Timeline of Australian history

This article is part of the series History of Australia

Prehistory

Before 1788

1788-1850

1851-1900

1901-1945

Since 1945

Timeline

This is a timeline of Australian history.

Prehistory

• 50,000 BC: The first inhabitants are thought to have arrived in Australia.
• 42,000 BC: Aboriginal engravings dating back to this time have been found in South Australia.
• 35,000 BC: Aborigines are thought to have reached the southernmost part of the continent—what is now Tasmania.

1600s

• 1606 (March): The Dutch ship Duyfken, under Captain Willem Janszoon, explores the western coast of Cape York Peninsula. The first recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil.
• 1606 (August): Portuguese seaman Luis Vaez de Torres sails through the Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea, along the latter's southern coast. He may well have sighted the northernmost extremity of Australia, although this is not recorded. Torres reported 'shoals', some of which may have been the northernmost atolls of the Great Barrier Reef. The name 'Coste Dangereuse', for the tropical Queensland coast, appears on French charts.
• 1616: Dutch captain Dirk Hartog in the Eendracht makes the second recorded landfall by a European, at Dirk Hartog Island on the western coast of Australia. Leaves behind the Hartog plate.
• 1623: Dutch captain Jan Carstensz navigates the Gulf of Carpentaria aboard the Pera and Arnhem. The Arnhem crosses the Gulf to reach and name Groote Eylandt.
• 1642: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman explores the west coast of Tasmania, lands on its east coast and names the island Anton Vandiemenslandt.
• 1688: English explorer William Dampier explores the west coast of Australia.
• 1696: Flemish explorer Willem de Vlamingh charts the southwestern coast of Australia, making landfall at Rottnest Island and the site of the present-day city of Perth.

1700s

• 1770: English Lieutenant James Cook's expedition in HM Bark Endeavour charts the eastern coast.
• 1788: The First Fleet from England under Arthur Phillip arrives in Australia and founds first European settlement and penal colony at Sydney Cove (Sydney). New South Wales, according to Arthur Phillip's amended Commission dated 25 April 1787, includes "all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean" and running westward to the 135th meridian. These islands included the current islands of New Zealand, which was administered as part of New South Wales.
• 1788: An English settlement is founded at Norfolk Island.
• 1792: Two French ships, La Recherche and L'Espérance, anchor in what was named Recherche Bay, near the southernmost point of Tasmania at a time when England and France were vying to be the first to discover and colonise Australia.

1800s

• 1804: A settlement is founded at Risdon on the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land by Lt Bowen.
• 1804: Castle Hill convict rebellion also known as the second Battle of Vinegar Hill
• 1804: The settlement is moved to Sullivan's Cove in Van Diemen's Land (now Hobart in Tasmania) by Colonel David Collins.
• 1806: Matthew Flinders completes the first circumnavigation of the continent.
• 1808: The Rum Rebellion
• 1813: Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth cross the Blue Mountains.
• 1817: John Oxley charts the Lachlan River.
• 1817: Australia's first bank the Bank of New South Wales opens in Macquarie Place, Sydney. (Became Westpac in 1982)
• 1818: Oxley charts the Macquarie River.
• 1824: A penal colony is founded at Moreton Bay, now the city of Brisbane.
• 1824: Bathurst and Melville Islands are annexed.
• 1825 New South Wales western border is extended to 129° E. Van Diemen's Land is proclaimed.
• 1828: Charles Sturt charts the Darling River.
• 1829: The whole of Australia is claimed as British territory. The settlement of Perth is founded. Swan River Colony is declared by Charles Fremantle for Britain.
• 1830: Sturt arrives at Goolwa, having charted the Murray River.
• 1831: Sydney Herald (later to become The Sydney Morning Herald) first published.
• 1832 Swan River Colony has its name changed to Western Australia.
• 1833: The penal settlement of Port Arthur is founded in Van Dieman's Land.
• 1835: John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner establish a settlement at Port Phillip, now the city of Melbourne.
• 1836: Province of South Australia proclaimed with its western border at 132° E.
• 1840 New Zealand is proclaimed and is no longer under New South Wales.
• 1845: Copper is discovered at Burra in South Australia.
• 1850: Western Australia becomes a penal colony.
• 1850: Australia's first university, the University of Sydney, is founded.
• 1851: Victoria separates from New South Wales.
• 1851: The Victorian gold rush starts when gold is found at Summerhill Creek and Ballarat.
• 1851: Forest Creek Monster Meeting of miners at Chewton near Castlemaine
• 1853: Bendigo Petition and Red Ribbon Rebellion at Bendigo
• 1854: The Eureka Stockade
• 1855: The transportation of convicts to Norfolk Island ceases.
• 1858: Sydney and Melbourne linked by Electric Telegraph.
• 1856 Van Diemen's Land name changed to Tasmania.
• 1859: Queensland separates from New South Wales with its western border at 141° E.
• 1860: John McDouall Stuart reaches the centre of the continent. South Australian border changed from 132° E to 129° E.
• 1861: The ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition occurs.
• 1862: Stuart reaches Port Darwin, founding a settlement there. Queensland's western border is moved to 139° E.
• 1863: South Australia takes control of the Northern Territory which was part of the colony of New South Wales.
• 1867: The transportation of convicts to Western Australia ceases.
• 1867: Gold is discovered at Gympie, Queensland.
• 1872: Overland Telegraph Line linking Darwin and Adelaide opens.
• 1873: Uluru is first sighted by Europeans, and named Ayers Rock.
• 1879: The first congress of trade unions is held.
• 1880: The bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged.
• 1880: Parliamentarians in Victoria become the first in Australia to be paid for their work.
• 1883: The opening of the Sydney-Melbourne railway
• 1883: Silver is discovered at Broken Hill
• 1887: An Australian cricket team is established, defeating Britain in the first Ashes series.
• 1889: The completion of the railway network between Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
• 1889: Sir Henry Parkes delivers the Tenterfield Oration.
• 1890: The Australian Federation Conference calls a constitutional convention.
• 1891: A National Australasian Convention meets, agrees on adopting the name "the Commonwealth of Australia" and drafting a constitution.
• 1891: The first attempt at a federal constitution is drafted.
• 1891: The Convention adopts the constitution, although it has no legal status
• 1891: A severe depression hits Australia
• 1892: Gold is discovered at Coolgardie, Western Australia.
• 1893: The Corowa Conference (the "people's convention") calls on the colonial parliaments to pass enabling acts, allowing the election of delegates to a new constitutional convention aimed at drafting a proposal and putting it to a referendum in each colony.
• 1895: The premiers, except for those of Queensland and Western Australia, agree to implement the Corowa proposals.
• 1895: Waltzing Matilda is first sung in public, in Winton, Queensland
• 1895: Banjo Patterson publishes The Man From Snowy River
• 1896: The Bathurst Conference (the second "people's convention") meets to discuss the 1891 draft constitution
• 1897: In two sessions, the Second National Australasian Convention meets (with representatives from all colonies except Queensland present). They agree to adopt a constitution based on the 1891 draft, and then revise and amend it later that year.
• 1898: The Convention agrees on a final draft to be put to the people.
• 1898: After much public debate, the Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian referendums are successful; the New South Wales referendum narrowly fails. Later New South Wales votes "yes" in a second referendum, and Queensland and Western Australia also vote to join.
• 1899: The decision is made to site the national capital in New South Wales, but not within 100 miles of Sydney.
• 1899: The Australian Labor Party holds office for a few days in Queensland, becoming the first trade union party to do so anywhere in the world.

1900s

• 1900 - Several delegates visit London to resist proposed changes to the agreed-upon constitution
• 1900 - The constitution is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom as a schedule to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, and is given royal assent
• 1901 - Australia becomes a federation on January 1. Edmund Barton becomes Prime Minister; Lord Hopetoun becomes Governor-General
• 1901 - The first parliament meets in Parliament House, Melbourne
• 1902 - The Franchise Act guarantees women the right to vote in federal elections (by this stage, most states had already done this). However, it excludes most non-European ethnic groups, including Aboriginal people.
• 1902 - Breaker Morant is executed for having shot Boers who had surrendered
• 1903 - The High Court of Australia is established with Samuel Griffith as the first Chief Justice.
• 1903 - The Defence Act gives the federal government full control over the Australian Army
• 1903 - Alfred Deakin elected Prime Minister
• 1904 - A site at Dalgety, New South Wales chosen for the new national capital
• 1904 - Chris Watson forms the first federal Labor (minority) government
• 1906 - Australia takes control of south-eastern New Guinea
• 1908 - Dorothea Mackellar publishes My Country
• 1908 - The Dalgety proposal for the national capital is revoked, and Canberra is chosen instead
• 1909 - The first powered aeroplane flight in Australia is made.

1910s

• 1910 - Andrew Fisher forms the first federal majority Labor government.
• 1911 - The Royal Australian Navy is founded
• 1911 - The Northern Territory comes under Commonwealth control, being split off from South Australia
• 1911 - The first national census is conducted.
• 1911 – Australian Capital Territory proclaimed.
• 1912 - Australia sends women to the Olympic Games for the first time
• 1912 - Walter Burley Griffin wins a design competition for the new city of Canberra
• 1913 - The foundation stone for the city of Canberra is put in place
• 1914 - Australian soldiers are sent to the First World War. This was first time Australians had fought under the Australian flag.
• 1915 - Australian soldiers land at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey
• 1915 - Jervis Bay Territory comprising 6,677 hectares surrended and becomes part of the Australia Capital Territory.
• 1915 - Surfing is first introduced to Australia
• 1916 - Hotels are forced to close at 6 p.m., leading to the beginning of the "six o'clock swill"
• 1916 - The Returned Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia, the forerunner to the Returned and Services League is founded
• 1916 - The Labor government under Billy Hughes splits over conscription. First referendum on conscription is rejected
• 1917 - Second referendum on conscription is rejected
• 1918 - first world war ends

1920s

• 1920 - The airline Qantas is founded
• 1921 - Edith Cowan becomes the first woman elected to an Australian parliament
• 1922 - The Smith Family charity is founded in Sydney
• 1923 - Vegemite is first produced
• 1926 - The first Miss Australia contest is held
• 1927 - The tenth parliament is formally opened in Canberra, finalising the move to the new capital
• 1928 - Bert Hinkler makes the first successful flight from Britain to Australia, and Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first flight from the United States to Australia
• 1929 - Western Australia celebrates its centenary
• 1929 - Labor returns to office under James Scullin. The Great Depression hits Australia.

1930s

• 1930 - Don Bradman scores a record 452 not out in one cricket innings
• 1930 - Phar Lap wins his first Melbourne Cup
• 1931 - Sir Douglas Mawson charts 4,000 miles of Antarctic coastline and claims 42% of the icy mass for Australia
• 1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
• 1932 - the Labor government falls and Joseph Lyons becomes Prime Minister
• 1933 - Western Australia votes at a rerefendum to secede from the Commonwealth, but the vote is ignored by both the Commonwealth and British governments
• 1936 - The last Thylacine dies
• 1937 - The radio series Dad and Dave begins
• 1938 - Sydney hosts the Empire Games, the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games
• 1939 - Australia enters the Second World War
• 1939 - The first flight is made by an Australian-made warplane, the Wirraway
• 1939 - Victoria is devastated by the Black Friday bushfires
• 1939 - Lyons dies in office and is succeeded by Robert Menzies

1940s

• 1940 - A team of scientists, under Howard Florey, develops penicillin
• 1941 - Labor comes to power under John Curtin
• 1942-43 - Japanese planes make almost 100 attacks against sites in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. (See also: Japanese air attacks on Australia, 1942-43)
• 1942 - National daylight saving is introduced as a war time measure.
• 1942 - The UK Statute of Westminster is formally adopted by Australia. The Statute formally grants Australia (along with New Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State) the right to pass laws that conflict with UK laws.
• 1943 - Australia wins its first Oscar, with cinematographer Damien Parer being honoured for his coverage of the war
• 1944 - The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is introduced, providing subsidised medicine to all Australians
• 1945 - Australia becomes a founding member of the United Nations
• 1945 - The Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race is held for the first time
• 1945 - Curtin dies in office and is succeeded by Ben Chifley
• 1946 - Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell introduces the major post-war immigration scheme
• 1946 - An Australian, Norman Makin, is voted in as the first President of the United Nations Security Council.
• 1948 - Australian Minister for External Affairs, Dr. H.V. Evatt is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.
• 1948 - Australia becomes a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• 1949 - Construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme begins
• 1949 - Indigenous Australians who are eligible to vote in State Elections in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are also given the right to vote in Federal Elections.
• 1949 - The Nationality and Citizenship Act is passed. Rather than being identified as subjects of Britain, the Act established Australian citizenship for people who met eligibility requirements.
• 1949 - Menzies returns to power as leader of the new Liberal Party

1950s

• 1950 - Australian troops are sent to the Korean War, as well as to fight a communist insurgency in Malaya
• 1951 - Australia signs the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand
• 1951 - Voters reject a referendum to change the Constitution to allow the Menzies Government to ban the Communist Party
• 1952 - First nuclear test conducted in Australian territory by the United Kingdom off the coast of Western Australia.
• 1954 - Elizabeth II and Prince Philip make a royal visit; the Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects, leading to the Petrov Affair and another split in the Labor Party
• 1955 - Hotels in New South Wales no longer have to close at 6 p.m., ending the "six o'clock swill"
• 1956 - Melbourne holds the Summer Olympics
• 1959 - The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is opened; Australia becomes a signatory to the International Antarctic Treaty

1960s

• 1962 - Indigenous Australians gain the right to vote in all states except Queensland; Australia enters the Vietnam War

• 1964 - The Beatles tour Australia; 82 sailors die when HMAS Voyager sinks after being rammed by HMAS Melbourne; the editors of OZ magazine are charged with obscenity; PM Robert Menzies announces the reintroduction of compulsory military service for men 18-25

• 1965 - Indigenous Australians gain right to vote in state of Queensland

• 1966 - The ban on the employment of married women in the Commonwealth Public Service is lifted; Menzies retires as Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister and is succeeded by Harold Holt; Decimal Currency introduced.

• 1967 - large areas of Hobart and south-eastern Tasmania are devastated by bushfires on 7 February that kill 62 people; Prime Minister Holt drowns and is succeeded by John Gorton; Aboriginal Australians gain the right to citizenship after a referendum to allow the federal government to legislate for them is supported by over 90% of the population; Sydney is rocked by a series of brutal underworld killings; talkback radio is introduced; British comedian Tony Hancock commits suicide in Sydney; Gough Whitlam becomes leader of the Labor Party

• 1968 - Australia signs the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; Aboriginal boxing champion Lionel Rose defeats Masahiko "Fighting" Harada in Japan to become the world bantamweight champion; Australia's first liver transplant operation is performed in Sydney;

• 1969 - French conceptual artist Christo 'wraps' Little Bay in Sydney; renowned author-artists Norman Lindsay and May Gibbs die; the Australian production of the rock musical Hair premieres in Sydney; top pop groups The Easybeats and The Twilights break up; Tim Burstall directs2000 Weeks, the first all-Australian feature released since Charles Chauvel's Jedda in 1958

1970s

• 1970 - More than 200,000 people participate in the largest demonstrations in Australian history, against the Vietnam War
• 1971 - Neville Bonner becomes the first Aboriginal to become an Australian Member of Parliament; John Gorton resigns and is succeeded by William McMahon
• 1971 - The 1971 Springbok tour sparks protest all throughout Australia. Premier of Queensland Joh Bjelke-Petersen declares a state of emergency in QLD in reponse to escalating protest.
• 1972 - The Commonwealth Arbitration Commission rules that women doing the same job as men have the right to be paid the same wage.
• 1972 - The first Labor government since 1949 is elected under the leadership of Gough Whitlam
• 1972 - Australia recognises the People's Republic of China
• 1973 - The Sydney Opera House is opened
• 1973 - The federal voting age is dropped from 21 to 18
• 1973 - Unionists save the historic "The Rocks" area of Sydney from demolition by introducing "Green Bans"
• 1973 - Patrick White becomes the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
• 1974 - Darwin is devastated by Cyclone Tracy
• 1975 - A constitutional crisis occurs when Malcolm Fraser's opposition blocks supply, bringing the nation to a standstill until Governor-General John Kerr dismisses Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Fraser wins elections and becomes Prime Minister
• 1975 - The 'Privy Council (Appeals from the High Court) Act removes the right to appeal High Court decisions to the British Privy Council. Appeals to the Privy Coucil direct from State Supreme Courts remain until 1988.
• 1975 - South Australia becomes the first state in Australia to legalise homosexuality between consenting adults in private.
• 1977 - Advance Australia Fair becomes Australia's official national anthem
• 1978 - The First Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras kicks off in Sydney - People were arrested.
• 1978 - The Australian Capital Territory legalises homosexuality between consenting adults in private.
• 1979 - Australian women win the right to maternity leave
• 1979 - Kakadu National Park and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are both proclaimed.

1980

• 1981 - Victoria legalises homosexuality between consenting adults in private and also is the first State in Australia to have a uniform age of consent for everyone in Australia.
• 1982 - New South Wales Becomes the first state in Australia to outlaw discrimination in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 on the basis of actual or perceived homosexuality.
• 1983 - Australia wins the America's Cup; Bob Hawke defeats Fraser and leads Labor back to government
• 1984 - New South Wales and the Northern Territory legalises homosexuality between consenting adults {over 18 only} in private.
• 1985 - The government grants the freehold title of a large area of land in central Australia, including prominent landmarks Uluru and Kata Tjuta, to the Mutitjulu people, who in turn give them a 99-year lease
• 1986 - The Australia Act removes the right of appeal from State courts to the British Privy Council, making the High Court the final court of appeal in Australia. The Act also removes all remaining rights of the UK parliament to pass law for Australia.
• 1987 - Hoddle Street Massacre kills 7 victims and injures 19
• 1987 - Queen Street Massacre kills 8 victims and injures 5
• 1988 - Australia celebrates its bicentenary, with large celebrations and major funding for capital works projects
• 1988 - The new Parliament House opens
• 1989 - Western Australia legalises homosexuality between consenting adults {over 21 only} in private.
• 1989 - A 5.6 magnitude earthquake strikes Newcastle on 28 December, killing 13 and injuring more than 160 people.
• 1989 - Jervis Bay Territory separates from the Australian Capital Territory when the latter achieved self government.

1990s

• 1991 - Queensland legalises homosexuality between consenting adults in private and also maintains a Sodomy Law for people under 18.
• 1991 - Hawke is replaced by Paul Keating
• 1991 - Seven people die in the Strathfield massacre
• 1991 - Prominent heart surgeon Victor Chang is gunned down
• 1991 - The Coode Island chemical storage facility in Melbourne explodes, leaving a toxic cloud hanging over the city for days
• 1992 - New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner resigns after a corruption inquiry finds against him
• 1993 - The High Court delivers the Mabo Decision, which rules that indigenous native title does exist. This effectively extinguishes the concept of terra nullius.
• 1993 - Keating defeats John Hewson in an election that had been widely described as being "unwinnable" for him; the Australian Greens stand candidates for the first time
• 1995 - The Northern Territory legalises voluntary euthanasia, but it is overruled by the federal government when Liberal MP Kevin Andrews proposes the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996
• 1996 - The High Court hands down the Wik Decision, which holds that indigenous native title can survive the granting of pastoral leases.
• 1996 - Liberal John Howard becomes Prime Minister, defeating Paul Keating after a record 13 years of Labor government
• 1996 - All Australian states and territories agree to introduce uniform gun laws following the deaths of 35 people in the Port Arthur Massacre
• 1997 - Expelled Liberal MP Pauline Hanson forms the One Nation Party
• 1997 - On the 1 May 1997 Tasmania finally legalises homosexuality between consenting adults in private after a nine-year battle, the last Australian state to do so, also maintaining a law so there is 'consituting no defence' in the age of consent law(s) when it comes to male homosexuality and anal sex only.
• 1997 - Eighteen people die when the Bimbadene and Carinya Lodges collapse at Thredbo Alpine Village at 11.30 p.m. on 30 July
• 1998 - A major strike results when Patrick Stevedores attempt to introduce non-union labour to reduce the influence of the Maritime Union of Australia
• 1998 - The Australian Stock Exchange is demutualised and floated as a public company, becoming the world’s first stock exchange to be listed on an exchange.
• 1999 - Both houses of the federal parliament pass a motion signifying both recognition of and regret at past treatment of indigenous Australians.
• 1999 - A referendum on changing to a republic is unsuccessful
• 1999 - Australian soldiers are deployed to East Timor as part of the INTERFET peacekeeping force

2000s

• 2000 - Sydney holds the Summer Olympics
• 2001 - John Howard is re-elected after the Tampa affair and Children overboard affair occur as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration
• 2001 - Western Australia now has a Uniform Age Of Consent at 16 for Everyone.
• 2002 - On 12 October, 2002 bombs explode in a Bali nightclub and bar killing 202 people, including 88 Australians.
• 2003 - Australian military deployed to participate in the Iraq War.
• 2003 - The Northern Territory now has a uniform Age Of Consent set at 16 for everyone.
• 2003 - New South Wales becomes the last State to have a Uniform Age of Consent at 16 for Everyone.
• 2004 - A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
• 2004 - The John Howard led conservative Liberal and National Party coalition wins its fourth term in office after defeating the Mark Latham lead Australian Labor Party at the federal election.
• 2005 - Sixteen people are charged with planning terrorist attacks in Sydney and Melbourne
• 2005 - Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla sees racially charged riots.
• 2006 - The Commonwealth Games are held in Melbourne.
• 2006 - Australian Forces are again deployed to East Timor to help stabilize the country.

Categories

Find

Find