At our last two meetings we concentrated on the status quo when the first fleet arrived. Amongst the talking points presented to the class -
Neville
- Why was Australia judged to be Terra Nullius? It is a mystery as to why this happened as it was obvious that there were human beings present. It is salient to note that only Antarctica and two other small parcels of land have also been deemed to be Terra Nullius.
- It was obvious that both the local inhabitants and the newcomers wanted the same land. It was obvious to both the newcomers and the indigenous people which land was the best. Conflicts were inevitable.
- There were 162,000 convicts transported to Australia.
Neville