The rainbow serpent is a Dreamtime motif common in Aboriginal creation stories.
Indigenous Australians may have entered Australia around 40,000 years ago via a
‘land bridge’ – a series of low lying islands that connected Australian to Asia.
The remains of the so-called Mungo
Man led to archaeologists dating
Indigenous Australian occupation of
Australia to at least 40,000 years.
In 1605, Willem Janszoon, skippering the
Duyfken, encountered and then charted the
Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
In 1606, Luis Vaz deTorres, sailing through Torres Strait, observed northern
Australia without being aware of the fact.
In 1642, Abel Tasman landed in Tasmania
and declared it Dutch land.
In the 18th century Macassan trepang traders from Indonesia made contact, and
negotiated with, Indigenous Australians.
In 1770, James Cook became the first
know European to encounter and chart
Australia’s east coast. He also made
contact with Australia’s indigenous
peoples. .
Britain established a penal colony in Sydney in 1788. This was the first European
settlement in Australia.
In 1808, soldiers successfully overran Australia’s Governor Bligh. For two years,
Australia was under military rule.
In the early 1800s, Europeans killed or
forcibly removed all Tasmanian
Aboriginals.
In 1813, European explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson crossed the Great
Dividing Range and found fertile, agricultural land.
In 1827, female convicts at the Parramatta Female Factory rioted over conditions.
In 1851 gold was discovered in Victoria
leading to Australia’s largest gold rush.
Australia’s population tripled in 10 years.
The Eureka Rebellion occurred in 1854 when gold miners objected to the miner’s
tax. 22 miners were killed.
In 1860, Burke and Wills became the first Europeans to cross the country from South
to North. Both men starved to death in the Australian outback.
In the 1800s, South Sea Islanders were recruited to work on Central Queensland
farms through the practice of indentured labour.
In 1860, Captain Starlight, an Australian
bushranger, stole over 1000 cattle near
Longreach. He was eventually caught and
tried but considered not guilty.
Native Mounted Police were responsible for finding missing persons, carrying
messages and also took part in massacres of other Aboriginal people in the 1800s.
In 1859, Queen Victoria granted permission for Queensland to separate from New
South Wales and become its own colony.
Ned Kelly was an Australian bushranger who was eventually hanged for murder in
1880.
In 1894, women in South Australia
became eligible to vote.
In 1899, Cyclone Mahina hit Cape York killing over 400 people. This is Australia’s
worst non-military loss of life.
In 1901, Australia’s six colonies united to form one nation..
Edmund Barton was Australia’s first Prime Minister, serving from 1901 to 1903.
The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 allowed Australian immigration officers
discretion to prevent individuals entering Australia on many grounds, including
English language ability.
In 1916, 65 people were killed in floods in the Queensland town of Clermont.
In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers stormed the Gallipoli peninsula in
Turkey. Over 8000 Australians were eventually killed in the campaign.
In 1917, Australians voted through a referendum to conscript men into the
Commonwealth Forces who were fighting in World War One.
In 1935, cane toads were
introduced into Queensland
to help eradicate the cane
beetle. They quickly spread
across a lot of Australia and
became a pest species.
Australian prisoners of war were sent to Changi prison or to work on the BurmaThailand railway after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Over 2600 Australians died.
In 1942 during World War Two, Darwin was bombed by the Japanese . The bombings
killed at least 240 people.
In 1942 during World War Two, Australians fought along Papua New Guinea’s Kokoda
Track successfully stopping the advance of the Japanese.
In 1950s, Britain tested nuclear bombs at Maralinga, in remote South Australia.
In 1964, selected 20 year old Australian
males were conscripted to fight in the
Vietnam War.
In 1966, around 100 Australian soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War fought
approximately 2000 North Vietnamese. 18 Australian soldiers and over 200
Vietnamese were killed.
In 1967, a referendum was held to change
Australia’s constitution to allow Indigenous
Australians to be included in the census. Over
90% of Australians supported the change.
In the 1970s, refugees from Indo-China settled in Australia.
In 1974, the Brisbane River broke its banks, flooding nearly 7000 homes.
In 1974, Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Eve, killing 74 people.
In 1975, Australia’s Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was removed from office by
Governor General Sir John Kerr..
In 1984, environmental protestors successfully led a movement to halt the damning
of the Gordon River.
In 1988 Far North Queensland’s Wet Tropics
were listed as a World Heritage site after years
of protest.
In 1992, the High Court of Australia ruled that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
native title could be upheld by law. Before this, Indigenous Australians’ occupancy of
their land before European arrival wasn’t recognised
In 2008, Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Federal Parliament, apologised to those
Indigenous Australians known as the Stolen Generations.
In 2001, Australia entered the Afghanistan War to help end the Taliban regime, and
to root out the Al Quaeda terrorist organisation.