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65,000 BCE
First Indigenous People Step Foot In Australia
It is believed that before the Earth's tectonic plates begun to separate and part, the Indigenous people traveled on foot for thousands of years from Africa to reach this amazing continent which we call Australia today. There has been evidence found that the Indigenous Aboriginals have made the first ocean crossing in human history. -
65,000 BCE
Aboriginal Craft Stone Weapon
The oldest found stone weapon was found in Australia's north. It was a 'multi-purpose' weapon as evidence has shown that it was probably used to craft weapons and to skin a kangaroo. This rock was found at a rock shelter near Kakadu National Park. -
50,000 BCE
Earliest Evidence of Aboriginal Occupation
Australia’s earliest known site of human occupation has been discovered in a remote cave in Western Australia. Pushing back the start date of Indigenous occupation to more than 50,000 years ago. -
46,000 BCE
Oldest Evidence of a Predator in Australia
The marsupial lion is the largest meat-eating mammal known to have ever existed in Australia and one of the largest marsupial carnivores from anywhere in the world. It is now extinct but evidence have proven that Aboriginal people have faced this creature before. -
42,000 BCE
Mungo Man
The bones of Mungo Man was found in 1974 at Lake Mungo in New South Wales, it is the oldest known cremations. Mungo Man was about 50 when he died. He had severe arthritis in his right elbow, probably from throwing spears. His family mourned for him, and carefully buried him in the lunette, on his back with his hands crossed in his lap, and sprinkled with red ochre. This told us that he was probably a very important and respected member of his clan. -
40,000 BCE
Oldest Aboriginal Art
Aboriginal rock art has been around for a long period of time, with the oldest examples, in Western Australia's Pilbara region and the Olary district of South Australia, estimated to be up to around 40,000 years old. Aboriginal art is known to be the oldest ongoing tradition of art in the world. There are different types of Aboriginal art such as rock art, bark painting, body painting and x-ray art. -
40,000 BCE
Megafauna Cave Painting
Scientists say an Aboriginal rock art depiction of an extinct giant bird could be Australia's oldest painting. The painting is a red ochre depiction of two emu-like birds with their necks outstretched. It is painted in Megafauna Cave. A palaeontologist has confirmed the animals depicted are the megafauna species Genyornis. -
30,000 BCE
Murujuga National Park
Murujuga, near Karratha, is the only place on earth where the story of people and their changing environment has been continuously recorded through art for over 40,000 years. The world's oldest images of the human face, dating back more than 30,000 years, are found at Murujuga. -
Aboriginal People trade with the Chinese
Makasar traded with Aboriginal people for trepang (sea cucumber), which they boiled down, dried on their boats and traded with China where it is still used for food and medicine. -
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States. In the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from farms and trading to machines. -
Captain Cook Arrival
Captain Cook arrived on the shores of Australia in 1770. He first stepped on Australia's soil in Botany Bay. He was the first Englishman to 'discover' Australia. -
The War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, it was a war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence in 1776 as the United States of America and then formed a military alliance with France in 1778. -
First Fleet
The First Fleet is made up of eleven ships. The fleet is made up of six convict ships, three store ships and two naval ships. The First Fleet transported convicts to Australia because the goals in England were overflowing and diseases were spreading all over England. English could not send their prisoners to America anymore as England lost the War of Independence. -
Massacres Between the British and Aboriginal people in Australia
Starting in 1794, mass killings were performed by British soldiers, then by police and settlers, often acting together and later by native police, working under the command of white officers, in military style forces supported by colonial governments. -
Gold Rush
The Gold Rush started when someone found gold in Victoria. Australia's population boasted as people from all over the world came to Australia's gold fields hoping to seek their fortunes here. -
First Prime Minister of Australia
The first prime minister of Australia was Edmund Barton. He started being Prime Minister in 1901. -
Stolen Generations
The Stolen Generations was between 1910 and 1970. This was when the British entered Indigenous families and stole their children and placing the children into English homes or missions. The British did these actions in the belief to make the children 'more white'. The children were forced to behave and dress like white people. Many people today still have not found their biological parents. -
Sorry Speech
The National Sorry Day was presented by Kevin Rudd who was the prime minister of Australia at that time. It was about how we were all sorry of the actions done by the British, especially the Stolen Generations.
