ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the social history of religion in Australia mainly during precolonial and colonial times. It covers Australian Aboriginal religion, the hidden history of Islam (e.g. the interaction between the Makassar and Indigenous peoples in the Northern Territory before the 18th century), the import of Christianity, the endorsement of an Australian specific type of secularism through Federation, and ANZAC as a civil religion. Finally, drawing on the theory of multiple modernities, this chapter explores the impact of the use of religion as tool of social control in its early colonial days.
