Australia 1600s to 1800s Trivia

1. Data is available that shows the Noongar people occupied the south west corner of Western Australia as far back as ... how many years, approximately?

From Quiz Mediocre Expectations

Answer: 40,000

The Noongar people, which comprised of fourteen different peoples, occupied a vast territory that stretched from Geraldton, a little over 400 kilometres north of the State's capital city Perth, down to Esperance, 720 kilometres south east of Perth. Their seasons would be dictated by the changes to their environment and it is understood that they observed six seasons that spanned a period of eleven months. The coastal plains were extremely important to them, both as a hunting and gathering ground as well as being a spiritual haven. With this in mind, it is understandable that there were great clashes with the Europeans when they arrived. The Noongar people would endure massive displacement which would be exacerbated in the late nineteenth century when gold was discovered in the State. Artifacts have been found in this region that show of the Noongar existence dating back 38,000 years. However, this could stretch back even further as a report in the Guardian in 2017 told of archaeologists locating evidence of indigenous occupation in a cave on Barrow Island (a further 800 kilometres north of Geraldton) that dates back 50,000 years.

From Quiz Hot Historical Happenings in the Land Downunder

Answer: Hobart

Hobart is one of the loveliest of Australia's cities, located at the base of Mount Wellington and on the Derwent River. Hobart Town, as it was originally known, was named for Lord Hobart, the British Secretary for the Colonies and it was settled in 1803. Australia's first (legal) casino was located in Hobart, at Wrest Point, in 1973.

From Quiz European History in Australia 1606-1788

Answer: He actually thought he was in New Guinea

Willem Janszoon (c.1570-1630) set sail for New Guinea from Indonesia in November 1605. Totally missing the later named Torres Strait altogether (which would have taken him down past the east coast of Australia if he followed the coast along), he landed instead on the eastern side of what is now Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria, near the town of Weipa today. That was on 26 February, 1606. Janszoon then proceeded to explore 320 kilometres of this coastline, believing he was safely in New Guinea. Not at all impressed with what he saw, he described the area as unappealing, swampy and populated by murderous natives. Ten of his crew were killed by them. When he finally realised he wasn't in New Guinea after all, Janszoon called this area of Australia "Nieu Zeland" after the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands, and sailed away. So then, the first European to set foot in Australia actually thought he was in another country altogether - but then proceeded to name us New Zealand instead, a country also undiscovered at that time.

From Quiz Bienvenido a la Nueva Australia!

Answer: Recession and massive unemployment

Most of the Nueva Australia colonists were Queensland sheep-shearers who railed against the less favourable working conditions imposed upon them by employers during the recession of the early 1890s. When their strike failed, they were unemployed and desperate. The prospect of a utopian existence in Paraguay promised to them by the charismatic socialist journalist, William Lane, was irresistible. Unfortunately, the impossible moral conditions imposed by Lane, as well as the back-breaking unpaid work required of them to establish the commune of Nueva Australia, caused many to realise that the conditions in Paraguay were far worse than those they had left. Hence, the commune ultimately failed.

From Quiz The Australian Rum Rebellion

Answer: 1808

Captain Arthur Phillip, with eleven ships full of convicts, crew, marines and supplies landed at Port Jackson on 26 January, 1788, and the new nation was born. Twenty years later, on 26th January 1808, the Rum Rebellion tooke place there.

From Quiz The History of Australian Exploration

Answer: A dinner plate

The pewter dinner plate was inscribed with the short message giving the date, the name of the ship and the senior crew. It is the oldest European artefact in Australian history, and is now in a museum in The Netherlands. The island is in Shark Bay, and is the westernmost point of Australia.

From Quiz The Land Down Under

Answer: 40,000 to 60,000 years ago

Archeological evidence dates human habitation around the Upper Swan River near Perth to around 40,000 years ago. There is other evidence elsewhere that suggests humans may have arrived up to 70,000 years ago but that evidence is unsubstantiated. The general consensus is that man first reached Australia 40,000 to 60,000 years ago.

From Quiz Australia Through Time 1606 to 1879

Answer: 1642

1606 The Portuguese explorer Luis Vaez de Torres passed through Torres Straight. In the same year Willem Jansz made landfall along the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, making Jansz the first European to set foot on Australia. 1616 Dirk Harthog commanding the Eendracht landed near Shark Bay. Harthog left behind a pewter plate nailed to a tree with information about his discovery. 1629 The Dutch ship Batavia was wrecked off the Western Australian coast. Some of the crew mutinied and killed the other 129 passengers.

From Quiz Australia in the 1700s and the 1800s

Answer: By not eating enough fresh fruit and vegetables

Mostly the food was salted beef. The beef was salted so it wouldn't go bad during the journey. Even when fresh supplies of fruits and vegetables came aboard, the sailors still preferred salted beef.

From Quiz Name That Year - Australian History: 1820-1850

Answer: 1838

The Sydney Botanic Gardens (now the Royal Botanic Gardens) were established in 1816. Today, the Royal Botanic Gardens remain as Australia's oldest scientific institution and a world leading botanical garden.

From Quiz Name that Year - Australian History - Early Years

Answer: 1788

On the 18th of January Captain Phillip arrived aboard the 'Supply', followed by three convict ships. The rest of the ships in the 'First Fleet' arrived on the 20th - the 'Sirius', 'Lady Penrhyn', 'Charlotte', 'Prince of Wales', 'Fishburn', 'Golden Grove' and 'Borrowdale'.

From Quiz Australian Explorers

Answer: Luis Vaez de Torres

Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the Torres Strait in 1606. Previous to his discovery, only Indonesian traders had visited the northern coastal area of Australia to trade with the local Aboriginals.

From Quiz Mediocre Expectations

Answer: Duyfken

In 1605 Janszoon was commissioned to seek out the south and east lands. His mission aboard the Duyfken was to find the fabled land of Beach, that Marco Polo had supposedly described as being rich in gold, and lay beyond the "furtherest reaches of the known world". In February of 1606 he found himself in the passageway between Australia and New Guinea known as Torres Strait ... months before Torres himself would sail through and name it. He would land in the area known as Cape York (Queensland), making him the first European to touch land on Australia. Why didn't he claim it? He'd found the land to be extremely swampy and, after losing ten men in skirmishes with the locals he lost interest very quickly. Janszoon would return to Australia ten years later, this time he would land on an island called Point Cloates off the North West Cape of Western Australia. Once again he didn't follow through as well as he should have, assumed that the point was just a small island, did not circumnavigate it and moved on. The Duyfken had a remarkable history. Built in the Netherlands in 1595 it was fast and agile but still able to carry 60 tonnes of cargo. It was involved in the Battle of Bantam Bay in 1601 against Portuguese ships, a victory that would see the Dutch dominate that area for the next 200 years. A replica of the Duyfken was built in Fremantle (Western Australia) by historical enthusiasts and it resided there for eight years. It now sits permanently in Sydney within the Australian National Maritime Museum. (Footnote) Eendracht means Concord or Unity, Vergulde Draeke is Gilt Dragon and Zwaanenrivier is the Swan River.

From Quiz European History in Australia 1606-1788

Answer: Torres failed to even mention it

Luis Vaez de Torres was a Portuguese maritime explorer who lived from c.1565-1607. During a voyage of exploration late in 1606, he sailed from Peru to Vanuatu to Mexico, and then through the strait separating Papua New Guinea and northern Australia, before proceeding to the Philippines. Today Torres Strait, that narrow stretch of water separating Papua New Guinea and Australia is named after him. Bizarrely, however, and although it has been established by master mariners that Torres could not have failed to see the far north part of Cape York Peninsula, this apparently short-sighted mariner made no mention of Australia at all.

From Quiz Bienvenido a la Nueva Australia!

Answer: To repopulate (90% of its male population had been killed in war)

Paraguay needed to rebuild the nation after it lost 90% of its able-bodied male population in the War of the Triple Alliance. The former dictator of Paraguay, Francisco Lopez, had simultaneously declared war on Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina in 1865 precipitating mass slaughter of its menfolk. Only 14,000 able-bodied men remained in Paraguay after five years of warfare. The country was devastated, having lost not just manpower but much of its original borders. Land was offered to anyone from anywhere who was capable of working the land and re-populating the country; and William Lane, the leader of an Australian socialist co-operative looking to establish a socialist commune, saw the offer of 185,000 acres of fertile land in return for settling 1,200 families in Paraguay as the best of the offers he had received.

From Quiz The Land Down Under

Answer: Dutch

After first discovering what was then referred to as 'New Holland' in 1606, the Dutch charted most of the northern and western part of the continent during the 17th and 18th centuries. This work was helped, in large part, by the number of ships that were blown off course or miscalculated their position on their way to the East Indies and/or the Spice Islands. The Dutch did not lay claim to the country because, according to the Dutch East India Company, there was "no good to be done there".

From Quiz Australia Through Time 1606 to 1879

Answer: 1792

1791 James Ruse an ex-convict was given 12 hectares of land at Parramatta, where he successfully grew the colony's first wheat crop. 1795 John Hunter arrived in Sydney to take up the post of second Governor. 1797 Coal was discovered by three shipwrecked sailors at Coalcliff, just south of Sydney.

From Quiz Australia in the 1700s and the 1800s

Answer: Edward Hargraves

On 12th February 1851, Edward Hargraves found five grains of gold washed from Lewis Ponds Creek. This was the start of the gold rushes in Australia.

From Quiz Name That Year - Australian History: 1820-1850

Answer: 1824

Lachlan Macquarie served as Governor of New South Wales for over ten years and a lot of what exists in Sydney today was due to Macquarie's vision and leadership!

From Quiz Name that Year - Australian History - Early Years

Answer: 1790

Wentworth, who was born aboard the 'Surprise', was not only a famous explorer but was the first Australian appointed to an important official position, as Provost-Marshal (October 1811); the Bounty Mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, sailed from Tahiti to Pitcairn Island where they burned the 'Bounty'; and, the census for 1790 recorded the deaths of over 120 male convicts!

From Quiz Australian Explorers

Answer: Willem Janszoon

Willem Janszoon, just a couple of months after de Torres had discoverd the Torres Strait, sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria aboard the 'Duyfken' and mapped the Cape York Peninsula.

From Quiz Mediocre Expectations

Answer: Dutch

There are a number of claims as to who made the first landing on Western Australian soil but, until Hartog, these were all disputed and had no evidence to satisfy their veracity. Amongst those were Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho who, in 1492, produced maps that purportedly were of the west coast of Australia but no proof exists that he actually landed. Gomes de Sequeira, a Portuguese explorer, also laid claim to landing here in 1525 but, once again, there's no proof. Dirk Hartog was born into a Dutch seafaring family and, in 1616, employed by the Dutch East Indies, he was appointed master of the ship Eendracht. Strong storms around the Cape of Good Hope saw him separated from the rest of the fleet and then, blown off-course by the Indian Ocean's "Roaring Forties" (wind) found himself, unexpectedly, amongst a group of islands in the Shark Bay area of Western Australia. Hartog left behind a pewter plate that would mark his presence there and leave a short description of his journey. He had no idea that he was now the second European to have set foot on Australian soil. He saw little else of interest in the land bar severity and so made his way northward, making charts as he did so. Remarkably, 80 years later, Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh would land in the same spot and locate Hartog's plate. He replaced it with one of his own, adding more details to Hartog's inscription, and then took the original back to the Netherlands. In 2000 the Dutch loaned the plate to the Australian Maritime Museum for an exhibition. Considering its importance to Australia's settlement history, the museum made overtures to purchase the plate but it was not for sale. Hartog's landing point in Australia has been renamed Cape Inscriptiont and the island now bears his name (Dirk Hartog Island).

From Quiz Hot Historical Happenings in the Land Downunder

Answer: 12

Built of local limestone, the Round House is the oldest surviving public building in Western Australia, and the first prison in that state. It was designed by civil engineer Henry Reveley, with its main functional feature being the capacity of the guard being able to see any cell that was open from one vantage point. It was later used as a residence for a constable, and as a transit point for convicts.

From Quiz European History in Australia 1606-1788

Answer: A pewter plate nailed to a post

Dirk Hartog (1580-1621) was actually heading for Indonesia when he accidentally discovered the west coast of Australia. Before that, however, he got separated from the rest of his fleet and landed in South Africa instead. Full of hope, he set off once more for Indonesia, but again was blown off course, and this time he found himself half way down the west coast of Australia, near what is Shark Bay today. He took one look at the dry and barren semi-desert land and then, after exploring the coast and nearby islands for two days, he left. Not, however, before he nailed a pewter plate to a post to a (no trees there), placed it in the ground, and inscribed it with his name, the name of his ship, and the date and departure of his visit. That was the second contact with European civilisation in Australia. Incidentally, another Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh, who landed in Shark Bay eighty years later, found that plate by chance and took it back to the Netherlands with him. Now the Dutch won't give that oldest written artefact of European contact with out country back to Australia.

From Quiz The History of Australian Exploration

Answer: East coast

He first sighted land in what is now Victoria, and continued up the coast to the tip of present-day Queensland. The expedition's first actual landing was in Stingray Harbour, now Botany Bay. He damaged his ship on the Great Barrier Reef, and met some kangaroos, before heading north to New Guinea. From there, he dropped into Indonesia and South Africa before heading for home. Bonus Question- Did you know that Captain Cook made three journeys around the world? He was killed on one of them- which one? (Think about it.)

From Quiz The Land Down Under

Answer: 21/22 August, 1770

Captain Cook was careful to lay claim only to the land that he had discovered (i.e. the east coast of New Holland). In 1772 Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn claimed the west coast of Australia on behalf of France but the claim was never secured by a permanent settlement.

From Quiz Australia Through Time 1606 to 1879

Answer: 1803

1802 Matthew Flinders left Sydney and sailed north in the Investigator on his circumnavigation of the continent. 1804 Irish convicts mutinied at Castle Hill near Sydney, this was the only convict uprising ever in the Colony. 1808 Governor William Bligh was placed under house arrest by officers of the NSW Corps. Martial law was declared. Bligh spent a year under house arrest before returning to England.

From Quiz Name That Year - Australian History: 1820-1850

Answer: 1849

Established in 1827, the Australian Museum was originally called the Colonial Museum. It became the Austalian Museum in 1836. Its first 'custodian' was accidently shot while collecting bird specimens at Moreton Bay in 1831!

From Quiz Australian Explorers

Answer: Dirk Hartog

Dirck Hartog, aboard the ship 'Eendracht', landed on the west coast of Australia on 25 October 1616. For posterity, Hartog nailed an engraved pewter plate to a wooden post erected at the landing site, now known as Cape Inscription, on Dirk Hartog Island. Unimpressed by the barren and dry land, he departed two days later!

From Quiz Mediocre Expectations

Answer: Batavia

This is one of saddest and bloodiest maiden voyages of any ship. Built in Amsterdam as the new flagship for the Dutch East India Company she was en-route with a fleet, to the Dutch East Indies, when she was wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos, now known simply as the Abrolhos Islands. Forty of the 341 passengers drowned as they attempted to swim for land. The ship's captain Francisco Pelsaert, left a merchant named Jeronimus Cornelisz in charge, while he sailed off to Batavia to get assistance. Cornelisz then sent twenty of the strongest men inland to seek water. This was a ruse and he used their absence to stage a mutiny and, in the process, killed off 125 people, which included women and children. They kept some of the women as sex slaves. In the meantime, the men who'd been sent off to find water (and left for dead) did the unexpected and found fresh water. On their return they were organized by a soldier, Wiebbe Hayes, and staged a battle against the mutineers. At the height of the battle Pelsaert arrived and put an end to the mutiny. Cornelisz, along with six of his men, were tried and executed, making them the first Europeans to be legally executed on Australian soil. As their crimes were of a lesser nature, two other men were left behind to fend for themselves in the harsh country, making them, technically, the first Europeans to establish a settlement in Australia.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:50 AM

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