The Aboriginal Flag was designed by Harold Thomas, an artist and an Aboriginal, in 1971. The flag was designed to be an eye-catching rallying symbol for the Aboriginal people and a symbol of their race and identity. The black represents the Aboriginal people, the red the earth and their spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow the sun, the giver of life.

Earliest Beginnings

The gracile australopithecines is divided into two subgroups: A. africanus and A. afarensis. Both were small in stature (1- 1.5 meters), had similar brain size (400- 500 ml), and rather light body structures. However, A. afarensis was more ape-like, as it predate A. africanus by 1.5 million years, or so. Scientists still wonder how A. afarensis got around. Most theorize that is used both bipedalism and quadrupedalism, as its body had not yet fully developed to handle absolute bipedalism. A. africanus was probably bipedal, but its muscle structure is arranged in a way that it probably moved like the baboons of today, only with more use of bipedalism.

About 4.4 millions years ago, a different type of primate emerged. Paleontologists classify the first bipedal primates as hominids. These first hominids had not yet developed the large brain, teeth structure, and skeletal features we identify as Homo. Instead, they predate, and sometimes overlap the first Homo species. They are known as the australopithecines. There are two types of australopithecine: gracile and robust.

It is not known how these species directly affected human evolution. However, there are three theories: the first has A. afarensis as a common ancestor for all Homo's. One fork of the tree leads to Homo,the other fork leads to A. africanus, A. boiseiand A. robustus. Another theory has A. afarensis being the common ancestor of A. africanusat one fork, and the robust australopithecine at another.

This theory has modern humans evolving from A. africanus.The last theory has A. africanus and A. afarensis branching off from a common ancestor. A. africanus spawned modern humans, and A. afarensis became the robust australopithecines. Either way, it is known that humans evolved from the gracile australopithecine, and the robust died off along the way.

At Bathurst, New South Wales, fossilised skulls identified as being of two distinct late Java man types unrelated to the Aborigine. An earlier cranium from Katoomba is believed to be as much as 500,000 years old.

In Central NSW extensive megalithic stone alignments and other astronomical structures dating back 10,000 to 15 000 years and which suggests the former presence in Australia of a highly advanced civilization of unknown origin. These structures include standing stones weighing 20 tons and carved stone heads. In Western NSW 3 large human heads have been found carved out of granite boulders. The heads were found near mysterious stone alignment and other formations.

Stranger Than Fiction

Aborigines Were the First Americans

The first Americans were descended from Australian aborigines, according to evidence in a BBC documentary, which aired August 27, 1999 - BBC
 

This is the face of the first  known American, Lucia

The skulls suggest faces like those of Australian aborigines

The program, Ancient Voices, shows that the dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first Americans were later massacred by invaders from Asia.

Until now, native Americans were believed to have descended from Asian ancestors who arrived over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and then migrated across the whole of north and south America. The land bridge was formed 11,000 years ago during the ice age, when sea level dropped.

However, the new evidence shows that these people did not arrive in an empty wilderness. Stone tools and charcoal from the site in Brazil show evidence of human habitation as long ago as 50,000 years. The site is at Serra Da Capivara in remote northeast Brazil. This area is now inhabited by the descendants of European settlers and African slaves who arrived just 500 years ago.

But cave paintings found here provided the first clue to the existence of a much older people.

 The costumes and rituals shown in rock art survived at Terra de Fuego

Images of giant armadillos, which died out before the last ice age, show the artists who drew them lived before even the natives who greeted the Europeans.

These Asian people have facial features described as mongoloid. However, skulls dug from a depth equivalent to 9,000 to 12,000 years ago are very different.

Walter Neves, an archaeologist from the University of Sao Paolo, has taken extensive skull measurements from dozens of skulls, including the oldest, a young woman who has been named Lucia.

"The measurements show that Lucia was anything but mongoloid," he says.

 Walter Neves has measured hundreds of skulls

The next step was to reconstruct a face from Lucia's skull. First, a CAT scan of the skull was done, to allow an accurate working model to be made.

Then a forensic artist, Richard Neave from the University of Manchester, UK, created a face for Lucia. The result was surprising: "It has all the features of a negroid face," says Dr Neave.

Lucia skull is 12,000 years old

The skull dimensions and facial features match most closely the native people of Australia and Melanesia. These people date back to about 60,000 years, and were themselves descended from the first humans, who left Africa about 100,000 years ago.

But how could the early Australians have travelled more than 13,500 kilometres (8,450 miles) at that time? The answer comes from more cave paintings, this time from the Kimberley, a region at the northern tip of Western Australia.

Here, Grahame Walsh, an expert on Australian rock art, found the oldest painting of a boat anywhere in the world. The style of the art means it is at least 17,000 years old, but it could be up to 50,000 years old. And the crucial detail is the high prow of the boat. This would have been unnecessary for boats used in calm, inland waters. The design suggests it was used on the open ocean.

Fantastic voyage - Archaeologists speculate that such an incredible sea voyage, from Australia to Brazil, would not have been undertaken knowingly but by accident.

Just three years ago, five African fishermen were caught in a storm and a few weeks later were washed up on the shores of South America. Two of the fishermen died, but three made it alive.

But if the first Americans had drifted from Australia, where are their descendants now? Again, the skulls suggest an answer.

The shape of the skulls changes between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago from being exclusively negroid to exclusively mongoloid. Combined with rock art evidence of increasing violence at this time, it appears that the mongoloid people from the north invaded and wiped out the original Americans.

Fuegan Christina Calderon may be one of the few surviving descendents of the first Americans

The only evidence of any survivors comes from Tierra del Fuego, the islands at the remotest southern tip of South America.

The pre-European Fuegeans, who lived stone age-style lives until this century, show hybrid skull features which could have resulted from intermarrying between mongoloid and negroid peoples. Their rituals and traditions also bear some resemblance to the ancient rock art in Brazil.

The identity of the first Americans is an emotive and controversial question. But the evidence from Brazil, and a handful of people who still live at the very tip of South America, suggests that the Americas have been home to a greater diversity of humans than previously thought - and for much longer.

In 1961 it was observed that the oldest secure radiocarbon date in undoubted association with human activities was from a site at Cape Martin in S.A., dated to less than 9,000 years ago.

In 1972 claim of 16,000 years had been doubled by a series of nine dates for occupation sites round Lake Mungo in western NSW which ranged from c.24,000 to c.32,000 years ago". Elsewhere, dates approaching 35,000 years ago were published for the southwest Western Australian site of Devil's Lair, and in 1981 an antiquity of 38,000 years was claimed for artefact-bearing layers at Upper Swan River. Whereas the known antiquity for humans in Australia quadrupled between 1960 and 1980, this increase in antiquity has levelled off in the present decade. Claims in the past 10 years or so for human sites older than c.35,000 have been few.

In the 1990s however, two sites in the Northern Territory have pushed the dates for initial colonisation further back. Malakunanja II and Nauwalabila I (both dated using thermoluminescence dating have recorded the oldest dates so far. Malakunanja II had nine dates ranging from 100 years ago to 61,000 years. (Roberts RG, Jones R, Smith MA 1990, 1990a). Nauwalabila I had five dates, the three oldest ranging from 30,000BP to 60,000BP (Roberts et al 1990, 1994). Therefore it has been put forward by Roberts et al (1994:615) that "initial human colonization of the northern part of Australia took place between 53,000 and 60,000 years ago.

Therefore, using reliable dates and dating techniques, derived from archaeological evidence, dates for the initial colonisation of Australia have been put forward approximately 60,000 BP.

Aboriginals

Discoveries of aboriginal art engravings in the Kimberley's (Northern Territory) indicate aboriginals may have inhabited Australia for more than 116,000 to 176,000 years, and they had arrived by watercraft.

Australia has always been separated by at least 60 kilometers of water since the glacial maximum of 140,000 years ago - yet bushfires could have easily alerted those living north of the continent of its existence.

The Sydney region, referred then by the local aborigines as Warrane, itself has been inhabited for at least 50,000 years. Only recently have 50,000 year old grindstones been found in the Sydney region, predating any previous finds worldwide.

More Strange Stuff:  Aborigines Said To Read The Stars 23,000 Years Ago - November 15, 1998 - The Times (London)

Aborigines had a zodiac thousands of years before the first European equivalent, according to a Melbourne academic. John Morieson, of Swinburne University in Melbourne, says that they had a highly sophisticated understanding of the seasons and the world around them 23,000 years ago. He also says that the Aborigines had no need of a written language because everything could be read in the night sky.

Further, because they have been recorded as having eyesight five times better than whites, there would have been no problem with reading the celestial data. The Aborigines' zodiac featured 40 different native birds and animals, including crows, eagles, parrots, lorikeets and dancing men.

"A study of these sky creatures reveals encyclopaedic oral knowledge, a thorough understanding of the seasons and no need for a written culture," Mr. Morieson says. He adds that there is evidence for the zodiac from Aboriginal folklore passed on in the 1840s by the now-lost Boorong people. The most conspicuous elements in the zodiac are a giant emu reposing between the Southern Cross and Scorpio; Gemini is formed by a tortoise and a fantail cuckoo and a pair of Australian cranes make up the elements of Magellan.

Carbon dating of the Boorong settlement at Lake Tyrell, in Victoria, puts the information at 23,000 years old. Mr Morieson worked for four years with local Aborigines on data first gathered by a Victoria grazier, William Stanbridge, and presented to the Philosophical Institute in Melbourne in 1857. His material was based on first-hand accounts from Boorong elders who identified 30 stars and constellations used by tribal Aborigines. He recorded each Aboriginal term and its equivalent in the European zodiac.

Europeans

The west and north coast of Australia had been visited quite frequently by Europeans in the 17th century. The east coast was first charted by Europeans, in 1770, by the well known Pacific explorer, Captain James Cook. On April 29, 1770, on Possession Island he claimed the whole east coast for King George III and called it New South Wales.

The British did nothing about their new acquisition till after a number of years, when at the urgings of Joseph Banks (the botanist with the Cook expedition), decided to establish a colony in this far flung corner of the earth.

"By the discoveries and enterprise of our officers many new countries which know no sovereign, and that hold out the most enticing allurements to European adventurers. None are more inviting than New South Wales" - Joseph Banks

In no small measure this was due to the American War of Independence preventing Britain sending her convicts to the American colonies. Some of the more unusual crimes that people were convicted of and sentenced to being sent to the colonies included setting fire to underwood and stealing children with their apparel.

The First Fleet, commissioned by Thomas Townshend, Baron Sydney, set sail for Botany Bay on May 13, 1787, led by Captain Arthur Phillip. The fleet comprised of the frigate HMS Sirius, four storeships, the armed tender Supply, the Golden Grove, Borrowdale, Fishburn and six transports, the Scarborough, Lady Penrhyn, Friendship, Charlotte, the Prince of Wales and the Alexander.

The fleet assembled at Mother Bank, the Isle of Wright, later arriving at Cape Town to take aboard plants, fruit trees and animals. The HMS Supply, along with the ships Scarborough, Friendship and Alexander sailed ahead of the fleet, first sighting the NSW coast on the 3rd of January, 1788.

They arrived at Botany Bay on the 18th of January, where upon anchoring, it was discovered there was no fresh water locally available. When the rest of the fleet arrived on the 19th, much to Phillip's surprise, it was decided to go further north, to Port Jackson (now also known as Sydney Harbour).

There they were to find a lush, pristine forest in a cove fed by a stream (now called the Tank Stream), where it was decided they would settle. A formal flag raising ceremony was held by Arthur Phillip on the shore to proclaim the Colony of New South Wales, in the name of the King of England on the 26th of January, 1788.

Captain Arthur Phillip was later to name the cove they landed at Sydney Cove, in honor of Thomas Townshend, Baron Sydney (1733-1800), the minister responsible for the Colony. Later usage of the name dropped 'Cove' and the area became known as Sydney.

New Colony

Sydney began its life as a penal colony, with a total of 568 male and 191 female convicts with 13 children, 206 marines with 26 wives and 13 children, and 20 officials having made the voyage.

Their earliest huts were composed of cabbage-tree palm, while the convicts were housed in huts made of boards wattled with slender twigs and plastered with clay. By 1790, however, there were 40 convicts employed making bricks and tiles, 50 brickie laborers, and 4 stonemasons. The total convict population that year was 730 persons, with 413 under medical treatment. In fact free settlers did not begin arriving until 1793. See The Rocks, for more history on these early colonial days.

It was a rough life and for 30 years the colony struggled, with the soldiers of the NSW Corps toiling with the convicts to ensure survival. As late as 1820, a convict's weekly ration consisted of 7lbs. of flour, 7lbs. of meat, 1lb. of sugar, 8oz of tea and 3 and 1/2lbs. of maize.

There was a shortage of coinage in NSW, and rum, an easily produced spirit from sugar cane, began to be used as currency. Needless to say, this was to slow Sydney's development considerably, as it is all too easy to for soldiers and convicts to drink compared to trading it for food, clothes and supplies. The colony, not making money, could not pay its bills nor buy the many things it needed from elsewhere.

The soldiers of the NSW corps, whose officers had the monopoly on this endless supply of rum, dominated the early governors of the colony. Originally formed to protect the fledgling colony from perceived threats of other European powers, they also served as police.

When the hapless Governor William Bligh - recently returned from his mutiny on the Bounty - tried to stem this corruption of the NSW Corps, he was imprisoned by them in the infamous Rum Rebellion.

However, the Rum Corps were to find out like the Bounty's crew, he was not a man to be trifled with. Forced once again to sail to Indonesia as he had after the mutiny on the Bounty, he thereby ensured the British authorities in England would be fully informed of the situation.

With the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810 (along with the 87th Regiment) the NSW Rum Corps were sent packing back to England. It is interesting to note that only recently was the NSW police commissioner replaced by another policeman from England, the well spoken Peter Ryan, again, very much to the relief and approval from the government and people of NSW.

The colony, with the population of Sydney being about 10,000, metamorphosed. Much of what you see in Sydney today is a result of Macquarie's leadership and vision.

The coins that the original settlers did have, were the George III twopence, called the Cartwheel penny because of its size. In 1812, in order to relieve the problems caused by the lack of coins, Governor Macquarie bought Spanish dollars from India.

He then had holes cut in them to discourage exportation. These well known Australian coins were called the Holey Dollar (even then they had a sense of humor) for the larger part of the coin while the piece cut from the middle was called the Dump. Declared legal tender Sept. 30th, 1813, the Dump was worth about 15 pence, while the Holey Dollar was valued at 5 shillings sterling.

With the crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 and the subsequent discovery of the prosperous hinterland, the way was finally clear for the growth and development of modern Sydney.

Transportation of convicts to New South Wales (NSW) was finally abolished in 1840 and shortly afterwards, in 1842, Sydney was declared a city. The population grew rapidly during this period, helped by the discovery of gold and the gold rush of 1850 - one year after the Californian gold rush of 1849. Australia received many American and Chinese immigrants at the same time.

Commonwealth

In 1901 the six British colonies in Australia formed a federation to become the Commonwealth of Australia. This marks the period of the modern country. Sydney continued to grow and by 1925 became a metropolis of 1 million people. This grew to 2 million by 1963.  Today Sydney has diverse demographics with people from over one hundred countries contributing to its population of nearly 4 million.