Australian History Timeline

Events 1 - 200 of 596

• 1606-02-26 First known European landing in Australia by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon at the Pennefather River, Cape York, northern Australia

• 1629-06-04 Dutch East India ship Batavia wrecks on Morning Reef off the Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia, with 200 survivors (only 70 survive after three months due to mutiny and murders) [1]
• 1643-06-15 Able Tasman returns to Batavia after discovering Tasmania and New Zealand and completing (without realising it) a circumnavigation of Australia

• 1697-02-04 Three Dutch East India Company ships anchor at Dirk-Hartogeiland, Australia
• 1697-03-20 Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh returns to Batavia after exploring "South Land" (west coast of Australia)

• 1770-04-28 British Captain James Cook, aboard HMS Endeavour, first lands in Australia at Botany Bay
• 1770-06-10 British explorer Captain James Cook is the first European to discover the Great Barrier Reef off Australia - by running aground on its coral causing the ship to leak (ship later beached and repaired)
• 1770-08-22 British explorer James Cook's claims the east coast of Australia for the British crown and names it New South Wales [1]

• 1788-01-18 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony
• 1788-01-24 French La Pérouse expedition arrives in Botany Bay, Australia, meeting the newly arrived "First Fleet" penal colony
• 1788-01-26 Captain Arthur Phillip and British colonists hoist the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, now celebrated as Australia Day. Referred to as Invasion Day by some First Nations people.
• 1788-03-06 The British First Fleet arrives at Australian territory of Norfolk Island to found a convict settlement

• 1803-03-05 First newspaper published in Australia the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser by government printer and ex-convict George Howe [1]
• 1803-06-09 British explorer Matthew Flinders arrives in Sydney becoming the first person to circumnavigate Australia, proving it is one continent [1]
• 1804-03-04 The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia), when Irish convicts (some of whom had been involved in Ireland's Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1798) led the colony's only significant convict uprising.
• 1808-01-26 Rum Rebellion, the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in Australia
• 1813-05-11 In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth, lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
• 1813-05-31 In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth reach Mount Blaxland, marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains
• 1814-02-25 Australia's first currency - the holey dollar introduced, made of Spanish 'pieces of eight' with the centers stamped out, for the colony of New South Wales [1]
• 1814-07-17 Matthew Flinders publishes "A Voyage to Terra Australis", detailing his circumnavigation of Australia, first to name the continent Australia. He dies a day later. [1]
• 1815-05-24 English surveyor George Evans is the first European to discover the Lachlan River, Australia
• 1824-06-04 First free press (without government approval) founded in Australia - the Hobart Town Gazette by ex-convict Andrew Bent [1]
• 1824-09-12 Moreton Bay Penal Settlement established at Redcliffe, Queensland, with about 30 convicts (modern Brisbane, Australia) [1]
• 1829-04-25 Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom
• 1829-05-02 After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia
• 1830-10-07 The Black Line begins; a leveé of colonists in Tasmania, Australia, attempts to round up Aborigines onto the Tasman Peninsula [1]
• 1834-03-18 Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union
• 1834-10-28 The Battle of Pinjarra occurs in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14 and 40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.
• 1835-08-30 City of Melbourne, Australia, is founded

• 1836-07-27 The ship the "Duke of York" arrives with the first colonists at Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia
• 1836-12-17 Colonel William Light chooses the site for the settlement of Adelaide in South Australia
• 1836-12-28 Proclamation of South Australia as a British Province. Formal proclamation was read out near The Old Gum Tree, in what is now the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg North, by Captain (later Rear Admiral, Governor, Sir) John Hindmarsh
• 1837-11-21 Thomas Morris of Australia skips rope 22,806 times
• 1838-01-26 Myall Creek Massacre: about 50 Wirrayaraay indigenous people killed by New South Wales Mounted Police (seven men later the first ever to be hanged for killing Australian Aborigines) [1]
• 1838-06-10 Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered
• 1842-02-10 Moreton Bay Penal Colony abolished and opened for free settlement (modern city of Brisbane, Australia) [1]

• 1845-08-04 Emigrant ship Cataraqui wrecks in Bass Strait with the loss of 400 lives, only nine survive, Australia's deadliest maritime civil disaster [1]
• 1845-12-17 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Port Essington after a nearly 4,800 km (3,000 mi) overland journey to explore Australia's Northern Territory
• 1846-03-25 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Sydney to a hero's welcome after completing his exploration of Australia's Northern Territory
• 1847-05-24 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt is awarded the Patron's Medal by the Royal Geographical Society, London in recognition of 'the increased knowledge of the great continent of Australia' gained by his Moreton Bay-Port Essington journey
• 1848-04-03 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt is seen for the last time at McPherson's Station, Coogoon, before he disappears on the same expedition to reach the Swan River in Australia [1]
• 1850-07-07 Scottish explorer Edward Eyre reaches Albany, Western Australia
• 1851-02-12 Edward Hargraves and three other men discover gold at Ophir, New South Wales, beginning Australia's first gold rush [1]
• 1851-08-22 Gold fields discovered in Australia
• 1852-10-11 The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
• 1854-11-30 Rebellion of miners at Eureka Stockade at Ballarat in Victoria who swear allegiance to the Southern Cross Flag, angry at the colonial government - landmark event in Australian labor relations [1]

• 1856-10-24 Constitution of South Australia adopted
• 1859-05-17 Australian Rules Football first 'laws of the game' published
• 1859-06-06 Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
• 1859-10-26 Steam clipper Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, Wales;, in a storm that took down over 100 vessels; approximately 450 passengers and crew killed on voyage returning to Liverpool from Australia
• 1861-05-13 The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia
• 1863-07-06 Northern Territory passes from New South Wales to South Australia
• 1865-01-25 CSS Shenandoah arrives in Melbourne, Australia
• 1865-07-31 The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia
• 1867-10-31 Australia's first royal tour begins as Prince Albert, son of Queen Victoria arrives in Adelaide, South Australia [1]
• 1868-01-09 Last convict ship the Hougoumont arrives in Fremantle, ending 80 years of penal transportation to Australia [1]
• 1868-03-12 Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, in Sydney, Australia, Duke is shot but survives
• 1869-02-05 World's largest alluvial gold nugget, the Welcome Stranger, found by John Deason and Richard Oates (weighting 97.14kg) in Moliagul, Australia
• 1872-08-22 Australia's Overland Telegraph Line connected - one of Australia's greatest logistical and engineering feats, allowed fast communications between Australia and the world for the first time [1]
• 1874-09-01 Sydney General Post Office opens in Australia
• 1875-02-24 The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries
• 1877-03-19 Australia beat England by 45 runs in very first Test match
• 1879-04-26 National Park (later renamed Royal National Park) established south of Sydney, Australia. World's second-oldest national park.
• 1879-09-23 Baldwin steam motors tram 1st tried in Sydney Australia
• 1879-09-28 Sydney, Australia, inaugurates steam motor tram route
• 1880-02-02 SS Strathleven arrives in London with first shipment of frozen Australian mutton

• 1880-11-11 Australian Bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol
• 1884-09-04 Britain ends its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales in Australia
• 1886-11-22 Victoria Street Cable Tram route begins in Melbourne, Australia
• 1887-01-21 Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city
• 1888-02-24 Louisville, Kentucky, becomes 1st government in US to adopt Australian ballot (i.e. secret ballot on standard voting forms)
• 1889-01-16 128°F (53°C), Cloncurry, Queensland (Australian record)
• 1892-02-02 Johnny Briggs takes a hat-trick, England v Australia at the SCG
• 1892-09-09 Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party to the people of Queensland issued, detailing grievances of working class towards ruling class. Pivotal document in Australian labor and political history. [1]
• 1894-11-12 Lawrence Hargrave, Australian aeronautical pioneer and inventor of the box kite, linked four huge box kites together and flew - but remained attached to the ground by piano wire
• 1895-01-30 C J Eady (Tas) 1st Australian to score twin centuries (v Vic)
• 1899-01-22 Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation
• 1899-02-02 The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital (Canberra) between Sydney and Melbourne.
• 1900-07-09 The Commonwealth of Australia is established by the British House of Commons
• 1900-09-17 The Commonwealth of Australia is proclaimed
• 1900-12-18 The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
• 1901-01-01 The Commonwealth of Australia is formed when the British (Imperial) Parliament Act, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, comes into effect

• 1901-05-09 The first Australian Parliament opens in Melbourne, though the first working session will not be until 21 May
• 1902-01-03 Due to a bad pitch Australian batsman Reggie Duff is held back to No. 10 on Test debut v England at MCG; scores 104
• 1902-06-12 Australian parliament agrees to Commonwealth Franchise Act, granting female suffrage
• 1902-07-17 Lord Tennyson, son of the poet, is named to succeed Lord Hopetown, first governor general of Australia
• 1902-07-26 Australia beat England by 3 runs at Old Trafford
• 1902-08-01 Mine accident in Wollongong, Australia (100 die)
• 1902-09-07 In Australia, the whole nation observes a 'day of humiliation' and prays for rain, as a terrible drought kills livestock and threatens crops; rain begins to appear on 10 September

• 1903-10-05 Samuel Griffith is appointed the first Chief Justice of Australia and Sir Edmund Barton and Richard O'Connor are appointed as foundation justices
• 1903-10-06 The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
• 1904-01-05 England beat Australia at the MCG, Rhodes 7-56 & 8-68

• 1904-08-17 George H. Reid succeeds John Watson as Prime Minister of Australia
• 1904-08-18 Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid
• 1905-06-30 Conservative Australian Prime Minister George H. Reid is forced to resign and Alfred Deakin returns to power on July 5
• 1905-07-06 Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time
• 1905-09-05 50 prominent men meet in Sydney's Australia Hotel to found the National Defense League fueled by fear of Japan after its victory over Russia
• 1906-09-01 British New Guinea placed under Australian administration
• 1907-11-08 In a landmark decision for Australia, the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration rules that the Sunshine Harvester Work must pay 'fair and reasonable wages'
• 1907-12-13 George Gunn scores 119 on Test debut v Australia SCG
• 1908-01-07 England beat Australia by one wicket at the MCG
• 1908-01-15 C Hill & R J Hartigan make 8th wkt partnership 243 for Australia
• 1908-06-10 The Australian Parliament passes the Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act providing for pensions for British subjects (excluding aborigines) at age 65

• 1909-06-02 Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time
• 1910-04-13 Australian General Election: the Commonwealth Liberal Party is defeated by the Australian Labor Party, headed by Andrew Fisher, who is able to form a majority government
• 1911-01-01 South Australia transfers Northern Territory to federal government

• 1912-08-22 England defeat Australia to win the Triangular Tournament
• 1912-09-19 The wattle is declared Australia's national flower and incorporated into the Commonwealth Coat of Arms
• 1913-01-02 Australia releases its first national stamp - a kangaroo on a map of Australia
• 1913-02-20 King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Australian capital Canberra
• 1913-03-12 Foundation stone of the Australian capital in Canberra laid
• 1914-09-11 Australia invades New Britain, defeating a German contingent there.
• 1914-09-17 Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time
• 1914-11-09 Off Cocos Island, near Sumatra, the Australian cruiser 'Sydney' sinks German cruiser 'Emden', which has been attacking ships in the Pacific
• 1914-12-23 World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt
• 1915-07-01 Australia begins Commonwealth Lighthouse Service
• 1915-07-01 Australian Survey Corps becomes part of Military Forces
• 1915-08-07 WWI: Assault against Russell's Top at Gallipolis, Turkey - 232 Australians are killed
• 1915-10-27 Andrew Fisher is replaced as Labour Prime Minister by William 'Billy' Hughes, who will advocate a more active role for Australians in the war
• 1916-10-28 Australian government holds a national referendum seeking support for the proposal of compulsory conscription; it is rejected
• 1916-11-13 Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription
• 1917-02-17 In Australia, Nationalist Party takes over a coalition government
• 1917-10-31 World War I: Battle of Beersheba in southern Palestine - "last successful cavalry charge in history" performed by the 4th Australian Light Horse
• 1917-12-20 A second nationwide referendum on military conscription is rejected by the Australian public
• 1918-02-21 Australians chase Turkish troop out of Jericho, Dutch Palestine
• 1918-03-23 Alick Wickham dives 200' into Australia's Yarra River
• 1918-06-26 The Australian steamer Wimmera is sunk by a mine laid north of Cape Maria van Diemen in 1917 by the German raider Wolf; 26 of its 151 passengers and crew were killed

• 1919-08-06 1st air flight over a major body of water in Australia (Harry Butler)
• 1919-11-12 Ross & Keith Smith start a 1 month flight from London to Australia
• 1919-12-13 Ross & Smith land in Australia from a flight from London
• 1920-10-30 The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
• 1920-11-16 Australia's Qantas airways founded in Winton, Queensland as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited
• 1920-12-07 NSW make 802 against South Australia, then Mailey takes 8-81
• 1922-09-11 Australian newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial is founded, predecessor for the Herald Sun of Melbourne

• 1923-10-31 160 consecutive days of 100 degrees F begin at Marble Bar, Australia
• 1927-05-09 Canberra replaces Melbourne as the capital of Australia, and the Australian Parliament convenes there for the first time.
• 1928-02-07 1st solo flight from England to Australia takes off from Croydon, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler (arrives 15 ½ days later)
• 1928-02-22 1st solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin, 15 ½ days after take off, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler
• 1928-06-08 1st US-to-Australia flight lands (Sir Charles Kingford)
• 1928-12-05 England defeats Australia by record 675 runs at Brisbane
• 1929-10-22 James H Scullin forms Australia government
• 1930-04-29 Telephone connection Britain-Australia goes into service

• 1930-05-24 Amy Johnson becomes the 1st woman to fly solo from United Kingdom to Australia
• 1930-10-11 Collingwood Football Club in Melbourne, Australia, won the VFL premiership for the fourth consecutive year.
• 1930-12-12 Start of the 1st Australia v West Indies Test (at Adelaide)
• 1931-01-07 Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
• 1931-01-22 Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
• 1931-03-04 West Indies beat Australia for the 1st time, by 30 runs at SCG
• 1931-07-23 Ashmore & Cartier Islands in Indian Ocean transferred to Australia
• 1931-12-11 Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland (Free State), and Newfoundland (not then part of Canada)
• 1931-12-19 United Australia Party led by Joseph Lyons defeats the incumbent first-term Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister James Scullin in a federal election
• 1932-02-02 Australian spin bowler Clarrie Grimmett takes 14 wickets v South Africa (7-116 & 7-83)
• 1932-03-19 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened in Sydney, Australia
• 1932-11-02 The "Great Emu War" begins: Australian soldiers armed with Lewis Guns seek to cull the Emu population over crop destruction in Campion district, Western Australia
• 1932-12-10 The "Great Emu War" ends: Emu's surprising resilience to bullets led to Emu victory over Australian military in Campion district, Western Australia
• 1934-06-25 Hedley Verity takes 15 wickets for England v Australia (7-61 & 8-43)
• 1936-08-24 Australian Antarctic Territory created
• 1936-09-07 The last surviving member of the marsupial thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in his/her cage at the Hobart Zoo (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia)
• 1937-03-03 Australia snatches series against England 3-2 after being 2-0 down
• 1938-02-05 III British Empire Games open in Sydney, Australia
• 1938-02-12 3rd British Empire Games close in Sydney, Australia
• 1938-08-23 England score 7-903 declared v Australia, Len Hutton scores 364
• 1938-08-24 England beat Australia by an innings & 579 runs at The Oval
• 1939-01-01 Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45 ˚C (113 ˚F) heat, a record for the city.
• 1939-01-13 The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
• 1939-03-30 First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway military aircraft
• 1939-09-03 World War II: Britain declares war on Germany after invasion of Poland. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada
• 1939-12-20 Radio Australia begins overseas shortwave service
• 1939-12-23 South Australia score 7-821 against Queensland
• 1940-07-01 Australia refuses entry to Dutch Jewish refugees
• 1941-01-05 British Australian troops conquer Bardia, Libya
• 1941-01-21 Australian and British troops attack Tobruk, Libya
• 1941-01-22 British and Australian troops capture Tobruk from Italians
• 1941-01-30 Australian troops conquer Derna, Libya
• 1941-11-20 German "auxiliary cruiser" (armed merchant raider) Kormoran sinks near Australia
• 1941-12-07 Australian bombers land on Timor and Ambon islands of Indonesia
• 1941-12-17 Dutch and Australian troops land on Portuguese Timor
• 1942-01-03 American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms
• 1942-01-23 Battle of Rabaul: Japanese attack Australian air base in Rabaul, New Britain
• 1942-02-16 Bangka Island massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members from two sunken ships. Only one nurse and two soldiers survive.
• 1942-02-19 An estimated 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin

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