1975: The greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australian history. The Whitlam Government was beset by economic difficulties and the Loans Affair scandal. In October 1975, the Senate blocked the Supply bills (money) in the Senate, until the Whitlam government agreed to call a general election; which meant that the Government would soon run out of money to pay public servants, provide pensions, and services etc. This crisis culminated when the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, sacked Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and appointed opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser as caretaker, on the 11th of November.
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| This shot recaptures one of Australia's most dramatic political events; the Whitlam Government was sacked by the then Governor General John Kerr on 11th November 1975. Peter van der Veer |
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| John Malcolm Fraser in 1975, https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malcolm_Fraser_1977_-_crop.jpg#mw-jump-to-license |
1977: The Granville rail disaster occurred on 18 January 1977. Eighty-three people died, more than 210 were injured, and 1,300 were affected.
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| The Granville rail disaster occurred on 18 January 1977 in the Sydney suburb of Granville, Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies |
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| Lesbians march in a 1978 International Women's Day parade, Sydney, NSW. State Library of New South Wales |
1979: Kakadu National Park and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, are proclaimed.
1980: On 17 August, nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from an Uluru campsite. Her mother Lindy Chamberlain went to the tent, found the baby missing, and reported seeing a dingo. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on 29 October 1982, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
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| Lindy and Azaria (baby) Chamberlain, who was taken by a dingo on the night of 17 August 1980 |
1981: The Tasmanian power referendum, held on 12 December 1981, was a one-question referendum about the proposed construction of a hydroelectricity dam, to be built on the Gordon River in Tasmania.
1982: The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Queensland, from 30 September to 9 October 1982.
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| Games Mascot Matilda the Kangaroo at the Closing Ceremony of the XII Commonwealth Games at the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Sports Centre, Brisbane, 1982, Queensland State Archives |
1983: Ash Wednesday bushfires: February 16, 1983. High temperatures and strong winds, after 10 months of severe drought, sparked bushfires and the loss of 75 lives.
1983: The incumbent Coalition government was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labor Party led by Bob Hawke in the federal election held 5 March.
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| Bob Hawke, Labor spokesman on industrial affairs and ACTU presidentHawke addresses the Labour Day crowd, 1980. State Library of South Australia |
1983: Hawke–Keating Labor government began deregulating the banking system and floated the Australian dollar.
1983: "Advance Australia Fair" is proclaimed as Australia's official national anthem.
1984: Medicare is established. Medibank had been introduced by the Whitlam government in 1975. However, Malcolm Fraser's Government refused to finance it. On 1 February 1984, Medicare was introduced, allowing basic health care for all Australians.
1984: A group of Pintupi people were tracked down in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia and brought into a settlement. They were living a traditional hunter-gatherer desert-dwelling life and are believed to have been the last uncontacted tribe in Australia.
1984: The one-dollar coin replaces the one-dollar note.
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| The Australian one-dollar note (or $1 bill) was introduced in 1966 due to decimalisation |
1984: Labor wins the 1984 Australian federal election.
1985: On 26 October 1985, the Governor-General of Australia gives the title deeds of a large area of land in central Australia, including prominent landmarks Uluru and Kata Tjuta to the Mutitjulu people.
1986: The Australia Act removes all remaining rights of the UK parliament to pass laws for Australia.
1986: Lindy Chamberlain is released from prison in Darwin on licence after serving 39 months of a life sentence.
1986: Australia shocked and outraged by the abduction and murder of registered nurse, 26-year-old Anita Cobby.
1986: The Russell Street bombing takes place at the headquarters of Victoria Police in Melbourne. A police constable, Angela Taylor, is killed.
1986: Crocodile Dundee is released in Australia.
1987: Hoddle Street massacre kills 7 victims and injures 19.
1987: Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigns after nineteen years as Premier of Queensland, after corruption allegations.
1987: Prime Minister Bob Hawke establishes a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. 1987: The Queen Street massacre occurred on 8 December 1987.
1988: The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1988. It marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788.
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| Photographed onboard HMAS MORESBY prior to the Bicentennial Naval Salute, incorporating the International Naval Review, Sydney 26 Sep-4 Oct 1988. Steve Swayne |
1988: Brisbane hosts World Expo 88.
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| Performers, Brisbane, QLD - Expo 88, Queensland State Archives |
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| Expo 88 opening day crowds at the Riverstage, Queensland State Archives |
1989: Newcastle earthquake kills 13 people. ACT gains self-Government. The Kempsey bus crash and Grafton bus crash kills a total of 56 people.
1989: Queensland commences three-year trial of Daylight Saving.
1989: Rosemary Follett becomes the first Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, the first woman to become head of government in an Australian state or territory.
1989: Rosemary Follett becomes the first Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, the first woman to become head of government in an Australian state or territory.
1990: After Iraq invaded Kuwait, Australia became part of the international coalition which contributed military forces to the 1991 Gulf War. More than 1,800 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel were deployed to the Persian Gulf from August 1990 to September 1991, while contingents from the Royal Australian Navy circulated through the region in support of the sanctions against Iraq until November 2001.
1990: Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female premier of an Australian state.
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| Dr Carmen Lawrence first woman Premier of WA, at a press interview, 1990, State Library of WA |
1990: Labor wins the 1990 federal election.
1990: Renowned heart surgeon Victor Chang was murdered in a failed extortion attempt by two Malaysian men, Chew Seng (Ah Sung) Liew and Choon Tee (Phillip) Lim.
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| Victor Peter Chang, a cardiac surgeon and a pioneer of modern heart transplantation, died 4 July 1991 (aged 54) |
1991: Privatisation accelerated during the 1990s; including the sale of the first tranche of the Commonwealth Bank in 1991. Privatisation is the full or partial transfer of ownership of public assets to the private sector.
1991: On 21 August 1991, an explosion occurred on Coode Island in Melbourne, after a 600,000 litre chemical storage tank filled with acrylonitrile exploded and caught fire.
1991: Bob Hawke was prime minister from 1983 to 1991. In June 1991, Paul Keating resigned from the Government to unsuccessfully challenge for the party leadership; after Hawke reneged on the agreement of January 1991, to transfer power, following a "treacherous" speech by Keating, which belittled Hawke's leadership. Keating mounted a second successful challenge six months later.
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| Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944), Australian politician and 24th Prime Minister of Australia NAA |
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| Edward Koiki Mabo (29 June 1936 – 21 January 1992), from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights |
1992: The formation of the federal Greens Party in 1992, brought together over a dozen green groups, from state and local organisations, some of which had existed for 20 years. The Greens had their first leadership election on 29 November 2005; prior to this, they did not have a party leader.
1993: Keating defeats John Hewson. When asked by Opposition Leader John Hewson why he would not call an early election, Keating replied, "because I want to do you slowly." Hewson's package of proposed reforms called Fightback! included the introduction of a consumption tax (GST).
1996: The High Court hands down the Wik Decision, which determined that pastoralists did not have exclusive rights to the land. The Wik and Thayorre people were granted Native Title for two areas of land.
1996: The 1996 Australian federal election: John Howard defeats Paul Keating in the 1996 federal election, ending 13 years of Labor rule. The Liberal-National Party Coalition pledged that if elected Telstra would be partly privatised.
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| Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard meets with Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen at the Pentagon on June 27, 1997. DoD photo by Helene C. Stikkel |
1996: The Northern Territory legalises voluntary euthanasia. The legislation would be later be repealed by a conscience vote in the federal parliament in 1997.
1997: Ivan Milat is found guilty of the murder of seven backpackers between December 1989 and April 1992, in the Belango State Forest, south-west of Sydney.
1997: Governor-General Sir William Deane urges action to address the widening gap in health between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
1997: Pauline Hanson launches the One Nation party in Ipswich, Queensland.
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| Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival - fashion parade judge, Pauline Hanson, Steve Daggar |
1997: The Thredbo landslide occurs, killing 17 people. Stuart Diver, a ski instructor, is rescued as the sole survivor.
1997: Aboriginal activist Burnum Burnum dies, 18 August, at his Woronora home near Sydney. On Australia Day 1988, he claimed Britain on behalf of the Aboriginal people, while Australia celebrated its bi-centennial.
1997: On the morning of 22 November 1997, Michael Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room in Sydney.
1998: Patrick Corporation sacks 2,000 dock workers on the waterfront. The Maritime Union of Australia responds with one of the largest industrial disputes Australia has ever seen. In the end, the jobs are restored to the workers in exchange for improvements in efficiency.
1998: 50th anniversary of the first Holden motor car (Nov).
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| 1998 Holden Ute brochure cover, JOHN LLOYD |
1999: The Snowtown murders case, Australia's worst ever serial killings.
1999: A motion was tabled in Parliament expressing "deep & sincere regret that indigenous Australians suffered injustices under the practices of past generations".
1999: A referendum on whether to become a republic or to retain the monarchy, choose to retain the monarchy.
1999: East Timor votes for independence from Indonesia and Australia has a major role in peacekeeping forces after violence breaks out.
2000: Howard Government introduces a Goods and Services Tax (GST).
2000: The 2000 Summer Olympics was held from 15 September to 1 October 2000, in Sydney, New South Wales.
2001: January 1 2001, Australia celebrated the centenary of Federation.
2001: Death of Donald Bradman aged 92 in Kensington Park, Adelaide, South Australia (25 Feb.).
2001: In late August 2001, the Howard Government of Australia refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, Norwegian cargo ship, which had rescued 433 people from a boat, to enter Australian waters.
2001: January 1 2001, Australia celebrated the centenary of Federation.
2001: Death of Donald Bradman aged 92 in Kensington Park, Adelaide, South Australia (25 Feb.).
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| Bradman walking out to bat in the Third Test against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1937. His 270 runs won the match for Australia and has been rated the greatest innings of all time. |
2001: War On Terror: Australia's military involvement in Afghanistan began in late 2001.
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| Australian soldier on patrol in Tarin Kowt on June 15, 2007. Afghanistan 5, David Axe |
2001: 7 October 2001: The Children Overboard affair involved public allegations by Howard Government ministers that asylum seekers at sea had thrown children overboard. The implication being that this was a ploy, aimed toward maritime rescue and to gain asylum in Australia.
2001: John Howard is reelected as Prime Minister (10 Nov.).
2002: Two bombs, ripped through the Kuta area of the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, on 12 October 2002. The attack killed 202 people. A further 209 people were injured (including 88 Australians).
2003: In 2003, the United States, organised a “coalition of the willing”, based on the belief that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction and had links with terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. The chief participants to join the Coalition in Iraq were the United States, Britain, and Australia.
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| Iraq (September 2003), Photo RNW.org |
2003: The Federal Government announces a budget surplus (December).
2004: The ABC airs an episode of "Play School" featuring a segment about a little girl and her two "mums”.
2004: The Liberal Government of John Howard is returned for a fourth term. Defeats Mark Latham led Labor Party.
2004: 26 Australians are among the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 26 December. The tsunamis killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries.
2005: The Bali Nine are arrested for drug smuggling in Indonesia.
2005: The Cronulla riots erupted on 11 December 2005.
2006; The 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, between 15 and 26 March 2006.
2006: Australian-led military deployment to East Timor to quell unrest and return stability.
2006: Steve Irwin dies in an accident when he is struck in the heart by a stingray barb off Queensland's coast. Death of Peter Brock aged 61.
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| The Late " Crocodile Hunter " Steve Irwin during a TV show at the Zoo, Australia Zoo, Beerwah, South Queensland, AUSTRALIA, Bernard DUPONT |
2007: Anna Bligh is sworn in as Queensland's first female premier. Anna Bligh become first female to She is a descendant of William Bligh, who is famous for the Mutiny on the Bounty and being the 4th Governor of New South Wales.
2007: 24 November 2007: The Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd, won government at Australia's 42nd federal election.
2007: The global financial crisis (GFC) was a period of extreme stress in global financial markets and banking systems, between mid-2007 and early 2009. The responses of the Australian Government (stimulus package) and Reserve Bank of Australia, avoided a recession.
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| Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website |
2008: After 128 years, the final edition of The Bulletin is published.
2008: An apology containing the word "sorry" is made by Kevin Rudd to Indigenous Australians for the stolen generation, 13 February. |
| National Sorry Day, Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology on behalf of the government and people when he was prime minister, on 13 February 2008. Pierre Pouliquin |
2008: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces in December, that Australia will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent of 2000 levels, by the year 2020. This is criticised by the Australian Greens and environmental groups as not going far enough.
2008: Quentin Bryce becomes 25th Governor-General of Australia, serving from 2008 to 2014. She is the first woman to have held the position.
2009: The Black Saturday bushfires, swept across Victoria and killed 173 people, 120 in the Kinglake area alone. Another 414 people were injured. More than 450,000 hectares burned and 3500 buildings destroyed.
2009: The Black Saturday bushfires, swept across Victoria and killed 173 people, 120 in the Kinglake area alone. Another 414 people were injured. More than 450,000 hectares burned and 3500 buildings destroyed.
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| Victorian bushfires 2009, Elizabeth Donoghue |
2009: On 4 August 2009, over 400 police and intelligence officers conduct a series of dawn raids, resulting in five men from Melbourne, Victoria, being charged over the Holsworthy Barracks terror plot.
2010: In May, Kevin Rudd announces the resource super profits tax (RSPT), which will help bring about his downfall.
2010: June 24: After a leadership spill, Julia Gillard replaces Kevin Rudd as Labor leader.
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| Julia Gillard , Prime Minister of Australia, The Commonwealth |
2010: Federal election results in hung Parliament and narrow victory for Julia Gillard (ALP).
2010: Australian, Mary MacKillop, is declared by Pope Benedict XVI to be a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
2010-11 (dec-Jan): The most widespread flooding disaster in Queensland history.
2011: Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the introduction of a market-based carbon pricing scheme. After this, Julia Gillard’s entire term in office is dogged by her previous statement: “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”, uttered on August 16, 2010.
2011: Remains of a person found on the grounds of the former HM Prison Pentridge confirmed to be those of bushranger Ned Kelly.
2011: (Nov): The President of the United States Barack Obama visits Australia.
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| President Barack Obama delivers remarks honoring 60 years of the U.S. and Australian Alliance to a crowd of some 2000 soldiers and guests at the Royal Army Air Force Base in Darwin Australia, Nov.17, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Charles McCain |
2012: On 15 September 2012, a protest by Salafi Muslims against perceived anti- Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims", turned violent and six police officers and 19 protesters were injured.
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| Muslim protesters carry signs reading "Behead all those who insult the Prophet" and "Our dead are in Paradise. Your dead are in HELL!" Photograph taken at 2012 Sydney protest against the film Innocence of Muslims. Jamie Kennedy |
2013: Prime Minister Julia Gillard makes a speech apologising on behalf of the Federal Government to families affected by forced adoption in Australia (March).
2013: Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces $14.5 billion worth of funding for schools over the next six years (April).
2013: Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard, 57 to 45, in an Australian Labor Party leadership spill (June).
2013: The Liberal–National coalition led by Tony Abbott wins the September 2013 federal election.
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| Anthony John Abbott, AC (born 4 November 1957) is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015, Global Panorama |
2013: Car manufacturer Holden announces it will cease production of vehicles in Australia by 2017.
2013: A Royal Commission into the Rudd Government's home insulation scheme, which subsidised insulation as part of an economic stimulus package to counter the financial crisis, begins in Brisbane.
2014: Premier of NSW, Barry O'Farrell announces the introduction of laws to prevent "one-hit punches".
2014: In March, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces that the titles of knights and dames will be reintroduced into the Order of Australia honours list after being abolished in 1986.
2014: In April 2014, Prince William arrived in Australia for a ten-day tour with his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their son, Prince George.
2014: After Tony Abbott promises to reduce the "debt and deficit disaster", Federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey's first budget has tax increases, more welfare rules, a new $7 co-payment, and cuts to health and education spending.
2014: Australia becomes the first country in the world to abolish a functioning carbon pricing scheme.
2014: Australia's 21st Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, dies at the age of 98. Inside the Sydney Town Hall, former Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, pay their respects. Noel Pearson, Aboriginal lawyer and academic delivered the eulogy. "We salute this old man for his great love and dedication to his country and to the Australian people."
2014: The Lindt Cafe siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014. Man Haron Monis held ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café, hostage, in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney. Two people died, along with an Islamist gunman.
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| Lindt Cafe Memorial Martin Place, Sydney, NSW, Goran Has |
2015: On 2 January 2015, fire broke out at Sampson Flat, about 38 kilometres north-west of Adelaide. Destroys 32 houses and 125 outbuildings.
2015; Rolf Harris is stripped of his Australian honours (Feb).
2015: Death of Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, aged 84 (March). Peter Nixon, who delivered a eulogy, said the country had "lost a unique and great Australian".
2015; Tony Abbott shocked Australia when he ate a whole, raw onion on TV in March.
2015: 25 April: The centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign is commemorated on Anzac Day.
2015: Johnny Depp's wife, Amber Heard, brings pet dogs Pistol and Boo into Australia illegally. A war of words breaks out between Depp and Australian Deputy, PM Barnaby Joyce.
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| Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce visits APAL - DSC_6005, Apple and Pear Australia Ltd |
2016: Malcolm Turnbull returned as Prime Minister of the Coalition Government (July).
2016: Chief Scientist Alan Finkel releases a report which shows that Australia is not on track to meet Paris climate change commitments.
2016: On 23 December 2016, seven people were arrested in Melbourne for plotting a terror attack on Christmas Day.
2017: Five people are killed and more than 30 injured when a man drives a car into pedestrians on Bourke Street in the Melbourne City Centre (January).
2017: A heatwave in south-eastern Australia results in record-breaking temperatures and extensive power failure and blackouts (Febuary).
2017: Malcolm Turnbull meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York City.
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| President Donald Trump meets with Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull for a bilateral meeting aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Thursday, May 4, 2017, in New York City. The White House |
2017: John Cameron, a Perth barrister sets off the 2017 citizenship crisis by revealing former Greens senator Scott Ludlam's dual citizenship.
2017: The Australian car manufacturing industry closed.
2017: Same-sex marriage is legalised (December), after Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey: 7,817,247 'Yes' responses (61.6%), 4,873,987 'No' responses (38.4%).
2018: A state of disaster is declared in Queensland, after flooding between Cairns and Townsville (March).
2018: A bushfire destroys over 70 buildings at Tathra on the New South Wales South Coast, while 18 homes are destroyed by a grass fire in Western Victoria (March).
2018: On 21 August, there is a leadership spill in the Liberal Party. Malcom Turnbull is cha lenged by Peter Dutton, but Turnbull wins the vote by 48 to 35 votes.
2018: On 24 August, there is a second leadership spill. Malcolm Turnbull resigns as party leader, and Scott Morrison becomes the 30th Prime Minister of Australia.
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| Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivers remarks prior to the signing of a letter of intent between NASA and the Australian Space Agency, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky) NASA HQ PHOTO |
2018: The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is established on 8 October 2018.
2018: A man crashed a car full of gas cylinders in the Melbourne CBD, 9 November, before stabbing three people in a terror attack. One of the stabbed victims died at the scene.
2018: Australia becomes one of the few countries to formally recognise West Jerusalem as Israel's capital (December).
2019: Between 27 January and 8 February 2019, Townsville received 1250mm of rain, followed by mass flooding. Two men drown on 4 February, and two young boys on 25 February. Hundreds of thousands of cattle die.
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| Flooding in Townsville, QLD, Sunrise on Seven |
2019: Nineteen homes are destroyed by bushfires in the New England and Northern Rivers, NSW (February).
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| A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec. 31 2019. This fire season has been one of the worst in Australia's history, with at least 15 people killed, hundreds of homes destroyed and millions of acres burned. (Matthew Abbott/The New York Times) Bruce Detorres |
2019: Cardinal George Pell is convicted in an Australian court of sexually assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s and sentenced to six years in prison.
2019: Anthony Albanese, replaces Bill Shorten, as Labor Party leader (May).
2019: 4 June 2019, a mass shooting occurred in Darwin, Northern Territory. Four people killed.
2019: The Australian Federal Police raid the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst and the headquarters of the ABC (June).
2019: Climbing Uluru is banned.
2019: Three people are killed and 150 homes are destroyed by bushfires in New South Wales and South East Queensland (November). Eight people are killed (December) in bushfires on the New South Wales South Coast and in Victoria's East Gippsland.
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| This picture taken on December 31, 2019 shows a horse trying to move away from nearby bushfires at a residential property near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP) (Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images) Bruce Detorres |
2020: Eden, NSW is evacuated due to the bushfires (January).
2020: Australia confirms its first COVID-19 case in Melbourne, 25 January.
2020: Lockdowns and social restrictions implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020: Adam Bandt is elected leader of the Australian Greens (February).
2020: February 19, estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, took his own life after horrifically killing his family.
2020: ASIO head, Mike Burgess, states that there is rising foreign and far-right interference in Australia, and that violent Islamist fundamentalism remains ASIO's primary concern.
2020: March 1: Australia records its first death from the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and social distancing.
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| Queuing to enter a bank during the spring 2020 Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, citytransportinfo |
2020: Panic buying of toilet paper.
2020: Formation of the National Cabinet (prime minister, premiers and chief ministers), to manage the impacts of the coronavirus.
2020: The High Court unanimously quashes Cardinal George Pell's convictions (April).
2020: Black Lives Matter and pro-refugee protests amid Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions (June).
2020: Cyber attack against the Australian government (June).
2020: Millions of Victorians go into lockdown (July).
2020: The Australian economy goes into recession (September).
2020: 19 December: COVID-19 outbreak in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, causes all other states and territories to close their borders to all residents of greater Sydney.
2021: Words of the Australian national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", are changed (January 1).
2021: Greater Brisbane area goes into 3-day lockdown, to stop the spread of a UK COVID-19 variant.