidence of sea travel by prehistoric man.
The first aboriginals found Australia a very good environment. Large animals, now extinct, provided meat, and the continent was rich in vegetable foods. They bred up to between 200,000 and 500,000 people, and today, anyone with aborigine blood is called 'aboriginal'.
Aborigines evolved a way of living that was in harmony with the environment. Their groups, or clans, belonged with, or to, the land - they believed that land was given to them long ago in the Dreamtime. Like the animals and plants of the area, man was an integral part of 'Mother Earth'.
For some time after white settlement in Sydney in 1788, there were wars between the spears and clubs of the aborigine tribes and the guns and knives of the early convict arrivals. The British Government requested the governor of New South Wales to make a treaty with the aborigines. When this could not be achieved, Australia was declared 'Terra Nullius' (effectively uninhabited). This has led in recent years to long legal battles over Land Rights for aborigines.
When the Commonwealth of Australiawas declared in 1901, though it was basically democratic, aborigines were not eligible to vote. They were not classified as 'Australians', until a referendum in 1967 forced a change in the Constitution to allow them to be on the electoral role. In 1971 the first aborigine was elected to Federal parliament.
Local Aborigine History
The aboriginal people of Sydney were dispersed soon after white settlement, and it is not clear which of the aborigine groups lived in the Bondi/Tamarama area before this time, but there is evidence of them being there.
Unique aboriginal rock carvings of a shark and fishes can be seen along the Coast walk on the cliffs between Bondi beach and Tamarama beach. An aboriginal 'midden' was discovered (these are remnants of their dwelling places, made up of shellfish debris, stone-working implements and stone artifacts).
During the on-going development of Sydney, much of the aborigine heritage was covered or destroyed, but there are relics and archaeological findings being unearthed.
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