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Captain Cook, who claimed Australia for the British in 1770, was sent on a voyage of astronomical discovery to the southern hemisphere. Neither James Cook nor most of the Europeans who settled in Australia after 1788 realised that 40 000 years of astronomical observation and discovery had already been incorporated into the life of Australia's indigenous inhabitants.
The Australian Aborigines' understanding of the movement of the planets and stars through the evening sky is profound. The presence of particular stars or groups of stars in the evening sky gave information regarding the availability of particular
food sources, the time for ceremonial events or the reinforcement of moral issues.
On this page, created for the "Thinkquest Internet Challenge" you may learn about the general history of Australia and the Australian Indigenous Inhabitants, information aboriginal astronomy, star constellations known to different Australian Aboriginal groups and stories to explain the constellations, plus information on "Tjukurpa" (Aboriginal word for "The Dreaming").
Please visit the Thinkquest homepage for more information on the Thinkquest Internet Challenge.
Text Only Version
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