0:00:29.155,0:00:35.883 Before the dreaming, the Australian continent was a flat featureless place, devoid of life. 0:00:37.914,0:00:40.886 Then giant beings came down from the sky, 0:00:40.886,0:00:45.963 came from across the sea and emerged from within the Earth. 0:00:45.963,0:00:51.641 With their arrival, the dreaming began and life was born. 0:00:54.872,0:01:01.243 In the north of Australia, the Junkawa Sisters gave birth to humanity. 0:01:02.104,0:01:06.453 In central Australia, Itakawara broke the marriage laws 0:01:06.453,0:01:11.556 and as punishment, was turned into stone forever, entombed in the landscape. 0:01:13.448,0:01:16.628 On the east coast, Baiame shaped the landscape 0:01:16.628,0:01:18.364 and when his work was complete, 0:01:18.364,0:01:23.549 he stepped on to a mountain and back into the sky. 0:01:31.873,0:01:33.560 As they moved across the land, 0:01:33.560,0:01:35.919 their giant bodies shaped the Earth, 0:01:35.919,0:01:39.619 creating rivers and mountain ranges. 0:01:39.619,0:01:43.458 In everything they touched, they left their essence 0:01:43.458,0:01:47.197 making the landscape sacred to those who honour the dreaming. 0:01:47.197,0:01:50.367 The first Australians. 0:01:54.937,0:02:00.143 If you think about the ancient civilizations that Europeans look to 0:02:00.143,0:02:05.445 such as the dynasties of the Pharoahs in Egypt, 0:02:05.445,0:02:10.940 then even they are young compared to the period when humans were coming to Australia. 0:02:12.263,0:02:16.454 The first Australians numbered more than 250 tribes, 0:02:16.454,0:02:20.654 each with their own language, laws and territorial boundaries. 0:02:20.654,0:02:25.408 A civilization encompassing the entire continent. 0:02:28.653,0:02:31.772 We've had this debate about Australia was a terra nullius 0:02:31.772,0:02:33.828 and it was a wasted landscape, 0:02:33.828,0:02:36.874 and people hadn't used it and hadn't farmed it. 0:02:36.874,0:02:43.550 They have discovered that in fact, it's probably supported about 1.6 billion lives 0:02:43.550,0:02:50.231 and that's how productive Aboriginal people were able to make this part of the Earth 0:02:50.231,0:02:54.861 which has the most irregular and unreliable rainfall 0:02:54.861,0:02:57.695 and the driest continent on Earth. 0:02:57.695,0:03:00.300 80,000 years, 100,000 years, 0:03:00.300,0:03:04.638 it doesn't matter whether it's 60,000 years, it's an incredible length of time. 0:03:04.638,0:03:07.449 It's the longest living civilization Earth 0:03:07.449,0:03:13.551 and if you can't learn something from a people that successful, 0:03:13.551,0:03:20.632 then you're really defying your own intelligence. 0:03:21.032,0:03:26.519 Just over 200 years ago, without warning, strangers arrive. 0:03:26.519,0:03:30.927 They appear on the east coast at a place called Warang. 0:03:30.927,0:03:34.107 The strangers name it Sydney. 0:03:34.107,0:03:39.937 They're about to come face-to-face with the first Australians. 0:03:39.937,0:03:42.039 Bennelong, a young American, 0:03:42.039,0:03:47.489 who spends his days on the beach, will become the toast of English society. 0:03:47.489,0:03:52.558 Pemulroy will reject diplomacy and will declare the first war on Australian soil 0:03:52.558,0:03:56.387 Believing that he cannot be killed by firearms, 0:03:56.387,0:03:58.659 Windradyne will also become a wanted man 0:03:58.659,0:04:04.073 when his family is murdered over a handful of potatoes. 0:04:04.073,0:04:06.674 This is the story of the first Australians 0:04:06.674,0:04:13.394 and the events that shape the nation when the strangers came to stay. 0:04:24.395,0:04:28.790 It's impossible not to have hoped that there'd be some sort 0:04:28.790,0:04:34.893 of evolution of a society which was tolerant of difference, 0:04:34.893,0:04:39.099 but which sustained everyone. 0:04:40.099,0:04:45.300 It is a summer's night on the 25th January, 1788. 0:04:45.870,0:04:49.105 Eleven giant ships enter the harbour. 0:04:49.105,0:04:52.143 On board are over 1300 people. 0:04:52.143,0:04:57.127 More than half are convicts, the rest are soldiers. 0:04:57.327,0:05:01.556 The people on board are ordered to remain there until dawn. 0:05:01.556,0:05:08.193 They've traveled for nearly 8 months from England to this unknown land. 0:05:08.193,0:05:11.531 Around the harbour, the first Australians light fires 0:05:11.531,0:05:18.016 and they yell from their canoes for these apparitions to go away. 0:05:18.016,0:05:22.537 They thought they was the Devil when they landed first. 0:05:22.537,0:05:25.777 They did not know what to make of them. 0:05:25.777,0:05:29.282 When they saw them going up the masts, 0:05:29.282,0:05:34.330 they thought they was possums, Marut. 0:05:34.330,0:05:37.791 Gamadelpivo 0:05:37.791,0:05:46.404 At first light, the order is given for the convict men and women to disembark. 0:05:46.404,0:05:53.523 For Aboroginal people, can you imagine, suddenly there are 11 ships, 0:05:53.523,0:05:57.579 with these strange people wearing clothes. 0:05:57.579,0:06:01.503 Funny hats, they have guns. 0:06:02.688,0:06:05.662 What are these people up to? Why are they here? 0:06:05.662,0:06:08.688 How long are they going to stay? 0:06:08.688,0:06:13.558 Why did they come to my country? Why don't they go somewhere else? 0:06:13.558,0:06:16.662 Are they spirits? Very strange. 0:06:26.013,0:06:34.195 There's this very curious and very touching attempt to come together and to comprehend. 0:06:34.195,0:06:42.657 So you have extraordinary scenes within two or three days of landing of Britishers and Aborogines dancing together. 0:06:42.657,0:06:45.992 29 January, 1788 0:06:45.992,0:06:48.628 They pointed with their sticks to the boat landing place 0:06:48.628,0:06:51.103 and met us in the most cheerful manner. 0:06:51.103,0:06:56.939 Shouting and dancing, these people mixed with ours and all hands danced together. 0:06:56.939,0:06:59.765 William Bradley, first lieutenant. 0:06:59.765,0:07:02.919 And all we've got to go on are the paintings done 0:07:02.919,0:07:06.827 by a young naval lieutenant called Bradley. 0:07:07.027,0:07:11.435 And he has these enchanting paintings of redcoats 0:07:11.435,0:07:15.058 and aboriginal men, indeed, dancing together. 0:07:15.058,0:07:20.436 They're hand in hand,they seem to be dancing. 0:07:20.436,0:07:25.930 A sort of playground encounter, if you like, 0:07:25.930,0:07:29.017 when you're trying to check each other out. 0:07:29.017,0:07:32.637 The first Australians can't work out these first visitors are men or women 0:07:32.637,0:07:36.376 as their clothing covers them like a strange skin. 0:07:36.376,0:07:43.093 Finally, an officer is challenged to submit to the country's very first immigration procedure. 0:07:43.093,0:07:46.522 He has a wig, he has leotards on. 0:07:46.522,0:07:50.100 THey ask him to take his pants off, 0:07:50.100,0:07:54.665 which he declined and made a sailor do it. 0:07:54.665,0:07:59.096 Arthur Philip, captain of the first fleet, leads the newcomers ashore. 0:07:59.096,0:08:02.270 After an unremarkable career of 30 years in the navy, 0:08:02.270,0:08:04.804 he is dragged from retirement and appointed goverenor of a place nearly sixty times the size of England. 0:08:04.804,0:08:13.033 Governor Philip was in a rather unique situation when he came to Sydney, 0:08:13.033,0:08:17.327 because he had one of his front teeth missing 0:08:17.327,0:08:21.794 and it was the same tooth that was knocked out during the male initiation ceremony. 0:08:21.794,0:08:25.216 On my showing them that I lacked a front tooth, 0:08:25.216,0:08:29.862 it occasioned a general clamour, and I thought it gave me some little merit in their opinion. 0:08:29.862,0:08:32.569 Arthur Philip, Governor. 0:08:32.569,0:08:35.000 The local people would have thought here is...