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Arrival of Australia's Aboriginal people.
During the last Ice Age (at 40000 to 50000 years ago), Australia's Aboriginal people arrived by boat from South east Asia. They mainly lived as hunter-gatherers, hunting and foraging for food from the land. -
Captain James Cook chartered the East coast
Cook also claimed the east coast for Britain. At the moment, people wanted to use it as a penal colony (1500 people arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788). -
Discover of gold.
The gold rushes caused a huge influx of people from overseas, brought wealth and rebellion. It also brought immense investment to Melbourne and Sydney. -
Australia's six states became a nation.
The six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia on the First of January, 1901. This date is Australia's national day. -
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Squatters push across the continent.
Many soldiers, officers and emancipated convicts had turned land into flourishing farms. Settlers or squatters began to move deeper into Aboriginal territories to find pasture or water. -
Another migrants' arrival.
More than two million people immigrated to Australia from Europe during the 20 years after the end of the war. This movement is called the Post War Boom. Many people found jobs in the booming manufacturing sector. -
National referendum.
In 1967, Australians voted "yes" in a national referendum ; they wanted to include Aboriginal people in future censuses and provide them with a symbol of their political and moral rights. -
Election of the Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (led by Gough Withlam, on the picture) was elected to power in 1972. During over three years, it ended conscription, abolished university fees and introduced free universal health care. The new government also abandoned the White Australia policy, embraced multiculturalism and introduced no-fault divorce and equal pay for women. -
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Defeat of the Labor Party ; the Liberal-National Coalition takes it's place.
The Coalition of Malcolm Fraser's Liberal Party of Australia and Doug Anthony's National Country Party secured government in its own right, winning the largest majority government in Australian history. -
Election of the Labor Party.
Led by Kevin Rudd (on the picture), the Labor Party wanted to reform Australia's industrial relations system, climate change policies and health and education sectors.
