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Matthew Flinders Circumnavigates Continent Which He Names Australia
British explorer Matthew Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate Australia. He explored previously unknown coastline and the maps he created were the first to accurately show Australia. Flinders proved that Australia was a single continent. By using the word ‘Australia’ in his maps and writings, he helped the term enter common usage. -
Gregory Blaxland, Bill Wentworth And Bill Lawson Cross The Blue Mountains
In 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson became the first European settlers to successfully navigate a path across the Blue Mountains. Their feat opened the inland to livestock, and set in motion many land disputes that would result in the deprivation of Indigenous peoples across the continent -
Eureka Stockade
On 30 November 1854, miners from the Victorian town of Ballarat, unhappy with the way the government had been sharing the goldfields, built a stockade at the Eureka diggings.
On the morning of Sunday 3 December, when the stockade was not guarded, government troops attacked. At 22 diggers and six soldiers were killed. Eureka is a significant event in the development of Australia’s attitude toward democracy.
