A people are defined by their culture and not by monuments. Australian Aboriginals have dozens of rich and complexe cultures. In many ways their cultures are more sophisticated than those of Europe. Your comments represent a narrow, materialistic world view.

Nevertheless, they were still a Stone Age people when Europeans arrived. They hadn't even developed a writing system.

This is no reflection upon their intelligence; it's simply a historical fact. They were not an advanced civilisation. The Maoris were streets ahead.

My comments represent the history of mankind... where the strongest survive and the weakest go to the wall. It might not represent todays politically correct view of how things should be but its a fact of history. If a people had 40,000 years to develop and in all that time their major technical achievement was a stick that came back when you threw it away then, as cold hearted as it sounds, they got what was coming.

The stick?

Exactly.. The Maoris kicked the Brits arse in many of their early encounters and were treated very differently as a result.

True. They also had a monarchy, which provided common ground and a basis for cultural understanding with the Brits.

It is more expensive

hi all

do you guys not buy diesel cars?

they are far more efficient IMO?

i do 40K miles a year and would never even consider a petrol car !!

bit gutted i may have no choice when i get to Oz !!!


dirty diesels all the way for me !!!

Trouble is that a lot of the time diesel is 20%+ more expensive than petrol so any supposed cost benefit is out the window... all be it at the moment diesel is pretty close to petrol...

LPG is the alternative fuel of preference in Australia. Cheaper and cleaner than diesel, but just as easy to find a servo that sells it.

For some strange reason it's virtually unknown in the UK.

I'm prepared to be corrected Vash but I understood that the Maori adopted a
monarchy after contact with Brits as a response to the increased tribal fighting that occured with occupation. Maori society was tribal.

On the whole I think you're very right that the Maori got a better deal but their society was structured differently so that they were better equipped to deal with an 'intruder'. I wonder whether Aboriginal culture didn't have the same advancement because Australia is a far harsher land and so much more time would be needed to apply to simply surviving than in Aotearoa, which was a much kinder environment and would have afforded the Maori more time in their daily lives to develop other skills etc.

Just a thought.

I also think you're wong to say "they were not an advanced civilisation" because that only applies when judging them from a Western perspective and assessing whether they were capable of seeing off intruders.

Advanced civilisation implies advancement... They don't appear to have advanced much over the 40,000 they claim to have been in Australia.... and its not just a Western perspective. Every major culture on the planet moved forward, technically. The indigenous peoples of Australia never did and as I said before, in a purely evolutionary sense, got what was coming.

Every major culture moved forward in relation to their environment. The Aboriginal Australians had an existence that was sustainable in Australia- that's not an advancement we've replicated here is it? So in a purely evolutionary sense we're about to get what's coming to us

Another stimulus payment?