Australian Timeline

Historical Timeline of Australia 

New history is made every day, this document if fluid and growing, please share some more key Australian events and together we can make the most up to date and accurate historical timeline of our wonderful country. Australia Unwrapped loves to know what has come before and as we travel this great land sit back and imagine many moons ago the first arrivals and the adventure they undertook around 42500 years ago,  make your own Australian history today.

40,000 BC to 1600: Aboriginal Australia

The families of Indigenous Australians are supposed to have reached Australia 40,000 years ago. They established a hunter-gatherer routine, established persisting spiritual and artistic customs and used stone skills. At the period of first European communication, it has been assessed the prevailing population was nearly 340,000 while latest archaeological finds imply that a population of 700,000 could have been present. There is substantial archaeological debate as to the way taken by the first colonizers. People appear to have arrived by sea during a time of glaciation when Tasmania and New Guinea were linked to the continent. The journey still needed sea travel that made them among the world’s former Mariners. The first known human remnants were found at Lake Mungo. Aboriginal art is supposed to be the eldest continuing custom of art in the world. Remnants found at Mungo simply one of the world’s eldest known cremations and indicate early evidence of sacred ritual among humans. Evidence of Aboriginal art can be drawn back to 30,000, and is found through the country.

The Aborigines did not advance agriculture, possibly due to a lack of seed-bearing plants and animals fit for domestication. Thus, the populace remained low. The three possible pre-European colonizing powers and dealers of East Asia which were the Muslims of Northern India, the Hindu-Buddhists of southern India, and the Chinese, in their southward advance were petered out and did not effort a settlement across the passages untying Australia with Indonesia. The highest populace density for Aboriginals developed in the eastern and the southern regions, particularly in the River Murray valley. Aboriginals lived and used possessions on the land-form sustainability, approving to end of hunting and meeting at particular times to give inhabitants and resources the chance to restock. The arrival of Australia’s head people nonetheless affected the continent ominously and is believed to have contributed to the extermination of Australia’s megafauna, along with changing the climate conditions. Regardless of considerable cultural endurance, life was not deprived of noteworthy changes. Some 12,000 years ago, Tasmania was isolated from the land, with a few stone technologies failing to reach the Tasmanian people.

1606: Beginning of European exploration and settlement

The first known arrival in Australia by the Europeans is believed to be by Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon in the year 1606. 29 other Dutch explorers navigated the southern and western coasts in the 17th century, and the continent was named New Holland. Macassan trepan gers went to Australia’s northern shores after the year 1720, possibly earlier. Other European navigators followed the suit until explorer James Cook appealed to the eastern coast of the Australian continent for Great Britain in 1770, minus negotiations with the prevailing inhabitants. He went back with interpretations favouring colonization at the area of Botany Bay that is now in Sydney, New South Wales. Colonizers of the 19th century such as Edward Curr detected that Aborigines agonized less and relished life further than the bulk of civilized people.

Arthur Phillip, the first appointed governor, was inculcated explicitly to create friendship and good relationships with the Aborigines and communications between the early novices and the ancient property-owners varied significantly throughout the regal period ranged from the inquisitiveness displayed by the early discusses Bungaree and Bennelong of Sydney, to the absolute hostility of Windradyne and Pemulwuy of the Sydney area. Bennelong and a mate became the first Australians to navigate to Europe, where they saw King George III. Bungaree escorted the navigator Matthew Flinders on the first go-around of Australia. Pemulwuy was blamed of the first murder of a white immigrant in 1790, and Windradyne battled early British development beyond the Blue Mountains region.

By 1788, the populace existed as 250 discrete nations, a lot of whom were in association with one another, and inside each nation there were several clans, from as few as four or five to as large as 30 or 50. Each realm had its own linguistic, and a few had more than that, thereby over 250 languages occurred, around 200 of which are now destroyed. Perpetual European settlers arrived at Sydney in the year 1788 and came to govern most of the mainland by the end of 19th century. Mainstays of largely inviolate Aboriginal societies endured, chiefly in Western and Northern Australia into the 20th century, till finally, a collection of Pintupi people from the Gibson Desert were the latest people to be communicated by foreigners ways in the year 1984. Aboriginal music, art, and culture, often despised by Europeans at the initial phases of contact, endured and in time came to be renowned by the bigger Australian community.

Battle in the Hawkesbury-Nepean River area near the settlers at Sydney sustained from 1795 to the year 1816, including wars such as the Ledbury’s War (1808–1809), Pemulwuy’s War (1795–1802), and the Nepean War (1814–1816) as well as the interwar ferocity of the 1804 to 1805 dispute. It was boxed using mostly guerrilla warfare strategies, although several Orthodox battles also occurred.

Diseases were a major effect of the European settlement with the Eurasian disease often preceding the arrival of European settlers in districts outside the coastal New South Wales region. A smallpox epidemic also occurred near Sydney in the year 1789 wiping out around half the Aboriginals around the Sydney area. It is quite likely that the 1789 outburst of smallpox was a thoughtful act by British marines when they were running on a shortage of ammunition and required expansion of the settlement out to Parramatta. Smallpox then extended well beyond the reach of European settlement, including much of the region of southeastern Australia, and appeared again in the year 1829, killing 50% of the Aboriginal people. The influence of Europeans was deeply disruptive to the Aboriginal lifestyle, and there was substantial conflict on the front. During the same time, some settlers were very much aware they were appropriating the Aboriginals’ place in Australia.

Many actions depict violence and confrontation as Aborigines tried to protect their lands from incursion and as settlers and pastoralists tried to develop their existence. In 1804, at Risdon Cove during the month of May, at Van Diemen’s Land, 60 Aborigines were murdered when they advanced towards the town. The British built a new outpost in Van Diemen’s Land in Tasmania in the year 1803. Although Tasmanian history is considered to be among the most disputed by modern historians, the struggle between colonists and Aborigines was mentioned in some accounts as the Black War. The combined repercussions of disease, intermarriage, dispossession, and conflict led to a collapse of the Aboriginal populace from a few thousand individuals when the British reached, to just a few hundred by the decade of the 1830s. In the year 1830, then Governor Sir George Arthur dispatched an armed party known as the Black Line, to push the Big River and Oyster Bay Tribal out of the settled areas. The effort did not yield results and George Augustus Robinson wished-for to set out unarmed to intercede with the remaining tribal settlement in the year 1833. With the help of Truganini as translator and guide, Robinson persuaded remaining tribal to surrender to a solicited new settlement in the area of Flinders Island, although most later died of various diseases.

Frontline encounters in Australia were not totally negative, with many positive accounts of Aboriginal customs and meetings being recorded in the papers of early European navigators, which often depended upon Aboriginal guides and help. In inland Australia, the expertise of Aboriginal stockmen was highly sought after and in the 20th century; Aboriginal stockmen such as Vincent Lingiari became national figures of the time in their campaigns for better conditions and pay. The elimination of indigenous children, which the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission states that it constituted tried genocide, had a supreme impact on the Indigenous inhabitants.

1787: The beginning of British Colonization

Despite various proposals for colonization being made, especially by Pierre Purry from the year 1717 to 1744, none was officially tried. Indigenous Australians were less allowed and open to trade with Europeans than the people of the Indian sub-continent, China, the East Indies, and Japan. The Dutch East India Company established that there was no good to be done or gained there. They rejected Purry’s idea. With the exclusion of future Dutch visits to the West, Australia was largely unvisited by Europeans until the first British expeditions. John Callander proposed in 1766 for Britain to find a colony of exiled convicts in Terra Australis or in the South Sea to enable the principal country to use the riches of those areas.

On the day of 19 April 1770, the Endeavour spotted the east coast of Australia and ten days after that it landed at Botany Bay. Cook noted the coast to its northern area and, alongside the ship’s naturalist, Joseph Banks, who later reported favourably on the likelihood of developing a colony at Botany Bay. Cook formally took ownership of the east coast of the area of New Holland on 22 August. In 1772, French navigation led by Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn was the first Europeans to declare formal sovereignty over the western coast of Australia, but no try was made to trail this with colonization. The drive of Sweden’s King Gustav III to start a colony for his country at the Swan River in 1786 remained still. It was not till 1788 that technological, economic, and political conditions in Great Britain allowed it to be feasible and worthy for that country to make the large work of sending the First Fleet of ships to New South Wales.

Lieutenant James Cook is believed to be the first European to have contacted the eastern coastline region of Australia in the year 1770. 17 years after Cook’s arrival on the eastern coast of Australia, the British government reached a conclusion to establish a colony at Botany Bay. The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) led to events that saw Britain lose most of its North American colonies and think about establishing replacement territories to make up for the loss. In 1779, Sir Joseph Banks, the renowned scientist who had escorted James Cook on his 1770 voyage to Australia, recommended Botany Bay as a perfect site for settlement. Under the guidance of Banks, the American Stalwart James Matra, who had also toured with Cook, presented a Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales on the day of 23 August in the year 1783, presenting the establishment of a colony comprising of American Loyalists, South Sea Islanders, and Chinese.

The British colony of New South Wales was recognized with the entrance of the First Fleet of 11 vessels under the reign of Captain Arthur Phillip in the month of January of the year 1788. It comprised over 1000 settlers, including 776 convicts (191 women and 585 men). A few days preceding the arrival at Botany Bay the convoy moved to the more accessible Port Jackson where a colonial settlement was established at Sydney Cove dated 26 January 1788. This date went on to become Australia’s national day, known as Australia Day. The colony was officially proclaimed by Governor Phillip in 1788 on 7th February, at Sydney. Sydney Cove presented a freshwater source and a safe harbour. Governor Phillip was conferred with total authority over the population of the colony. Educated for his Age, Phillip’s personal intention was to develop harmonious relations with local Aborigines and try to improve as well as chastise the convicts of the area. Phillip and many of his officers left behind accounts and journals that tell of enormous hardships during the first few years of settlement. Often Phillip’s officers quailed for the forthcoming of New South Wales. Early labours at agriculture were tense, and supplies from overseas were very low. Between the years 1787 and 1791, about 3545 male and 764 female convicts were brought to Sydney. Many new settlers were also unfit and sick for work and the health of healthy convicts only worsened with hard labour and poor nourishment in the settlement. The food situation reached a point of crisis in the year 1790, with the Second Fleet that finally reached in June 1790 having lost a quarter of its travellers through bad health and diseases, while the illness of the convicts of the Third Fleet horrified Phillip. From 1791 however, the more steady arrival of ships and the start of trade narrowed the feeling of isolation and enhanced supplies.

The choice to settle was chosen when it looked the outbreak of civil war in the Netherlands might lead to a war in which Britain would be confronted with the alliance of the three naval Powers once again, namely Holland, France, and Spain, which had led her to defeat in the year 1783. Under these conditions, the strategic benefits of a colony in New South Wales pronounced in James Matra’s proposal were elusive. Matra stated that such a settlement may facilitate bouts against the Spanish in South America and the Philippines, as well as against the Dutch East Indies. In 1790, during the Nootka Crisis, plans were strategized for water explorations against Spain’s properties in America and the Philippines, in which New South Wales was given the role of a base ground for communication, refreshment, and retreat. In the following events in the 19th century where war endangered or broke out between Spain and Britain, these plans were resuscitated and only the small length of the period of conflicts in each case stopped them from being put into effect.

The territory appealed by Britain consisted of all of Australia east of the meridian of 135° east and all of the island area in the Pacific Ocean between the southern tip of Van Diemen’s Land that is Tasmania and the latitudes of Cape York. The west limit of 135° East was fixed at the meridian separating New Holland from Terra Australis displayed on Emanuel Bowen’s full Map of the Southern Continent. It was a diverse claim which provoked excitement at the time. The colony comprised the current nation of New Zealand. In 1817, the British government took off the broad territorial claim on the South Pacific. The Church Missionary Society had worried over mayhems committed against the native people of the South Sea Islands, and the futility of the New South Wales government to tackle the lawlessness. As a repercussion, Parliament passed an Act on 27 June 1817, for the effectual Sentence of Murders and Murders committed in places not inside the King’s Dominions, which described New Zealand, Tahiti and other areas of the South Pacific as not a part of His Majesty’s territories. In 1798, George Bass and Matthew Flinders orbited Van Diemen’s Land area, thereby proving that it indeed was an island. In 1802, Flinders effectively circled Australia for the first time.

1800 to 1849: Further British colonization and settlement

Macquarie acted as the latest autocratic Governor of New South Wales, lasting from 1810 to 1821 and had a major role in the economic and social development of the area of New South Wales that saw it change from a penal colony to a growing free society. He developed public works, churches, a bank, and charitable entities and sought excellent relations with the Aboriginal population. In the year 1813 he sent Wentworth, Blaxland, and Lawson across the Blue Mountains, and there they found the great prairies of the interior. Central, although to Macquarie’s policy was the treatment of the emancipists, whom he decreed must be sought as social matches to free settlers in the cluster. Against opposition, he selected emancipists to main government positions that included William Redfern as a magistrate and Francis Greenway as a colonial draftsman. London judged the public works of his own to be much more expensive and society was scandalized by his handling of emancipists. Equality would come to be reflected as a central virtue amongst the Australians.

The initial five Governors of New South Wales realized the crucial need to hearten free settlers, but the British government was largely uncaring. It was not till the decade of the 1820s that figures of free settlers started to arrive and government schemes began being introduced to inspire free settlers. Humanitarians John Dunmore Lang and Caroline Chisholm made their own relocation schemes. Land endowments of crown land were allotted by Governors, and settlement arrangements like those of Edward Gibbon Wakefield carried a little weight in inspiring migrants to make the long trip to Australia, in contrast to Canada or the United States. Beginning from the 1820s, an incrementing number of trespassers occupied landforms beyond the bounds of European settlement. Quite usually running sheep on big stations having relatively low overheads, squatters could develop considerable gains. By the year 1834, about 2 million kilograms of wool was being exported from Australia to Britain. By the year 1850, hardly 2,000 squatters had achieved 30 million hectares of land area, forming a respectable and powerful interest group in many colonies.

Colonies and before, Separate settlements, were developed from parts of New South Wales, namely South Australia in 1836, Port Phillip District in 1834, later becoming the colony of Victoria in 1851, New Zealand in 1840, and Queensland in the year 1859. The Northern Territory was established in the year 1863 as a part of South Australia. The movement of convicts to Australia faded away between the three decades of 1840 to 1870. In the year 1840, the Sydney City Council and Adelaide City Council were established. Men who had 1,000 pounds in terms of property were eligible to stand up for election and the wealthy owners of land were allowed up to four votes for each person in the election process. Australia’s first parliamentary elections were held for the positions of Legislative Council of New South Wales in the year 1843, again with voting rights, which were exclusive for males only, connected to financial capacity or property ownership. Voter rights were prolonged further in the region New South Wales in the year 1850 and elections for the legislative councils were conducted in the colonies of South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania

1850 to 1900: The Australian gold rushes

The detection of gold in Australia is conventionally attributed to Edward Hammond Hargraves, adjacent to Bathurst, New South Wales, in the month of February during the year 1851. Bits of gold had however been found in Australia as timely as 1823 by inspector James McBrien. As by British law, all reserves belonged to the Crown. Richard Broome also contends that the California Gold Rush initially subdued the Australian discoveries, until the knowledge of Mount Alexander arrived in England in May 1852, shortly followed by six ships later on, which were carrying eight tons of gold. The gold rushes brought in many settlers to Australia from the British Isles, North America, continental Europe, and China. The Colony of Victoria’s populace grew rigorously, from 76,000 in 1850 to a humongous 530,000 by the year 1859. Discontentment arose among diggers almost instantly, chiefly on the packed Victorian fields. The causes of this were the colonial government’s supervision of the diggings and the gold license system. Succeeding a large number of petitions and protests for reform, violence took place at Ballarat. Early in the morning on a Sunday, dated 3 December 1854, the British Police and soldiers attacked a stockade constructed on the Eureka lead containing a few of the aggrieved diggers. In a small fight, almost 30 miners were murdered and an unveiled number were wounded.

However, a Royal Commission made sweeping changes to the administration of Victoria’s goldfields a few months later. Its recommendations consisted the abolition of the license, reforms to the police troop and voting rights and abilities for miners holding a Miner’s Right. The Eureka Flag which was sought to represent the Ballarat miners had been considered by a few as a different but feasible approach to the Australian flag, owing to its controversial connotation with democratic progress.

Future gold rushes happened at the Palmer River, Queensland, during the decade of 1870s, and Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie in Western Australia, during the decade of 1890s. Hostilities between Chinese and European miners happened on the Lambing Flat in New South Wales and the Buckland River in Victoria, during the late 1850s and the early 1860s. Motivated by European despair of the success of Chinese efforts as surface gold finished, it corrected emerging Australian attitudes in the favor of a policy of White Australia.

New South Wales was the first colony to gain responsible government, beginning in the year 1855 and managing a huge part of its own affairs and remaining a part of the British Empire at the same time. Tasmania, Victoria, and South Australia followed the course in the year 1856, alongside Queensland since its foundation in 1859, and the area of Western Australia in the year 1890. The Colonial Office in London continued to have control of some matters, most notably those of the defence, foreign affairs, and international shipping.

1850 to 1900: Establishment of colonial self-government

In the year 1855, limited self-government was approved to New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania by London. A pioneering secret ballot was announced in Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania in 1856, whereby the government provided the voting paper having the names of candidates that voters could select in private. This system was accepted around the world and went on to be known as the famous Australian ballot. The year of 1855 also overlooked the giving way of the right to vote to all male British candidates with the age of 21 years or over in the region of South Australia. This right was protracted to Victoria in the year 1857, and to the region of New South Wales in the year that followed. The other colonies also followed the trail until 1896, when Tasmania became the ending colony to allow universal male suffrage.

Affluent women in the colony of South Australia were allowed to cast their vote in local elections by the year 1861. Henrietta Dugdale was responsible for the inception of the first Australian women’s suffrage society, achieving the feat in Melbourne in the year 1884. Women were deemed eligible to vote for the Parliament of South Australia in the year 1895. This was the first legislation in the world that allowed women also to contest for election to political office and, in 1897, Catherine Helen Spence holds the status of being the first female political candidate for political office, albeit unsuccessfully contesting for election as a representative to the Federal Convention on Australian Federation. Western Australia gave voting rights and permissions to women in 1899.

1901 to 1950: Inception of the Commonwealth of Australia

Amidst calls from back in Britain in London for the founding of an inter-colonial Australian army, alongside the various colonies independently building railway lines, New South Wales Premier Henry Parkes lectured a rural audience in his Tenterfield Oration in the year 1889, declaring that the time was there to build a national executive government. Although he did not live to watch it, his vision was achieved in a period of a little over a decade, and now he is recalled as Australia’s father of federation.

The Commonwealth of Australia was incepted when the Federal Constitution was announced by Lord Hopetoun, the Governor-General, on 1^st January in the year 1901. Since then a system of federalism in Australia came into existence, causing the establishment of a completely new national government and an ongoing partition of powers between the government and the States. The first Federal elections were conducted in the month of March, 1901 which resulted in a thin plurality over the Free Trade Party for the Protectionist Party with the party called the Australian Labor Party (ALP) polling at third position. Labor declared it was willing to offer support to the party that offered concessions and hence, Edmund Barton’s Protectionists incepted a government, where Alfred Deakin was the appointed Attorney-General.

The Immigration Restriction Act passed in the year 1901 was one of the premier laws passed by the newly established Australian parliament. This central piece of the White Australia Policy aimed at restricting immigration from Asia, where the population was significantly greater and the general standard of living considerably lower and was alike the measures taken in other settler societies such as the United States, New Zealand, and Canada. It got strong support in the national parliament, with arguments ranging from simple racism to economic protection. The law allowed a dictation test in any of the European languages to be undertaken to effect and exclude non-white immigrant people.

Australia during World War I:

The outbreak of the World War in Europe in month of August in 1914 automatically involved all of Britain’s dominions and colonies. More than 415,000 Australian men volunteered to bout during the First World War between 1914 and 1918 from a total population of over 4.8 million inhabitants. A rough figure estimates that about 8,140 died in 8 months of fighting on the Turkish coast at Gallipoli. After the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) were taken back in late 1915, and puffed up to five divisions, a lot were taken to France to serve under the British command. Some forces stayed in the Mid-Eastern region, which included members of the Light Horse Regiment. Light horseman of the 12th and 4th Regiments held heavily fortified Beersheba from Turkish forces by the means of a charge of the day before cavalry at full gallop on the day of 31 October, 1917. Notably one of the last great cavalry charges in the entire history, the attack acted as a way opener for the allies to outmaneuver the Gaza-Beersheba Line and make the Ottomans go back to Palestine.

Over 60,000 Australians were killed during the conflict and a rough figure estimates that nearly 160,000 were wounded, a high amount of the 320,000 that had a fight overseas. While the Gallipoli campaign turned out to be a total failure with as many as 8100 Australians being dead, its memory was quite important. Gallipoli acted to transform the Australian mind and went on to become an iconic element of the Australian identity and the founder of nationhood.

In year 1919, former Prime Minister Joseph Cook and Prime Minister Billy Hughes took over Australia’s seat at the peace conference of Versailles. Hughes’ signature on the Treaty of Versailles was first instant Australia signed an international treaty. Hughes asked heavy reparations from Germany and often clashed with the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. Hughes demanded for Australia’s independent representation inside the newly formed League of Nations and he was also the most integral opponent of the inclusion of the proposal of Japanese racial equality that, as an outcome of lobbying by him and a few others was not included in the final Treaty, which led to deep dissatisfaction of Japan. Hughes was quite concerned regarding the rise of Japan. Within a few months of the announcement of the European War in the year 1914, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand seized all German possessions present in the South-West Pacific region. Although Japan held German possessions with the help and agreement of the British, Hughes was concerned by this policy. In the year 1919, the Dominion leaders asked their case to keep their engaged German possessions at the Peace Conference and these areas were given a class C mandates to all the respective Dominions. Japan gained control over the South Pacific Mandate. The Bismarck Archipelago, German New Guinea, and Nauru were assigned to Australia as part of League of Nations Mandates. Hence, the Territory of New Guinea was incorporated under the Australian administration.

1918 to 1939: Dominion status and the Great Depression

Post the war, Prime Minister Billy Hughes led another conservative force, called the Nationalist Party, made from breakaway elements of Labor and the old Liberal party, after the bitter and deep split over the Conscription. Roughly 12,000 Australians died due to the Spanish flu pandemic that spread in the year 1919, thought to be certainly brought in by returning soldiers. The triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia postured a threat in the eyes of a lot of Australians, although it was an inspiration to a small group of socialists. The Communist Party of Australia was built in 1920 and, although it remained electorally insignificant, it gained a little influence in the movement of trade unions and was also banned during the World War II for its open support and help for the Hitler-Stalin Pact with the Menzies Government ineffectively trying to ban it once more at the duration of the Korean War. Irrespective of splits, the party was active till its dissolution towards the end of the Cold War.

Dominion status

Australia obtained independent Sovereign Nation status with the completion of World War I, under the Statute of Westminster. This formalized the 1926 Balfour Declaration, a report that resulted from the 1926 Imperial Conference of British Empire frontrunners in London that defined the Dominions of the Great British Empire. Nevertheless, Australia did not sanction the Statute of Westminster until the year 1942. The Australia Act of the year 1986 removed any remnant links between the British Parliament and the states of Australia. From 1 February 1927, till 12 June 1931, the Northern Territory was partitioned up as Central Australia and North Australia. New South Wales had another territory surrendered, namely Jervis Bay Territory that comprised an area of 6,677 hectares, in the year 1915. The external territories were also added such as Norfolk Island (1914), Ashmore Island, Cartier Islands (1931), the Australian Antarctic Territory transferred from Britain (1933), and Heard Island, McDonald Islands, and Macquarie Island transferred to Australia from Britain (1947).

In 1911, The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was constituted from New South Wales to deliver a location for the planned new federal capital of. The FCT was renamed the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in the year 1938. The Northern Territory was shifted to the Commonwealth from the control of the South Australian government in the year 1911.

Great Depression

Australia was greatly affected by the Great Depression in the 1930s, owing to its heavy dependence on exporting goods, especially primary products such as wheat and wool. Prone by continuous borrowing to fund capital works in the decade of the 1920s, the state and Australian governments were far from secure in the year 1927, at the time during which many economic indicators took a path to the worse. Australia’s dependence on exports left the vulnerability to world market fluctuations. It is worth noting that the state of New South Wales’ debt accounted for nearly half of Australia’s total debt by the month of December in 1927. The situation was an issue of alarm amongst a few economists and politicians, Edward Shann of the University of Western Australia to name one, but most union, political, and business leaders were not willing to admit to the serious problems.

Many plans and strategies to resolve the depression crisis were put forward, with Sir Otto Niemeyer proposing a deflationary plan that involved cuts to government wages and spending. Treasurer Ted Theodore put forward a mildly inflationary plan, while at the same time New South Wales’ Labor Premier, Jack Lang, proposing a radical plan that renounced overseas debt. The Premier’s Plan was finally accepted by state and federal governments in the month of June in 1931, following the deflationary model which was advocated by Niemeyer and also had a reduction of about 20% in the government spending, along with a decrement in bank interest rates and an increment in taxation. With debts mounting to multimillion pound, move and counter-move by Lang and the Scullin and the public demonstrations, then Lyons federal governments, the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Game, had been examining Lang’s instructions to not pay money into the Federal Treasury. Game anticipated it was illegal. Lang did not agree to withdraw his order and, on 13 May, he was officially dismissed by the Governor Game. At the June elections, Lang Labor’s seats collapsed as expected.

Australia improved relatively faster from the financial downturn of the years 1929 and 1930, with word of recovery beginning around the year 1932. Joseph Lyons, The Prime Minister, favored the tough and bold economic measures of the Premiers’ Plan, trailed an orthodox fiscal policy and did not agree to accept the proposals of the Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, which resulted in a default on the overseas debt repayments. Lyons looked after the restoration of Australia’s exports as being the key to Australia’s economic recovery.

Australia during World War II:

Tll the late 1930s, the army was not a major issue for the Australians. At the elections of 1937, both political parties promoted increased defence monetary spending, in the area of increased Japanese aggression in the country of China and Germany’s aggravating aggression in Europe. There was a difference of opinion regarding how the defence spending is to be allocated anyway. The United Australia Party government put weight on cooperation with Britain as a promotion of the policy of imperial defence.The lynchpin of the process was the British navy base located at Singapore and the Royal Navy battle fleet that was hoped to be used in the time of need. This priority was reflected by the Defence spending in the inter-war years. In the period of the years 1921–1936, the expenditure totalled around £40 million on the Royal Australian Navy, about £20 million on the Australian Army and nearly £6 million on the Royal Australian Air Force. In the year 1939, the Navy which included two heavy cruisers and four light cruisers was acclaimed as a service best equipped for wartime.

By the month of September 1939 the army of Australia numbered nearly 3,000 regulars. A recruiting campaign was conducted in late 1938, led by then Major-General Thomas Blamey incremented the reserve military to 80,000 in number. On the day 3 September 1939, the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, in a national radio broadcast, officially declared that the country was at war against Germany.

This way began Australia’s involvement in the six-year global war that rocked the world. Australians were to fight in a different variety of locations, ranging from withstanding the advancement of Hitler’s Panzers in the Siege of Tobruk to turning away the advancement of the Imperial Japanese Army in the campaign of New Guinea. From bombing missions over Europe and Mediterranean navy engagements to fighting the Japanese mini-sub raids at the Sydney Harbour and destructing air raids conducted on the city of Darwin.The war was closer to home at the time that HMAS Sydney was lost with all feet in battle with the German raider Kormoran in the month of November during 1941.

While most of Australia’s supreme forces committed to bout against Hitler in the Middle Eastern region, Japan went forward and attacked Pearl Harbor, the naval base of US in Hawaii, on 8 December in the year 1941. The British battleship Prince of Wales HMS and battle-cruiser HMS Repulse ejected to defend Singapore were sunk pretty soon after. Australia was not prepared for the attack, therefore it was lacking armaments, heavy bombers, modern fighter aircraft, and aircraft carriers. Dutch and Australian Prisoners of war at Tarsau, in Thailand in the year 1943. Around 22,000 Australians were taken by the Japanese out of which 8,000 died as Prisoners of war.

Two battle-ridden Australian divisions were steaming from the Middle East already for Singapore. Churchill wanted them distracted to Burma, but Curtin did not agree, and anxiously waited for their return back to Australia. President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the commander in the region of Philippines, to formulate a Pacific defense plan along Australia in the month of March, 1942. Curtin allowed to place Australian forces within the command of General MacArthur. Curtin had therefore presided at many fundamental change in Australia’s foreign policy. MacArthur shifted his headquarters to the city of Melbourne in March 1942 and since then American troops began massing in Australia. During the time of late May 1942, Japanese midget submarines sank an accommodation vessel in a daring raid on Sydney Harbor.

In an effort to detach Australia, the Japanese scheduled a seaborne invasion of Port Moresby, in the Australian Terrain of New Guinea. On May 1942, the United States Navy engaged the Japanese in the Bout of the Coral Sea and stopped the attack. The Battle of Midway in the month of June defeated the Japanese naval forces and the Japanese army begun a land assault on Moresby from the direction of north. Between the months of July and November in the year 1942, Australian forces repelled Japanese attempts on the city by the means of the Kokoda Track, located in the highlands of New Guinea. The Battle of Milne Bay that occurred in August, 1942 was the first instance of Allied defeat of Japanese forces on land.

The Battle at Buna–Gona, conducted between November 1942 and January 1943, set the way for the sour final stages of the campaign of New Guinea, which extended into 1945. The offensives conducted in New Guinea and Papua of the years 1943 to 1944 were the single biggest series of connected operations which were ever mounted by the armed forces of Australia. On the day of 14 May 1943, the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, though clearly demarcated as a medical vessel, was sunk down by the Japanese raiders off the coast of Queensland killing 268 personnel that including all but one of the nursing staff, further agonizing the popular opinion against Japan.

Of Australia’s wartime inhabitant count of nearly seven million, almost a million women and men served in a branch of these defence services during the time period of six years of warfare. By the end of the war, gross enlistments counted at 727,200 women and men in the Australian Army,48,900 in the RAN, and 216,900 in the RAAF. Over 39,000 personnel were killed or died as POWs, about 8,000 of which were killed as Japanese prisoners.

1950 to 1999: The Post War Boom in Australia

In the political context, Robert Menzies and the Liberal Party of Australia subjugated much of the instant post-war era, beating the Labor government of Ben Chifley in the year 1949, in part over a Labor proposal to nationalize the banks and following a hurting coal strike that was led by the Australian Communist Party. Menzies turned out to be the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister in the context of time, and the Liberal party, in alliance with the rural-based Country Party, aced every federal election till the year 1972.

As the case was with the United States in the early years of 1950s, claims of communist impact in society saw pressures emerge in politics. Evacuees from Soviet conquered Eastern Europe settled to Australia, while to Australia’s north, Mao Zedong’s Communist Party of China aced the Civil War of China in the year 1949 and also in June 1950, South Korea was invaded by Communist North Korea. The Menzies government replied to a United States-led United Nations Security Council appeal for military help for South Korea and sidetracked forces from occupied Japan to start Australia’s participation in the Korean War. After fighting to an unpleasant standstill, the United Nations and North Korea signed a ceasefire agreement in the month of July, 1953. Australian militaries had contributed in such major battles as Maryann San andKapyong. Nearly 17,000 Australians had assisted and casualties totalled to more than 1,400, of which 338 were killed.

During the progression of the Korean War, the Liberal Government tried to ban the Communist Party of Australia, initially by legislation in 1950 and at a later time by referendum, in the year 1951. While both attempts were ineffective, future international events like the defection of Vladimir Petrov, a minor Soviet Embassy official, summed up to a sense of the impending problem that politically favoured Menzies’ Liberal-CP government, as the Labor Party dissected over concerns regarding the of the Communist Party over the movement of trade union. The threats led to one other bitter split and the appearance of the independent Democratic Labor Party (DLP). The DLP remained a significant political force, frequently handling the balance of power in the Senate, until the year 1974. Its licking assisted the Liberal and Country Party.H.V. Evatt was the leader of the Labor Party after Chifley’s death in the year 1951.

The epic housing boom of the post-war era overlooked rapid growth in the suburban areas of the main Australian cities. By the census of 1966, only 14% lived in the rural part of Australia, fallen from 31 per cent in the year 1933 and only 8% lived on farms. Full employment implied high standards of living and drastic increases in ownership of houses, and by the time of 1960s, Australia had the highest equitable spread of income across the globe. Car ownership flourished as well, with the1971 census data giving the idea that 96.4 per cent of Australian houses in the early 1970s owned one car at the least. Nevertheless, not all felt the quick suburban growth was essential.

In the year1954, the Menzies Government officially announced the inception of the two-tiered TV system which was basically a government-funded service that was run by the ABC, along with two commercial services in Melbourne and Sydney, with the Summer Olympics of 1956 in Melbourne being a huge driving force for the introduction of television to Australia. Color TV began broadcasting soon in the year 1975. Menzies presided over a period of uninterrupted economic boom and the initial stages of sweeping social revolution with the entrance of rock and roll music and television in the 1950s. In the year 1958, Australian country music singer Slim Dusty, that would go on to become the musical embodiment of the rural part of Australia, had Australia’s foremost international music chart hit by his song “Pub With No Beer”. Before quieting through the 1960s, the Australian cinema made a small portion of its own content in the 1950s, but Hollywood and British studios performed a string of successful epics from Australian literature that also featured homegrown starsPeter Finch and Chips Rafferty.

Menzies continued to be a staunch enthusiast of links to the monarchy and Commonwealth of Nations and formalized an association with the United States, but also hurled post-war trade with Japan, starting growth of the coal exports of Australia, iron ore as well as mineral resources,which would result in steady climb until Japan went on to be the largest trading partner of Australia. When Menzies left his seat in 1965, he was taken over as Prime Minister and Liberal leader by Harold Holt. However, Holt died by being drowned while swimming at a beach in the month of December in the year 1967, and was further replaced by John Gorton (1968–1971), who was succeeded by William McMahon (1971–1972).

1954: Arrival of Postwar migrants in Australia

After World War II, the Chifley Labor government provoked a massive program of European immigration. All the parties had the same view that the country is supposed to populate or perish. Calwell spoke for ten British immigrants for every1 from other countries, although the numbers of British migrants was short of the expected, despite the assistance of government.

Migration resulted in the arrival of large numbers of central and southern Europeans to Australia for the very first time. About 4.2 million settlers arrived between the years 1945 and 1985, of which nearly 40 per cent came from Ireland and Britain. The Australian population crossed 10 million in the year 1959.

In the month of May in 1958, the Menzies Government allowed the Migration Act 1958 that effectively replaced the Immigration Restriction Act’s randomly applied dictation test with a new and effective entry permit system, which reflected skills and economic criteria. Further changes during the decade of 1960s effectively resulted in the end of the White Australia Policy. The policy was legally ended in the year 1973.

The renowned Sydney Opera House officially opened in the year 1973. In the same year, Patrick White was rewarded with the title of being the first Australian to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. Since the early 1970s, the Australian theatre began production of the Australian New Wave of films that were based on unique themes of Australia. Australian History had started appearing on school curriculums by the year 1975. The South Australian Film Corporation leaded in supporting filmmaking, including successes such as theessential Australian films such as Gallipoli (1981), Breaker Morant (1980),Sunday Too Far Away (1974), Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). The national funding body, the Australian Film Commission, was established in 1975.

Significant changes were also made to Australia’s censorship laws since the new Liberal Minister for Excise and Customs, Don Chipp, was appointed in the year 1969. Before that in the year 1968, Nicholas Garland’s and Barry Humphries’s cartoon book that featured the larrikin character Barry McKenzie was effectively banned. A few years later, the book had been turned into a film, having the support of government funding. Barry McKenzie both parodied as well as supported Australian nationalism.

Australia’s Alliances:

During the early 1950s, the Menzies government overlooked Australia as a part of the triple alliance in concatenation with both the traditional ally Britain and the United States.Initially, the Australian leadership went in for a consistently pro-British line in terms of diplomacy, while at the same time digging for opportunities to interest the United States in South East Asia. Like this, the government committed military forces to the Malayan Emergency and the Korean War, and hosted nuclear tests for the British after the year 1952. Australia happened to be the only Commonwealth country to provide support to the British during the Suez Crisis.

However, as British dominance declined in South-Eastern Asia, the United States alliance begun to have bigger significance for the Australian economy and Australian leaders. British investment in Australia continued to be significant until the years of late 1970s, but British trade declined through the 1960s and 1950s. During late 1950s, the Australian Army started to re-equip using United States military equipment. In the year 1962, the United States established a naval station for communications at North West Cape, the premier of several that were built over the next decade. Most importantly, in 1962, Australian Army advisers were sent to help South Vietnamese military in a progressing conflict which did not have a British part.

The dominant theme in Australia’s foreign policy following the reign of Australia’s Liberal-Country Party governments of the decades of 1950s as well as the 1960s was against communism. It was specifically a terror of China which instigated Australian foreign policy decisions for almost 20 years. The ANZUS security treaty that had been signed in the year 1951 had its roots in New Zealand’s and Australias fears of a rearmed Japan. Its responsibilities on Australia, the United States, and New Zealand are imprecise, but its effect on Australian foreign policy thinking is significant at times. The SEATO treaty that was signed three years later, vividly demonstrated Australia’s position as an ally of the United States in the Cold War that was emerging.

 

1955 to 1975: Australia and the Vietnam War

 

By the year 1965, Australia had incremented the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), and in the month of April the Government also made a sudden announcement stating that after close talks with the United States, a battalion of army troops was supposed to be sent to the area of South Vietnam. In parliament, Menzies emphasized the point that their alliances willingly made demands on them. The alliance which was related was presumably SEATO, and the nation of Australia was giving military assistance as South Vietnam, which was a signatory to SEATO, had requested it apparently. Documents that were released in the year 1971 implied that the decision to commit troops was taken by the United States and Australia, not at the asking of South Vietnam. By the year 1968, there were 3 Australian Army battalions at any single time at 1ATF (the 1st Australian Task Force) base at Nui Dat in surplus to the advisers of the AATTV positioned throughout Vietnam, and personnel achieved a peak that totalled almost 8,000, comprising nearly 1/3rd of the combat capacity of the army. Between the decade of 1962 and 1972,nearly59,000 personnel volunteered in Vietnam that including ground troops, air assets, and naval forces. The Labor Party of the opposition opposed the commitment of the military to Vietnam and the national service needed to support the commitment level.In the month of July in 1966, Harold Holt, the new Prime Minister, expressed the support of his government for the US, the help in Vietnam in particular.

The LiberalCP Government was brought back with a huge majority in elections that were conducted in December 1966, which fought over national security issues that included Vietnam. Leader of the Labor Party since 1960, Arthur Calwell, retired in favour of Gough Whitlam, his deputy, a few months later.

 

Despite the feelings of Holt and the democratic success of his government in the year 1966, the war became quite unpopular in Australia as well as the United States. The activities to terminate Australia’s participation gathered strength after the Tet Offensive of early in the year 1968 and mandatory national service became very unpopular. In the election of 1969, the government hung on irrespective of a significant downfall in popularity. Moratorium marches conducted across Australia in the mid-1970sinvited large crowds. As the Nixon administration continued with the war and began the drawing of troops, the Australian Government followed the course. In November 1970, the premier 1st Australian Task Force was decreased to two battalions and in the month of November in 1971, 1ATF was officially and completely withdrawn from Vietnam. The last military advisers of the AATTV were also taken out by the Whitlam Labor Government in the end of 1972. The Australian military participation in Vietnam had gone on for 10 years, and incompletely human cost, more than 500 were dead and nearly 2,000 wounded. The war cost Australia about $218 million between the years 1962 and 1972.

 

 

1960s: Australian Civil Rights

 

The 1960s proved to be a key decade for the introduction and modification of indigenous rights. In the year 1962, the Menzies Government’s Commonwealth Electoral Act states the condition under which all Indigenous people must have the right to vote at the federal elections, which was of prior importance as prior to this, indigenous people in western Australia, Queensland, and wards of the state in the Territory of North had been excluded from voting and not provided electoral rights unless they were ex-servicemen. In the year 1965, Queensland achieved the feat of being the last state to confer state voting rights on the Aborigines.A 1967 Referendum that was called by the Holt Government resulted in the voting of Australians by a 90 per cent majority to bring change in the Australian constitution such thatit includes all Aborigines in the national census, at the same time allowing the Federal parliament to legislate on the behalf of them.

Indigenous Australians started taking up representation in the Australian parliament. In the year 1971, the Liberal Neville Bonner became the first Aborigine in Federal Parliament, being appointed to the Senate. Bonner stayed in the Senate until the year 1983. Hyacinth Tungutalum of the Country Liberal Party in Eric Deeral of the National Party of Queensland and the Northern Territory became the first Indigenous people elected to state and territory legislatures in 1974. In the year 1976, Sir Douglas Nicholls was appointed Governor of South Australia. Consequently, he became the first Aborigine to hold Australia’s vice-regal office.None of the indigenous people were elected to the House of Representatives, until the West Australian Liberal Ken Wyatt came along in August 2010.

 

Many individuals and groups were active in the achievement of indigenous rights from the decade of 1960s. Charles Perkins,one of the early Aboriginal graduates from the University of Sydney, helped organize the freedom rides into many parts of Australia that further exposed the inequality and discrimination. In the year 1966, the Wave Hill station’s Gurindji people started the Gurindji strike in a search for equal pay as well as recognition of land rights. One of the first laws of the Whitlam Government was in the direction of the establishment of a Royal Commission into land rights in the Northern Territory. Legislation based on the revelation was passed to law by the Fraser Government in 1976.

In the year 1974, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration provided women with the full wage of an adult. Although resistance to women working in a few industries persisted until well into the decade of the 1970s. Because of hindrance from elements of the movement of the Unions,it took until 1975 for women to be recognized on Melbourne’s trams as drivers. Australia had led the globe in introducing women’s suffrage rights in the late 19th century, while Edith Cowan was voted to the West Australian Legislative Assembly in the year 1921. The first woman to hold a Cabinet post was Dame Enid Lyons, in the 1949 ministry of Robert Menzies and ultimately Rosemary Follett was voted Chief Minister of the Capital Territory of Australia in 1989, achieving the feat of being the first woman elected to preside over a state or territory.

 

1970 to 1983: Fraser and Whitlam

 

Labor won office under Gough Whitlam, being elected in December 1972 having spent nearly 25 years in opposition, introducing a major program of social reform and change, dramatically increasing the Federal budget. Within a few weeks of its appointment, the last military advisers in Vietnam were called back with the national service being put to an end. The People’s Republic of China was recognized and the Taiwan embassy was closed. Over the course of the next few years, university fees were removed and a health care scheme was established on a national level. Important modifications and changes were made to the school funding as well.

 

In the year 1974, Whitlam chose John Kerr, presiding Chief Justice of New South Wales and a previous member of the Labor Party to serve as Governor-General. The Whitlam Government was elected again with a lowered majority in the lower house in the elections of 1974. In 1975, the government considered borrowing US$4 billion in foreign loans. Minister Rex Connor organized secret discussions with broker expert in loan from Pakistan, and Jim Cairns, the Treasurer, misled parliament on the issue. Arguing the government was not competent enough after the Loans Affair, the opposition Liberal-Country Party Alliance delayed the flow of the government’s money bills in the Senate, till the government promised a new election process to be held. Whitlam did not agree while the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser, insisted. The deadlock was over when the Whitlam government got discharged by the Governor-General, John Kerr on the day 11 November, 1975, seeing the instalment of Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister, with the election pending. The reserve powers which were granted to the Governor-General by default as stated in the Australian Constitution allowed an elected government to be terminated without any prior warning by the Monarch’s representative.At elections that were conducted during late 1975, Malcolm Fraser and the Coalition were voted, resulting in a landslide victory.

 

The Fraser Government subsequently won two consecutive elections. Fraser maintained some of the social restructurings of the Whitlam era, at the same time seeking increased economic restraint. His government comprised Neville Bonner, the first Aboriginal federal parliamentarian, and in the year 1976, the Parliament officially passed and cleared the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976, which was limited to the Northern Territory, affirming inalienable freehold label to a few of the traditional lands. Fraser incepted multicultural broadcaster SBS warmly welcomed the Vietnamese boat people, refugees, opposing the white rule of the minority during the Apartheid of South Africa and Rhodesia and opposed Soviet expansionism. A major program of economic reform was not pursued anyway and by the year 1983, it saw the Australian economy go into recession, albeit the effect of heavy drought. Fraser had promoted states’ rights and the government-controlled by him did not agree to use Commonwealth powers to prevent the construction of the Franklin Dam in the city of Tasmania in the year 1982. Don Chipp,a Liberal minister, had parted off from the party to make a social liberal party, named the Australian Democrats in the year 1977 and the Franklin Dam proposal donated to the appearance of a powerful Environmental crusade in Australia, with divisions including the Australian Greens, a political party that later arose out of Tasmania to follow environmentalism as well as left-wing economic and social policies.

 

1983 to 1996: Hawke and Keating

 

The new Parliament House which was located in Canberra was opened in 1988. Bob Hawke, a less polarizing Labor leader as compared to Whitlam, won over Fraser in the 1983 Election. Hawke continued to retain the office until a 1991 Labor Party spill resulted in him being replaced by Paul Keating.

 

The new government halted the Franklin Dam project through the High Court of Australia. Hawke, along with Treasurer Paul Keating broke with the Keynesian economics which had been traditionally favoured by the Labor party. Instead of doing it, they came up with a more efficient economy and took industrial and micro-economic relations reform to be designed to increase competitiveness and efficiency.The Australian Bicentenary was illustrious in the year 1988 alongside the opening of Canberra’s new Parliament House.

 

Hawke and Keating regularly stressed the positive role that Australia was capable of playing as an independent and activist middle power. Supporter of the US alliance as he was, Hawke committed Australian navy forces to the Gulf War, after the invasion by Iraq of Kuwait in the year 1990. After four successful elections, although albeit a hampering Australian economy and falling employment, the intense fight between Keating and Hawke led the Labor Party to decide on replacing Hawke as a leader and Paul Keating became the Prime Minister in the year 1991. During his tenure in office, Keating emphasized links with the region of Asia Pacific, working closely with Suharto, the Indonesian President, and campaigned to highlight and increase the role of APEC as an integral forum for economic cooperation. Keating was involved in the indigenous affairs and the Australian High Court’s historic Mabo decision in the year 1992 needed a legislative response for the recognition of Indigenous title to land, concluding in the Land Fund Act in 1994 and the Native Title Act of 1993. In the latter year, Keating also managed to establish a Republic Advisory Committee that examined options for Australia to become a republic.

 

With incrementing interest rates, foreign debt, and unemployment still looming high, and concluding to a series of ministerial resignations, Keating eventually lost the Election to the Liberals’ in 1996 to John Howard.

 

1996 to 2007: Australia under the Howard Government

John Howard, along with a LiberalNational Party coalition, acted as the Prime Minister from the year 1996 till 2007, boasting the second-longest prime ministerial term after the renowned Menzies. A part of the very initial programs instigated by the Howard government was a gun control scheme, which was due to a preceding mass shooting at Port Arthur. The government also brought in many industrial relations reforms, in particular as regards efficiency on the waterfront. Concluding the 1996 election, Treasurer Peter Costello and Howard proposed a GST (Goods and Services Tax) that they successfully provided to the electorate in the year 1998.

 

Australia was the host of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney to gain significant international acclaim. The Opening Ceremony featured a number of iconic Australian images and history,with the flame ceremony honouring women athletes included the swift swimmer Dawn Fraser, along with Cathy Freeman, a runner with Aboriginal descent, lighting the Olympic flame.

 

 

2007 to Present: Current Australia

 

The Labor Party’s Kevin Rudd successfully won over Howard at the election of the year 2007, and Rudd presided in the office until June 2010, when he was swapped as the party’s leader. Rudd put his term in office to use while symbolically ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and ran a parliamentary apology that was historic, to the Stolen Generation. The Chinese speaking former mandarin diplomat also followed active foreign policy and primarily sought to prompt a price on carbon in the Australian economy to battle global warming. His tenure as prime minister concurred with the first phases of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2010, to which his government retorted through a huge package of economic stimulus, the administration of which later substantiated to be controversial. Following nearly two and half decades of economic restructuring and amid booming trade with Asia, Australia evaded recession following the failure of financial markets, in blatant contrast to many other Western economies.

 

The Labor Party switched Rudd with Julia Gillard in 2010, and Gillard turned out to be the first woman prime minister in the history of Australia. Following the election of 2010, Labor held office in the first hung parliament ever since the 1940 election. Leadership competition sustained and Kevin Rudd was restored as prime minister in a Labor leadership tumble on 27 June 2013. At the elections in 2013, the Second Rudd Government gave away office and the Liberal-National Abbott Government was formed. The Abbott Government clinchedJapan and Australia Economic Partnership Agreement as well as the Australia Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Events in 2015

1. 2015 March – Parliament passes a law requiring its internet and mobile phone providers to store customer data for two years as an anti-terror measure.
2. 2015 June – Government announces 20-year plan to develop the infrastructure of the north, including transport and water resources.
3. 15 September 2015 – Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull replaces Tony Abbott as prime minister after a successful Liberal Party leadership challenge.
4. 20 March- Death of Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia.
5. October 2015 A 15-year-old with a Middle Eastern background shoots dead a NSW police civilian employee. He is killed by officers on the scene.
6. Brisbane International (QLD), 4 – 11 January

Brisbane International brings world-class tennis to Queensland in the first week of January as the greatest players in the world prepare for the Australian Open. In 2015 Roger Federer will once again return to the Queensland Tennis Centre for his second shot at the trophy.

7. AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 (NSW, ACT, QLD, VIC), 9 January – 31 January

This year Australia will be holding the biggest sporting event in Asia, the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015. Over the course of 23 days, 16 teams will play in 32 matches in order to be crowned the winner of this prestigious tournament. The five host cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Canberra and Brisbane) will come alive as fans from around the world descend upon them in support of their teams and to enjoy the unrivalled nature, wildlife, food and drink that these great cosmopolitan cities have to offer.

8. Australian Open – The Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific (VIC), 19 January – 1 February

For two weeks in January, the eyes of the world zone in on Melbourne Park as the best tennis players on the planet fight it out for one of the biggest Grand Slam titles the sport has to offer – the Australian Open. Off the court there is plenty to see and do with brands providing entertainment on the live stage, official merchandise can be bought in stores onsite and there are a plethora of food outlets serving up an array of delicious food. Be sure to check out the Autograph Island where you can get up close to your favourite player.

9. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (NSW), 12 – 16 April

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is a celebration of fashion and culture attracting Australia’s most innovative fashion designers, red carpet celebrities and retailers in a style-packed spectacular to unveil the Spring Summer 2014/15 Collections.

10. Emirates Australian Open Golf Championship (NSW), 26 – 29 November

The Emirates Australian Open is Australia’s most prestigious golf championship and the one every player wants to win. It has a rich, century-old history and always draws the nation’s best players home to vie for the Stonehaven Cup.

A catalogue of major events in Australia in 2016

2016

January

Jan 5, 2016 – Australia kicked off 2016 on a bad note after three days of heavy rain caused widespread flooding. This lead to evacuations especially in the Hunter Region, New South Wales.

Jan 28, 2016 – the Federal Government announced that it would provide a national framework to offer compensation to victims of institutional sexual. This was per the recommendations of the Royal Commission. The premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews attended the annual Pride March for the LGBTI community. It was during this march that he announced that the Government would formally issue an apology to those who were convicted of homosexuality.

Jan 11-30,2016 –  Novak Djokovic won the men’s singles in the Australian Open by defeating Andy Murray while Angelique Kerber won the female’s singles by getting a victory over defending champion Serena Williams in the final.

March

Mar 20 – Roseburg won the F1 Australian Grand Prix from fellow Mercedes Benz teammate Lewis Hamilton in a hotly contested race.

April

Apr 15 – The Prime Minister announced the plan to hold early parliamentary and Senate elections.

July

Jul 2 – The liberal national coalition secures a narrow victory over the Labor party.

August 

Aug 10 – The Australian government was accused of allowing the systematic abuse of refugees and asylum seekers. This led to the closure of a detention center on New Guinea Island. The government did state that it wouldn’t relocate the people present at the center on Australian soil.

Aug 31 – The first indigenous woman, Linda Burney, get elected to Australia’s lower house of parliament.

September

Sept 13 – The government announced the permanent closure of a research station on Macquarie Island.

Sept 15 – Controversial politician Pauline Hanson called for an end to Muslim migration as the government acknowledged that its air force took part in a raid led by the USA in Syria. November

Nov 7, 2016 – Government’s bid for same sex legalization defeated. The government also brokered a deal that saw the refugees held in detention centers on the Pacific islands relocated to the United States of America.

Nov 25 – Neil Prakash was arrested in Turkey. He was considered to be Australia’s most wanted criminal. The Islamic State militant was initially thought to have been killed in an air strike in Iraq.

December

Dec 23, 2016- The police arrested a group of young men who were suspected of orchestrating a terrorist attack in Melbourne. The attack was planned for Christmas Day.

2016 was a major sports hub for athletes as:

Jan 21-24, – Australian Simon Gerrans won his fourth Tour Down Under by a mere 9 seconds in January. He has the most wins in the cycling event.

June 1- In the rugby scene, the Queensland was victorious in their first game as they defeated New South Wales to win the 2016 State of Origin series. Queensland won the series even though the New South Wales won the third match.

October 1 the Western Bulldogs defeated the Sydney Swans to lift the 2016 Australian Rules football trophy.

The Sutherland Sharks were also victorious on October 2. They defeated Melbourne Storm to win the National Rugby League Grand Final.

The Melbourne cup was won by horse Almandine which was ridden by Kerr in McEvoy on November 1.

2016 also saw artists and authors in Australia get recognition as author Charlotte Wood won the 2016 Stella Prize for her bestselling book The Natural Way of Things on April 21. The portrait of Barry Humphries led to Louise Harman winning the 2016 Archibald Prize on Jul 15.

A catalogue of major events in Australia in 2017

The year has just passed the halfway mark. 2017 has been full of activities, and the following is a detailed description of what our country has experienced.

January

Jan 3, 2017 – Indonesia suspended its military cooperation with Australia. This was due to the discovery of material that allegedly insulted the Indonesian founding principles was found on display at an Australian military base.

Jan 18, Premier Mike Baird announces his resignation. He was the premier of New South Wales. His replacement was sworn into office five days later. Gladys Berejiklian became the 45^th premier of New South Wales.

February

Feb 10 – The country suffered a massive heat wave in the south-eastern region. This resulted in power loss in a lot of parts of the country while extremely high temperatures were recorded. Heavy rains followed the heat wave and caused widespread flooding. Perth experienced a wet day this month. It was only 6mm short of the existing record which was set in 1992.

Feb 15 -Australian Olympic gold medalist grant Hackett was found by police after a day when he was reported missing.

March

 Mar 11, 2017 – the Western Australian state held its elections. The victorious party was the Labor Party led which defeated the Liberal government party.

Mar 24- the South Australian Government announced a multimillion dollar plan which would oversee the development of Australia’s largest grid-connected battery and a 250MW power plant to provide emergency back-up power. The government stated that state wide blackout experienced in September 2016 was its main reason for coming up with this plan. While still on the power topic the Hazelwood power station was taken off line for the first time since it began operating in 1964.

Mar 30 – was also the month that the government had to order the evacuation of people from the southern Queensland and Northern South Wales regions due to cyclone Debbie that submerged some areas in approximately ten feet of water.

May

May 25, 2017 – Indigenous leaders from across the country rejected a bid for recognition in the country’s constitution. They decided instead to push for representation in Parliament.

June

June 2 – The Former Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources was sentenced to 10 years in prison for criminal misconduct. He was found to have corruptly issued mining licenses at Doyles Creek.

5 June – Australia suffered a deadly siege in Melbourne. The ordeal was described as a terrorist attack. A gunman was shot dead after he had held a woman hostage and killed a man at an apartment block.

Jun 20, 2017 – The Australian air force was forced to suspend any operations they had over Syria after Russia warned it would target planes from the US-Australian coalition.

Major Events in Australia in 2018

As two fires rage out of control south of Sydney, authorities have evacuated the Royal National Park, with smoke visible throughout the city. More than 100 firemen, assisted by water bombers and planes, battled two fires in the 15,000-hectare park, destroying almost 600 hectares of vegetation. They put out a minor fire on Saturday but worked through the night and into Sunday to keep the more significant fire from spreading.

January

26 January

Thousands of demonstrators participate in “Invasion Day” marches in Sydney and Melbourne. The Invasion Day march in Melbourne on January 26 drew massive numbers. The 60,000-strong crowd in Melbourne was the largest of a series of rallies held around the country. In addition, smaller marches were staged in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, and Darwin, honouring Indigenous resistance and advocating an end to “racist” and destructive government policies.

February

1 February

After being unable to locate evidence verifying his renunciation of British citizenship, David Feeney resigns as MP for Batman. The high court heard that Victorian MP David Feeney is still unable to present any formal proof from British or Irish authorities indicating he made efforts to relinquish his citizenship and privileges. On February 1, legal lawyers for David Feeney and Katy Gallagher, the first two Labor members caught up in the citizenship scandal, appeared in Brisbane’s high court.

26 February

New South Wales MP Michael McCormack defeats Queensland MP George Christensen in the National Party of Australia leadership election, becoming Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister due to Barnaby Joyce’s resignation. McCormack has been a member of the New South Wales House of Representatives since 2010, representing the Riverina Division. Before entering politics, he worked as a newspaper editor.

March

3 March

At the 2018 Tasmanian state election, the Liberal Party, led by Will Hodgman, won a second term in power, although with a minor majority. Premier Will Hodgman’s four-year-old Liberal government was re-elected for a second term. The Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Rebecca White, and the Greens, led by Cassy O’Connor, were defeated. For the first time, the Jacqui Lambie Network ran in a state election; however, the party did not gain any seats, and its leader, Jacqui Lambie, did not run.

5 March

The Australian Border Force raids a family house in Biloela, Queensland, early in the morning and forcefully removes a Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seeker family, detaining them in Melbourne before sending them to Christmas Island. The family’s suffering attracts global attention, prompting supporters to start the Home to Bilo campaign.

14 March

The South African foreign ministry expressed “regret” at Peter Dutton’s suggestion to consider White South African farmers refugees, claiming that “they need aid from a civilised country.” The South African foreign ministry summoned the Australian High Commissioner, expressing its outrage over Dutton’s words and demanding a “full apology.”

April

20 April

After discoveries in the banking royal inquiry that the financial services business paid consumers for financial advice that was not delivered and subsequently deceived the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Craig Meller resigned as CEO of AMP Limited. AMP issued unequivocal apologies to its consumers in conjunction with the departure. This week, the royal inquiry heard that AMP misled the corporate watchdog ASIC for nearly a decade to hide its practice of charging clients fees for advice that was never provided.

May

9 May

In a rally to start the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ “Change the Rules” campaign, an estimated 100,000 union employees march through Melbourne’s CBD protesting labour conditions. Hobart City Centre (also known as Hobart CBD) is a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, including the original settlement, the central business centre, and other built-up regions.

22 May

The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse instances in the 1970s by Newcastle Local Court. In Adelaide, South Australia, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Australia. From 2001 until 2018, Philip Edward Wilson, an Australian Roman Catholic prelate, served as the ninth Archbishop of Adelaide.

June

4 June

Woolworths Supermarkets has announced a reduction in plastic packaging in its stores, including removing straws and plastic wrapping on fresh fruit. The move is part of a strategy by the store to eliminate 2.1 million kg of plastic every year. In addition, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified hardwood cutlery, and paper cups and plates are part of the expanded sustainable picnicware offering. Woolworths is also giving sugarcane pulp bowls and plates.

23 June

The Liberal Party wins a by-election in the Darling Range, boosting its Western Australian Legislative Assembly representation. After more than three-quarters of the ballots were tallied, a significant 9.1% swing from Labor to the Liberals delivered the party’s candidate, Alyssa Hayden, 53.3 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. The former Upper House MP, who lost her seat in last year’s state election, would be the next Member of Parliament for Darling Range, a traditionally Liberal constituency.

July

1 July

Megan Clark takes over as the first Director-General of the Australian Space Agency. Presbyterian Ladies’ College-educated Clark. Clark received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the University of Western Australia in 1981 and a Doctorate in Economic Geology from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1987.

August

6 August

Sky News Australia has been chastised for giving Blair Cottrell, the head of the far-right United Patriots Front, a one-on-one interview on The Adam Giles Show to debate immigration. Laura Jayes and David Speers, both Sky News presenters, were among those who criticised his presence on the show.

September

15 September

The Queensland Government has announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the individual’s arrest who contaminated strawberries with needles and pins. Several incidences of pollution have been reported in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. Later on, the infection spread to strawberries cultivated in Western Australia. The Queensland Government is the democratically elected administrative authority of Queensland, Australia. Queensland’s government is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy established in 1859 and has been altered several times since then.

October

15 October

Many neo-Nazis have infiltrated the NSW National Party and the Young Nationals, with several members being examined for possible neo-Nazi ties. These attempts were rejected by Nationals leader Michael McCormack, who stated that the party would not accept extremism or hate politics. People who participate in such extremism will not be accepted into our party.

November

24 November

At the 2018 Victorian state election, the Labor Party, led by Daniel Andrews, was re-elected with a more significant majority. Daniel Michael Andrews (born July 6, 1972) is an Australian politician who has served as the 48th Premier of Victoria and the leader of the Victorian Labor Party since December 2010. Andrews began his career as a research and political officer before being elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Mulgrave district in 2002.

December

15 December

Australia has formally recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. However, some perceive the plan as contentious and odd since partially recognising Jerusalem is unlikely to satisfy both Israelis and Palestinians. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the area of Jerusalem known as West Jerusalem remained under Israeli administration.

24 December

Thousands of inhabitants of a 36-story apartment complex in Sydney Olympic Park have been ordered to evacuate due to structural problems and worries the structure will collapse. Sydney Olympic Park is a neighbourhood of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of Sydney’s central business district and within the City of Parramatta Council’s local government area. Olympic Park is the popular moniker, although the actual name is Sydney Olympic Park.

Major Events in Australia in 2019

January

3 January

A double stabbing at the Church of Scientology’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood results in the death of one man and the injury of another. The Church of Scientology is a conglomerate of corporate enterprises and other organisations dedicated to the practice, administration, and transmission of Scientology described as a cult, a corporation, and a new religious movement.

5 January

Independent Senator Fraser Anning attends a far-right political gathering in Melbourne, highlighted by scuffles with police and counter-protesters and admits to utilising taxpayer-funded transport to attend the event. William Fraser Anning, an Australian politician who served as a senator for Queensland from November 2017 until June 2019, was born on October 14, 1949.

February

4 February

Parliament receives the Royal Commission’s final report into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation, and Financial Services Industry. There are 76 suggestions in the study. Authorities established the inquiry in response to media reports of a culture of greed among many Australian financial organisations. A following parliamentary probe suggested a royal commission, citing the appropriate government bodies’ lack of regulatory engagement.

12 February

After a loss on the floor of the House of Representatives, the Liberal-National Coalition government becomes the first Australian federal administration to lose a vote on its legislation in 78 years. The Coalition has been in power since the federal election of 2013 and was recently re-elected in the Australian federal election of 2019. Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister since August 2018, leads the group.

March

13 March

Following Cardinal George Pell’s conviction for the sexual assault of two choirboys, Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in jail. George Pell AC, an Australian Catholic cardinal, was born on June 8, 1941. 2014-2019 he was the first prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. 2013-2018 he was a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers. Cardinal George Pell was ordained as a priest in 1966 and a bishop in 1987 before being elevated to cardinal in 2003.

 

April

11 April

After winning a defamation action against The Daily Telegraph, actor Geoffrey Rush was granted $850,000 in damages. Geoffrey Roy Rush AC, an Australian actor and narrator, was born on July 6, 1951. He is one of just 24 persons to win the Triple Crown of Acting, including an Academy Award for cinema, a Primetime Emmy Award for television, and a Tony Award for theatre.

May

16 May

At 89, Australia’s 23rd Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, passes away. Robert James Lee Hawke AC, GCL was an Australian politician who was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia, serving as the head of the Australian Labor Party from 1983 to 1991. (ALP). Hawke was born in the South Australian town of Border Town. He studied at the University of Western Australia before becoming a Rhodes Scholar at University College, Oxford. He broke a world record for downing a yard of ale in 11 seconds.

June

24 June

Authorities evacuated the Darwin CBD after the city was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that originated in Indonesia. On Monday, the earthquake’s epicentre was in the Banda Sea, north of Timor-Leste, prompting reports of significant shocks in Darwin. However, after 1 p.m., the Bureau of Meteorology issued an advisory stating that there was no tsunami hazard to Australia due to the earthquake.

July

1 July

David Hurley is sworn in as Australia’s 27th Governor-General. General David John Hurley, born on August 26, 1953, is the 27th Governor-General of Australia, taking office on July 1, 2019. He served as New South Wales’ 38th governor from 2014 to 2019.

8 July

Talisman Saber 2019 is a joint military exercise between Australia and the United States. Talisman Sabre 2019 commenced in July 2019 with over 34,000 soldiers from 18 nations participating, including Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. On the USS Ronald Reagan, the Exercise formally began on July 8, 2019. The Tianwangxing Uranus, a Type 815G Dongdiao-class cruiser, was dispatched again by the Chinese Navy. During the drill aboard the USS Wasp, the F-35B made its debut in Australia. It was also the first time HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide, both Canberra-class LHDs, have operated together.

August

13 August

Mert Ney, a lone attacker, was accused on August 13 of the murder of Michaela Dunn, who was allegedly engaging in sex work in his apartment room. Ney walked onto York Street after the murder of Dunn, stabbed Linda Bo with a kitchen knife randomly, and then jumped aboard random automobiles, hurling profanities and threatening citizens. Mert Ney was sentenced to 44 years in jail by Justice Peter Johnson of the New South Wales Supreme Court on May 14, 2021, with a 33-year non-parole period.

September

9 September

In Queensland’s Scenic Rim region, Ablaze destroys homes and structures, including the historic Binna Burra Lodge. Binna Burra is a piece of private property and a mountain lodge in the Queensland town of Binna Burra, which Lamington National Park borders. The Scenic Rim Region includes it as well. The resort is located in the magnificent fringe hinterland of the Gold Coast, 75 kilometres (47 miles) south of Brisbane on the Lamington Plateau in the McPherson Range. The upper Coomera River’s watershed includes Binna Burra.

October

26 October

Climbing Uluru is prohibited by the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Authority. Uluru is also known as Ayers Rock, and it is formally named Uluru / Ayers Rock. It is a massive sandstone formation in Australia’s central region. It is located 335 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory’s southern region. Uluru is a well-known natural feature in Australia that has been a popular tourist attraction since the late 1930s. It is also one of Australia’s most important indigenous sites.

November

11 November

In New South Wales, a week-long State of Emergency has been issued, and the Australian Defence Force has been activated in response to increasing wildfire warnings. Authorities in New South Wales, Australia, issued a seven-day emergency on Thursday after a record heatwave fueled massive bushfires throughout the province. Over 100 fires have been burning in the state for weeks, with half of them still uncontained, including a “mega-blaze” that has engulfed Sydney in a veil of deadly smoke.

December

 

30 December

Following bushfires on the NSW South Coast and Victoria’s East Gippsland, eight people were murdered, hundreds of homes were burnt, and the Royal Australian Navy was called in to aid with evacuation attempts. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is Australia’s primary naval force and, along with the Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force, forms part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Major Events in Australia in 2020

January

2 January

Due to the extraordinary risk of bushfires, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces a state of disaster for six local government districts and three mountain destinations. The flames have claimed the lives of two individuals in eastern Victoria, with 17 people still missing. On Thursday night, Andrews conducted a late-night press conference, advising people in high-risk locations to escape as quickly as possible.

20 January

A hail storm rips across Canberra, Australia’s capital, and the neighbouring districts of New South Wales, including places hit by firestorms earlier this year. The storm, up to 177 kph, showered golf-ball-sized hail, which shattered vehicle windows and injured birds. The hail damaged thousands of automobiles and residences, which also tore limbs off trees and caused localised flooding. It came less than 24 hours after the potential enormous dust storms blanketed the region, blocking out the sun and blanketing whole villages.

February

4 February

The Australian Greens elect Adam Bandt as their leader without opposition, alongside Larissa Waters and Nick McKim as co-deputy leaders. Adam Paul Bandt is a potential Australian politician and the leader of the Australian Greens and the federal Member of Parliament for Melbourne. He was born on March 11, 1972. Adam Paul Bandt served as the Greens’ co-deputy leader from 2012-2015 & 2017-2020.

March

1 March

The COVID-19 epidemic has claimed its first victim in Australia. Premier Mark McGowan announced a state of emergency on March 15. Western Australia closed its borders to Australia on March 24, and the state established internal barriers on April 1. The state had abolished community transmission of COVID-19 by mid-April 2020, making it one of the few places to do it.

21 March

The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Michael Gunner, has announced that severe border restrictions will be implemented beginning at 4:00 p.m. on March 24. Anyone arriving from out of state or from another country will be required to self-isolate for 14 days. Michael Patrick Francis Gunner (born January 6, 1976) is an Australian politician who served as the Northern Territory’s 11th Chief Minister from 2016 to 2022.

April

24 April

Bulldozers are blocking runways at Perth Airport to force Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd to settle a $16 million debt. According to an airport spokesperson, the airport has placed liens on four Virgin Airlines planes. The airport is anticipated to lose $100 million in revenue over the next three months due to COVID-19. The airport also says that another Australian airline, Qantas, owes them $20 million.

May

10 May

Steven Miles and Cameron Dick succeed Jackie Trad as Deputy Premier and Treasurer of Queensland. Former Australian politician Jacklyn Anne Trad was born on April 25, 1972. From 2015 until 2020, she served as Queensland’s Deputy Premier. Trad also served in the Palaszczuk government as Queensland’s Minister for Transport, Trade, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning, and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships.

June

11 June

Collingwood takes on Richmond at the MCG to kick off the 2020 AFL season. The 124th Australian Football League (AFL) season, Australia’s top-level senior men’s Australian rules football league. It was also known as the Victorian Football League until 1989 and was held in 2020. Eighteen clubs competed in the season. The season was cut short, with a 17-game home-and-away schedule followed by a finals series involving the top eight clubs; all games were cut to 80% of their standard length.

26 June

Australian federal police raided the homes of NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane as part of an inquiry into the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in Australian politics by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Moselmane was born in the southern Lebanon town of Konin. In 1977, he moved to Australia with his parents, Chaher Mouslimani and Jawaher Mohanna Mouslimani, and eleven siblings from Lebanon

July

16 July

Tara June Winch’s work The Yield has won the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Tara June Winch was born in the Australian city of Wollongong in the year 1983. Her father is a Wiradjuri elder from western New South Wales. Swallow the Air, her debut novel, received numerous Australian literary honours.

August

10 August

The National Heritage List includes Parkes Observatory. The Parkes Observatory, often known as “The Dish,” is an Australian radio telescope observatory located 20 kilometres north of Parkes. It was one of several radio antennas that received live television footage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. After 50 years of operation, ABC dubbed it “the most successful scientific apparatus ever built in Australia” due to its scientific achievements.

September

21 September

Around 25 pilot whales have beached themselves near Macquarie Heads on Tasmania’s West Coast. Another 200 whales are stranded two days later, making this the greatest cetacean stranding in Australian history. Late Monday, a government marine conservation team examined the whales’ health after they were stranded in three locations in and around Macquarie Heads, near Strahan.

25 September

Vincent Namatjira’s picture, Stand Strong for Who You Are, a self-portrait with Adam Goodes, receives the Archibald Prize. Vincent Namatjira OAM is a South Australian Aboriginal artist who lives in Indulkana, on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) territory. He has received several art honours, and in 2020, he became the first Aboriginal person to win the Archibald Prize after being nominated multiple times. Albert Namatjira, an Arrente watercolour artist, is his great-grandfather.

October

4 October

The Catholic Church in Australia’s 5th Plenary Council was conducted in response to the Royal Commission into the potential Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s findings. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both assemblies have been postponed from their intended dates of 3–10 October 2021 and 4–9 July 2022.

November

19 November

The Australian Defence Force has released the final report of Justice Paul Brereton’s investigation into suspected war crimes committed during the Afghan War. The research discovered convincing evidence of 23 cases of illegal murders and two cases of “cruel treatment” as a war crime. The investigation also found that Australian forces executed non-combatants and inmates without trial.

December

18 December

Due to a COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney, New South Wales, the 2020 Sydney to Hobart yacht race has potentially been cancelled for the first time in its history. The Tasmanian government declared Greater Sydney a “medium risk” zone, requiring all competitors to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Tasmania. The race is roughly 630 nautical miles in length (1,170 km).

19 December

All other states and territories have closed their borders to all inhabitants of greater Sydney in reaction to a COVID-19 outbreak in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, causing interstate travel plans to be disrupted for individuals planning to visit or leave greater Sydney. Later, the Northern Territory’s border restrictions are eased. On a local level, the Northern Beaches Council, which was founded in May 2016 by Warringah Council, governs the Northern Beaches district.

Major Events in Australia in 2021

January

1 January

For the first time since 1984, the words of Australia’s national song, “Advance Australia Fair,” are modified, replacing “For we are young and free” with “For we are one and free.” The Australian national anthem is “Advance Australia Fair.” The song was written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick and first performed in 1878 as a patriotic anthem in Australia.

25 January

After a six-year fight, Israel extradites Malka Leifer to Australia due to the Adass Israel School sex abuse scandal. Allegations of sexual abuse of children at a Jewish religious school in Melbourne are the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and extradition issue in Australia. Malka Leifer, a former principal, will stand trial in 2022 on 70 sex crime allegations by Victoria Police, involving at least eight claimed victims.

February

11 February

After a 7.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of New Caledonia raised worries of a tsunami hitting Lord Howe Island, a tsunami warning was issued and then rescinded. Norfolk Island was impacted by minor tsunami waves, prompting maritime warnings for Lord Howe Island, 700 kilometres off New South Wales. The earthquake struck off the coast causing waves to reverberate throughout the Tasman Sea. The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre swiftly issued warnings for Lord Howe Island, encouraging inhabitants to keep away from the beaches.

March

11 March

The 2021 NRL season begins at AAMI Park, with the Melbourne Storm defeating the South Sydney Rabbitohs 26–18. The 2021 NRL season was Australia’s 114th professional rugby league season and the 24th managed by the National Rugby League.

31 March

The Royal Australian Air Force receives a new Queen’s Colour to commemorate its centennial during a parade and inspection in Canberra by Governor-General David Hurley. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) includes the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Army (AAA), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Australia’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the Governor-General, is a constitutional position.

 

April

21 April

Victoria will be entirely removed from China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” according to the Australian government. The Belt and Road Initiative, also called One Belt One Road, or OBOR for brief, is a Chinese government-led global infrastructure development project in 2013 with investments in approximately 70 nations and international organisations. It is regarded as a potential focal point of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy.

May

1 May

The state election in Tasmania will be held in 2021. The Liberal administration of Peter Gutwein has been re-elected for a third term. The current Liberal administration, led by Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein, was re-elected for a third term, winning 13 out of 25 seats. Under Opposition Leader Rebecca White, the Labour Party was defeated in Clark, losing one seat to Glenorchy mayor Kristie Johnston, who ran as an independent and received 11% of the vote. The Greens, led by Cassy O’Connor, gained a small percentage of the vote and kept their parliamentary seats.

June

4 June

For Portrait of Guy Warren at 100, Peter Wegner received the Archibald Prize in 2021. The Art Gallery of South Wales Trustees awarded Wegner $100,000 after a unanimous judgement by the judging panel. This year, the competition attracted 938 entries, the second-largest number in the prize’s history. Art Gallery of New South Wales’s initial Archibald Prize show was held in 1921; Wegner’s subject Warren is also a centenarian.

July

6 July

Prop for the St. George Illawarra Dragons Following his staging of a Shellharbour team home party in violation of the NRL’s biosecurity rules and Sydney’s lockdown orders, Paul Vaughan’s club contract is terminated. Twelve additional Dragons players present at the event the day before were charged with penalties of varying severity and given one-week bans. Vaughan had already broken rules in August 2020 and was initially suspended for eight weeks.

14 July

In the 3rd match of the 2021 State of Origin series, Queensland defeated New South Wales 20–18 at Cbus Super Stadium, although NSW still holds a two-match lead. Man of the match is to Queensland hooker Ben Hunt, while Player of the Series goes to NSW centre Tom Trbojevic. Lime Cordiale and JK-47 headline the pre-game entertainment.

August

10 August

The National Population and Housing Census are held. The Australian census of 2021, often known as the 2021 Census, was the country’s 18 national census of population and housing. The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the 2021 Census, which took place on August 10, 2021. (ABS). The results of the 2021 census will be made available to the public on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website commencing in mid-June 2022.

September

20 September

Hundreds of people demonstrated outside Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) offices in Melbourne against forced vaccination for construction employees. The rally turned violent, and riot police used pepper spray and rubber bullets to protect the union building. Due to an upsurge in COVID-19 transmission in the sector, all building & construction industry worksites in Ballarat, Geelong, Metropolitan Melbourne, Mitchell Shire, and the Surf Coast were shut down for two weeks starting at 11.59 pm that night.

October

5 October

Berejiklian steps down as New South Wales’ premier, and Dominic Perrottet takes her position as the party’s head and premier-in-waiting. Berejiklian served as Treasurer of New South Wales & Minister for Industrial Relations within the second Baird administration, and Minister for Transport within the O’Farrell and first Baird governments before becoming premier.

14 October

A tornado strikes Armidale late at night, tearing roofs off buildings and overturning cars. The twister made landfall shortly before midnight on Thursday in the northern NSW town, knocking out electricity to hundreds, tearing roofs off homes, and overturning automobiles. Severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc over NSW on Thursday afternoon and into the evening, prompting the tornado. On Thursday, Sydney took the brunt of the storm, with 24 mm of rain pouring in only 2 hours in the city’s west.

November

2 November

Verry Elleegant won the Melbourne Cup in 2021. Verry Elleegant is a New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse trained in Australia and won 11 Group One races. She won the 2021 Melbourne Cup and the 2020 Caulfield Cup and was named Australian Racehorse of the Year in 2020 and 2021. On July 7, 2018, Verry Elleegant made her racing debut. She finished second in the Majestic Horse Floats Plate at Te Rapa Racecourse in New Zealand, managed by Rowena Smyth.

December

7 December

John Asiata’s contract with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs has been terminated immediately. Asiata’s unwillingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 caused it. Asiata is the first player from the NRL to endure this fate. In 1935, the club was accepted into the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership, the forerunner to the present NRL tournament.

30 December

A fire broke out at the potential entrance of Canberra’s Old Parliament House. Protesters set the fire, according to police. According to a spokeswoman for Old Parliament House, the fire caused significant damage to the historic doors, the entrance, and the building’s exterior. After a protestor-lit fire charred the front doors on December 21, 2021, this was the second incident involving demonstrators and fire at Old Parliament House.

Major Events in Australia in 2022

January

6 January

Novak Djokovic’s visa was revoked after failing to show proof of COVID-19 immunisation upon Melbourne’s arrival for the 2022 Australian Open. As a result, Djokovic has been held in immigration jail pending deportation, and he has stated that he would challenge the potential decision in court.

February

26 February

Flooding in Queensland has claimed the lives of two more individuals, bringing the total to four. One of the victims is an SES volunteer. According to authorities in the Sunshine State, five people have perished so far in the floods in southeast Queensland, which have entirely flooded the small town of Gympie.

A low-pressure trough lingering over the NSW/QLD border for the past five days is wreaking havoc on the region with violent thunderstorms. Recent rainfall data shows that certain regions have received above-average rainfall to begin the weekend, with Mt Glorious in north Brisbane receiving over 900mm.

March

25 March

At the SCG, Lance Franklin scores his 1000th AFL goal against the Geelong Cats. Lance Franklin, popularly known as Buddy Franklin, plays with the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League, an Australian rules footballer. From 2005-2013 he was a potential member of the Hawthorn Football Club.

April

7 April

A Queensland Liberal National MP, George Christensen, quits the party just days before the election, arguing that it was not conservative enough. A few days later, Christensen joined Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party. He was a potential member of the Queensland Liberal National Party. He served in federal parliament with the National Party before leaving the party in April 2022, just days before his tenure ended.

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