Australian Stories matching your query...

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia:nla.pic-an6065451. From 1788 to 1823, the Colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprised mainly of convicts, marines and the wives of the marines. The majority of women convicts, and m...

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...

McFarlane & Erskine, Gold escort attacked by bushrangers, 187-, print: lithograph. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an8420450. Black Caesar escaped into the bush in 1790 with a musket where he later joined five or six other es...

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 Barque Endeavour. Coo...

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...

In 1907 David Scott Mitchell (1836–1907), a wealthy and obsessive collector of books, made a gift to the people of Australia. David Scott Mitchell, donor of the Mitchell Collection. David Scott Mitchell's revolving bookcase, Bequest of David Scott ...

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 ...

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 colonists arrived in large numbers. The lives of women like Truganini, Walye...

The gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the goldfields - known as '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...

Ernest Revell, Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, c. In March 1812, the Colonial Surveyor George William Evans was sent to explore Jervis Bay, to determine a possible inland route back to Port Jackson. Other explorers, such as Hume and Hove...

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 ...

Unknown, Portrait of the bushranger Ned Kelly, 1880, glass plate negative. More books, songs and websites have been written about Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang than any other group of Australian historical figures. Unknown, Kate Kelly, sister of Ned Kelly...

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 ...

Unknown artist, Ben Hall, the bushranger, c. The exploits, capture and death of 'Brave' Ben Hall in the 1860s are part of Australian folklore, as well as marking a historical shift in the treatment of bushrangers. Hall's exploits and the apparent ineffi...

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...

Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria. 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 Limestone coast of South Australian and the south we...

Mr Salchany, lighthouse keeper of Neptune Islands signals a passing ship, 1963. In Australia, lighthouses are built in harbours, on islands, coral reefs and beaches. Courtesy of the Australian Heritage Photo Library, Department of Environment, Water Her...

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...