What mistakes did the European settlers of Australia in the First Fleet make?

Answer 1

The answer to this question is completely subjective, as an individual I can outline what I believe were the major mistakes. The whole concept of a nation such as England, forging into an unknown territory and claim it as their own, for their own purposes, I believe is, in essence wrong. This is the beginning of the great mistake. As demonstrated by the British/Spanish/Dutch, on their land invasion of The Americas,and on their eventual path of control, the first fleet signifies the start of this movement when arriving in Australia. As with America, the British immediately began establishing similar agricultural production. As Australia's climate is vastly different to that of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly England, this created problems. Australia has extremes in climate. Certain areas are similar to England, but as Australia is a large continent, the variations are extensive. Extremely hot dry, arid conditions, and at the other extreme rainforest, with high humidity. This posed huge problems for mass agricultural production. Similarly the new animals, kangaroo, wombats were not what Europeans were used to eating for meat. In the Northern Hemisphere, cattle, such as cows and sheep were the staple of all consumable meat. When introduced to Australian climate and land, the cattle did not ajust, and has never really adjusted to the conditions within Australia. Horse, cow and sheep hooves have an incredibly negative effect on the Australian environment, causing erosion, depleting grasses and verdure not accustomed to the quanities mass farming required. So primarilary agriculture was to a large extent one of the greatest mistakes European settlers made when arriving in Australia. Other problems were;

• Decimation of 'The Naturals' known now as Aboriginals
• Not embracing local knowledge
• Not establishing positive relations with Aboriginals
• Not considering long term effects of superimposing European customs/practices on Australia
• Mass tree felling for construction purposes
• Intergrating virus and health issues to Australia
• Murdering Aboriginals
• Using convicts as slaves
• Believing Australia was a dumping ground for prisoners
• Introduction of flora into Australian Ecology causing plant varieties to over ride native plants
• Introduction of fauna into Australian Ecology causing birds and animals to dominate and kill off many Australian animals and birds
• Raping the women to make white children and by the third generation the child would have blues eyes,white skin and blonde hair