In Depth
Australia
Australia timeline: selected dates from history
Last Updated Nov. 26, 2007
CBC News
1824: The name Australia (from the Latin for southern) is adopted. It was first suggested by a British navigator, Mathew Flinders, the first man to circumnavigate the continent.
1828 to 1835: Martial law is declared in Tasmania, allowing whites to shoot on sight any Aborigine who ventures onto settled land. Vigilante groups spring up to rid the island of its original inhabitants. By 1835, Tasmanian Aborigines number 150, down from 4,000.
1847: The convict system in New South Wales is abolished by the secretary of state for the colonies, Earl Grey. Convicts are sent to Tasmania or areas north of Sydney. This decision is seen as a turning point for Australia.
1850: Henry Parkes launches a newspaper, The Empire, advocating republicanism, anti-transportation of convicts and land reform. He will eventually be remembered as "the father of the Federation."
1861: The Dalby Boxing Day Massacre. More than 60 Aborigines, including women and children, are rounded up and killed in Queensland as revenge for the murder of 18 white settlers. It's never known whether the Aborigines were responsible for the deaths of the settlers.
1868: The last convict transport arrives in Fremantle, Western Australia.
1886: The Aboriginal Protection Act allows for Aboriginal children to be removed from their families.
1901: The Commonwealth of Australia is formed and Sir Edmund Barton becomes its first prime minister.
1902: Australia gives women the right to vote, the second country in the world to do so after New Zealand.
1920: The Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (QANTAS) begins operations. QANTAS is one of the world's oldest operating airlines.
1927: Australia completes the building of its national capital, Canberra, located halfway between Melbourne and Sydney.
1928: Australian Charles Kingsford-Smith completes the world's first air crossing of the Pacific.
1945: Australian pathologist Professor Howard Florey awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for his development of the antibiotic penicillin.
1956: Melbourne hosts the Olympics.
1963: Australia becomes the first nation to endorse the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
1967: Aborigines gain the right to vote following a nation-wide referendum. The government also sets up an Office of Aboriginal Affairs.
1971: Neville Bonner becomes the first aboriginal member of an Australian parliament (Queensland).
1972: The Sydney Opera House is built at a cost of $104 million AUD.
1984: Advance Australia Fair proclaimed Australia's national anthem.
1988: Brisbane holds the World Expo.
1992: The Mabo Ruling. The High Court of Australia rejects the notion that Australia was terra nullius, land belonging to no one, at the time of British settlement. This clears the way for aboriginal land reclamation. The court decision is restricted to vacant Crown land, national parks and some leased land.
1996: In Port Arthur, Tasmania, 35 people die when Martin Bryant goes on a killing rampage with a semiautomatic rifle. It is the worst peacetime massacre in Australia by a single gunman on record.
1999: Jesse Martin, 18, of Melbourne becomes the youngest person to sail around the world unassisted.
2000: Sydney hosts the Olympics.
2002: Bali, Indonesia: Around 190 people, including 85 Australians, are killed after a car bomb explodes outside a nightclub. Islamic militants claim responsibility.
2004: In February, The Ghan becomes the first passenger train to travel from Adelaide in the south to Darwin, Australia's most remote city in the north.
2007: After nearly 12 years of political rule, the Liberal-National party is defeated in a federal election. The Labour party, lead by former diplomat Kevin Rudd, is elected with a whopping 53 per cent of the vote. Prime Minister John Howard, Australia's second-longest serving leader, loses political leadership and is set to lose his seat as well. He would become only the second Australian prime minister to do so.
RELATED
External Links
- The Prime Minister of Australia official site
- Liberal Party of Australia
- Australian Labor Party
- Australian Government
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