Timeline of Australian history

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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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] 1600s

[edit] 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.

[edit] 1800s

[edit] 1900s

[edit] 1910s

[edit] 1920s

[edit] 1930s

[edit] 1940s

[edit] 1950s

[edit] 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;

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 2000s