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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1867 | - The transportation of convicts to Western Australia ceases
- Gold is discovered at Gympie, Queensland
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| 2 | 1873 | - Uluru is first sighted by Europeans
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| 3 | 1879 | - The first congress of trade unions is held
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| 4 | 1880 | - Ned Kelly is hanged
- Parliamentarians in Victoria become the first to be paid for their work
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| 5 | 1883 | - Opening of the Sydney-Melbourne railway
- Silver is discovered at Broken Hill
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| 6 | 1887 | - Australian cricket team established, defeating Britain in the first Ashes series
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| 7 | 1889 | - Completion of the railway network between Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney
- Sir Henry Parkes gives the Tenterfield Oration
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| 8 | 1890 | - The Australian Federation Conference decides to call a constitutional convention
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| 9 | 1891 | - National Australasian Convention meets, agrees on adopting the name "Commonwealth of Australia" and agrees to draft a Constitution
- The first attempt at a federal Constitution is drafted
- The Convention adopts the Constitution, though it still has no legal status
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| 10 | 1892 | - Gold is discovered at Coolgardie, Queensland
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| 11 | 1893 | - The Corowa Conference (the "people's convention") calls upon the colonial parliaments to pass Enabling Acts, allowing the election of delgates to a new Constitutional Convention aimed at drafting an agreeable proposal, and then putting it to a referendum in each colony
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| 12 | 1895 | - All the Premiers (with the exceptions of Queensland and Western Australia) agree to implement the Corowa proposals
- Waltzing Matilda is first sung in public, in Winton, Queensland
- Banjo Patterson publishes The Man From Snowy River
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| 13 | 1896 | - Bathurst Conference (the second "people's convention") meets to discuss the 1891 draft constitution
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| 14 | 1897 | - In two sessions, the Second National Australasian Convention meets (with all colonies except Queensland present). They agree to adopt a constitution based on the 1891 draft, and then revise and amend it later in the year.
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| 15 | 1898 | - The Convention agrees on a final draft to be put to the people
- After much public debate, the Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian referenda are successful; the New South Wales referendum narrowly fails
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| 16 | 1899 | - All colonies except Western Australia vote "yes", after new referenda
- The decision is made to site the national capital in New South Wales, but not within 100 miles of Sydney
- The Australian Labor Party takes power in Queensland, becoming the first trade union party to do so anywhere in the world
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| 17 | 1902 | - Breaker Morant is executed for having shot Boers who had surrendered
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| 18 | 1903 | - The High Court of Australia is established
- The Defence Act gives the federal government full control over the Australian Army
- Alfred Deakin elected Prime Minister
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| 19 | 1904 | - Dalgety chosen as the site for the national capital
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| 20 | 1906 | - Australia takes control of Papua New Guinea
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| 21 | 1907 | - The Commonwealth takes control of the Northern Territory from the South Australian government
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| 22 | 1908 | - Dorothea Mackellar publishes My Country
- The Dalgety proposal for the national capital is revoked, and Canberra is chosen instead
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| 23 | 1909 | - The first powered aeroplane flight in Australia is made.
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| 24 | 1911 | - The Royal Australian Navy is founded
- The Northern Territory comes under Commonwealth control, being split off from South Australia
- The first national census is conducted
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| 25 | 1912 | - Australia sends women to the Olympic Games for the first time
- Walter Burley Griffin wins a design competition for the new city of Canberra
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| 26 | 1913 | - The foundation stone for the city of Canberra is put in place
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| 27 | 1914 | - Australian soldiers are sent to the First World War. This was first time Australians had fought under the Australian flag.
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| 28 | 1915 | - Australian soldiers land at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey
- Surfing is first introduced to Australia
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| 29 | 1916 | - Hotels are forced to close at 6pm, leading to the beginning of the "six o'clock swill"
- The Returned Sailors? and Soldiers? Imperial League of Australia, the forerunner to the Returned and Services League is founded
- First referendum on conscription
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| 30 | 1917 | - Third referendum on conscription
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| 31 | 1920 | - The airline QANTAS is founded
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| 32 | 1921 | - Edith Cowan becomes the first woman elected to an Australian parliament
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| 33 | 1922 | - The Smith Family charity is founded in Sydney
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| 34 | 1923 | - Vegemite is first produced
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| 35 | 1926 | - The first Miss Australia contest is held
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| 36 | 1927 | - The tenth parliament is formally opened in Canberra, finalising the move to the new capital
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| 37 | 1928 | - Bert Hinkler makes the first successful flight to Britain, and Charles Kingsford Smith the first flight to the United States
|
| 38 | 1930 | - Don Bradman scores a record 452 not out in one cricket innings
- Phar Lap wins its first Melbourne Cup
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| 39 | 1931 | - Sir Douglas Mawson charts 4,000 miles of Antarctic coastline and claims 42% of the icy mass for Australia
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| 40 | 1932 | - The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
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| 41 | 1933 | - Western Australia produces a referendum for secession but it is rejected by Parliament.
|
| 42 | 1936 | |
| 43 | 1937 | - The radio series Dad and Dave begins
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| 44 | 1938 | - Sydney hosts the Empire Games, the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games
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| 45 | 1939 | - Australia enters the Second World War
- The first flight is made by an Australian made warplane, the Wirraway
- Victoria is devastated by the Black Friday bushfires.
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| 46 | 1940 | - A team of scientists, under Howard Florey, develops penicillin
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| 47 | 1942 | - 43 Japanese planes make almost 100 attacks against sites in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland.
- Daylight saving is introduced
|
| 48 | 1943 | - Australia wins its first Oscar, with cinematographer Damien Parer being rewarded for his coverage of the war
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| 49 | 1944 | - The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is introduced, providing subsidised medicine to all Australians
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| 50 | 1945 | - Australia becomes a founding member of the United Nations
- The Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race is held for the first time
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| 51 | 1946 | - Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell introduces the major post war immigration scheme
- An Australian is voted in as the first President of the United Nations Security Council.
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| 52 | 1948 | - Australian Minister for External Affairs, Dr. Herbert Evatt is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.
- Australia becomes a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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| 53 | 1949 | - Construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme begins
- Indigenous Australians who are eligible to vote in State Elections in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are also given the right to vote in Federal Elections.
- The Nationality and Citizenship Act is passed. Rather than being identified as subjects of Britain, the Act established Australian citizenship for people who met eligibility requirements.
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| 54 | 1950 | - Australian troops are sent to the Korean War, as well as to fight a communist insurgency in Malaya
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| 55 | 1951 | - Australia signs the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand
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| 56 | 1954 | - The Petrov Affair occurs
- Hotels no longer have to close at 6pm, ending the "six o?clock swill"
- Elizabeth II and Prince Philip make a royal visit.
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| 57 | 1956 | - Melbourne holds the Summer Olympics
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| 58 | 1959 | - The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is opened
- Australia becomes a signatory to the International Antarctic Treaty
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| 59 | 1962 | - Indigenous Australians gain the right to vote
- Australia enters the Vietnam War
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| 60 | 1966 | - The ban on the employment of married women in the Commonwealth Public Service is lifted.
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1866 - 
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