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47,982 BCE
The arrival of the Aboriginal people in Australia
We presume that they arrived in Australia during the Ice Age by boat from Southeast Asia. They were scattered in 300 clans and spoke many different languages. They have their own culture and they share the same Dreamtime belief. They feel so strongly attached to the ground that they sleep on the ground. -
The British colonisation
Lieutenant Captain Cook conquered a large part of Australia for Great Britain. A little later, the First Fleet of 11 ships carrying British colonizers arrived in Sydney. They brought European diseases to Australia, it had a destructive effect on native species, the living conditions of Aborigines have been disrupted and are now disastrous. -
The gold fever
They discovered gold in New South Wales and central Victoria. Australia then became very attractive, with thousands of young boys travelling to both states. Gold attracted many people from all over the world, which had a very chaotic effect. It also generated a lot of violence, but the wealth of gold and wool brought a lot of money to Melbourne and Sydney. -
Australia becomes a nation
After almost two decades of negotiations between the leaders of the various colonies and New Zealand, Australia finally became a nation. -
The stolen generation
The Australian government has abducted many Aboriginal children from their families and placed them in European families. Their goal was to eliminate Aboriginal culture. This had a very negative effect on the Aborigines, their culture and their morale. This is called the stolen generation. -
Australians go to war
Only 400,000 Australians volunteered to fight in the First World War. Nearly 60,000 of them died during the war. After the war, everyone was in mourning and to overcome this bad time, they did a lot of new things like new cars and new cinemas. Because of the war, the Great Depression hit the Australians in 1929. -
The post-war boom
After the Second World War, many migrants arrived in Australia to find employment. The women who took jobs in the factories when the men were fighting kept their jobs after the war. Through nation-building and export projects, Australia's economy has grown. -
Referendum to change the Australian constitution
The referendum aims to include all Aborigines in the national census and to allow the federal Parliament to legislate on their behalf. They also created an Indigenous Affairs Council. 90% of the population voted in accordance with the referendum. -
Election of the Australian Labor Party
The election of the Australian Labor Party ended the post-war domination of the Liberal and Country Party coalition. They stopped a lot of things like conscription, university fees and introduced free universal health care. They introduced other good things like no fault-divorce, equal rights for women, the abolition of the White Australia policy and embraced multiculturalism. -
The Hawke-Keating Labor governments
The Hawke-Keating Labor government is part of the Australian federal government. It was led by the Australian Labour Party. Hawke and Paul Keating interrupted the Keynesian economy. They introduced new economic reforms such as the deregulation of the banking system and the floating Australian dollar.
