What are the major points of Australian History?

Answer 1

These are the major events of Australian history.

-1606 Willem Janszoon becomes the first European to sight and land on Australia.

• Between 1606 to 1788 was a period of 182 years of exploration, mapping, and claims by other countries of the southern continent which was then called New Holland.

-1770 Captain Cooks Endeavour voyage arrives in Eastern Australia where he lands at Botany Bay and claims it for the British Empire.

-1788 Founding of the first settlement called Port Jackson will eventually become Sydney.

• Between 1788 and 1850 was a period of 62 years of exploration of the continent, new settlements being built, and conflicts with the Indigenous peoples.

-1850 The Australian Gold Rush saw a huge increase of immigrants to Australia.

-1851 Black Thursday

-1854 The Eureka Stockade Rebellion was the birth of democracy in Australia.

• The period between 1850 and 1860 is often called the 'heyday' of the Bushrangers. This coincided with the Gold Rush and it is believed there were up to 2000 Bushrangers roaming the countryside at its peak.

-1889 Sir Henry Parkes delivers the Tenterfield oration

-1891 The first attempt at a federal constitution is made.

-1891 A severe depression occurs in Australia.

-1896 The Australian Shearers Strike brings Queensland to the brink of civil war with severe skirmishes, attacks against wool and storage sheds, and naval battles on government ferrys.

-1899 Australia sends contingents to the Boer War.

-1901 Australia becomes a Federation.

-1901 Sir Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime minister of Australia.

-1913 The foundation stone for the capital city of Australia Canberra is laid.

-1914 Australia joins WW1

-1915 The famous Gallipoli campaign begins in which the ANZACs take part.

-1917 The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade launches the last successful cavalry charge in history.

-1918 The first world war ends with 60,000 Australians dead.

-1918 The Darwin Rebellion

• Between 1929 and 1939 Australia was hit hard by the Great Depression.

-1931 Sir Douglas Mawson charts 4000 miles of the Antarctic coastline and claims 42% of the icy mass for Australia.

-1932 The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.

-1939 The Black Friday Bushfires

-1939 Australia enters WW2.

-1941 An Australian garrison (Rats of Tobruk) halt the advance of Germany for the first time in the Siege of Tobruk

-1942 The Battle of Australia begins.

-1942 The Fall of Singapore- 15,000 Australians become prisoners of war.

-1942-43 Over 100 Japanese attacks on the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and Queensland. The most infamous being the Bombing of Darwin.

-1942 Australian forces inflict the first defeat on the Imperial Japanese Army at the Battle of Milne Bay.

-1945 End of WW2- 40,000 Australians dead and over 1 million served.

-1949 Construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme begins.

-1950-53 Australian troops are sent to the Korean War to assist South Korea.

-1954 Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first reigning monarch to visit Australia.

-1955 Australia becomes involved in the Malayan Emergency.

-1965 Australia joins the Vietnam War.

-1973 The Sydney Opera House opens.

-1974 Darwin is devastated by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas morning.

-1975 The Australian Constitutional Crisis

-1990 Australia joins the First Gulf War.

-1996 The Port Arthur Massacre

-1999 Referendum on an Australian republic is unsuccessful.

-1999 Australia sends forces to the East Timorese Crisis.

-2000 Olympic games are held in Sydney.

-2001 Australia celebrates centenary of Federation.

-2001 Australia joins the Afghanistan War.

-2002 Bali Bombings

-2003 Australia joins the Iraq War.

-2006-7 Australian forces are again deployed to East Timor to stabilise the country.

-2007-10 Australia avoids recession during the GFC.

-2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations.

-2008 Quentin Bryce becomes the first female governor-general of Australia.

-2009 The Black Saturday Bushfires.

-2010 First female prime minister Julia Gillard.

-2010 First Aborigine elected to the Australian House of Representatives.

-2011 The state of Queensland is subject to extreme flooding across 75% of its area.