|
 Before the invasion of the
Europeans, about 12,000 Aborigines lived in the area. Early
Dutch, French, and British explorers did not report favorably on
the southern parts of the continent.
In 1802, Matthew Flinders in the "Investigator" explored and
charted the coastline, naming Spencer Gulf, Port Lincoln,
Kangaroo Island, Mt. Lofty and Gulf St Vincent. Nicolas Baudin,
the French navigator, also charted some of the coastline. The
most significant inland exploration before colonization was made
by Charles Sturt. In 1829, he explored the Murray from New South
Wales down to its mouth.
Even though the British government started to think of
colonizing South Australia during the 1820s, it was established
as a British colony only in 1836. After that, men and women came
from England to the colony. They purchased Crown land instead of
gaining tract free, and brought out laborers to help them work
it.
Afghans have made a substantial contribution to South Australia
but history has almost ignored them. The first Afghans arrived
in South Australia in 1838 when Joseph Bruce brought out
eighteen of them. When Bruce himself died, the men were handed
over to John Gleeson, who also had imported some of them. The
first camel arrived at Port Adelaide in 1840 but was shot in
1846 after it caused the death of explorer John Horrocks.
Later, camelmen came from different ethnic groups and from
vastly different places such as Baluchistan, Kashmir, Sind,
Rajastan, Egypt, Persia, Turkey and Punjab. They were
collectively known as 'Afghans'.
Wherever these Afghan cameleers settled, they lived in a
separate part of town. Consequently, many inland towns had three
distinct sections, one for the Europeans, one for the Aborigines
and a third section for the Afghans. Their areas became known as
Afghan or Ghan Town. There was contact between the Aboriginal
and Afghan groups but almost no contact between the Europeans
and these two groups.
Immigration, mainly from Britain increased the state's work
force rapidly. After World War II, South Australia received a
larger number of immigrants. In the early 1960s, the population
of the state passed one million. |
