Deep Time

A billion people have called this continent home for over 60,000 years, spanning more than 2000 generations. They have witnessed the transformation of the landscape, managed and cared for the environment through sustainable practices, spoken over 200 languages and been resilient.

First Peoples have also been trading extensively across the continent for thousands of years, establishing trade routes covering thousands of kilometres. Like any other trade routes, exchange included not just raw materials and goods but stories and ideas. Pearl shell from north-west Australia has been found in southern Australia in the Mallee region, while greenstone from central Victoria was traded across south-eastern Australia.

Bunjil is the Ancestral Wedge-tailed Eagle, for First Peoples of the eastern Kulin Nation the creator of their lands and waterways and animals within it. Bunjil also created people, by breathing life into figures moulded from clay. Waa is the Ancestral Crow, the protector. A person's affinity with either Bunjil or Waa defined their kinship relationships, marriage partners and social responsibilities. Communities across what is now called Victoria have their own ancestral spirits.

Caring for Country including all living beings is embedded into First Peoples cultural practices. For some this cultural knowledge and connection continues today; for others the connections have been broken by the impact of colonisation.

Ancient middens and charcoal from hearths date First Peoples occupation in what is now known as Keilor west of Melbourne at around 40,000 years. People hunted megafauna such as Diprotodon (the size of a rhinoceros), marsupial lions and giant kangaroos in the area around 30,000 years ago.

Over 30,000 years of lava flows from Budj Bim (formerly known as Mt Eccles) volcano were cultivated by Gunditjmara peoples to engineer one of the world’s oldest freshwater aquaculture systems to farm and harvest Kooyang (short-finned eels) and other fish. Here Gunditjmara communities established villages by building clusters of stone houses – remains of the aquaculture systems and houses still exist today.

Source: BUDJ BIM I gunditjmirring

1600s-1790s

Pre-1600 to Today First Peoples on the land to be called Australia by colonisers represent many diverse communities, each with languages, laws and territorial boundaries encompassing an entire continent. So it was in 1600 and so it remains today. The numbers of groups change regularly as communities recover more knowledge of their Countries and cultural knowledge.

1600 England, France and the Netherlands join Spain and Portugal in the quest to create and expand European empires due to advanced naval technology. They are driven by desire for raw materials such as gold and silver, and cash crops like tobacco and sugar, as well as by religious conversion and creating colonial market economies. Colonisers either settle their own communities through dispossession, or extract wealth and frequently enslave local peoples. Colonial rule varies from the imposition of governance systems to delegation of government to local rulers.

1606 First Peoples mapping through travel, celestial navigation, songlines, artworks and stories have layered Country with cultural meanings for tens of thousands of years. In recent history, First Peoples meet Dutch East India Company navigator Willem Janszoon on a mission for land and resources (especially gold) to exploit. He becomes the first European to record landfall and map through European methods parts of the Australian continent. At least 29 Dutch explorers will follow, charting but never settling the whole west and northern coasts, calling the land mass New Holland.

1770 or earlier Yolngu (Yolnu) people from north-east Arnhem Land are trading trepang (sea cucumber) for goods such as cloth, tobacco, rice and knives with the Macassan people from Sulawesi (Indonesia). Some Yolngu people who travel to Sulawesi also forge personal relationships, learn the local language and have families.

1770 Kamay/Gamay (Botany Bay) is the site of the first encounter on the east coast of Australia between First Nations peoples and a European exploration party led by James Cook. The peoples of the Dharawal Nation react to the incursion by throwing spears, warning them not to enter their lands. Cook applies European mapping techniques to the east coast and assigns the name New South Wales to the territory as an act of possession and a dismissal of First Peoples’ sovereignty, claiming: We see this country in the pure state of nature, the industry of man has had nothing to do with any part of it. In 1831 this claim of ownership is extended to include the entire continent.

1788 First Peoples of the Sydney region watch 11 sailing ships enter Kamay/Gamay which Europeans will call Botany Bay. The fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, had left England eight months prior, with more than 1,300 convicts, crew and their families onboard (the majority of them English), representing around 60 different nationalities. Many convicts have been banished from home for petty crimes, never to return. The fleet soon relocates north to what they called Sydney Cove in Port Jackson and raises the British flag there on 26 January 1788. From canoes, First Peoples light fires and yell for them to go away. This act signals the beginning of the dispossession of First Peoples from their land, a process which will extend across the entire continent.

1800s-1840s

1800 First contact between First Peoples of the Kulin Nations (on land later called Melbourne) and Europeans occurs along the south-eastern and southern coasts through the activities of whalers and sealers. These Newcomers are from many nations and some, who are ex-convicts, have suffered long sentences and harsh treatment. For three decades their encounters with First Peoples range from barter and employment to the brutal kidnapping of women and enslaving of men.

1803 Wathaurong/Wadda Wurrung peoples rescue English convict William Buckley from his lost wanderings, after he had escaped the first but short-lived European settlement, Sullivan Bay, on Boon Wurrung land near Sorrento. He lives with the Wathaurong/Wadda Wurrung for 32 years and is immersed in their world, marrying and having a child. He then leaves his family and community in 1835, never to be seen by them again, to meet John Batman’s invading party. Buckley tries to work as an intermediary between the two cultures, but never feels truly trusted by either.

1834 Henty family from England establish a settlement on Gunditjmara lands in south-west Victoria without permission of either the Traditional Owners or the British Government. By 1839 the Hentys are running a whaling station and possess over 30,000 sheep and 500 head of cattle. They bring farming and trading expertise, as well as capital investment to the colony, but also perpetrate the first major act of dispossession in the Port Phillip district.

1835 Kulin (alliance of five language groups of south-central Victoria) leaders including Wurundjeri men Bilibellary and Bebejan meet New South Wales-born John Batman, who arrives on Kulin Country from Lutruwita (Van Diemen’s Land, later Tasmania), aiming to claim land for squatters. Batman has been a key participant there in the violent dispossession of First Nations peoples. He now seeks an agreement from Kulin peoples to hand over rights to the almost 250,000 hectares of land around Port Phillip.

This ‘treaty’ is used to claim that local First Peoples had given consent for Batman to take their land in exchange for goods and rations. It is often considered to be the only documented time when Europeans negotiated their presence and occupation of lands directly with the Traditional Owners. However, this ‘treaty’ is not valid under First Peoples or European law. New South Wales Governor Bourke issues an immediate Proclamation declaring the treaty invalid because only the British Crown can sell or distribute land.                                                          

1837 Narrm/Birrarangga (Woiwurrung and Boon Wurrung language words for Melbourne) is surveyed by English-born Robert Hoddle, layering a grid pattern over thousands of years of First Peoples’ cultural mapping. The pre-designed grid contrasts with the more organic evolution of the streets of Sydney.

1839 First migrants to sail direct to Port Phillip from Britain arrive. In the same year English migrant Fred Taylor and his shepherds slaughter 35 to 40 men, women and children of the Djargurd Wurrung Nation in their sleep, wiping out the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan. The site of the massacre is near Camperdown in the Western District, and so horrified many local Europeans that it is still known as Murdering Gully.

1841 Largest inflow of British migrants to New South Wales (including Port Phillip) before the gold rushes occurs, due to large-scale heavily subsidised ship passages. Over 23,000 arrive onto First Peoples land, further reinforcing the colony and entrenching the dispossession.

1848 Wonga (son of Billibellary) inherits the leadership of the Wurundjeri peoples, adopts European clothes, adds Simon to his name and is determined to negotiate with the Europeans for portions of land and ensure his peoples’ survival.

1850s-1890s

1851 Victoria is proclaimed a separate colony, despite First Peoples’ sovereignty never having been ceded. Gold is discovered by colonists, attracting almost half a million migrants in a decade onto Kulin Country.

1850s Largest numbers of migrants come from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, China and Germany. A tent city springs up to accommodate the huge numbers of arrivals. Diggers and hotels fly flags to announce their nationalities and languages spoken within – Union Jacks, Scottish thistles, Fleur-de-lys and Texas Stars. This atmosphere of tolerance does not, however, extend to the Chinese diggers.

1852 William Thomas, born in England of Welsh parents, is appointed Assistant Protector of Aborigines for the Colony of Victoria and, upon the desperate urging of members of the Boon Wurrung, secures land at Mordialloc, a favourite camping ground of the Boon Wurrung peoples, and land at Warrandyte for the Wurundjeri people.

1855 First tax on Chinese migrants is introduced. Despite this injustice, thousands of mostly single Chinese men arrive on the goldfields, often walking from Robe in South Australia to avoid the landing tax in Melbourne. They endure segregation and racist attacks to mine their gold and some, like John Alloo who arrived in 1844, run market gardens and businesses.

1857 German migrants build a Lutheran church and school in the Bendigo gold diggings district, and mining coalitions such as Hoffnung, Prussian Reef and Bismarck will soon reflect the strong German presence on the goldfields.

1863 Simon Wonga leads his people back to Country on the Yarra River in Melbourne’s outer east and claims land, 2,300 acres of which is gazetted for Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve. Other clans soon gather and an alliance is formed between the Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri), Wathaurong/Wadda Wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung (Jaara), Taungurung and Boon Wurrung peoples with Wonga the undisputed leader.

1865 There are now First Peoples’ reserves, run by Christian missionaries and by the State, at Eberneezer and Cummeragunja on Yorta Yorta Country to the north, Lake Condah and Framlingham on Eastern Maar and Gunditjmara Country to the west, and Lake Tyers and Ramahyuck on Gunai Kurnai Country to the east. Most are built around systems of, at best, paternalistic control and at worst, oppression, denial of cultural practices and family separation.

1869 Victorian Parliament passes the Aboriginal Protection Act, making Victoria the first colony to enact a comprehensive scheme to regulate the lives of First Peoples. This Act gives powers to the Board for the Protection of Aborigines which subsequently develops into an extraordinary level of control of people’s lives including regulation of residence, employment, marriage and social life. At the same time, democratic reforms of world significance are being achieved for many others, including male franchise, free education and the eight-hour working day.

1875 William Barak (Beruk in Woiwurrung language) becomes Wurundjeri Ngurungaeta (headman) after the passing of his cousin Wonga and continues to fight the Aboriginal Protection Board to be allowed to retain Coranderrk Reserve for his people, which is deteriorating due to the Board’s mismanagement, interventions and cuts to funding.

1881 Barak leads the second deputation to Melbourne’s Parliament House to advocate for his people’s self-management of Coranderrk Reserve. A Parliamentary Inquiry based on the residents’ testimony sees Coranderrk made a permanent reserve. His efforts garner support, including influential Scottish migrant Anne Bon. Mrs Bon, an active philanthropist in charities, education and mental health, advocates tirelessly for the rights of First Peoples across Victoria.

1886 Aborigines Protection Act initiates the removal of First Peoples of mixed descent from missions and stations in south-eastern Australia to be assimilated into white society – the commencement of the Stolen Generations. This will result in the depopulation and decline of the reserves and their eventual closure. Most remaining First Peoples are subsequently removed to Lake Tyers.

1900-1930s

1901 Australia becomes a federated nation and Melbourne the home of the new Australian Parliament. In a rare reference to First Peoples in the new constitution, section 127 states that ‘in reckoning the numbers of peoples of the commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.’ So begins the more than 67 different definitions of ‘Aboriginality’ over time which then determines First Peoples’ inclusion or exclusion in the Australian citizenry.

1901 One of the first Acts of Parliament, the Immigration Restriction Act, introduces the Dictation Test, the cornerstone of administering the White Australia policy, enabling the exclusion of any non-British migrants at the discretion of customs officials. The Pacific Islanders Labourers Act authorises the deportation of approximately 10,000 Islanders left working mostly on Queensland cane fields and the banning of further recruitment after 1903. Many of these workers (around 60,000) have been brought to Australia forcibly, treated as slaves or indentured labour, and are deported despite having made lives here.

1914 Outbreak of World War I brings immigration to a halt. German, Bulgarian, Turkish and Austro-Hungarian nationals and their descendants are either interned or have their movement restricted for security reasons. Most are deported after the War. Almost 62,000 Australians of many cultural backgrounds are killed and more than 155,000 wounded, including First Peoples servicemen and women, for whom fighting in every conflict in which Australia participated since the Boer War is a source of great pride.

1920s Government policies control non-British migration through strict quotas and heavy landing taxes, limiting numbers from European countries who nevertheless continue to arrive and settle in Victoria. The removal of mixed heritage First Peoples’ children from their families continues, as do the appalling living conditions of many of the reserves to which First Peoples have been relegated. Various state ‘protection’ laws require people to remain there or work under strict contract to European managers, mostly as unpaid labourers or domestic servants.

1922 Empire Settlement Act launches a scheme to entice British migrants with the offer of fares, jobs and rural land – but few can make a living on their small and often remote blocks. This follows other land distribution schemes to encourage suburban and regional settlement including the Closer Settlement (from 1904) and Soldier Settlement (from 1917) schemes which also struggle to succeed, partly due to lack of infrastructure investment. Many migrants return home disappointed by the Empire scheme and the British Government queries the accuracy of Australia’s immigration propaganda.

Once again, land which has never been ceded by First Peoples is distributed without permission or compensation.

1938 William Ferguson (Wiradjuri), Jack Patten and William Cooper (Yorta Yorta) lead an Aboriginal Day of Mourning to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet landing. Today’s NAIDOC Week has its origins in this event.

1938 William Cooper identifies his peoples’ struggle with those of other world minority groups. He lodges a personal protest against the treatment of European Jews by Nazi Germany, walking from his home in Footscray to the German consulate in South Melbourne. It was one of the first protests in the world against the actions of the Nazis. The Australian Government allows entry to 6,000 Jewish refugees.

1939 Decades of appalling treatment of residents and living conditions at Cummeragunga Mission on the Victoria-New South Wales border leads to a courageous walk-off by 200 mainly Yorta Yorta people. It is one of the first mass protests by First Peoples, many of whom re-settle in northern Victoria. Their cause is recognised and supported by the Labour movement in Melbourne as an industrial action, but little changes.

1940s-1960s

1939-45 Italian, German, Japanese and nationals from other countries with which Australia is at war are interned as enemy aliens, in camps including Tatura in northern Victoria. Also interned are people from overseas, including a group of Jewish refugees from Britain who arrive on the ship Dunera in 1942. Many endure poor living conditions and the subsequent loss of their homes, jobs and businesses. Most Japanese internees, some of whom were born in Australia, are deported in 1946.

1945 First Commonwealth Immigration Department is established as part of post-war reconstruction, and Australia’s sense of vulnerability to future attack leads to calls to ‘populate or perish.’ ‘Terra Nullius’ (‘nobody’s land’) remains the unspoken, underlying assumption of calls for mass migration, and ‘White Australia’ continues to inform immigrant selection.

1945 British migrants are eligible for the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme with the Australian and British governments offering ten-pound fares to encourage large numbers to migrate from post-war austerity.

1946 William and Eric Onus, and Pastor Sir Douglas (Doug) Nicholls re-form the Australian Aborigines League in Melbourne, which in 1957 is subsumed into the Aborigines Advancement League. The constant aim of these associations is to fight for equality and justice.

1947 Thousands of displaced persons from war-torn Europe start arriving on former troop ships – 170,000 are resettled here by 1953. Australia’s first migrant reception centre opens in refurbished army barracks at Bonegilla near the New South Wales border to process and accommodate the new arrivals – around 300,000 by the time it closes in 1971.

1949 Work begins on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, a major Government infrastructure project that employs around 70,000 migrant workers from more than 30 nationalities.

1950 Australian Government establishes the Colombo Plan, including a scheme under which students from countries in Asia can study in Australia and then return home with their new skills.

1955 Number of post-war migrants arriving in Australia reaches one million.

1956 Refugees from Asia and longstanding Asian residents can apply for permanent residency, and non-European spouses of Australian citizens can apply for naturalisation.

1958 Migration Act abolishes the Dictation Test. The Bring Out a Briton Scheme is launched, encouraging communities to actively support British migration and demonstrating the continued preference for this cohort.

1966 Liberal government introduces changes to immigration policy, signalling the end of the White Australia policy. Under the new laws, all potential migrants are now subject to the same rules and restrictions surrounding visas, are eligible to become citizens of Australia after the same waiting period, and not assessed according to race or nationality. By the late 1960s, around 6,000 migrants from Asia are arriving each year. [Source: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/end-of-white-australia-policy]

1967 Referendum to include First Peoples in the Australian census and be legislated under Federal law is passed by an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote (nearly 91%). Such broad support for First Peoples has never before been witnessed in Australia, coming after a tireless national campaign by First Peoples leaders such as Faith Bandler, William Onus, Doug Nicholls, Win Branson and Burnum Burnum (Harry Penrith) and non-First Peoples’ allies including Jessie Street.

1969 All states have repealed legislation enabling removal of First Peoples’ children under the policy of ‘protection’ which had been occurring on a mass scale since the 1870s. Children had been removed by governments, churches and welfare bodies to be raised in institutions, fostered out or adopted by white families. This practice broke important cultural, spiritual and family ties, many children were physically and psychologically abused, parents were frequently permanently separated from their children, and the repercussions have had enduring intergenerational impacts.

1970s-1990s

1970 British unaccompanied child migrant schemes wind up amidst rising criticism over the appalling treatment of many of the approximately 3,300 children sent here after World War II. These experiences will have severe repercussions for many involved for years to come.

1971 First Peoples residents of Lake Tyers and Framlingham former mission sites on Gunai-Kurnai and Eastern Maar land are granted freehold title via the Aboriginal Lands Act 1970 after a long battle for autonomy. It is the first successful land rights claim in Victoria.

1972 Four First Peoples men set up what becomes known as the Tent Embassy, a continuing protest in Canberra (since 1992 permanently on the lawns outside Old Parliament House) against Government approach to land rights, as well as sovereignty and self-determination. Well-known First Peoples activists have included Gary Foley, Roberta Sykes, John Newfong, Chicka Dixon and Gordon Briscoe.

1975 Racial Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, colour, descent or ethnicity and what is considered the first official outline of a policy promoting a multicultural Australia is delivered.

1976 Term ‘boat people’ enters the Australian vernacular as the first of 56 small unauthorised boats from Vietnam reach Darwin. Over 300,000 refugees from the region will settle in Australia, many in Victoria. Meanwhile, civil war results in an uplift in number of refugees from Lebanon.

1979 Australia’s special refugee programs continue, including Eastern European, Soviet Jewish, Chilean, Iraqi Assyrian and East Timorese displaced persons.

1988 Bicentenary of permanent European settlement in Australia is marked by official celebrations and the largest First Peoples rallies in the history of colonised Australia, with over 10,000 coming to Sydney from across the country. Oodgeroo Noonuccal (also known as Kath Walker), Noonuccal and Peewee woman, poet and campaigner asked at the time: from the Aboriginal point of view, what is there to celebrate?

1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is completed. Since then the majority of the recommendations have not been implemented and more than 440 First Peoples have died in custody without any convictions imposed. At least seven deaths have occurred in Victoria including Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day in Castlemaine in 2017 and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Walker in Melbourne in 2020. (source: according to The Guardian website Deaths Inside)

1992 Policy of mandatory detention is introduced for unauthorised onshore asylum seeker arrivals, with Port Hedland Immigration Reception and Processing Centre having opened in remote north-west Western Australia in 1991, and Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre (previously Midway Migrant Hostel) running in Melbourne, two of a number of centres around the country.

1992 After the losses experienced by Wurundjeri people in the 19th century, some of the land they fought for is returned. The Coranderrk cemetery is handed back to the Wurundjeri people, with an additional 119 hectares acquired by them over the next decade.

1997 Stolen Generations enters the general consciousness of Australia with the Bringing Them Home report. The National Enquiry acknowledges decades of government-approved removal of First Peoples children from their families and the ongoing suffering and repercussions of cultural disconnection the practice caused.

2000-2020s

2001 Norwegian freighter Tampa, carrying over 430 rescued asylum seekers, is refused permission to enter Australia. The Australian Government subsequently excludes selected islands from Australia’s ‘migration zone’. This event sets up future government policy on asylum seekers to Australia for decades to come. Many believe this to be an infringement on human rights and contrary to Australia’s obligations as a signatory to the 1951 UNHCR Refugee Convention.

2004 Yorta Yorta people are recognised by the Victorian Government as Traditional Owners and entered into a joint management agreement over 50,000 hectares of Crown land in the state’s north including Barmah State Forest, Kow Swamp and areas along the Murray and Goulburn rivers.

2005 Incidents of racially-based violence, such as the Cronulla riots targeting Lebanese Muslim Australians, and later attacks on Indian international students in Melbourne in 2009, make headlines around the world.

2008 Australian Parliament apologises to Australia’s First Peoples for laws and policies related to the removal of children from their families and communities. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: …For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

2012 Australian Government resumes offshore processing of asylum seekers and re-opens detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea in response to increased numbers of boat arrivals and deaths at sea. In 2013 the entire Australian mainland is excised from the migration zone in a bid to deter the onshore arrival of asylum seekers.

2013-14 India, China and the UK are the top source countries for the Australian Migration Program; China and India are filling the majority of the student visa places.

2014 Iranian national Reza Berati dies at Manus Island detention centre during rioting involving local residents and security, and many other asylum seekers require medical attention. A Senate Inquiry finds the cause to be the Australian Government’s failure to process asylum claims in a timely way, and a failure in its duty of care to protect asylum seekers, including Reza.

2015 Australian Government announces plans to permanently re-settle refugees on Nauru and Manus Island, and a re-settlement deal with Cambodia (by the time of the Agreement’s expiry in 2018 only seven refugees had moved to Cambodia). Australia agrees to accept 12,000 refugees from the Syrian refugee crisis.

2020 International Criminal Court finds Australia’s offshore detention regime to be ‘cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment’ and unlawful under international law, but not at a level to warrant prosecution.

2020 Global COVID-19 pandemic results in the closing of Australia’s borders to temporary visa holders, international students, and all incoming and outgoing international travel. The international student market is dramatically affected with many students choosing to go to the UK or Canada instead. By 2022 immigration remains slow to recover.

2022 New Federal Government commits to the recommendations made by the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017 to work towards instituting an Indigenous Voice to Parliament through a referendum to change the Constitution in 2023. In Victoria, the Yoorook Justice Commission (the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria) delivers its interim report, and Treaty negotiations continue.