Australia

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circa 120,000 BCE — The people later to be known as Indigenous Australians first arrive in Australia

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In the traditions of the Indigenous Australian peoples, their ancestors were created with the land, at the dawn of what is called the Dreamtime, the Dreaming or Alterjinga.

Science tells it a little differently. The original ancestors of the people now known as the Australian Aboriginals emigrated to Australia at some point between 40,000 and 120,000 years ago, with an increasing amount of evidence supporting the earliest date. Due to the wide variation of dates, it is unclear whether they arrived here after a sea crossing, or via a landbridge now submerged. It is not known where they first set foot in Australia, nor how many separate waves of migration occurred.

What is for certain is that these people dwelt in Australia with little or no contact with the rest of the world (the Macassar fishing fleets being one of the few exceptions), for thousands of years before European settlement in 1788. Whether or not one accepts the Dreamtime legend, there remains an undeniable case for considering them to be the traditional owners of the land, displaced and disenfranchised by European imperialism.

First Lesson (Sculpture) - Pillaga Scrub

As mentioned in:

Solid Rock — Goanna

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April 29, 1770 — Captain James Cook is the first European to make contact with Australian Natives

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It was on his first voyage of discovery that Captain James Cook’s ship the Endeavour, sighted the eastern coast of Australia. A man aloft in the crows nest, one Lieutenant Zachary Hickes, made the first sighting, which Cook repaid by naming Point Hicks (spelling was not, apparently, one of Cook’s many talents). But although they saw evidence of the natives of this new land – the smoke of numerous campfires, mostly – it was not until four days later that first contact was made between the Englishmen and Australian Natives. (Specifically, members of the Gweagal people, who dwelt on the shores of Botany Bay around modern Kurnell.)

Perhaps setting a template for future interactions between blacks and whites in Australia, the contact was hostile, although no one was killed. The scientists on the crew, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, gathered specimens, primarily botanical (hence the name given to the bay where they landed), to take back to England. Cook and his crew continued on their way after spending a week or so in Botany Bay, taking home news that would eventually spell the doom of the Gweagal and a great many of their relatives.

Landing of Lieutenant James Cook at Botany Bay, 29 April 1770 (painting by E Phillips Fox).jpg
By E. [Emanuel] Phillips Fox – National Gallery of Victoria, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Solid Rock — Goanna
Native Born — Paul Kelly

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January 18, 1788 — The First Fleet lands in Botany Bay

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An advance party for the First Fleet to colonise Australia entered Botany Bay on this day. The Governor of the colony, Arthur Phillip, sailed the armed tender Supply into the bay, and weighed anchor. Two days later, they were joined by the other ships of the Fleet. However, the poor quality of the soil led to the entire fleet decamping, and landing instead in Port Jackson 8 days later, at what was named Sydney Cove by the Governor.

The French explorer La Perouse entered Botany Bay on the same day, January 26, too late to claim the land for France. The British penal colony was, of course, never heard from again.

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June 6, 1835 — John Batman makes a treaty with the Wurundjeri people

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John Batman was a Tasmanian who organised a syndicate of investors to fund him and some other settlers to build a new village on the banks of the Yarra River. Of course, this land was already occupied by the tribes of the Kulin nation, primarily the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung, each of which greatly outnumbered the small group of settlers Batman led. Thus, Batman made a deal with the chiefs of the Wurundjeri, purchasing a small stretch of land. In time, the village would become Melbourne (today a metropolis of more than four million people, very few of them members of the Wurundjeri or other Kulin peoples).

However, there are many grounds on which to dispute Batman’s treaty. It is a matter of some dispute whether the tribesmen Batman dealt with understood the deal they were making in the same way Batman did – among the Kulin people, as among most Australian Aboriginal peoples, land was not owned by individuals in the same way it was by Europeans. Legally, even by the standards of colonial empires, Batman was also on shaky ground, as he had no authority from the Crown to make such a deal. And while it does appear that, at least to start with, the colonists made efforts to deal in good faith with the various Kulin peoples, misunderstandings were inevitable between two such disparate peoples, leading to bloodshed on several occasions. Later colonists, who were not party to the original deal, treated the Kulin (and in time, the other native peoples of Victoria) much worse. Batman, like so many of the natives, was dead by then.

Batman signs treaty artist impression

As mentioned in:

Solid Rock — Goanna

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November 11, 1869 — “An Act to provide for the Protection and Management of the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria” is presented to the Victorian Parliament

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The first legal attempt to codify the treatment of Australia’s indigenous peoples was largely an attempt to give the government more or less complete control over their lives. It was guided by Christian ideals, misunderstandings of Darwin’s theories and economic imperatives to varying degrees. It was, in modern terms, racist af.

It would be followed by similar laws in other states and territories, then federally. Until 1967, the native peoples of Australia were, legally speaking, defined as native fauna rather than humans.

The most infamous provision of the act was to allow for children – especially children who were not full-blooded natives – to be removed from their parents, so that they could be integrated into white society (as servants, of course) for their own good. The children removed – and this policy went on for decades, with removals still taking place more than a century after 1869 – would become known as the Stolen Generations. It was done in the name of a larger, predominately white society that had little or no idea it was happening until the early 1980’s.

In a colonial history as replete with shameful episodes as any other, this is one of the most shameful, and accordingly, the Prime Minister of Australia formally apologised for it in Parliament on February 13, 2008, and compensation has been paid to some of the victims and their families. Scant recompense for the pain caused, but better than nothing.

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February 19, 1942 — Japanese planes attack Darwin

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The Japanese air raid on Darwin was mounted by 242 Japanese planes launched from four aircraft carriers. It was intended to soften up the air force and navy bases there in preparation for the Japanese invasion of Timor the following day. Between 9:58 and 10:40AM that day, the planes sank three warships and five merchant ships, while damaging ten more. Twenty-one dock workers were killed in the raids.

This would be the first of a total of 97 air raids against targets either in Australian waters or on the Australian mainland. Most of these were on various sites across the northern coast of Australia between Port Hedland, Western Australia and Townsville, Queensland, with the great majority of them being on military or civilian targets in Darwin. The last air raid took place on November 12, 1943, striking Parap, Adelaide River and Batchelor Airfield (all in the Northern Territory). By that time, the tide of war had turned, and Japan could no longer strike so close to Australia, although the end of the war was still nearly two years away.

Darwin 42.jpg
By RAN Historical Collection – This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Tojo — Hoodoo Gurus

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August 5, 1964 — The first Anti-Vietnam War protest in Australia

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It started off small – although by 1964 standards, 2000 people gathered outside the American Consulate in Prahran, Victoria probably seemed like a lot more. There’d been anti-war and anti-nuclear protests before now, but this was the first one that was specifically about the Vietnam War. Mounted in response to U.S. aerial attacks on North Vietnam in the wake of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, it called less for an end to the war than for a re-convening of the Geneva Conference.

In the years that followed, the Vietnam War would become less and less popular with the Australian public. The numbers at protests would grow, especially after the introduction of conscription in November of that year. And more than eight years later, a newly elected government would announce the withdrawal of the last Australian troops in Vietnam.

As mentioned in:

Long Run — Redgum

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December 9, 1972 — The Whitlam government is elected in Australia

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It was time.

After 23 years in the wilderness, the Australian Labor Party was once again elected by the Australian people. Led by Gough Whitlam, they had only narrowly lost the previous election and this time thumped home with a comfortable 9 seat majority. Whitlam wasted little time – he and deputy Lance Barnard were sworn in by the Governor-General the following day, and set about enacting their agenda.

In the parlance of today, they moved fast and broke things – one of those things, unfortunately, their own government. But in the meantime, they ended Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War, introduced socialised health care and ended the White Australia Policy, among other reforms. A later Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, characterised the Whitlam government as waking Australia from its ‘Menzian torpor’, and it’s hard to argue with him.

Gough Whitlam 1972 policy speech.jpg
By National Archives of Australia – http://guides.naa.gov.au/gough-whitlam/gallery/image009.aspx, CC BY 4.0, Link

As mentioned in:

Long Run — Redgum

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October 3, 1998 — Julie Bishop first enters the House of Representatives

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After a somewhat difficult election – the previous incumbent had left the Liberal Party to run as an independent, but he remained a friend of the sitting Liberal Prime Minister, who didn’t want to run anyone against him – Julie Bishop was elected to the lower house of the Australian federal Parliament as Member for the seat of Curtin, in West Australia. Bishop had come from a background in law, and was 42 years old at the time of her election.

She had been pre-selected by far-seeing members of the party who believed she had what it took to be a Cabinet Minister, and she quickly proved them right, ascending to the Ministry (as Minister for Ageing) in 2003, and remaining a Minister (or Shadow-Minister when in Opposition) until she chose to step down in 2019.

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November 29, 2007 — Julie Bishop becomes the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party

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In the wake of the crushing defeat of the Liberal Party in the 2007 Australian federal election, the incumbent leader and deputy both stepped down from their roles. (Indeed, the leader, the now-former Prime Minister John Howard, had no option but to step down, having lost his seat in the election.) The thankless task of rebuilding the party (and its coalition partner, the National Party), went to relative unknowns Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop.

Nelson did not prove equal to the task, lasting only a little more than ten months in the role and achieving some of the lowest approval numbers ever seen in Australian politics. Bishop, on the other hand, thrived in the role, and would remain deputy leader as leaders came and went until 2019.

Brendan Nelson (3).jpg
By Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au, CC BY 3.0 au, Link

As mentioned in:

Nice Shoes — Buster J & The Death Stares

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September 15, 2008 — Malcolm Turnbull displaces Brendan Nelson as Liberal Party leader

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Brendan Nelson failed terribly as the Leader of the Opposition, and even moreso as the Leader of the Liberal Party. He was unpopular with both the public at large and within his own party, and as the errors and gaffes piled up, it became clear that his days were numbered.

The two front runners to replace him were Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Costello. Costello had previously been the Deputy Leader of the party under John Howard, as well as Treasurer, and was the favourite to win in most opinion polls and editorial pages. However, he declined to contest (and retired entirely from Parliament the following year), leaving Malcolm Turnbull to win the leadership in a canter.

Julie Bishop’s tenure as Deputy Leader continued under the new leader.

Turnbull.JPG
By Photo by w:en:User:Adam Carr – Transfered from en.wikipedia Transwiki approved by: w:en:User:Timeshift9 Original uploader was Adam Carr at en.wikipedia 2005-11-03 (original upload date), Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Nice Shoes — Buster J & The Death Stares

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December 1, 2009 — Tony Abbott elected leader of the Liberal Party

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Tony Abbott wasn’t supposed to be in the running. While it was obvious that Malcolm Turnbull wasn’t going to last as leader of the Liberal Party, his competitor for the role was Joe Hockey. Abbott only threw his hat into the ring at all because the conservative wing of the party didn’t like either Hockey or Turnbull.

But on the first round of voting, he won more votes than either of the other two. Hockey was eliminated, and in the second round of voting, Abbott narrowly defeated Turnbull. He would go on to become Prime Minister in 2013, and in due course, be knifed by his own party and replaced with a new leader, some guy named Malcolm Turnbull.

Julie Bishop’s tenure as Deputy Leader continued under the new leader.

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September 14, 2015 — Tony Abbott loses the Prime Ministership to Malcolm Turnbull

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The stated reason for the knifing of Tony Abbott was that he had lost “30 Newspolls in a row” – which was true, but also somewhat beside the point. But Malcolm Turnbull wasn’t going to be denied. The man who would be Prime Minister had waited a long, long time for the top job, and clearly believed that revenge was a dish best served at zero Kelvin.

So it was that Malcolm Turnbull became the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, while Abbott took over his role as backbencher and miserable ghost in Parliament.

Julie Bishop’s tenure as Deputy Leader continued under the new leader.

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August 24, 2018 — Scott Morrison becomes Prime Minister of Australia

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Malcolm Turnbull had been looking shaky as Prime Minister for some time when Peter Dutton decided to challenge him for the job. In a spill vote on August 21, 2018, Turnbull defeated Dutton by a comfortable 13 votes, but the damage was done. Turnbull announced that he would step down as leader (and member for Wentworth) if the party called for another spill. They did, he did, and a three-cornered contest between Julie Bishop, a resurgent Peter Dutton and Treasurer Scott Morrison took place. Bishop, despite being the single most popular member of the party with the public by a large margin, was defeated in the first round of voting, and Dutton in the second. Scott Morrison became the new Prime Minister.

Morrison was quick to appoint a new Cabinet – and a new Deputy. Bishop quit the ministry, and moved to the back benches. After 11 long years, she was no longer the deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

Scott Morrison 2014 crop.jpg
By User:Clrdms – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

As mentioned in:

Nice Shoes — Buster J & The Death Stares

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February 21, 2019 — Julie Bishop announces her retirement from Parliament

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It was only a matter of time. Once Julie Bishop moved to the back bench in 2018, the clock was ticking on how long she’d stay in Parliament. On February 21, 2019, Bishop ended the speculation by announcing that she would not be recontesting her seat in the next election (due to be held later in the year). After 21 years, the possessor of the most impressive death glare in Australian politics had reached the end of the road in Parliament.

Prime Minister (and graceless oaf) Scott Morrison made a speech thanking her for her service without mentioning any specifics whatsoever, but managing to get in a sexist remark about her shoes.

Portrait of Julie Bishop.jpg
By Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au, CC BY 3.0 au, Link

As mentioned in:

Nice Shoes — Buster J & The Death Stares