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Timeline: Outline Australian History. Part 5.


1975: Medibank is introduced, Australia Post and Telecom are formed from the Postmaster-General's Department(PMG).
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.
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
1975: Malcolm Fraser wins the December 1975 election and becomes Prime Minister.
John Malcolm Fraser in 1975, https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malcolm_Fraser_1977_-_crop.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
1975: The Australian Capital Territory legalises homosexuality between consenting adults in private.
1977: The Granville rail disaster occurred on 18 January 1977. Eighty-three people died, more than 210 were injured, and 1,300 were affected.
The Granville rail disaster occurred on 18 January 1977 in the Sydney suburb of Granville, Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies
1978: Sydney's Gay Solidarity Group organised a day of events culminating in the first Mardi Gras street festival.
Lesbians march in a 1978 International Women's Day parade, Sydney, NSW. State Library of New South Wales
1979: Australian women win the right to maternity leave.
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.
Lindy and Azaria (baby) Chamberlain, who was taken by a dingo on the night of 17 August 1980
1980: 18 October 1980: Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, was elected to a third term with a much-reduced majority, defeating the opposition Labor Party, led by Bill Hayden.
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.
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
1982: The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, is opened.
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.
Bob Hawke, Labor spokesman on industrial affairs and ACTU presidentHawke addresses the Labour Day crowd, 1980. State Library of South Australia
1983: Australia wins the America's Cup.
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.
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.
1986The 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.
1986Crocodile 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.
1987The 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.
Photographed onboard HMAS MORESBY prior to the Bicentennial Naval Salute, incorporating the International Naval Review, Sydney 26 Sep-4 Oct 1988. Steve Swayne
1988: Australian referendum, 1988. It proposed to alter the Australian constitution such that Senate terms be reduced from six to four years, and House of Representative terms be increased from three years to four years.
1988: Brisbane hosts World Expo 88.
Performers, Brisbane, QLD - Expo 88, Queensland State Archives
Expo 88 opening day crowds at the Riverstage, Queensland State Archives
1988: During Australia's bicentenary celebrations Queen Elizabeth II, opens the New Parliament House, on May 9, 1988.
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.
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.
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.
Victor Peter Chang, a cardiac surgeon and a pioneer of modern heart transplantation, died 4 July 1991 (aged 54)
1991The Strathfield massacre occurred at a shopping mall in Strathfield, Sydney, on 17 August 1991. The shooter, Wade Frankum, killed himself as police arrived at the scene. Eight people died, and six were wounded.
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.
 Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944), Australian politician and 24th Prime Minister of Australia NAA
1992: The Mabo Case was a landmark decision which recognised that a group of Torres Strait Islanders, led by Eddie Mabo, held ownership of Mer Island (Murray Island).
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: Queensland holds a referendum on daylight saving, which is defeated, with a 54.5% "no". vote.
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.
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 Port Arthur massacre 28 April: Martin Bryant kills 35 people and injures 21 in a shooting spree at the Port Arthur, Tasmania. The following month, Prime Minister John Howard announces new gun control measures.
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.
Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival - fashion parade judge, Pauline Hanson, Steve Daggar
1997: Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality.
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).
1998 Holden Ute brochure cover, JOHN LLOYD
1998: Australian Stock Exchange demutualised to become a listed company. It was the first exchange in the world to demutualise and list on its own market.
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.).
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: 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: War On Terror: Australia's military involvement in Afghanistan began in late 2001.
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.
Iraq (September 2003), Photo RNW.org
2003: ASIO raids the Sydney homes of six suspected terror suspects(October).
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.
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.
Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website
2008: Heath Ledger dies of an accidental prescription drug overdose. On January 22, 2008.
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: In March, Adelaide experiences a national record heatwave for an Australian capital city, recording over ten straight days of temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius.
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.
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.
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.
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: (1 July): A carbon pricing scheme is introduced in Australia.
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.
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
2012: Julia Gillard announces a national Royal Commission into institutional responses to instances of child sexual abuse.
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.
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 The Marriage Equality Act 2013 is passed in the Australian Capital Territory, making the ACT the first state or territory to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia.
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.
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.
Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce visits APAL - DSC_6005, Apple and Pear Australia Ltd
2015: Turnbull wins the leadership ballot and is sworn in as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia on 15 September.
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.
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.
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 Queensland Government offers a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of a person responsible for the contamination of strawberries using needles and pins.
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.
Flooding in Townsville, QLD, Sunrise on Seven
2019: Nineteen homes are destroyed by bushfires in the New England and Northern Rivers, NSW (February).
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.
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.
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.






Timeline: Outline Australian History. Part 4.

1949: The right to vote in federal elections was extended to Indigenous people who had served in the armed forces, or were enrolled to vote in state elections. Indigenous people in Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory still could not vote in their own state/territory elections. (here)
1949: Rather than being identified as subjects of Britain, The Nationality and Citizenship Act established Australian citizenship for people who met eligibility requirements.
1949: The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was launched in 1949.
Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 16 December 1949
1949: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) is established.1949: Robert Menzies wins the election and serves as prime minister from 1949 to 1966.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies, wife Pattie and daughter Heather visit Bundaberg. They were given a civic reception and spoke at several meetings. 1953, Bundaberg Regional Library Service
1950: Petrol rationing ends, nearly ten years after it was introduced during World War II.
1950: The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought in the Federation of Malaya from 1948 until 1960. Australia's commitment to the emergency lasted 13 years, between 1950 and 1963, with army, air force and naval units serving.
1950: From 1950-53, 17,000 Australian member of the armed forces fought as part of the United Nations (UN) multinational force, defending South Korea from Communist North Korea.
F/L Lionel Rasmussen, doctor with No. 77 RAAF Squadron, handing out food parcels at a local orphanage. Bendigo High School also raised money for food. 1952, State Library of Victoria
1950: Between 1945 and 1965, more than two million migrants came to Australia. The post-war period, in the 1950s and 1960s, was marked by large building projects such as the Snowy River Mountain Scheme and a growing manufacturing sector.
Harold Holt, Minister for Immigration, and Zara Holt with Amelia and Sophie Offman, daughters of Polish immigrants, ca. 1950, National Library of Australia
1951: On 22 September 1951, a referendum was held in Australia by the Menzie's government, to pass a law banning the Communist Party of Australia. Voters reject the proposal to change the Constitution.
Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA : 1861 - 1954), Saturday 15 September 1951
1951: Australia signs the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand, to co-operate on military matters in the Pacific Ocean region.
1952: After the explosion of the first Soviet bomb in 1949, the British instigate Operation Hurricane, the first of Britain's atomic weapons tests, conducted off the Montebello Islands, Australia.
1954: In February 1954, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, begin a Royal Tour of Australia.
Official welcome to the Queen in Bundaberg, QLD, in 1954, State Library of Queensland
1955: The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was the result of factional warfare between Catholics and Communists for control of the Australian labour. The Key players in the split were H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. Santamaria, the dominant force behind the "Catholic Social Studies Movement" or "the Movement".
1955 The rules that enforced that Australians finish their drinks by 6 pm, nicknamed the "Six O'Clock Swill", lasted for almost 40 years. The Liquor Amendment Act 1954, came into effect on 1 February 1955, allowing hotels to serve drinks until 10 pm.
1956: 16 September 1956, Sydney’s TCN9 becomes the first station to commence daily television transmission. Bruce Gyngell welcomes  the audience with the words: “Good evening, and welcome to television.” The Australian Broadcasting Commission's television service, ABN Channel 2, began transmission at 7 pm on 5 November 1956. The arrival of television in Australia moved the culture away from British to more American influence.
 Actor William Boyd came to Australia in 1954. He played Hopalong Cassidy on the silent-screen and then on TV, Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Monday 15 November 1954
1956: Barry Humphries performed as the the character, "Mrs Everage" (Edna Average) and screened on HSV-7's first day of programming in 1956.
1956: The 16th Summer Olympics is held in Melbourne, VIC, from 22 November to 8 December 1956. The People's Republic of China chose to boycott the event because the Republic of China had been allowed to compete.
1957: The release of, “Wild One”, by Johnny O’Keefe is considered to be the birth of rock and roll in Australia.
1957: Slim Dusty was the first Australian to have an international hit record, with his version of Gordon Parsons' "Pub With No Beer".
Slim Dusty, at the Golden Guitar awards in Tamworth, NSW
1958: The Fort Macquarie Tram Depot was demolished in 1958 and construction of the Sydney Opera House began in March 1959.
Fort Macquarie depot. Sydney. Australia, about 1940s, Wikipedia
1960:  Gough Whitlam became deputy leader of the Labor Party in 1960.
1962: Robert Menzies' Commonwealth Electoral Act ensured that all Indigenous Australians had the right to enrol and vote at federal elections, removing remaining restrictions applying in QLD, WA and NT.
1962: Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1962, and increased over the following decade.
1963:  Yolngu Aboriginal people petition the Australian House of Representatives with a bark petition after the government sold part of the Arnhem Land reserve on 13 March to a bauxite mining company.
1964: The Beatles' 1964 Australia & New Zealand tour. 
The Beatles get a soaking in Sydney, Australia - 1964, Kaye
1964: The "Melbourne–Voyager incident" was a collision between two warships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN); the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and the destroyer HMAS Voyager collided on the evening of 10 February 1964. Of the 314 aboard Voyager, 82 were killed.
1964: The editors of Oz magazine, an independently published counterculture publication of the 1960s, were charged with distributing an obscene publication.
1964: In April, the Menzies government refuses to ratify the International Labour Organization convention on equal pay for women. In November, Menzies announces the reintroduction of National Service.
1965: Hundreds of anti-Vietnam War protesters in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra staged Australia’s first-ever sit-down demonstrations, by blocking the traffic. The era of protest.
University of Sydney Commem Day procession, Old Medical School, 5 May 1965 / photographer Jack Hickson, Australian Photographic Agency. State Library of New South Wales
1966: In 1966, women in the Australian public service won the right to remain employed after marriage.
1966Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister on 20 January 1966, at 71 years of age and is succeeded by Harold Holt.
1966: Arnna, Grant and Jane Beaumont disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia, on 26 January 1966 (Australia Day). They never came home.
The News front page the day after the Beaumont children disappeared, on January 27, 1966.
1966: On 14 February 1966, Australia converted to decimal currency (money worked out in lots of ten). Before decimalisation, currency was in the form of pounds, shillings and pence.
1967: Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally hanged in Australia.
1967 Hobart and south-eastern Tasmania are devastated by the Black Tuesday bushfires and 62 people were killed.
1967 Arthur Calwell retired as Labor leader in 1967, following Labor's poor result in the 1966 election. Whitlam was elected party leader in April 1967. (Whitlam defeats Dr Jim Cairns and Frank Crean).
1967: In the Referendum on Saturday 27th of May 1967, Australians voted overwhelmingly to amend the Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and include them in the census.
1967: Sydney is rocked by a series of brutal underworld killings, as rival gangs battle for control of the city's lucrative gambling and prostitution rackets.
1967: Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming in heavy surf at Cheviot Beach, near Portsea, Victoria.
Harold Holt with ABC crew. Cameraman Don McAlpine and Director John Tingle (ABC Supervisor of TV News, Sydney) discuss underwater sequences during filming of the PM for a Weekend Magazine story from his weekend home at Portsea, Vic. The program was broadcasts on the ABC on 10/4/1966 a year before his death. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
1967: Harold Holt was officially presumed dead by the government. John McEwen is sworn in as Prime Minister, on an interim basis, pending the Liberal Party electing its new leader.
1968: On 10 January 1968, John Gorton became the 19th Prime Minister. He was elected Liberal Party leader to replace Harold Holt. In the following year, John Gorton was reelected as Prime Minister.
John and Bettina Gorton c. 1968
1968: Lionel Rose MBE, an Australian bantam weight boxer, became the first Indigenous Australian to win a world title. He was also named Australian of the Year.
Lionel Rose 1969, first Indigenous Australian to win a world title
1969 The Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission rules that equal pay for women doing the same work as men must be phased in by 1972.
1970: Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family tour Australia. Pope Paul VI visits Australia.
1971: Neville Thomas Bonner, was the first Aboriginal Australian, to become a member of the Parliament of Australia.
Senator Neville Bonner seated circa 18 December, 1979. The first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia.
1971: John Gorton resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by William McMahon.
1971: Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declares a State of Emergency to allow the touring South African Springboks football team to play, due to protests.
1971: Daylight saving is adopted in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Queensland abandons Daylight Saving in the following year.
1971: The New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation imposed the world's first green bans. Fifty-four bans were imposed in NSW between 1971 and 1974, saving some of the oldest and irreplaceable buildings in Australia from demolition.
Builders' Labourers' Federation protests at the Western Distributor Demonstration, Ultimo, New South Wales, 1973 / Roger Scott. PD.
1971: Australia and New Zealand announce pullout of troops from Vietnam (December).
1972: The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, is established in 1972, to represent the political rights of Aboriginal Australians.
First day of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, outside Parliament House, Canberra, 27 January 1972. Left to right: Billy Craigie, Bert Williams, Michael Anderson and Tony Coorey. State Library of New South Wales
1972: The first Labor government since 1949 is elected. The Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam defeats the Liberal/Country Coalition Government led by Prime Minister William McMahon.
Gough Whitlam - With Mrs Whitlam official portrait, 1972, National Archives of Australia
1972: Australia establishes diplomatic relations with Communist China in 1972 and recognises the government of the People's Republic of China.
1973: Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th October 1973.
20th October 1973: Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the new Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Joern Utzon. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) RV1864
1973: In 1973 the Whitlam Labor government renounces the White Australia policy.
1973: Vietnam War ends.
1973: Papua New Guinea becomes self-governing on 1 December 1973 and achieved independence on 16 September 1975.
1973: The federal voting age is dropped from 21 to 18.
1973: Australian novelist and playwright, Patrick White, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973.
Patrick White in 1973. Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989
1974: "Advance Australia Fair" recognised as Australia's national song, but not as the national anthem.
1974: Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, from 24 to 26 December 1974.
Houses after the destruction caused by Cyclone Tracy, Darwin, 1974, Billbeee
1975: In 1975, the Privy Council (Appeals from the High Court) Act 1975 was passed, which had the effect of closing all routes of appeal from the High Court, to appeal High Court decisions to the British Privy Council.
1975: The Tasman Bridge disaster occurred on the evening of 5 January 1975, in Hobart, Tasmania.
1975: On 27 August 1975, South Australia became the first Australian state to decriminalise homosexual acts.
1975: The Aboriginal Land (Northern Territory) Bill was introduced to parliament in October 1975, but the Whitlam Government was dismissed before the legislation could pass the Senate.