Chronography of Australia & Antarctic
Page last
modified 21 November 2023
Antarctica � See
Appendix One
Box
Index
5.0 Restoration of Indigenous
Australian Rights, 1932-2019
4.0 Australia flirts with the idea of
becoming a Republic, 1993-99
3.0 Conservative Government iunder
Malcolm Fraser 1975-83
2.0 Labour Government under Gough
Whitlam, 1972-75
1.0 Harold Holt Prime Minister, 1966 - 67
0.0 Robert Menzies Prime Minister, 1949-1966
2 January 2020, In Australia, ongoing catastrophic fires burned
over 40,000 square kilometres, destroyed 1,500 homes and killed at least 17
people, in a drought and temperatures reaching high into the 40s C.
7 December 2017, The Australian Parliament legalised same-sex
marriage, a month after a referendum showed strong support for the move.
July 2016, The conservative Liberal-National
coalition Prime
Minister Turnbull defeated Labor by a vary narrow margin in early
General Elections.
June 2015, Economic development plan for Northern Australia
announced,
1 October 2014, Gough Whitlam, former Labour Prime Minister of Australia
from 1972, died aged 98. He extricated Australian troops from Vietnam,
ended conscription, set up commissions into equal pay, Indigenous land rights
and school funding, set up State-funded healthcare, liberalised abortion laws,
introduced votes at 18 and free university education. He also gave Papua New
Guinea independence, and forged closer relations with China.
9/2013, The
conservative Liberal-National coalition won elections by a� large majority.
5.0 Restoration of Indigenous Australian
Rights, 1932-2019
26
October 2019, Tourists were no longer permitted to climb Uluru
(Ayers Rock), a site sacred to the indigenous Australian Anangu nation.
13 February 2008, The Australian
Prime Minister, Kevin
Rudd (born 1957) apologised to the indigeous Australians,
especially the �stolen generation�, those children forcibly removed from their
parents to be brought up with White parents in an attempt at assimilation.
29
June 2005, The
Ngaanyatjarra Lands, 73,000 square miles, in Western Australia, were handed
back to the indigen9ous
people following a Federal Court ruling.
27
May 2000, Australian Prime Minister John Howard presented the
�Declaration of Reconciliation� in an effort to heal the history of racism
against indigenous Australians.
2 December 1994, The Australian
Government agreed to pay compensation to indigenous Australians who
were displaced during the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 60s.
22
December 1993, Indigenous Australian Rights were strengthened by
the Mative Title legislation, passed this day with effect from 1 January 1994.
3
June 1992, Australia overturned its terra nullius policy, which
had stated that the land was empty before European setlters arrived. This move
opened the way to Indigenous land claims and compensation.
4 June 1988, Sir Douglas Nicholls, Governor of South
Australia, the first indigenous Australian to hold
this position and to receive a knighthood, died.
26 October 1985, The
Australian Government gave the indigenous peoples the landmark of Ayers Rock, now known by its
Indigenous-Aboriginal name, Uluru.
24 May 1971, Senator Neville
Bonner became the first indigenous Australian Parliamentarian.
1967, Australia removed the clause
in its Constitution that excluded Indigenous-Aboriginal Peoples
from the national census. However their land ownership rights were still
unresolved.
1932, William Cooper founded the Australian Aborigenes League, to
campaign for equal rights for indigenous Australians.
4/9/2006, In Australia, Steve Irvin,
famous on UK TV as Crocodile Dundee,
died whilst being filmed snorkelling off Queensland from a stingray barb to his
heart.
9 May 2006, Two Australian miners, Todd Russell
and Brian
Webb, were rescued after being trapped underground for 14 days at a
goldmine at Beaconsfield, Australia.
January 2006, Australia siged a deal with Timor L�Este over oil
and gas rights in the Timor Sea. Australia began to suffer from a� severe drought and farm output plummeted.
13 December 2005, Major race riots in Sydney, Australia, involving
up to 5,000 youths.
11 January 2005, The �Black Friday�
bushfires devastated the southern Eyre Peninsula, Australia, killing 9.
9 October 2004, In Australian elections,
the ruling Liberal Parity-National Party coalition led by PM John Howard
defeated the opposition Labour Party, led by Mark Latham. Howard
began his 4th consecutive term in office.
2003, Australia
deployed troops in the Gulf, rousing protests against Liberal Party Prime Minister, Howard.
12 October 2003, Jim Cairns, Australian Labor
politician, died
20 August 2003, In Australia, Pauline Henson,
leader of the Right-wing and anti-immigration One Nation Party, was sentenced to 3 years prison, along with the
Party�s co-founder David Ettridge, for electoral fraud. However
they were released on appeal in 11/2003 on the grounds that their jailing had
been politically-motivated.
19 January 2003, Bushfires in the suburbs
of Canberra, Australia killed 4 and forced the evacuation of 2,500 people.
16 January 2002, Asylum seekers at a camp
in Woomera, South Australia, began a hunger strike. They were protesting at
living conditions and at the suspension of processing their claims.
10 November 2001, John Howard,
Liberal
Democrat, began is third term as Australian Prime Minister,
2000, The Olympic
Games were held in Sydney.
4.0 Australia flirts with the idea of
becoming a Republic, 1993-99
6
November 1999, The Australians voted 55% to keep the British
monarch �as Head of State.
13 February 1998, In Australia, delegates at a
Constitutional Convention in Canberra voted 89 to 52 to replace The Queen as
Head of State by a President chosen by a bipartisan Parliamentary majority.
They decided to have a Referendum in 1999 on this change.
7 June 1995, Australian prime Minister Paul Keating declared his aim that Australia should be a Republic by the year 2001.
1 April 1993. A survey showed a record
69% of Australians wanted their country to become a Republic.
28 April 1996, Gunman Martin Bryant opened fire at Port Arthur, a tourist area in
Tasmania Australia, killing 35 and wounding 37. He was sentenced to life
without parole.
2 March 1996, In Australia the Labour Party finally lost an election, having
won the previous five contests, in 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990 and 1993. John Howard, Liberal Party, became
Prime Minister.
26 January 1994, In Australia, David Kang fired 2 blank shots at Prince Charles as he was handing out Australia Day awards in
Sydney. He said he was highlighting the plight of the Cambodian boat people.
Sentenced to 500 hours community service, Kang later became a barrister specialising in
criminal and medical law.
13 March 1993, The Australian Labour Party won a record 5th election
victory.
9 January 1993, Sir Paul Hasluck, Governor General of
Australia died (born 1 April 1905).
1992, Paul Keating replaced Bob Hawke
as Labour Prime
Minister. He announced a �turning towards Asia� policy.
19 December 1991, Paul Keating challenged Australian Labour Party
Prime Minister Bob
Hawke for Party leadership. Keating subsequently won the contest.
10 December 1990, Australia�s oldest newspaper corporation,
the Fairfax Group, went into
receivership with debts of Australian $ 1,500 million.
1 February 1989, In Western Australia the towns of
Kalgoorlie and Boulder merged to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
9 May 1988, The new Australian Parliament building in Canberra
was inaugurated.
30 April 1988, The World Expo 1988 opened in Brisbane, Australia.
26 January 1988, Australia celebrated its bicentennial.
2 March 1986, The Queen signed a formal proclamation giving
Australia legal independence from Britain. Britain first shipped convicts to
Australia in 1788; Australia had been self-governing since 1901.
8 March 1983, The Australian Dollar was devalued 10%.
5 March 1983. Labour politician Bob Hawke won elections in
Australia and became Prime Minister. He succeeded Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser,
who had been in office for seven years.
3.0 Conservative Government
iunder Malcolm Fraser 1975-83
16 February 1983, Arson was
suspected as forest fires raged in South Australia, making 8,500 homeless.
17 August 1980, Michael
and Lindy
Chamberlain were on a� camping
holiday near Uluru, Australia with their young children when a dingo took their
10-week old baby. Although a coroner found that this indeed had happened, the
authorities still believed the Chamberlains had murdered their baby and on 29
October 1982 a jury sentenced her to life imprisonment. She was finally
exonerated when the baby�s jacket was found in a dingo�s lair in 1986.
1977, Advance Australia Fair
became the Australian national anthem.
10 December 1977, In Australia the Fraser
Government won another large majority in Federal elections.
1975, Australia restricted
unskilled immigration.
13 December 1975, General Election in
Australia gave a large majority to the Malcolm Fraser Government.
2.0 Labour Government under Gough Whitlam,
1972-75
15 October 1975, Constitutional crisis in Australia.
The Opposition, led by Malcolm Fraser, refused to pass the Labour
Government�s Budget (led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam) pass through Senate. Australian
Governmenment ground to a halt. The Governor--General of Australia (The Queen�s
nominal representative in the country), Sir John Kerr, attempted to dismiss Whitlam,
but Whitlam
refused to accept this. Finally however Whitlam�s Government was dismissed, with
Fraser heading a caretaker admninistration until the election, whoch was called
for 13 December 1975. Whit;lam contemptuously referred to Fraser as �Kerr�s cur�, and the whole
affair called into question the future role of the Governor-General, a debate
still unresolved today.
1 July 1975, Australia broke up the
Postmaster-General�s Department into Telecom Australia and Australia Post.
21 October 1973. The Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.� It was designed by Danish architect Joern Utzon.
Costs had soared from AU$ 7 million (UK�
3 million) to AU$ 100 million (UK� 43 million). The orchestra pit was
criticised for being too small.
2 December 1972, The Australian Labour Party
won a sweeping electoral victory; Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister.
11 July 1916, Gough Whitlam, Australian Prime
Minister, was born.
March 1971, William McMahon became Prime
Minister.
15 October 1970, In Melbourne, Australia, the West Gate
Bridge collapsed, killing 33.
10 January 1968, John Grey Gorton became 20th Prime Minister of
Australia.
1.0 Harold Holt Prime Minister, 1966 - 67
17 December 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt
disappeared whilst swimming at Cheviot Beach, Victoria. His body was never
found; most believed he had been carried off by strong currents but some
speculated that he had faked his own death.
14 June 1967. Australian and New Zealand
woolgrowers expressed concern over the
effects of the mini skirt on wool prices, which were down 6d a pound on the
last season.
1966, Australia adopted decimal
currency.
1966, The blue asbestos mine at
Wittenoom, Western Australia, was closed, due to falling profits. Mining had
begun in 1938 and the company town of Wottenoom was built in 1947. Blue asbestos is the most toxic variety of
the mineral, and the health disaster was only realised in the 1970s.. By
the 1950s the mine was losing out to South African competition, with cheaper
asbestos from there. In 2006 the town of Wittenoom, which had a population of
20,000 before the mine closed, was taken off the national electricity grid, and
officially ceased to exist in 2007.
25 January 1966, Harold Holt became Prime
Minister of Australia, succeeding Robert Menzies.
5 August 1908, Harold Holt, Australian Prime
Minister 1966-7 who backed US intervention in Vietnam and sent Australian
troops there, was born.
0.0 Robert Menzies Prime Minister, 1949-1966
14 May 1978, Sir Robert Menzies, 12th Prime Minister of
Australia, died.
20 January 1966, Robert Menzies retired as Prime
Minister of Australia. He had served since 1949.
29 April 1965, Australia began
contributing troops to the US war effort in Vietnam.
10 February 1964, The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with the HMAS Voyager off the coast of New South
Wales, Australia. The Voyager sank,
killing 82.
3 March 1960, Raymond Gordon Hopper, Austraian
politician, was born.
2 March 1959, A ceremony to mark the
start of construction of the Sydney Opera House was held at Bennelong Point,
Sydney
22 November 1958, A General Election in
Australia gave an increased majority to a Liberal and Country Party coalition.
It raised its majority to 30 seats and won control of the Senate.
1956, Olympic Games held in
Melbourne.
23 November 1955, Britain handed over the Cocos Islands to
Australia.
13 April 1954, Vladimir Petrov of the Soviet Embassy in Australia was granted
asylum when he defected, in Canberra.
3 February 1954, Queen Elizabeth
II made her first visit to Australia; large crowds turned out to
greet her in Sydney.
28 January 1953, James Scullin, 13th
Australian Prime Minister from 1929 to 1932, died.
1952, The large iron ore
deposits at Hammersley Range were discovered by Lang Hancock.� In the 1960s large quantities of this ore
were exported to Japan, making that country an industrial
giant.
1 August 1950, Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert
Gordon Menzies promised to send troops to assist US forces
fighting in Korea.
11 March 1950, Sir Ralph Freeman, designer of
Sydney Harbour Bridge, died.
17 December 1949, In Australia, Robert Menzies
became Prime Minister of a Liberal Party-Country Party coalition.
10 December 1949, Australian General
Election. An anti-Communist anti-Socialist coalition of Liberal and Country
Parties defeated the incumbent Labour Party. Robert Menzies became the next
Prime Minister.
27 June 1949, In Australia a nationwide coal strike began. It
lasted until August 1949, and the Government sent in troops to operate the
mines.
1948, Australia began
encouraging immigration from Europe. Many arrived from the UK, Italy Germany
and Greece.
1944, The Australian Liberal Party was formed, from the old United Australia Party, after a Labor
elerctoral landslide. However the voters rejected Labor in 1949 elections due
to its widespread nationalisation plans, and the Liberal party held power
1949-72 and 1975-83.
18 June 1943, Australian PM John Curtin said the country was no longer in
danger of a Japanese invasion.
1942, Fall of Singapore to
Japan; Japanese invasion of Australia seemed imminent. Australia appealed to
the US for assistance.
For Pacific
events of World War Two see China, Japan, Korea
20 October 1939, In Australia, PM Robert Menzies introduced
compulsory military training.
24 April 1939, John Menzies became Prime Minister of
Australia (United Australia Party).
He promised Britain
assistance� in its fight against Nazi Germany.
26 July 1939, John Howard, Australian Prime Minister, was
born.
17 December 1937, Kerry Packer, Australian media and sports
magnate, was born.
23 October 1937, In Australia, Labour lost in general
elections to the United Australia and Country Parties.
2 January 1936, Sir Francis Newdegate, Governor of Tasmania,
died aged 73.
8 April 1933, Western Australia, irritated by Federal taxation,
voted to secede from the rest of Australia.
19 December 1931, In Australia, the
unpopular Scullin
Labour Government fell. Joseph A Lyon, United Australia Party, formed
a new Government that remained until 1939. This administration provided some
stability for the Australian economy during the depression. Although Australian
unemployment reached 25%, the economy recovered quickly as global gold and wool
prices rose.
21 May 1930, Malcolm Fraser, Australian Liberal Prime
Minister, was born.
9 December 1929, Bob Hawke, Australian Labor Prime Minister
1983-91, was born.
1928, Australia�s Flying Doctor
service began in Queensland, to provide medical services in the Outback.
1927, The ACTU, Australian Council of
Trades Unions, was formed. It assisted in settling labour disputes, and
representing trades unions before the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration
Commission. By 1986, 162 Unions were affiliated to the ACTU, representing 2.6
million workers. In 1983 the ACTU and the Australian Labor Party sighed an accord
on economic policy, which was implemented when the Labor Party gained power in
elections.
9 May 1927. Parliament House, Canberra, opened. Canberra
became the new capital of Australia, replacing Melbourne.
28 July 1923, In Australia, New South Wales Premier Sir George
Fuller ceremonially turned the first sod in the construction of the
Sydney Harbour Bridge.
12 March 1923, The foundation stone of the Australian Federal
Parliament Building at Canberra was laid.
2 February 1923, In Australia, Prime Minister Hughes was forced
to resign. Stanley
Bruce formed a coalition Government from the Nationalist and Country
Parties.
30 August 1922, Lionel Murphy, Australian Judge, was born.
31 March 1921, The Australian Air Force was established
30 October 1920, The Communist Party of Australia was
founded in Sydney.
17 December 1918, The Darwin rebellion. Around 1,000
disaffected workers marched on the government house in Darwin, Australia,
demanding the resignation of John A Gilruth, Administrator of the Northern
Territory over a tax on alcohol. Gilruth refused and further unrest forced the
Australian government to send a Royal Australian Navy ship to the city. Public
pressure eventually forced Gilruth to leave the city in February.
7 December 1918, Frank Wilson, 9th Premier of Western
Australia, died (born 1859)
14 June 1918, Francis Burt, 29th Governor of Western
Australia, was born in Cottesloe, Western Australia (died 2004)
23 December 1917, In Australia, a referendum rejected the
idea of conscription.
17 February 1917, The Nationalist Party of Australia was
formed with the merger of the Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor
Party, with Billy
Hughes as party leader. The new Party allowed Hughes to return to head the
Australian Government after winning a huge victory during the federal election
held in May.
28 October 1916, In Australia, a proposal to introduce
compulsory military conscription was narrowly rejected in Parliament.
13 August 1916, George Turner, Australian politician, first
Treasurer of Australia, died (born 1851)
1915, Opal mining began at
Coober Pedy.
For events of World War One in Europe see France-Germany
1 December 1915, A mob of soldiers vandalized the German
Club in Sydney, Australia throwing stones and breaking every facade window of
the club. Police broke up the mob, arresting one soldier and charging him with
malicious damage and riotous behaviour.
11 March 1914, John Mackay, Australian explorer and founder
of the city of Mackay, Queensland in Australia, died.
12 March 1913. Canberra
(founded 1911) became the federal capital of Australia.
See also Scandinavia 1912 for Amundsen,
Oates,
Scot
and race to South Pole
13 January 1911, Sir John Bjelke Peterson, Australian politician,
was born in New Zealand (died 23 April 2005)
29 April 1910, Andrew Fisher was sworn in as the 5th Prime
Minister of Australia, succeeding Alfred Deakin.
11 April 1910, Labour won the Australian general elections.
20 August 1908, The USA�s Great White Fleet arrived to huge
welcoming crowds in Sydney, Australia. A week later the Fleet sailed to
Melbourne, and then on to Japan. 221 US sailors deserted to remain in
Australia.
5 May 1908, The Australian Government was defeated in a no confidence
motion and a Labor
Government under Andrew Fisher took power.
23 February 1908, Sir William McMahon, Australian Liberal and 25th
Prime Minister, was born.
8 November 1907, In Australia, the Court of Conciliation and
Arbitration ruled that the Sunshine Harvester Works must pay �fair and
reasonable� wages, i.e. a living wage. This �Harvester Judgement� was to establish wage levels for all Australian
labourers.
12 July 1907, Sir Edward �Weary� Dunlop, surgeon who
provided medical care to Allied PoWs in Japan during World War Two, was born in
Australia.
18 December 1906, In Australian elections, the Protectionists
lost seats, but Alfred
Deakin remained as PM.
16 October 1906. British New Guinea became
part of Australia.
5 July 1905, Alfred Deakin returned to power as Australian
Prime Minister after George H Reid, Conservative Prime Minister
since 17 August 1904, resigned on 30 June 1905.
26 April 1904, John C Watson became leader of Australia�s
first Labour
Government, when Alfred Deakin resigned. However Watson himself resigned in
August 1904.
30 March 1904, By-election in Melbourne, Australia, caused by
electoral irregularities in the 1903 General Election.
24 September 1903, Following the resignation of Edmund Barton
to become a Justice of the High Court, Alfred Deakin became the second Prime Minister
of Australia. Like Barton, Deakin was a liberal protectionist. He
remained as Prime Minister over most of the next seven years.
17 July 1902, Lord Tennyson, son of the famous poet, was
named as successor to Lord Hopetoun, first Governor-General of
Australia
13 December 1901, British geologist J.W. Gregory began his expedition
to the fossil beds of Lake Eyre in South Australia, Eyre would later write of
his findings in his book The Dead Heart of Australia.
White
dominance in Australia
6 July 1926, A White man was speared by an indigenous
Australian,� because the White man was
beating the Australian� with a whip. This
provoked a killing spree of some 100 indigenous Australians by Australian
police.
8 April 1925. The Australian Government
and the British Colonial Office offered low interest rate loans for Britons to
emigrate to Australia; the aim was for 450,000 Britons a year to migrate to
Australia over the next 10 years. In the first decade of the 20th century, an
average 284,000 Britons emigrated annually, mostly to the USA or the Dominions.
23 December 1905, Australia passed the Aborigines Act. It provided for the
removal of indigenous Australian children aged under 6, and their �integration�
into White society through education and work placements � usually menial
labour, in practice.
15 January 1903, The Australian Government
started a bonus scheme to persuade sugar growers to employ White labour.
7 August 1901, Australian PM Prime
Minister Edmund
Barton introduced the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. This Act gave
British migrants preference over everybody else during the first four decades
of the 20th century. In the interests of maintaining a �White� Australia (see Race Equality),
it imposed an English-language test on immigrants.
Commonwealt
of Australia formed,
10 May 1901, The Flag of Australia was chosen from
entries in a national competition.
9 May 1901. The first Federal Parliament
met in Melbourne, Australia.
29 March 1901, First Federal elections in
Australia. They were won by the interim Prime Minister, Edmund Barton.
1
January 1901. The Commonwealth of Australia was inaugurated, by federating the six states and two
territories of the continent. Edmund Barton became the first Prime Minister of Australia.
17 September 1900, The Commonwealth of Australia was
proclaimed by the British Government, to take effect 1 January 1900.
31 July 1900, By a margin of 44,800 to 19,691 voters in the colony of Western
Australia approved the Australian Constitution, clearing the way for their
admission as a state in the Commonwealth of Australia.
14 July 1900, The first Governor General
of Australia, Lord
Hopetoun, was appointed.
9 July
1900, The UK Parliament passed the Australia Commonwealth Act, uniting the
six Australian colonies into one federal government. Federation had been
desired since 1891, in response to the colonial ambitions of France, Germany
and the USA in the Pacific. However inter-colonial rivalry was so great that it
was not until 1909 that the site for an Australian capital was agreed, at
�neutral� Canberra.
2 February 1899, The Australian Premier�s
Conference agreed to locate the Australian capital between Sydney and
Melbourne.
29 March 1900, John McEwen, 18th Prime Minister of Australia
1967-68, was born in Chiltern, Australia (died 1980)
9 October 1896, Ferdinand Muller, explorer of Australia, died
(born 30 June 1825).
27 April 1896, Sir Henry Parkes, Australian statesman died in
Sydney (born 27 May 1815 in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire)
20 December 1894, Robert Menzies,
Australian Prime Minister, was born.
1891, The Australian Labor Party was founded, following the defeat of
the trades unions in the 1890 maritime strike.
31 August 1884, Sir Robert
Richard Torrens, British colonial administrator in Australia, died
(born in Cork, Ireland, 1814)
23 May 1882, Robert Ramsay,
Australian statesman, died (born in Hawick, Scotland, 1842)
8 August 1880, Earl Page, Australian Prime Minister, was
born.
Ned Kelly captured, executed
11 November 1880. Ned Kelly, the infamous
Australian outlaw whose gang terrorised the State of Victoria for 2 years, was hanged, aged 25, at Old Melbourne Gaol,
Russell Street. His last words were �such is life�. He came from a convict
family; his father had been transported from Ireland in 1842. He shot a policeman
and then fled into the bush; he was captured on 28 June 1880.
28 June 1880, Ned Kelly, Australian outlaw,
was captured at Glenrowan after a day-long siege. His accomplices were killed
in the siege but he survived to be tried and hanged.
20 August 1877. Arthur
Kennedy,
the new governor of Queensland, gave assent to a Bill drastically cutting Chinese
immigration into Queensland, after the previous governor refused to pass it.
8 May 1876. The last Tasmanian aborigine, Truganini, died. She was 4 foot 3 inches tall,
in her sixties, and was known as the Queen of the Aborigines. She saw her mother
stabbed to death by white men and at 16 was herself raped by white convicts.
She took to hanging around work camps, selling herself for a handful of tea and
sugar. Then she met a white man whom she helped to record tribal customs. The
coffin lowered into her grave was empty; the authorities feared body snatchers
and buried her elsewhere.
4 March 1876, Sir Richard Hanson, Chief Justice of South
Australia, died (born 6 December 1805).
2 December 1875, Charles Latrobe, British colonial Governor of
Australia, died
6 October 1873, Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki, explorer of
Australia, died.
21 July 1873, In Australia, English explorer William Gosse
announced his discovery of the world�s largest monolith, which he named Ayers Rock, after South Australian
Prime Minister William
Ayers. In 1985 it was returned to the Mutitjulu Nation and regained
the name Uluru.
6/9/1870. The last
British troops serving in Australia were withdrawn.
16 June 1869, Charles Sturt, British explorer who ventured
into the Australian interior to discover the Darling and Lower Murray Rivers,
died aged 74 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
5 June, 1866, John M�Douall, explorer of South Australia,
died (born 1818)
11 February 1861, Australian explorers Robert Burke and William Willis
reached the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north coast. They tasted salt water at
the mouth of the Flinders River, although dense mangrove forests perevented
them actually reaching the sea.
7 December 1860, Joseph Cook,
Prime Minister of Australia, was born.
23 April 1860, The explorer James Sturt reached the centre of Australia.
1859, Landowner Thomas Austin introduced English
rabbits onto his Australian estate for shooting sport. However they multiplied
rapidly and ate more grass than the sheep,becoming a major nuisance.
1859, The South Australia Government offered a prize for the first person to
cross the unexplored continent from south to north. Robert O�Hara Burke and William Wills
set out from Melbourne in 1860 and almost reached te north coast but turned
back and died on the way home in 1861. In 1861 John McDonell Stuart set out
from Adelaide and (after two previous attempts) reached Darwin in the north in
1862.
6 July 1859, Queensland, Australia, was formed into a separate
colony.
1858, The UK passed
the Australian Colonies Act, which
gave the four Australian colonies (New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania
and Victoria) virtual autonomy in self-government (see 9 July 1900).
26 November 1857, The Legislative
Assembly in Victoria, Australia, proclaimed universal� male suffrage, the first in Australia.
22 April 1857, The Parliament in South Australia first opened.
27 August 1856, The first Australian parliamentary
election held by secret ballot took place in Victoria, Australia.
7 February 1856, The Tasmanian Parliament became the first
in the world to pass legislation�
(Electoral Act 1856) providing for elections by a secret ballot.
1855, New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia and Tasmania gained self government. Queensland gained self
government in 1859 and Western Australia gained self government in 1860.
5 October 1855, Sir Thomas Mitchell, Scottish explorer of
Australia, died (born 16 July 1792).
22 February 1855, 13 gold diggers were acquitted of rioting and
manslaughter in Melbourne, Australia after fighting broke out at the Eureka gold mine. In 1854, at the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, New South
Wales, armed gold prosepctors fought with a combined military and police force;
30 gold miners and 5 policemen died. Miners objected to an expensive licence
imposed by the Australian Government, Public opinion went behind the miners,
and juries refused to convict them, causing the Government to back down over
the issue. See 3 December 1854.
3 December 1854, The Eureka
Stockade incident. 150 gold miners, or �diggers�, resisted the military
behind a wooden stockade. See 22/ February 1855.
1853, Transportation from Britain to Tasmania ceased. However
Transportation was used to provide labour in Western Australia, 1853-67.
12 February 1851, The Australian Gold Rush
began, after Edward
Hargreaves discovered gold at Summerhill Creek, 20 miles north of
Bathurst, New South Wales.
7 July 1850, Scottish
explorer, Edward
Eyre arrived in Albany, Western Australia, having crossed the
Nullarbor Plain, the first White man to do this.
18 January 1849, Sir Edmund Burton, the first Prime Minister of
Australia in 1901, was born in Glebe, Sydney.
22 August 1847, Sir John Forrrest, explorer and surveyor of
Australia in the 1870s, was born.
10 June 1838, The Myall Creek Massacre.
28 indigernous Australians were killed by European settlers.
26 December 1836, Colony of
South Australia was founded.
27 July 1836, The city of Adelaide,
Australia, was founded; it is named after the wife of King William IV of Britain.
29 August 1835. The
city of Melbourne was named in Australia. Melbourne was founded by John Batman
who wrote in his diary in 1834 �this
will be the place for a village�, referring to a 270,000 hectare site on
the Yarra River. The land was then purchased from the Doutgalla tribe for an annual supply of trade goods worth around
�200. The site was named after Lord Melbourne, then British Prime Minister.
The city, designed by Robert Russell, was laid out on a rectangular
grid, with wide streets and many parks and gardens. It is known as the �Garden
City�.
2 August 1834, The South
Australian Association gained a Charter to found a colony.
30 November 1832, Sir James Dickson, Australian politician, was
born (died 10 January 1901).
9 February 1830, The source of the River Murray, Australia,
was discovered by the explorer Charles Sturt. See 16 November 1824.
1829, Colony of Western Australia
was founded.
20 April 1827, Copper
ore was discovered in Tasmania.
19 April 1827, George Higinbotham, Chief Justice of Victoria,
Australia, was born (died 1893).
1825, Colony of Van Diemen�s
Land (now Tasmania)
was founded,
30 June 1825, Ferdinand Muller, explorer of Australia, was
born (died 9 October 1896).
16 November 1824, The Murray River, Australia, was discovered
by the explorer Hamilton
Hume. See 9 February 1830.
5 August 1815, Edward John Eyre, English explorer, colonial
administrator and Governor of Jamaica, who discovered lake Eyre, was born.
27 June 1815, Sir William Foster Stawell, English colonial
administrator in Australia, was born (died 1889 in Naples)
24 May 1815, The Lachlan River in Australia was discovered by
the explorer George
William Evans.
19 July 1814, Matthew Flinders, the explorer who surveyed
and mapped
the coast of Australia, died aged 40.
16 March 1774, Matthew Flinders, English explorer who gave his
name to the Flinders River and mountain range in Australia, was born.
1813, The Blue Mountains,
formerly an unexplored barried dividing Sydney, Australia, from the interior,
were crossed by surveyors Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth.
9 December 1813, The Macquirie River in Australia was
discovered by the explorer George Evans.
27 May 1815, Sir Henry Parkes, Australian statesman, was
born in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire (died 27 April 1896 in Sydney)
9 October 1804. Hobart,
Tasmania, was founded.
Transportation
1840, Transportation of convicts from Britain
to New South Wales ended.
1824, The city of Brisbane was
founded, as a penal
colony.
4
March 1804, The Castle
Hill Rising; an Irish convict revolt in New South Wales, Australia was
put down by armed troops, whilst the two sides were parleying under a flag of
truce.
1803, A British penal colony was set up in Van Diemen�s Land
(Tasmania).
28
February 1790,) John Irving became the first convict to be
freed in Australia
1788, The city of Sydney
was founded, as Port Jackson, a
British penal
colony. It was founded by the arrival of 11 ships with 700 convicts.
See Crime,
Punishment 1788 for Transportation
to Australia
Initial
European exploration and colonisation
20 July 1797, Pawel Strzelecki, explorer of
Australia, was born.
28 April 1795, Birth of Charles Sturt,
English explorer of Australia.
16 July 1792, Sir Thomas Mitchell, Scottish
explorer of Australia, was born (died 5 October 1855).
1789, Indegenous Australians of
the New South Wales area ravaged by a smallpox epidemic.
28 April 1770. Captain Cook went ashore in Botany Bay, New South
Wales, Australia, and claimed the land for Britain. See 14 February 1779.
A penal colony
was established
there in 1788 but later moved to near Sydney.
20 April 1770. Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay, Australia.
His ship, The Endeavour, had sailed from Plymouth, England, on 26 August
1768.� They originally named the bay
Stingray Bay, and found it to be rich in biodiversity.
25 August 1768, Captain Cook set sail from England
on board The Endeavour on his first
voyage to explore the Antipodes. His 368-ton
ship was 98 feet long by 29 feet wide. His mission was first to visit Tahiti to
observe a transit of Venus on 3 June 1769, then to discover the theoretical �southern continent� which was supposed
to exist by the Classical Greeks �to counterbalance the northern continents�.
Such a continent would provide useful colonial opportunities for Britain at a
time when its North American colonies were becoming restive. After Tahiti, Cook
sailed south and south west down to latitude 40 degrees south; finding no land
he turned west and discovered New Zealand, whose coast he charted in six
months. This exercise proved New Zealand was not the peninsula of the �southern
continent�. By now it was March 1769 and the southern summer was ending; to
return eastwards meant encountering bad weather in the Pacific. Cook
therefore sailed west and encountered the east coast of Australia. Although the Dutch had visited Australia in
the 17th century this part of the continent was devoid of European
settlement; Cook
therefore claimed the entire east coast of Australia for Britain as New South
Wales. Cook
then sailed along the northern coast of Australia, confirming it was a separate
land from New Guinea, and returned to England in 1771.
9 December 1758, Matthew
Flinders confirmed that a channel existed between Tasmania and
Australia, making the former an island.
28 October 1728, The naval officer and
explorer Captain James Cook was born at Marton, Cleveland,
Yorkshire.� He was the son of a farmer.
His voyages in the ship Endeavour led
to the exploration of Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
1688, The first British explorer
to visit Australia, William Dampier, landed on the north coast.
22 October 1659. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman died.
1644, Abel Tasman mapped the north and
west coasts of Australia.
19 April 1645, Anthony Van Diemen, Dutch
explorer of Australia, died in Batavia (born 1593).
24 November 1642. Tasmania was
discovered by Abel
Tasman, Dutch explorer.� It
was originally called Van Diemen�s Land,
and renamed in 1853.
4 June 1629, The VOC (Dutch) ship Batavia ran aground
west of Australia.
2/1606, Willem Janszoon, Dutch
navigator, discovered Australia. He landed on the north coast.
5,000 BCE, Indigenous Australians
began using boomerangs.
7,000 BCE, The New Guinea land bridge
began to disappear.
10,000 BCE, The separation of Tasmania
from Australia began as sea levels rose.
45,000 BCE, The first humans are
believed to have reached Australia.
Appendix
One � Antarctica
22 June 2005, Gwion Davies, explorer of the Antarctic, died
(born 3/9/1917).
1998, A 50-year ban on mineral
extraction in Antarctica was agreed.
18 January 1997, Boerge Ousland of Norway made the first solo
unaided crossing of Antarctica.
7 January 1978, Emilio Palma was born in Antarctica; he was the first baby born on
this continent.
14 June 1963, Carl Skottsberg,
Swedish Antarctic explorer, died aged 82.
1962, The British Antarctic Territory was constituted. It
comprises a number of isdlands, as far north as 60 degress South.
1 December 1959. Twelve countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile,
France, Jaoan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, UK, USA, USSR) signed an
agreement to preserve Antarctica for peaceful scientific research. All
territorial claims were suspended. This agreement was renewed and extended in
1991.
14 December 1958, The Antarctic �pole of inaccessibility�, the point furthest
from all coasts, was reached by a Soviet tractor traverse.
2 March 1958, The British Trans-Antarctic
Expedition, led by Dr Vivian Fuchs, completed the first surface
crossing of Antarctica. The group of 12 travelled 2,158 miles from Shackleton Station on the Weddell
Sea to Scott Station on the Ross Sea in 99 days.
3 January 1958. Sir Edmund Hillary, with a party from New Zealand, reached the South Pole � the first man
to do so since Captain Scott.
17 April 1955, Dr Michael Stroud, Antarctic explorer, was born.
26 May 1933, Australia
claimed a third of Antarctica.
7 February 1933, The
Australian Antarctic Territory was created.
30 July 1923, The Ross
Dependency in Antarctica was created, under New Zealand rule.
5 January 1922. The
British explorer Ernest Shackleton died on the island of South Georgia. He
was on an expedition to Enderby Land, Antarctica.
3 September 1917, Gwion Davies,
explorer of the Antarctic, was born (died 22 June 2005)
7 May 1916, Eric Butler,
Australian political activist, founder of the Australian League of Rights,was
born in Benalla, Victoria, (died 2006)
10 May 1916, Shackleton
reached South Georgia (see 9 April 1916).
9 April 1916, Shackleton
and his crew left the ice floe in small boats. They reached Elephant Island on
12 April 1916 (see 10 May 1916).
Race for the South Pole
10 February 1913. The remains of Captain Scott and two of his companions, who
died returning from the South Pole in January 1912, were found dead, just 11
miles from a safe camp.
29 March 1912. Captain Robert Falcon Scott died in his tent in
17 March 1912, Lawrence Oates
died heroically during the return journey from the South Pole. On his 32nd
birthday he left the tent, saying, �I am just going outside, and I may be
some time�.
14 December 1911. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen
beat the British team, led by Captain Scott, to the South Pole. The
British relied on motorised transport and ponies, the Norwegians on dog sleds. Captain Scott
arrived at the South Pole on 17 January 1912 to find the Norwegians had beaten
him to it. Scott
set out with 11 men from Cape Evans, Antarctica, on 24 October 1911; his
motorised sledges soon broke down, and the ponies had to be shot due to the
cold. Therefore the hardest part of Scott�s journey, the part from the final food
dump (left for the return journey) to the South Pole, 240 kilometres, and back,
had to be done on foot with barely a month�s provision for the five men
attempting the journey. On the return journey blizzards slowed Scott�s
team, reducing their daily rations.
24 October 1911, The
advance team for Robert Scott's British Antarctic Expedition, Bernard Day,
Tom Lashly,
F.J. Hooper
and Teddy
Evans, set off with food and supplies from Cape Evans. Scott
and his party set off on November 1
15 June 1910, Captain Scott set out on his ill-fated second expedition to the
South Pole, on the ship Terra Nova.
13 June 1909, Shackleton
arrived back in Dover after his Antarctic expedition.
16 January 1909. The
magnetic south pole was found by Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was knighted later
the same year.
5 May 1882, Douglas Mawson, British
Antarctic explorer, was born.
15 February 1874, Sir Ernest Shackleton, British
Antarctic explorer, was born in born in Kilkee, County Clare, Eire.
16 July 1872, Roald Amundsen, Norwegian
explorer who was the first to reach the South Pole in 1911, was born in Borge.
6 June 1868, Robert Falcon Scott, British
explorer of the Antarctic, was born near Devonport, Devon.
3 April 1862, James Ross,
English explorer who gave his name to the Ross Barrier, Ross Island and Ross
Sea, Antarctica, died.
27 January 1841, James Clark
Ross discovered the active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
1 January 1841, James Ross
first crossed the Antarctic Circle.
1840, France claimed a slice of Antarctica, called Adelie Land.
19 January 1840. American
explorer Charles
Wilkes discovered the coast of Antarctica.
27 February 1831, Captain John
Briscoe discovered Antarctica. Captain Briscoe, in the ship Tula, commissioned by the London
shipping company Enderby, sighted
the mountains of what is now known as Enderby
Land. The mission was partly exploratory, but also commercial, to find and
harvest seals for their fur. Whales were also desired, and sea elephants for
their oil.
18 March 1826, Joseph Bellot,
Arctic explorer, was born in Rochefort (died 8/1853).
18 November 1820, Russian
explorer, Thaddeus
von Bellingshausen, became the first European to sight Antarctica.
Captain of a US sealing ship, the Hero,
he had sailed south in search of more hunting grounds.
15 April 1800, Sir James Clark
Ross, Antarctic explorer, was born in England.
8 August 1799, Nathaniel B Palmer, US sea
captain and explorer of Antarctica, was born in Stonington, Connecticut (died
1877).
30 January 1774, Captain Cook
turned his ship back at 71 degrees south, 105 degrees west, due to heavy mist,
having failed to sight any land of the �southern continent�. In fact he was
just 75 miles off the coastline of Antarctica.
17 January 1773. Captain James
Cook�s ship Resolution
became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.
