This history of Australia tells the whole story of the Great Southern Land, from its Aboriginal origins to 1997, including: discovery by European navigators who claimed the land as their own - even though it was already inhabited the First Fleet, convict settlements, the gold rushes and turn-of-the-century questions about whether Australia could be a perfect society the birth-pangs of a federated nation, and the experience of Australians in the world's wars and continuing tension over links with Britain, massive post-war immigration, successes and problems of the 20th century, and the celebration of a distinctly Australian way of life.