history timeline

  • Period: 1500 to

    part 1- Time of movement/ colonisation,

    The time of movement/ colonisation, Britain abolished slavery. Naturalists and scientists develop theories about human 'races' and racial hierarchies. Looking closer into the human mind and human variation. Captian Jame Cook claimed Australia on behalf of Britain. The theory that human races have separate origins is popularised by physician and surgeon Josiah Clark Nott and Egyptologist George Robins Gliddon in Types of Mankind.
  • Largest massacre in Victoria

    The largest massacre in Victoria (then Port Phillip District) of Aboriginal people is inflicted upon the Gunditjmara people at Convincing Ground near Portland.
  • Period: to

    part 2- First migration, gold rush era

    Scientists continue to debate racial hierarchies. The theory of eugenics develops, emphasising racial purity and controlled breeding. In Australia, this theory underpins the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Californian gold rush attracts tens of thousands of people from Europe, Latin America, Australia and China. Victoria introduces the first Immigration Restriction Act in Australia aimed at limiting Chinese immigration.
  • Gold rush

    Gold is discovered in New South Wales and Victoria, followed by other colonies until 1890s. The gold rushes result in mass migration from the British Isles, Europe, America and China. Victoria later introduces the first Immigration Restriction Act in Australia aimed at limiting Chinese immigration.
  • Immigration policies Australia

    Segregation, restrictive immigration policies and massacres of Indigenous peoples contribute to the maintaining of a white racial and economic pecking order.
  • White Australia policy

    Newly federated Australia passes the Immigration Restriction and Pacific Island Labourers acts, based on the 1896 Immigration Restriction Act (USA) and the 1897 Natal Immigration Restriction Bill (South Africa)
  • Period: to

    part 3- Immigration to Australia, WW2

    Restrictive immigration policies in the USA, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia are caused by ideas about whiteness and the value of racial purity. Thousands of British children are sent to Australia, Rhodesia, Canada and the USA, gladly accepted by Australia because of this desire for a 'white' population. Britain begins sending child migrants to Australia. From the 1940s, evolutionary scientists reject the idea that race is based on physical characteristics.
  • Period: to

    part 4

  • Period: to

    part 5