Australia is simultaneously the home to the world's oldest continuous culture - those of its First Peoples, and a country with one of the highest proportions of citizens born overseas in the world - making Australia the most multicultural society in the world.

There are varying estimates for how long Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived on this continent, however, upwards of 60,000 years is what current research reveals.

The Frontier Wars refer to all the massacres, wars and instances of resistances beginning from the arrival of colonists in 1788. Officially the Wars are said to have ended as late as 1934 however many acts of violence and oppression against our community continue today, as does our resilience.

The death toll resulting from the Frontier Wars is hard to know for certain, but it is estimated that around 2000 – 5000 colonists were killed over the years while the death toll is for Aboriginal people is unknown as it is so high. In ‘Queensland’ alone it is estimated that 60,000 Aboriginal people died (the Guardian). While the true death toll for Aboriginal people across the continent is impossible to know for certain due to most of the instances being covered up or not reported, it is estimated that around 90% of the Aboriginal population prior to invasion was killed during the wars.

On February 12, 1851, a prospector discovered flecks of gold in a waterhole near Bathurst, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Soon, even more gold was discovered in what would become the neighbouring state of Victoria. This began the Australian Gold Rush, which had a profound impact on the country’s national identity.

Within a year, more than 500,000 people (nicknamed “diggers”) rushed to the gold fields of Australia. Most of these immigrants were British, but many prospectors from the United States, Germany, Poland, and China also settled in NSW and Victoria

On May 13, 1787, a group of over 1,400 people in 11 ships set sail from Portsmouth, England. Their destination was a vaguely described bay in the continent of Australia, newly discovered to Europeans. In a stunning feat of planning and navigation, nearly all of the voyagers survived and arrived in Botany Bay several months later.

Perhaps most famously, the First Fleet included more than 700 convicts. The settlement at Botany Bay was intended to be a penal colony. The convicts of the First Fleet included both men and women. Most were British, but a few were American, French, and even African. Their crimes ranged from theft to assault.

The penal colony of New South Wales was established by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788 on behalf of the British crown. The land upon which the colony was established was then labelled as Terra Nullius, a Latin term meaning "land belonging to no-one", and this was seen as justification for the settlement being brought under British Crown rule.

At the end of the 19th century, Australian colonies had concerns about who was migrating to Australia. With a rise in the number of migrants from China and the Pacific, many colonies passed tough immigration legislation.

The Immigration Restriction Act was one of the first Commonwealth laws passed after Federation. It was based on the existing laws of the colonies.

The aim of the law was to limit non-white (particularly Asian) immigration to Australia, to help keep Australia ‘British’.