Putting some spice on white bread- A less bland Australian history?

Fatal Wit

Banned
Alas no physical evidence of the Mahogany ship exists, and not for want of trying. A reward of $250,000 was offered for physical evidence to no avail. A list of some 40 sighting reports has been compiled, here's a link to an 1876 letter to a Melbourne newspaper typical of these reports. http://www.swtafe.vic.edu.au/lrc/collections/mahoganyship/1876apr01.htm
A problem I have with these sorts of things is that they bring up non-British histroy of Australia as if it's significant when it clearly isn't. My favourite is the Chinese in the goldfields, true that they were a significant presence at the time but they left no lasting mark. There is no Chinese population in Ararat today, nor any Chinese buildings, yet there is a bloody great Chinese museum in Ararat. Similarly we talk up Portuguese, Dutch and French exploration and Maccasan contact and Aboriginie fish farming villiages. But when all's said and done this strikes me as an attempt to put some spice onto white bread. While we have a handful of non British place names the USA has entire Spanish and French cities.
From my understanding of it, and most of you will probably agree, Australia's history has been fairly bland.

The aboriginals dwelt here but did very little for 20000 years or so... then the British came, fended of some meager French competion, settled Australia. They persecuted some natives, who offered little to no resistance. The gold rush occured, and their were sparks of ethnic conflict between Chinese immigrants and whites, but these quickly settled down and most Chinese left. We saw the sparks of revolution in the Eureka rebellion, but it fizzled. Australia was federated into a single state-WA had a go at seceding, but was basically told to shut up and stay in the federation by the Brits- and it complied. A few bombs fell on us at the hands of Japan... then we went 60 years of basically mimicking America.

YAWN.

But need it have been so? Their seems to have been many potential post-colonial POD's that could have made the livened up the history of Australia:

-French settling some part or other of Australia, and sending a reasonable number of colonists there. This would likely be snapped up by Britain in the revolutionary/Napoleonic wars, but at least we'd have Quebec-esque region of Australia and avoid the Anglo monotony.
-An actual organized/semi-organized attempt by Aboriginals to resist the colonisation. Not sure how likely this is given their culture, but it ought to have been possible- though not pretty.
-A sizable number of those Chinese Gold Rush migrants actually staying- the main reason they didn’t was the lack of immigration by Chinese females. So, bar that, we would probably see a really significant Chinese presence in Australia today- in excess of 10% is plausible(barring genocide or ethnic cleansing). The effects of this on the national psyche will be interesting-I can see an even more racist attitude being possessed by the Australians towards other races in general- perhaps an Apartheid-esque situation being sustained for a while after the White Australia policy ended in our timeline?
-The Eureka rebellion(or equivalent) turning into an Australia-wide revolution?

Anyway, these are just some ideas of the top of my head, not entirely thought out. Anybody got any alternative ideas- or comments on those above?
 
I think the biggest hurdle is lack of knowledge about the best part of Australia until British supremecy at sea was established. By this time both the Portuguese and Dutch had risen and fallen as great maritime colonial powers and nobody was left to challenge the British. So a change would be an increase in knowledge of the good parts of Australia while there were maritime powers to challenge the British. Heres a Dutch map of what was known in 1644, notcie the oly part it doesn't show are the best bits of the country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thevenot_-_Hollandia_Nova_detecta_1644.png

In addition the settlement of Australia occured a bit like the invasion of Normandy in that the Sydney beachhead, hemmed in by the Blue mountains, was built up until overwhelming numbers were reached and then a breakout occured en masse. The change here would be a landing in what is now South West Victoria. The open hinterland would allow movement away from the intial landing from the earliest days, and would bring the settlers into contact with an advanced, sedentry living, high density (10,000 people) Aboriginal population based around the Condah swamp. http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s806276.htm This would mean that Australian settlement may be a bit more like US, with settlers accepting help from locals leading to alliances etc.
 
I'm no expert on the subject, but I'm skeptical about any escalation of the Eureka Rebellion, for two reasons - one, I'm not sure about whether it would have spread; the rebellion seems to have been aimed at raising public awareness of their campaign by necessitating a military expedition in which they could die so dramatically as martyrs that they would shock the authorities into making their point. This kind of mindset generally doesn't spread well, both because it takes a radical experience to turn someone into a willing martyr, and because a country of martyrs is going to end up, ironically, achieving very little bloodshed. Secondly, I'm not sure it's worth it because they made their point and won. They wanted two things - enfranchisement for the masses and the rights to land ownership. OK, so maybe they didn't win the second, but their deaths and the trials of survivors actually embarrassed the government into allowing the electoral expansion that the rebels wanted. This makes an escalation of the Eureka Rebellion unnecessary, and probably impossible since by the time the mindset spread to the masses in a separate TL, the government would probably have already backed down.

It also strikes me that you might be thinking of the Southern Cross as indicating secessionist intent, but I can't find any evidence of that. It seems to have just been a rebel banner, designed more to make a point than to be the foundation of a rebel state.

As I say though, I'm no expert on this stuff, so I invite people to correct me if I got anything wrong.
 
The mysterious but widely believed Mahogany ship stranded very close to one of the most advanced Aboriginal societies. Perhaps a fusion of Portuguese ideas and tools into this society could make an area which didn't shatter upon later contact with Europeans. Better still would be if François Thijssens 1627 voyage came further east and made contact with the fused Portuguese/Gunditjimara society and reported it back to the VOC.
 
Is there any chance of the French settling in the Perth area around 1800 and the British ignoring them enough to make that colony suvive the Napoleonic Wars?
 
A few ideas:

Don't forget the New Guard the closest Australia has gotten to a fascist group.

Or make Herbert Hoover remain in Australia and enter politics here rather then return to the US.

Or, even earlier, change the political career of Major General James Alexander Kenneth Mackay, leading to a different Australian military culture and the continuation of the 'squattocracy".

I am tempted to merge all three ideas into a Australian TL of my own once I've finished Clavis Angliae.
 
Is there any chance of the French settling in the Perth area around 1800 and the British ignoring them enough to make that colony suvive the Napoleonic Wars?

Not really. The British captured French colonies during the Napoleonic Wars as a matter of course. The way they survived was to either be in a defensible location - i.e. the West Indies, essentially - or to be traded back in a peace treaty. They could be captured and then handed back, but in such a location as Australia I think you'd be hard pressed to find a reason the British would accept.
 
Ned Kelly could be more significant in an ATL than in OTL.

There could be ordered settlements on the coast and renegades out in the wastelands intermarrying with the Aborigenes and harrying the penal colonies and free settlements.

Think white Maroons.
 
Hmm, what if the idea of federating Australia failed? That would be interesting to see.
It almost did actually. Western Australia was very reluctant to join the Federation, and only did so after the goldfields region threatened secession and the rest of Australia promised a railway.

Then again in 1933, Western Australia voted to secede with 68% in favour. Westminster however, declined to take action, and the movement then stagnated in around 1938. If Western Australia was allowed to secede, apparently, South Australia and Tasmania were prepared to do the same.

I too have read that the French were on the brink of starting a penal colony near Shark Bay, but the British beat them to it with the establishment of the Swan River Colony.

It would also have been interesting if the Dutch had made a claim to New Holland.
 
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Keenir

Banned
But need it have been so? Their seems to have been many potential post-colonial POD's that could have made the livened up the history of Australia:

-French settling some part or other of Australia, and sending a reasonable number of colonists there. This would likely be snapped up by Britain in the revolutionary/Napoleonic wars, but at least we'd have Quebec-esque region of Australia and avoid the Anglo monotony.

look up...oh, Dyirbal and others.

-An actual organized/semi-organized attempt by Aboriginals to resist the colonisation. Not sure how likely this is given their culture,

which one?
 

MrHola

Banned
Does it have to be a pre-1900 POD? I know a good post-1900 one, Prime Minister Eddie Ward, from what I've heard, Ward was the Australian answer to Richard Nixon.
 
From my understanding of it, and most of you will probably agree, Australia's history has been fairly bland.

The aboriginals dwelt here but did very little for 20000 years or so... then the British came, fended of some meager French competion, settled Australia. They persecuted some natives, who offered little to no resistance. The gold rush occured, and their were sparks of ethnic conflict between Chinese immigrants and whites, but these quickly settled down and most Chinese left. We saw the sparks of revolution in the Eureka rebellion, but it fizzled. Australia was federated into a single state-WA had a go at seceding, but was basically told to shut up and stay in the federation by the Brits- and it complied. A few bombs fell on us at the hands of Japan... then we went 60 years of basically mimicking America.

YAWN.

But need it have been so? Their seems to have been many potential post-colonial POD's that could have made the livened up the history of Australia:

-French settling some part or other of Australia, and sending a reasonable number of colonists there. This would likely be snapped up by Britain in the revolutionary/Napoleonic wars, but at least we'd have Quebec-esque region of Australia and avoid the Anglo monotony.
-An actual organized/semi-organized attempt by Aboriginals to resist the colonisation. Not sure how likely this is given their culture, but it ought to have been possible- though not pretty.
-A sizable number of those Chinese Gold Rush migrants actually staying- the main reason they didn’t was the lack of immigration by Chinese females. So, bar that, we would probably see a really significant Chinese presence in Australia today- in excess of 10% is plausible(barring genocide or ethnic cleansing). The effects of this on the national psyche will be interesting-I can see an even more racist attitude being possessed by the Australians towards other races in general- perhaps an Apartheid-esque situation being sustained for a while after the White Australia policy ended in our timeline?
-The Eureka rebellion(or equivalent) turning into an Australia-wide revolution?

Anyway, these are just some ideas of the top of my head, not entirely thought out. Anybody got any alternative ideas- or comments on those above?

You missed Gallipolli here champ as well as WW2.

THis may kinda fit with what you are asking for...I did a thread whereby convicts were sent to Jamaica instead of Aust to take the place of the freed slaves leading to Ned Kelly becoming Pres and the American Fenians helping bring about Jamica's liberation from the Brits. Check out...

The Dream of a New Ireland in the Carribean.
 
The beauty of older PoDs is that you can have the European powers allying themsleves with their local Aborigine tribes to fight other Europeans and their allies.
 
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