The Bachelor Australia‘s Bella Varelis has hit back at naysayers who slammed her for suggesting a 1000-year-old UK castle is older than Australia. Yes, really.

Bella — who is currently living her bEsT lIfE in Europe-slash-UK — posted a snap of ye olde castle on her Insta Story.

Which, TBH, we get it. We’re all guilty of posting historical monuments on the ‘gram… But babe, maybe read a book on Australian history (or at least the Wikipedia page) before making any bold declarations.

bella varelis
The Bachelor Australia‘s Bella Varelis has hit back at naysayers who slammed her for suggesting a 1000-year-old UK castle is older than Australia. Source: Instagram @bellavarelis.

“This castle has been around for over one THOUSAND years. ONE THOUSAND,” Bella’s since-deleted post read. “This was before anyone even knew Australia EXISTED. [sic]”

However, just because she wiped the post off the face of her earth, doesn’t mean it won’t resurface elsewhere. And that it did, after popular Instagram account Influencer Updates reshared it for the rest of us to bask in its unhinged glory.

“FYI: Australia existed before Europeans ‘discovered’ it,” the anonymous user penned over a compilation of Bella’s Stories.

bella varelis castle post
Influencer Updates shared Bella’s original post, reiterating that “Australia existed” prior to European discovery. Source: Instagram @influencer.updates.au.

Now, The Bachelor star has clapped back at “negative nancies” for roasting the sh*t out of her, digressing that she meant that the UK had no clue Australia existed. Ya-huh, sure, Jan.

“It was very clearly meant towards the people there, in the United Kingdom, not knowing that Australia existed yet,” she wrote under PedestrianTV‘s post about the incident.

bella varelis australia
Source: Instagram.

Fans Accuse The Bachelor‘s Bella Varelis of “Systematic Erasure of First Nations People”

Off the back of her comment, another Instagram user said Bella had unwittingly fallen victim to the “systematic erasure” of Australia’s Indigenous peoples.

“Systematic erasure of First Nations people is an important thing, even when it is done without conscious ill intent,” they wrote.

However, Bella hit back, claiming she was “talking about Scottish history”.

“Not talking about the history of the Indigenous people that lived in Australia before Australia was even called Australia.”

Bella said she was “talking about Scottish history”. Source: Instagram.

She then hit back again to “reiterate for those that need everything spelled out” for them.

“‘Australia’ did not exist — the name ‘Australia’ was given to the country when the British colonised,” she penned.

“I never said the Indigenous people didn’t exist, never said there was no history of its own before it was invaded, no disrespect to the first nation [sic], and I’m very well aware of the 65,000 year old history of our country.”

She continued: “I was purely talking about the history of this Scottish castle, where people who lived there a thousand years ago didn’t even know ‘Australia’ was there, down under [sic].”

bella varelis australia castle
Souce: Instagram.

The 27-year-old concluded by telling everyone that “this is the last [she] will speak of it”.

However, she did slide back in to let her fans and haters that she wouldn’t be responding to any more comments.

A Quick Fact Check Regarding Australia’s History

Regardless of whether Bella was being dead-ass serious (read: ignorant) in her OG posts, let this be a quick history lesson for y’all.

Geologists have predicted that Australia is around 55 million years old.

However, aside from geographic landmass, DNA has confirmed that our First Nations people are one of the oldest existing populations in the world.

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This follows them leaving Africa approximately 75,000 years ago, and 24,000 years before people migrated to Europe and Asia.

study from the West Australian Museum and the University of Western Australia discovered that First Nations people traded with South-East Asian fishermen from as early as 1700.

The British didn’t begin to colonise Australia in 1788, which proves that people outside Europe knew that Down Under already “existed”.

Case closed.

Want even more goss? Listen to episode 207 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!

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