What Factor Has Most Shaped Australian History?
All national histories are contentious and partial. What are the defining themes in Australia’s story?
‘Indigenous dispossession haunts Australian history’
Kate Fullagar is Professor of History at Australian Catholic University
Failure to come to terms with Indigenous dispossession haunts Australian history at every turn. Contrary to common assumptions, it did not have to be that way. True, the inaugural governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, disembarked at Botany Bay in January 1788 without written instructions to forge a treaty with the land’s Indigenous inhabitants. But Phillip knew that formal agreement was typical British protocol, and he acted throughout his five-year term as though a treaty was going to eventuate. His attention to Bennelong, a key Indigenous negotiator, was one manifestation of this expectation.
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