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A reputation as a tolerant nation with strong humanitarian values is marred by past government policies excluding non-whites, and more recently a succession of scandals resulting in much criticism of Australia’s refugee programs.
Main article: History of Australian immigration
Humans first arrived in Australia through Indonesia and New Guinea, either by paddling canoes across the Timor Sea or by crossing a land bridge across what is now Torres Strait, between New Guinea and Australia. Estimates of the date vary considerably: the best current guess is about 53,000 years ago, but much room for debate remains.
On January 26, 1788—a date now both celebrated and mourned as Australia Day)—a landing was made by the British at Sydney Cove. The new colony was formally proclaimed as the Colony of New South Wales on February 7February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 327 days remaining, 328 in leap years. Events 457 Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1301 Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first Prin. Thus European settlement began with a troupe of petty criminals, second-rate soldiers, and a crew of sailors.
The Gold rush era, beginning in 1851, led to an enormous expansion in population, including for the first time large numbers of Irish Catholics, Germans and other Europeans, and Chinese. After Federation, the White Australia policyThe White Australia Policy the policy of excluding all non white people from the Australian continent, was the official policy of all governments and all mainstream political parties in Australia from the 1890s to the 1950s, and elements of the policy sur was created to counteract these flows.
After World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, Australia launched a massive immigration program, believing that having narrowly avoided a Japanese invasion, Australia must "populate or perish." Hundreds of thousands of displaced Europeans, including for the first time large numbers of Jews, migrated to Australia. M
During the 2001 election campaign, immigration and border protection became the hot issue, as a result of incidents such as the Tampa affair, Children overboard affairrefugee laden SIEV-4, the boat that sparked the affair The children overboard affair is an Australian political scandal, first appearing on the eve of the 2001 legislative elections. The controversy stemmed from the claim, made by a number of senior Cabin, and the sinking of the SIEV-XSIEV-X stands for Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X (the X means “unknown”). It is the name, coined by Tony Kevin, commonly used to refer to a dilapidated Indonesian fishing boat that was en-route to Christmas Island carrying over 400 asylum seekers. It sa. This was a major factor contributing to the victory of the Coalition, deemed impossible only a few months earlier, and also marked the beginning of the controversial Pacific Solution.