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Australia | 65,000 BCE - present | 123 events
All eras
Deep Time
European Contact
Convict Colony
Exploration and Expansion
Gold Rushes
Colonial Maturity
Federation and the Great War
Between the Wars
War and Postwar
Modern Australia
All categories
Aboriginal
Cultural
Economic
Foreign Relations
Military
Political
Religious
Scientific
Social
Timeline of 123 events across 10 eras. Use the left and right
arrow keys to move between events, Home and End to jump to the first or last, and Enter to
select. Every event is also listed in full below.
★ c. 65,000 years ago
First arrival at Madjedbebe
c. 50,000 years ago
The megafauna disappear
★ c. 42,000 years ago
The burials at Lake Mungo
c. 40,000 years ago
The rock art of Murujuga
c. 18,000 years ago
The glacial maximum
c. 12,000 years ago
Tasmania is cut off
★ c. 6,600 years ago
The eel traps at Budj Bim
c. 4,000 years ago
The dingo arrives
c. 1,000 years ago
Songlines and the Dreaming
★ c. 1500
Makassan trade with Arnhem Land
★ March 1606
The Duyfken makes landfall
1606
Torres sails the strait
October 1616
Dirk Hartog leaves a plate
1629
The wreck of the Batavia
1642
Tasman charts Van Diemen's Land
1688
Dampier on the northwest coast
★ April 1770
Cook charts the east coast
★ 22 August 1770
Possession Island
August 1786
Botany Bay chosen for a penal colony
★ 26 January 1788
The First Fleet arrives
★ April 1789
Smallpox devastates the Eora
June 1790
The Second Fleet
1790
Pemulwuy's resistance
1793
The first free settlers
1797
Merino sheep are landed
1803
Settlement at Risdon Cove
March 1804
The Castle Hill rebellion
★ January 1808
The Rum Rebellion
1810
Macquarie begins building
★ May 1813
The Blue Mountains are crossed
1817
The Bank of New South Wales
1824
Moreton Bay penal settlement
1828
Martial law in Van Diemen's Land
June 1829
The Swan River Colony
★ 1835
Batman's treaty and the founding of Melbourne
December 1836
South Australia is proclaimed
★ June 1838
The Myall Creek massacre
1840
Transportation to New South Wales ends
1841
Eyre crosses the Nullarbor
1844
Ludwig Leichhardt reaches Port Essington
1847
The squatters get their runs
★ May 1851
Gold is found near Bathurst
1851
Victoria separates from New South Wales
1852
The Chinese arrive on the goldfields
★ 3 December 1854
The Eureka Stockade
1855
Responsible government
★ April 1856
The eight hour day
1858
Manhood suffrage in Victoria
December 1859
Queensland separates
August 1860
Burke and Wills set out
1861
The Lambing Flat riots
January 1868
The last convict ship
1868
The first Australian cricket tour of England
★ August 1872
The Overland Telegraph
March 1877
The first Test match
★ June 1880
Ned Kelly at Glenrowan
1883
Silver at Broken Hill
1888
The centenary, and the colour bar
1890
The maritime strike
May 1891
The shearers' strike at Barcaldine
September 1892
Gold at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie
★ 1894
South Australian women win the vote
1895
Waltzing Matilda
1899
The federation referendums
★ 1 January 1901
Federation
★ December 1901
The Immigration Restriction Act
1902
Women get the federal vote
★ November 1907
The Harvester judgment
1908
The old age pension
March 1913
Canberra is named
★ August 1914
Australia enters the Great War
★ 25 April 1915
The Gallipoli landing
1916
The conscription referendums
1917
Beersheba
April 1918
Villers-Bretonneux
1919
The influenza pandemic
1920
Qantas is founded
1923
The Country Party enters coalition
May 1927
Parliament moves to Canberra
★ August 1928
The Coniston massacre
1928
The Flying Doctor
November 1930
Phar Lap wins the Melbourne Cup
1931
The Depression bites
March 1932
The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
1932
The Emu War
★ 26 January 1938
The Day of Mourning
3 September 1939
Australia is at war again
★ December 1941
Curtin turns to America
15 February 1942
Singapore falls
★ 19 February 1942
Darwin is bombed
★ May 1942
The Coral Sea and the Kokoda Track
August 1945
The war ends
★ 1945
Populate or perish
November 1948
The first Holden
★ October 1949
The Snowy Mountains Scheme
September 1951
The ANZUS treaty
September 1951
The referendum to ban the Communist Party
November 1956
The Melbourne Olympics and television
★ 1956
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
★ 1962
Aboriginal people get the federal vote
★ February 1965
The Freedom Ride
★ August 1966
The Wave Hill walk-off
★ 27 May 1967
The 1967 referendum
★ January 1972
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
★ December 1972
Whitlam is elected
★ October 1973
The Sydney Opera House opens
★ 1973
The White Australia policy formally ends
December 1974
Cyclone Tracy destroys Darwin
★ 11 November 1975
The Dismissal
★ 1976
Land rights in the Northern Territory
★ 1983
The dollar is floated
July 1983
The Franklin Dam is stopped
★ 1984
Medicare
★ 3 June 1992
The Mabo decision
★ April 1996
Port Arthur and the gun laws
★ May 1997
The Bringing Them Home report
November 1999
The republic referendum
September 2000
The Sydney Olympics
★ 13 February 2008
The Apology
February 2009
Black Saturday
★ December 2017
Same-sex marriage
2019
The Black Summer
★ 14 October 2023
The Voice referendum
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