World History by Credo Reference: Australia

Country occupying all of the Earth's smallest continent, situated south of Indonesia, between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Australia is an independent sovereign nation within the Commonwealth.

When Europeans first began to explore and settle in Australia, about three hundred languages were spoken by the hunter-gatherer peoples (possibly 300,000 people in total) who inhabited the continent.

Member of any of the 500 groups of indigenous inhabitants of the continent of Australia, who migrated to this region from South Asia about 40,000 years ago. Traditionally hunters and gatherers, they are found throughout the continent and their languages probably belong to more than one linguistic family.

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
Archaeology combining textual and oral evidence with excavated data and the study of surface remains began in Australia, as in the USA, in 1967.

from Historical Dictionary of Australia
Like the Americas, Australia is a continent peopled by immigration.

From The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English: The Timeless Land (1941), Storm of Time (1948) and No Barrier (1953) are commonly referred to as Eleanor Dark's 'Historical Trilogy'.

From Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English: The emergence in the 1920s of indigenous black writing in Australia saw the publication of Aboriginals: Their Traditions and Customs (1924) by well-known Ngarrindjeri speaker and inventor DAVID UNAIPON.

From The Encyclopedia of World History
The 19th century in Australia was characterized by European settlement and political and economic development in European terms. British settlement saw the steady dispossession of some 200 Aboriginal groups: by 1914 only a few desert people remained in control of their country.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Smallest continent and sixth largest country (in area) on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Area: 2,969,978 sq mi (7,692,208 sq km).

from Historical Dictionary of Australia
The Australian Constitution was derived neither from revolution (as in the United States) nor from a protracted process of political and institutional struggle (as in Great Britain). It found its final form in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, a piece of British law that received royal assent on 9 July 1900.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History: Australia's largest conservative party, formed by Menzies in 1944–5 from existing conservative groups.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History: The third largest party in Australia, it grew out of the Australian Country Party formed in 1920.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History: Australia's oldest political party, founded in 1891 in New South Wales following the defeat of the trade unions in the 1890 maritime strike.

The practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil (for raising crops) and the raising of domesticated animals. The units for managing agricultural production vary from smallholdings and individually owned farms to corporate-run farms and collective farms run by entire communities or by the government.

Common name for many species of wild and domesticated ruminant mammals of the genus Ovis of the Bovidae, or cattle, family.

From Historical Dictionary of Australia
Since the European settlement of Australia, agriculture has played an important role in the development of the nation, and Australia is now a major agricultural producer and exporter, despite the ever present threat of drought.