Australian History

By Max Marriott
  • Period: to

    1830

    • The Trail of Tears/ Indian Removal Act
  • Period: to

    1831

  • Period: to

    1832

    • First boatload of free women arrive in NSW
  • Period: to

    1833

    • Slavery Abolishment Act bans slavery across the British Empire
  • Period: to

    1834

    • The Henty family arrive (the first permanent settlers in Port Phillip District, modern Victoria)
  • Period: to

    1835

    • Batman's treaty, and agreement between John Batman and the Wurundjeri people
  • Period: to

    1836

    • South Australia begins as a British colony
  • Period: to

    1837

  • Period: to

    1838

  • Period: to

    1839

    • First Opium War starts in China
    • Slump in trade which lead to unemployment increasing and then a bad harvest. Population increasing and bad harvest meant starvation and suffering of people
    • Corn Laws – keep price of corn high.
  • Period: to

    1840

    • New Zealand is founded, as the Treaty of Waitangi is signed by the Maori and British
    • Britain stops sending convicts to NSW
  • Period: to

    1841

    • Immigrants home opened in Sydney by Caroline Crisholm
  • Period: to

    Irish Potato Famine

  • Period: to

    1848

    • California Gold Rush
    • The Communist Manifesto was published
    • Revolutions of 1848 in Europe
  • Period: to

    1851

    • New South Wales gold discovered
    • Victorian Separation, the Port Phillip District becomes a seperate colony, Victoria
    • Gold discovered in Victoria
  • Period: to

    1852

    • News of Australian gold inspires a rush of British migrants
  • Period: to

    1853

    • The arrival of US gunships in Edo, Japan forces Japan to open up to US trade the following year
  • Period: to

    Crimean War

  • Period: to

    1854

    • Eureka Stockade
  • Period: to

    1855

    • The Chinese entry tax where the Victorian government charges 10 pounds for Chinese immigrants to enter
  • Period: to

    1856

    • The Victorian Electoral Act introduces secret ballots
  • Period: to

    1857

    • The Buckland River Riots where diggers attacked Chinese miners allegedly encroaching on their claims.
  • Period: to

    1858

    • Start of the 90 years of British Crown rule in India
  • Period: to

    1859

    • Select Committee on Aborigines recommends creation of reserves
    • Colony of Queensland separated from NSW
  • Period: to

    1860

    • Australia's population reaches one million.
  • Period: to

    American Civil War

  • Period: to

    1865

    • Slavery abolished in the US
  • Period: to

    1868

    • Attempted assassination - Henry O'Farrell shoots Duke of Edinburgh at Clontarf, Sydney
  • Period: to

    1869

    • Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea
    • Victorian Aboriginal Protection Board begins - Aboriginal Protection Act gives Central Board wide powers over Aboriginal residence and employment
  • Period: to

    Second Industrial Revolution

  • Period: to

    1871

    • First association of native-born Australians founded - the Australian Natives' Association
  • Period: to

    1877

    • First Test cricket match played between England v. Australia at the MCG
  • Period: to

    1878

    • Seamen's strike - protests against Chinese employment and residence
  • Period: to

    1881

    • Coranderrk Petition - Kulin people appeal for secure tenure of their lands
  • Period: to

    1886

    • Amending Act of 1869 Aboriginal Act - the Act's white racial ideas of degrees of descent required 'mixed-descent' people to assimilate into European society
  • Period: to

    1887

    • Queen Victoria's Jubilee - imperialist demonstrations spark republican protests in Sydney
  • Period: to

    1888

    • Arrival of the ship S.S. Afghan sparks protests against Chinese immigration
  • Period: to

    1889

    • NSW premier joins movement for Australian federation when Henry Parkes gives his Tenterfield Oration
  • Period: to

    1891

    • First National Australasian Convention - delegates from colonial parliaments met in Sydney and drafted a Federal Constitution
  • Period: to

    1893

    • New Zealand becomes the first country to enact women's suffrage
  • Period: to

    1897

    • Queensland Aboriginal Act 1897 - designed to protect and control Indigenous peoples
  • Period: to

    1899

    • Aspirin patented
    • Australians vote twice between 1889 and 1899 on Constitution Bill; first fails in NSW; more democratic version passes
  • Period: to

    1901

    • Boxer Rebellion in China ends
    • Inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth - First Commonwealth Parliament opened by the future King George V
    • Immigration Restriction Act 1901 - Dictation Test used to bar 'coloured' immigrants from Australia - commonly called the White Australia Policy
    • Pacific Islanders Labourers Act 1901 - managed their expulsion from Australia
  • Period: to

    1902

    • Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 - gave women the vote and denied it to Indigenous Australians
  • Period: to

    1904

    • NSW Royal Commission on the decline of the Birth-rate declares contraceptive use in Australia equal to 'race suicide'
  • Period: to

    The first revolution in Russia

  • Period: to

    1907

    • The Harvester Judgement - Justice Higgins sets a 'fair and reasonable' minimum wage for Australian male workers
  • Period: to

    1912

    • RMS Titanic sinks in the Atlantic
    • Maternity Allowance Act 1912 [the 'Baby Bonus'] - Labor federal government gives 5 pounds per child born to white Australian mothers

  • 1945

    • WW2 Ends
    • Dept of immigration established - Australia's first Ministry of Immigration formed

  • 1946

    • British agreement signed - 10 pound fair for British immigrants only

  • 1947

    • Cold War starts between the US and the USSR and their respective allies
    • International Refugee Organisation (IRO) Agreement - Displaced Persons refugees to come to Australia

  • 1948

    • Universal Declaration of Human Rights - United Nations issues this key declaration
    • Beginning of the apartheid policy in South Africa

  • 1950

    • Australia's population reaches 8 million

  • 1951

    • The Colombo Plan regional organisation of 27 countries in the Asia-Pacific region commences
    • Other agreements bring European immigrants

  • 1953

    • First colour television released

  • 1955

    • Start of the Vietnam War

  • 1958

    • Immigration Restriction Act and dictation test abolished

  • 1959

    • World population reaches three billion

  • 1975

    • Fall of Saigon - this event marked the end of the Vietnam War
    • Racial Discrimination Act 1975 - landmark legislation against discrimination

  • 1977

    • In September boats from Vietnam arrive

  • 1984

    • Historian Geoffrey Blainey queries the level of Asian intake, causing controversy

  • 1986

    • Fire at Chernobyl nuclear power plant

  • 1989

    • Tiananmen Square Massacre, Beijing - 4 June attack on student protesters
    • Fall of the Berlin Wall

  • 1990-1991

    • Gulf War between coalition forces led by the US and Iraq
    • The end of the Cold War

  • 1992

    • Redfern Speech - Paul Keating's address of reconciliation