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| Gondwana 420 million years ago. View centred on the South Pole. Fama Clamosa |
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| Reconstructed skeleton at the Queensland Museum. PD. |
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| An Aboriginal tribe in the interior, South Australia, United States Navy, August-September, 1908, Special Collections |
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| The restoration of a marsupial lion hunting Diprotodon, Rom-diz |
1606: Captain Willem Janszoon of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), sailing the ship Duyfken, explored the western coast of Cape York Peninsula near, what is now Weipa, in February/March 1606. This was the first recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil.
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| Duyfken replica - Swan River, Western Australia. Nachoman-au |
1616: On the 25 October 1616, captain Dirk Hartog sailing the Eendracht, left a commemorative plate, the Hartog Plate on the western coast of Australia. This is the oldest-known artefact of European exploration in Australia.
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| Original of Dirk Hartog's plate in the Rijksmuseum |
1622: The English ship Tryall was wrecked on the Tryal Rocks off the north-west coast of Western Australia. These were the first Englishmen to sight or land on Australia, at Point Cloates on the west coast of Australia. The wreck is Australia's oldest known shipwreck.
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| A large iron cannon that was recovered by Fremantle Museum expedition, believed to belong to the English ship Tryall. |
1629: The Dutch East India Company became wrecked on Houtman Abrolhos off Geraldton, on 4 June 1629, and mutiny and massacre occurred, off the coast of Western Australia. At least 110 men, women and children were murdered.
1642: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman explored the west coast, then landed on the east coast of Tasmania.
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| Portrait of Abel Tasman, his wife and daughter. Attributed to Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, 1637 (not authenticated). |
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| The stern section of the Batavia hull and replica of gateway, both housed in the Shipwreck Galleries in Fremantle, Western Australia. |
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| Beardman Jug found on the wreck of the Vergulde Draeck |
1688: William Dampier, an English explorer, pirate, and navigator, explored the west coast of Australia. He was also the first person to circumnavigate the world three times.
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| William Dampier portrait, holding his book |
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| Portrait of Willem de Vlamingh, Johannes en Nicholaas Verkolje (1690 - 1700) |
1770: The Endeavour, under the command of English Lieutenant James Cook, arrived off the east coast of Australia in April 1770 and sailed north. In late April, the Endeavour anchored at a place Cook later called Botany Bay and charted the eastern coast. The continent was claimed for the British Crown. Australia is the only continent where no treaties were made between colonists and prior occupants, as tribes were not united and a separate treaty would have been required with each tribal group.
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| Portrait of James Cook by William Hodges, who accompanied Cook on his second voyage |
1788: The First Fleet of 11 ships led by Captain Phillip arrived at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788. The Cadigal people of the Botany Bay area saw the Fleet arrive and six days later, the two ships of French, explorer, La Pérouse, the Astrolabe and the Boussole, sailed into the bay. The French ships remained until 10 March and were later wrecked, near Santa Cruz (Solomon Islands). On 26 January 1788, the First Fleet sailed to Port Jackson, as Botany Bay had no water, poor soil and poor anchorages.
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| Australian native in his bark hut [picture] / [Augustus Earle] [1826?]. A traditional native home, made from wood/bark. NLAUST |
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| Colour lithograph of the First Fleet entering Port Jackson on January 26 1788, drawn in 1888. Creator: E. Le Bihan. |
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| In 1788, two French ships, Astrolabe and Boussole [Bousole], also arrived at Botany Bay, NSW |
Admiral Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was an English Royal Navy officer and the first Governor of New South Wales
1788: 14 February 1788, Lt. Philip Gidley King sailed with a party of 23, including 15 convicts, in Supply, to found a settlement on Norfolk Island, where native flax was to be harvested.
1788: 14 February 1788, Lt. Philip Gidley King sailed with a party of 23 including 15 convicts, in Supply to found a settlement on Norfolk Island, where native flax was to be harvested and others grown.1788: Uninhabited Lord Howe Island was discovered by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, commander of the First Fleet ship, Supply, in 1788, while en route between Sydney Cove and the penal settlement of Norfolk Island.
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| Photo of the original buildings that would be built inside the walls of the gaol at Norfolk Island |
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| Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 26 October 1938 |
1788: William Dawes, an officer of the British Marines, an astronomer, engineer, botanist, surveyor, explorer, abolitionist, and later, colonial administrator, was interested in studying the local Eora people. Patyegarang, a young Aboriginal woman, became friends with Lieutenant Dawes and they taught each other their languages. Dawes was the first person to make a study and comprehensive written record of an Indigenous Australian language.
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| William Dawes notebooks from the 1790s are a record of the Eora language, of the Aboriginal people around Sydney. SOAS Special Collections |
1789: Governor Arthur Phillip had tanks carved into the sandstone banks of a stream to store water during the dry summer of 1789-90. It became known as the Tank Stream.
1790: 3–28 June 1790, 5 of 6 ships of the notorious Second Fleet arrived. Of the 1006 convicts transported aboard the Fleet, one quarter died during the voyage, and around 40 per cent were dead within six months of arrival in Australia.
1790: 3–28 June 1790, 5 of 6 ships of the notorious Second Fleet arrived. Of the 1006 convicts transported aboard the Fleet, one quarter died during the voyage, and around 40 per cent were dead within six months of arrival in Australia.
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| Distressing situation of the Guardian sloop, Capt. Riou, after striking on a floating Island of ice |
1790: HMS Guardian (1784), Convict ship of 879 tons, heading for Port Jackson, struck an iceberg on 24 December 1789, was destroyed by a hurricane on 12 April 1790.
1791: The first ship of the Third Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove on the 9 July.
1792: December 1792, Aboriginal men, Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne sailed for England with Governor Phillip. They were presented to King George III and visited the Tower of London.
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| An undated portrait thought to depict Bennelong, signed "W.W." now in the Dixson Galleries of the State Library of New South Wales. |
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| Chart of Van Diemen's Land produced by Matthew Flinders |
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| Watercolour miniature portrait of British navigator Matthew Flinders, dated about 1800 |
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| Portrait of John Bowen (1780-1827), by unknown artist, ca. 1890 |
1808: The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was a military coup instigated by the New South Wales Corps in order to depose Governor William Bligh.
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| A propaganda cartoon created within hours of William Bligh's arrest, portraying him as a coward. The arrest of Governor Bligh, 1808, artist unknown, watercolour drawing, attached to the left-hand wall in the image is a sheet with text, "O what can the matter be", Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales |
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| "Old Sydney Hospital, Macquarie Street c1865-85, Mitchell LIbrary, State Library of NSW" |
1813: On 11 May 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson set out to cross the Blue Mountains. By 31 May 1813, they succeeded in crossing the mountains and became the first European settlers see the vast plains on the other side.
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| William Cox's road near Mt York. The plaque on the left reads, "These pick marks were made to allow Governor Macquaries vehicle to pass over the Blue Mountains in 1815". |
1817: Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales, opened on Tuesday 8 April 1817, at 10 am. The bank opened in rented rooms in the house of ex-convict Mary Reiby in Macquarie Place.
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| Bank of New South Wales first premiss in Sydney 1822, Critic (Adelaide, SA : 1897-1924), Wednesday 29 April 1908 |
1818: In 1818, John Oxley led an expedition along the Macquarie River to Wellington Valley. The expedition took five and a half months and covered more than 1850 miles.
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| John Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) |
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| The Old Windmill in Spring Hill is Brisbane's oldest building. As well as being the longest surviving convict building, it’s also the oldest windmill in Australia. Windmill Tower, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane looking west towards the William Jolly Bridge, December 1933 |
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| One of the old gun mountings, Fort Dundas, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Friday 25 April 1919 |
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| This is the tree on which explorer Hovell carved his name: "Hovell Nov/17 24". Portrait of Hume on the left and Hovell on the right, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 29 November 1924 |
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| Van Diemen's land, London : Published by A. & S. Arrowsmith, No. 10 Soho Square, Jan. 4. 1825 |
1827: On January 21st 1827, Major Edmund Lockyer formally took possession of the western third of the continent for Britain.
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| Edmund Lockyer in uniform of Captain of the Sydney Volunteer Rifle Corps |
1828: The Catholic Sisters of Charity arrived in 1838 and began implementing pastoral care in a women's prison, visiting hospitals and schools and establishing employment for convict women.
1829-30: Charles Sturt traced the Murrumbidgee River to its junction with the Murray River and on to the mouth of the Murray at Lake Alexandrina.
1829: Captain Charles Fremantle, on 2 May 1829, took possession of the western side of Australia for the British crown. On 12 August Perth was founded.
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| West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Tuesday 24 July 1934 |
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| Untitled, Wurati (Woureddy), by Thomas Bock, an English-Australian artist who was sentenced to transportation in 1823 |
1833: The penal settlement of Port Arthur was founded in Van Diemen's Land. Operated from 1833 until 1853.
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| The Port Arthur Settlement. Tasmania. 1860. |
1835: On 30 August, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner established a settlement at Port Phillip, now the city of Melbourne.
1835: Escaped convict, William Buckley, lived with the Wautharong people near Melbourne for thirty-two years, before being found in 1835.
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| Buckley's transportation and escape as depicted by 19th century Aboriginal (Wahgunyah) artist Tommy McRae (c.1835–1901) |
1835: Australia's first political party was created by William Wentworth, called the Australian Patriotic Association, to demand democracy for New South Wales.
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| Wentworth, William Charles (1790–1872), Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 19 January 1938 |
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| Darwin in 1842 with his eldest son, William Erasmus Darwin |
1836; The first settlers arrived on Kangaroo Island in July 1836. Most of the settlers were moved from Kangaroo Island to Holdfast Bay, with Governor Hindmarsh arriving on 28 December 1836, to proclaim the province of South Australia. Nine ships left Britain bound for the newly created province of South Australia in 1836.
1838: On 23 April 1838, the barque Kinnear arrived at Sydney carrying six German wine-growing families. Johann Justus, Friedrich Seckold, Johann Stein, Caspar Flick, Georg Gerhard and Johann Wenz, were the first German vinedressers in Australia. In November 1838, Pastor Kavel brought a large group of German Lutheran migrants to South Australia.
1839: Paul Edmund Strzelecki became the first European to ascend and name Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko.
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| Paul Edmund Strzelecki, unidentified photographer, silver gelatin negative copied from original daguerreotype, State Library of New South Wales, Government Printing Office |
1840s Caroline Chisholm established a migrant women's shelter and worked for women's welfare in the colonies in the 1840s.
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| Portrait of Caroline Chisholm, engraved by J. B. Hunt after a daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet. |
1841: New Zealand was proclaimed as a separate colony, no longer part of New South Wales.
1843: Australia's first parliamentary elections were held for the New South Wales Legislative Council.
1851: Victoria separated from New South Wales, 1 July 1851.
1851: The Forest Creek Monster Meeting, which took place at at Chewton near Castlemaine, December 1851, was an organised protest at Forest Creek in Victoria, Australia, against the increase in miner's licence fee.
1853: Australia's first telegraph line was erected between Melbourne and Williamstown in 1853 and 1854. Cobb & Co first established in Australia.
1842: Copper was discovered at Kapunda in South Australia. Australia's First Mining Town.
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| Kapunda, SA, c1860. Looking towards the Flour Mill, from Dr. Blood's. Dr Blood was the first general practitioner in Kapunda and later Mayor of Kapunda. Township of Kapunda in the 1860s. It was established after copper was found in 1842 by Francis Dutton and Charles Bagot. Mining began in 1844 and continued until 1879. SLSA |
1844: The first reticulation pipes connected about 70 houses directly to a Bore for 10 shillings (one dollar) a year. People could also buy water at public fountains around Sydney.
1845: A British barque called Cataraqui (also called Cataraque) sank off the south-west coast of King Island in Bass Strait on 4 August 1845. The sinking was Australia's worst-ever maritime civil disaster incident, claiming the lives of 400 people.
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| Examiner (Sydney, NSW : 1845), Saturday 27 September 1845 |
1845: Copper found at Burra South Australia in 1845. The Burra Burra Copper Mine was established in 1848.
1849: Western Australia formally becomes a penal colony in 1849. Between 1850 and 1868, 9,721 convicts were transported to Western Australia.
1850: The Australian Constitutions Act 1850 allowed the separation of Victoria and the Moreton Bay settlement from New South Wales (NSW) and granted all colonies, including New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, South Australia and Western Australia, the right to self-government.
1850: University of Sydney was founded 1 October 1850.
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| New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), Friday 11 October 1850 |
1851 The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851, after prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange, at a place that he called Ophir. In the 1850s, gold discoveries sparked gold rushes in Victoria, at Beechworth, Castlemaine, Daylesford, Ballarat and Bendigo.
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| Historical - Scenes - Historical photographs of the gold rush in Australia in 1851 [Bendigo, men on camels, c1851, National Archives of Australia |
1852: Captain Francis Cadell and four men he recruited from the Bendigo goldfields rowed a canvas boat, the Forerunner, down the Murray River from near Swan Hill to Wellington (about 1300 km), to determine the navigability for paddle-steamers.
1853: The paddle steamers, Lady Augusta captained by Francis Cadell, reached Swan Hill, while Mary Ann, captained by William Randell, made it as far as Moama (near Echuca).
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| 1, Lady Augusta captained by Francis Cadell 2, Mary Ann captained by William Randell |
1853: The Anti-Gold Licence Association was formed in Bendigo, on 6 June 1853. In June and July, thousands of miners gathered to show their solidarity, by wearing red ribbons around their hats. In the same year, the Bendigo Goldfields Petition was signed by over 5,000 diggers.
1854: The Eureka Rebellion occurred in 1854, when gold miners in Ballarat, revolted against the colonial authority of the United Kingdom.
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| Burning of Bentley's Hotel, the Eureka Rebellion, sketched by Charles Doudiet |
1855: The transportation of convicts to Norfolk Island stopped.
1855: In 1855, South Australia granted the right to vote to all male British subjects (a term which extended to Indigenous males) 21 years or over. However, eligibility to vote for the upper House continued to have property restrictions. Most of the colonies included indigenous men in the right to vote but they were not encouraged to enrol. Queensland and Western Australia denied indigenous people the vote. This right was extended to Victoria in 1857 and New South Wales, the following year. The other colonies followed until, in 1896, Tasmania became the last colony to grant universal male suffrage. 1855: In early 1855, South Australia's first horse tram began operating between Goolwa and Port Elliot on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
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| Goolwa and Port Elliot horse tram : Mr Scarfe, Clerk of Court at window of carriage. Eli Hillman with beard and tall hat at left of carriage.1875, State Library of S.A. |
1856: Van Diemen's Land name changed to Tasmania.
1856. Sydney and Melbourne linked by electric telegraph. An electrical telegraph uses electric current and magnetism to convert the manual typing of codes that represent words, into electrical impulses.
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| South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Thursday 14 February 1856 |
1858: The first 10 rules of Australian rules football were written down in Melbourne in 1858. Melbourne and Geelong football clubs were established in 1858 and 1859, respectively. They are among the oldest football clubs in the world.
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| Football match South Melbourne V Geelong, Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 16 May 1908 |
1859: 6 June 1859, Queensland separated from New South Wales.
1859: The Australian passenger steamship, SS Admella, became shipwrecked on a submerged reef off the coast of South Australia, in the early hours of Saturday 6 August 1859. Survivors held on to the wreckage for over a week and watched on as repeated rescue attempts failed. 89 people died.
1860: On 22 April 1860, according to Stuart's calculations, John McDouall Stuart's exploration party reached the centre of the continent.
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| John McDouall Stuart in 1860 |
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| Natives discovering the body of William John Wills, the explorer, at Coopers Creek, June 1861, oil on canvas, 1862, Eugene Montagu Scott, State Library of Victoria |
1861: Propertied women in the colony of South Australia were granted the vote in local elections (but not parliamentary elections) in 1861.
1862: John McDouall Stuart led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north and return, through the centre of the continent. Following Stuart’s successful journey, South Australia gained control of the Northern Territory and established a settlement at Darwin.
1864: The Great Fire of Brisbane swept through the central parts of Brisbane on 1 December 1864, resulting in 50-100 structures being destroyed and 4 people injured.
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| Great fire in Queen Street, Brisbane, 1864. Fire broke out on Queen Street between George Street and Albert Street on the east side. SLQLD |
1867: James Nash discovered gold at Gympie, QLD, on October 16, 1867 and started the gold rush that saved Queensland from financial crisis.
1868: The last convict ship, the Hougoumont, left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868. About 164,000 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868, onboard 806 ships.
1868: The first Australian cricket team, which toured England in 1868, was principally made up of Indigenous players.
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| Photo of the Aboriginal cricket team that toured England c. 1868. Wearing the cap, centre back, is Tom Wills, coach. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground. |
1869: The Aborigines Protection Act (Vic) of 1869, and the an Aborigines Protection Board, could order the removal of any child from their family to a reformatory or industrial school in Victoria.
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| Cootamundra Training Home for Girls - School Dated: No date |
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| Planting the first telegraph pole, near Palmerston (Darwin) in September 1870. |
1871: By November 1871, a submarine cable had been laid between Java and Port Darwin.
1872; The Australian Overland Telegraph was a 3,200 km (2,000 mi) telegraph line that connected Darwin with Port Augusta in South Australia. The Australian telegraph network was linked directly to Europe by October of 1872.
1873: On 19 July 1873, the surveyor William Gosse sighted the landmark and named it Ayers Rock. The local Anangu, the Pitjantjatjara people, call the landmark Uluṟu (both names are used).
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| Petroglyphs on Uluru (Ayers Rock), Wmpearl |
1874: Marcus Clarke's, For the Term of his Natural Life, is published in book form.
1875: On 24 February, the steamship SS Gothenburg strikes Old Reef off Bowen, North Queensland, and sank with the loss of approximately 102 lives.
1875: The Adelaide Steamship Company Ltd, was established in Adelaide in 1875, and entered the Queensland coastal trade in 1893 with a weekly service to Brisbane.