Wikipedia:WikiProject Australian history/Timeline

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The Timeline of Australian history outlines historical events related to Australia.

Prehistory[edit]

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

Indigenous Australians prior to European Settlement[edit]

Exploration[edit]

Maritime Exploration[edit]

Main Article needed: European exploration of Australia prior to 1770
Dutch
Portuguese
  • 1606 (August): 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.
English
Main Article: James Cook exploration
Flemish
  • 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.
    • A separate article on the race between England and France to colonise Australia would be interesting, if we can get enough material together.

Land Exploration[edit]

Main Article: Explorers of Australia

Matthew Flinders

Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth

John Oxley
Charles Sturt
John McDouall Stuart
  • 1860: reaches the centre of the continent.
  • 1862: reaches Port Darwin, founding a settlement there.
Burke and Wills
  • 1861: The ill-fated expedition occurs.
  • 1873: Uluru is first sighted by Europeans, and named Ayers Rock.

European Australia[edit]

Australia as a Nation[edit]

Main Article: Founding of Australia===

  • 1824: Bathurst and Melville Islands are annexed.
  • 1829: The whole of Australia is claimed as British territory.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.

Australian Capital Territory[edit]

Main Article: History of ACT
  • 1899: The decision is made to site the national capital in New South Wales, but not within 100 miles of Sydney.
  • 1904 - A site at Dalgety, New South Wales chosen for the new national capital
  • 1908 - The Dalgety proposal for the national capital is revoked, and Canberra is chosen instead
  • 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
  • 1927 - The tenth parliament is formally opened in Canberra, finalising the move to the new capital

New South Wales[edit]

Main Article: Penal Colony of New South Wales
Norfolk Island

Tasmania[edit]

Main Article: Settlement in Tasmania/Van Dieman's Land

Queensland[edit]

Main Article: History of Queensland/Moreton Bay

Western Australia[edit]

Main Article: History of Western Australia

Victoria[edit]

Main Article: History of Victoria

South Australia[edit]

Main Article: History of South Australia

Northern Territory[edit]

New Guinea[edit]

Institutions[edit]

From the context of history, these events may not require individual history articles

Banks[edit]

  • 1817: Australia's first bank the Bank of New South Wales opens in Macquarie Place, Sydney. (Became Westpac in 1982)


Charities[edit]

Newspapers[edit]

Educational Institutions[edit]

Infrastructure[edit]

From the context of history, these events may not require individual history articles

Communications[edit]

Railway[edit]

Air Travel[edit]

Electricity[edit]

Culture[edit]

Sports[edit]


Law and Crime[edit]

  • 1903 - The High Court of Australia is established
  • 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.
  • 1944 - The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is introduced, providing subsidised medicine to all Australians
  • 1948 - Australia becomes a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • 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.
  • 1951 - Voters reject a referendum to change the Constitution to allow the Menzies Government to ban the Communist Party
  • 1951 - Australia signs the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand

1959: Australia becomes a signatory to the International Antarctic Treaty

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

Economy[edit]

  • 1891: A severe depression hits Australia

1929: The Great Depression hits Australia.

Politics[edit]

Political Parties[edit]

  • 1879: The first congress of trade unions is held.
  • 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.

Elections and Governance[edit]

War and Military[edit]

Boer War[edit]

  • 1902 - Breaker Morant is executed for having shot Boers who had surrendered

World War 1[edit]

  • 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
  • 1918 - first world war ends

World War 2[edit]

Korean War[edit]

  • 1950 - Australian troops are sent to the Korean War, as well as to fight a communist insurgency in Malaya

Vietnam War[edit]

Returned and Services League[edit]

Statistics History[edit]

  • 1911 - The first national census is conducted

Sciences[edit]

Pharmaceuticals[edit]

Biology[edit]

Natural Disasters[edit]

International Relations[edit]

Immigration[edit]

  • 1946 - Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell introduces the major post-war immigration scheme

Uncategorised[edit]

1952: the Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects, leading to the Petrov Affair and another split in the Labor Party

1960s[edit]

1964: the editors of Oz magazine are charged with obscenity; 1964: 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;

1970s[edit]

1980[edit]

  • 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.
  • 1977 - 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 legalise 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.

1990s[edit]

  • 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 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 'constituting 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[edit]

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