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1121
event
Australia celebrates the centenary of the federation. -
1201
event
Australia becomes a federation. Edmund Barton becomes the 1st Prime Minister of Australia; the 7th Earl of Hopetoun becomes Governor-General.
Black death strikes Australia, just over 100 people killed in Sydney. -
1521
event
Several writers have argued that Portuguese expeditions visited Australia at this time. However, historians generally disagree and the evidence remains contentious. -
event
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Duyfken, under Captain Willem Janszoon, explored the western coast of Cape York Peninsula, near what is now Weipa. This was the first recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil. -
event
Dutch captain Dirk Hartog in the Eendratcht made the second recorded landfall by a European, at Dirk Hartog Island on the western coast of Australia. He left behind a commemorative plate, the Hartog Plate. -
event
English Lieutenant James Cook's expedition in HMS Endeavour charted the eastern coast and claimed it for the British Crown. Australia was dubbed "terra nullius"[6] i.e., according to the European legal precepts of the era, it was unclaimed by any sovereign nation. -
event
Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of the continent (still known as "New Holland")