[Editor: This is a chapter from A Short History of Australia (6th edition, 1936) by Ernest Scott (1867-1939).]
Chronology
1486. Diaz rounds Cape of Good Hope.
1497. Vasco da Gama sails to India via the Cape.
1512. Portuguese discover the Moluccas.
1520. Magellan enters the Pacific.
1567. Alvarez discovers the Solomon Islands.
1595. Cornelius Houtman pilots Dutch ships to the East Indies.
1598. Dutch established at Java.
1606. Quiros discovers the New Hebrides.
Discovery of Torres Strait.
The Duyfken in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1611. Brouwer’s new route to the East.
1616. Dirk Hartog on the Western Australian coast.
1622. English ship Trial wrecked off the west coast.
1627. Nuytsland discovered.
1636. Van Diemen Governor of Dutch East Indies.
1642. Tasman discovers Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand.
1644. Tasman in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1688. Dampier in the Cygnet in Australian waters.
1699. Dampier in the Roebuck in Shark’s Bay.
1768. Cook’s Endeavour voyage.
1770. Cook’s discovery of New South Wales.
1772. Cook’s Resolution voyage.
1779. Banks suggests founding a convict settlement at Botany Bay.
1782. End of the American War of Independence.
1783. Matra’s plan of colonization in New South Wales.
1785. Sir George Young’s plan.
1786. Determination to found a settlement at Botany Bay.
1788. Foundation of Sydney.
Lapérouse in Botany Bay.
1789. Establishment of New South Wales Corps.
Settlement of Norfolk Island.
1792. End of Phillip’s governorship.
1792-5. Administration of Grose and Paterson.
1795. Hunter Governor of New South Wales.
First printing press at Sydney.
1795-6. Bass and Flinders make voyages in the Tom Thumb.
1797. John Macarthur buys merino sheep.
Discovery of coal.
1798. Bass discovers Bass Strait and Westernport.
Bass and Flinders circumnavigate Tasmania in the Norfolk.
1800. King Governor of New South Wales.
Voyage of the Lady Nelson from England.
Flinders’s voyage in the Investigator.
1802. Murray discovers Port Phillip.
Flinders meets Baudin in Encounter Bay.
1803. Flinders circumnavigates Australia.
Wreck of the Porpoise.
Flinders imprisoned in Mauritius.
Collins’s Port Phillip Settlement.
Sydney Gazette, first Australian newspaper, published
1804. Foundation of Hobart.
Settlement at Port Dalrymple.
1806. Bligh Governor of New South Wales.
1807. Arrest of John Macarthur.
1808. Mutiny in New South Wales; deposition of Bligh.
1809. Macquarie Governor of New South Wales.
1810. Extinction of New South Wales Corps.
Liberation of Flinders.
1813. Blaxland discovers a way across the Blue Mountains.
Evans discovers the Bathurst plains.
Davey Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
1814. Death of Flinders.
‘Australia’ suggested as a name for the country by Flinders.
Establishment of Civil Court in New South Wales.
1816. Bank of New South Wales founded.
1817. Oxley explores the Lachlan.
1818. Oxley explores the Macquarie.
1819. Commissioner Bigge in New South Wales.
1821. Brisbane Governor of New South Wales.
1823. New South Wales Judicature Act passed.
Oxley in Moreton Bay.
1824. Wentworth’s Australian.
Foundation of Brisbane.
Annexation of Bathurst and Melville Islands.
Hume and Hovell’s expedition to Port Phillip.
1825. Alteration of western boundary of New South Wales.
Lockyer explores the Brisbane River.
Arthur Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
1826. The Astrolabe at Westernport.
Settlement at Westernport.
Darling Governor of New South Wales.
Lockyer’s Settlement at King George’s Sound.
1827. Darling’s law to regulate the press.
Alan Cunningham explores the Liverpool Range and the Darling Downs.
Stirling examines the Swan River.
1828. Enlargement of the Legislative Council of New South Wales.
Westernport Settlement abandoned.
1829. Sturt discovers the Darling.
Annexation of the Swan River.
Whole of Australia claimed as British territory.
The Parmelia conveys first immigrants to Swan River.
Publication of Wakefield’s Letter from Sydney.
1830. Accession of William IV.
Act establishing trial by jury in New South Wales.
Sturt explores the Murray to the sea.
Perth founded.
Governor Arthur’s ‘Black Drive.’
1831. First steamship, the Sophia Jane, arrived in Sydney from England.
1834. Act to establish Colony of South Australia.
The Hentys settle at Portland.
The Dorsetshire labourers transported.
1835. John Batman in Port Phillip.
1836. Mitchell explores Australia Felix.
Adelaide founded.
Lonsdale takes charge of the Port Phillip Settlement.
Bourke’s grazing licences policy.
1837. Accession of Queen Victoria.
Melbourne named.
House of Commons Committee on Transportation.
1837-40. George Grey’s explorations in Western Australia.
1838. Gawler Governor of South Australia.
Military settlement at Port Essington.
1839. Latrobe appointed superintendent of Port Phillip.
Strzelecki finds traces of gold.
Death of John Batman.
Lord Durham’s report on the state of Canada.
McMillan’s first expedition to Gippsland.
Abandonment of Moreton Bay Settlement.
1840. Order in Council discontinuing transportation to Australia.
Eyre starts for the centre of the continent.
Strzelecki’s journey through Gippsland.
1841. Grey appointed Governor of South Australia.
1842. Robert Lowe in New South Wales.
Act for the Government of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land passed.
1843. Ridley invents the stripper.
1844. Convicts shipped to Port Phillip.
Sturt’s journey to the interior.
Leichhardt’s first exploring expedition.
1845. Grey appointed Governor of New Zealand.
Burra copper mine discovered.
1846. Fitzroy ‘Governor-General’ of Australia.
Lieutenant Yule hoists British flag in New Guinea.
1847. Gold found in Port Phillip.
The Gladstone Colony at Port Curtis.
1848. Melbourne elects Lord Grey to the Legislative Council.
Leichhardt’s last expedition.
1849. The Randolph in Hobson’s Bay: resistance to convict immigration.
Port Essington abandoned.
1850. Western Australia becomes a penal colony.
University of Sydney founded.
Australian Colonies Government Act passed.
Railway from Sydney to Goulburn built.
1851. Separation of Victoria from New South Wales.
Hargreaves digs for gold on Summerhill Creek.
Gold found at Ballarat.
The diggings commence.
1852. University of Melbourne founded.
1853. Tasmania named.
Town of Gladstone founded.
French annexation of New Caledonia.
1854. The Eureka Stockade.
Hobson’s Bay railway built.
1855. Transportation to Norfolk Island ceased
1855. New constitutions come into effect in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.
Ballot Act passed in Victoria.
First anti-Chinese legislation passed.
1858. Torrens Real Property Act passed.
1859. Colony of Queensland proclaimed.
Kingsley’s Geoffrey Hamlyn.
1860. McDouall Stuart reaches the centre of the continent.
1861. Burke and Wills expedition.
Cowper’s quarrel with the New South Wales Legislative Council.
1862. McDouall Stuart crosses the continent to Port Darwin
Duffy’s Land Act.
1863. South Australia undertakes to administer the Northern Territory.
New Caledonia a convict colony.
1865. McCulloch proposes protection in Victoria.
1867. Gold discovered at Gympie.
The Darling grant controversy.
1868. First Queensland Act to regulate Kanaka labour
End of transportation to Western Australia.
Attempted assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh in Sydney.
1869. John Forrest’s journey in search of Leichhardt.
1870. British troops withdrawn from Australia.
Adam Lindsay Gordon died.
1872. Overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Port Darwin constructed.
1873. John Forrest explores the interior.
Moresby’s discoveries in New Guinea.
Stephens’s ‘free, compulsory, and secular’ Education Act.
1874. University of Adelaide founded.
John Forrest’s journey from Perth to Adelaide.
Fiji annexed by Great Britain.
Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life.
1875. Ernest Giles’s inland journey.
1877. Dispute as to payment of members in Victoria.
High Commissionership of the Pacific established.
Brunton Stephens’s poem, The Dominion of Australia, published.
1878. ‘Black Wednesday’ (January 8).
1879. First Australian Trade Union Congress.
1880. Capture of the Kelly Gang.
1880. Payment of members carried in Victoria.
1881. Reform of the Victorian Legislative Council.
1882. Discovery of Mount Morgan.
The Kimberley gold rush.
Henry Clarence Kendall died.
1883. Silver discovered at Broken Hill.
McIlwraith annexes New Guinea.
1884. German annexation of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Samoa.
1885. Federal Council established.
Soudan contingent from New South Wales.
1887. Anglo-French Condominium in the New Hebrides.
First Colonial Conference.
1888. Intercolonial Conference on Chinese immigration.
Robbery Under Arms published.
1890. Great maritime strike.
University of Tasmania founded.
Responsible Government in Western Australia.
1891. First Federal Convention.
1892. Coolgardie gold-field discovered.
1893. Corowa Conference on Federation.
1894. Women’s enfranchisement in South Australia.
1895. Victorian Wages Board system established.
Paterson’s The Man from Snowy River published.
1896. Henry Lawson’s In the Days when the World was Wide published.
1897. The second Colonial Conference.
1897-8. The Federal Convention.
1898. First Federal Referendum.
1899. Second Federal Referendum.
First Labour Government (Queensland).
Australian contingents sent to South African War.
1900. The Commonwealth Constitution before the Imperial Parliament.
1901. (May 9) First Commonwealth Parliament opened.
1902. Immigration Restriction Act passed.
Third Colonial Conference.
1903. First Deakin Government.
Amended Naval Agreement.
1904. The Watson Government.
Reid-McLean Government.
Dalgety selected as site for federal capital.
1905. Second Deakin Government.
1906. Amended Anglo-French agreement as to New Hebrides.
1907. Act for construction of Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta railway passed.
Imperial Conference.
1908. First Fisher Government.
Revocation of choice of Dalgety, and Canberra finally selected as site of federal capital.
1909. Third Deakin Government.
Imperial Defence Conference.
Compulsory military service instituted in Australia.
Lord Kitchener’s report.
University of Queensland founded.
1910. Second Fisher Government.
1911. Referendum for amendment of constitution.
Admiral Henderson’s naval report.
Imperial Conference.
Commonwealth Bank established.
University of Western Australia founded.
1913. Cook Government.
Referendum for amendment of constitution.
The Australia completed.
1914. Third Fisher Government.
British Association for the Advancement of Science met in Australia.
Great European War.
Fight between the Sydney and Emden at Cocos (November).
1915. Hughes Government.
Anzac.
1916. First Conscription Referendum.
1917. Second Conscription Referendum.
Transcontinental Railway opened.
1918. Great battle on the Somme (August 8); capture of Mont St. Quentin by Australian forces.
Defeat and surrender of Germany.
1919. Ross Smith and Keith Smith fly from England to Australia by aeroplane.
1920. Visit of the Prince of Wales to Australia.
1923. End of Hughes Government.
Stanley Bruce Prime Minister.
1924. Visit of Special Service squadron of the Royal Navy to Australia.
1927. Federal Parliament opened by Duke of York at the Commonwealth capital, Canberra.
1928. Flight by Bert Hinkler from England to Australia, and by Kingsford Smith and Ulm from America to Australia and from Australia to New Zealand.
1929. J. Scullin Prime Minister.
1930. First Australian-born Governor-General appointed: Sir Isaac Isaacs.
1931. Statute of Westminster.
1932. Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
J. A. Lyons Prime Minister.
Imperial Conference at Ottawa.
1934. Victorian Centenary celebrations attended by the Duke of Gloucester.
Source:
Ernest Scott, A Short History of Australia, London: Oxford University Press, 6th edition, 1936, pages xvi-xxiii
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